Frances Bula header image 4

Entries from January 2016

Minneapolis Adventures, Part II: The Mall

June 28th, 2012 · 17 Comments

For Vancouverites, coming to Minneapolis is like radio nerds going to Signal Hill in St. John’s where Marconi sent the first wireless message or food crazies visiting Warwick, Quebec, where poutine was allegedly invented in 1957. Because it was here in Minneapolis that the transit mall was created, in 1968, as part of the effort […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Minneapolis Adventures, Part 1: Bikeshare

June 27th, 2012 · 4 Comments

I’ve never been to this city much beloved of urbanists, ranking right up there with Portland as the coolest place that is so much better than whatever city we are currently living in. So I’m waiting to be blown away. So far, wafting along pleasantly. We took light rail in from the airport to our […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Little Mountain: Creeping forward slowly, but city-planning and community negotiations poisoned by the beginnings

June 27th, 2012 · 26 Comments

The first stage of the Little Mountain project — the huge remake of the city’s oldest public-housing site, our Regent Park — got approval at council today after five painful years since the province first announced it wanted to sell the land and use the profits to replace the existing social housing on the site […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Mixing condos and offices in the central business district leads to surprises for both sides

June 25th, 2012 · 26 Comments

I first realized things were going to get awkward for the new Swiss Real tower back on Nov. 30, when I went to an urban design panel hearing for the tower. Although comments were generally favourable, something that several panel members worried about was the impact of the 420-foot tower on the Jameson House condo […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vancouver tries to tackle high cost of housing with recommendations to create housing authority, demand more affordable units from developers, designate new transition zones

June 25th, 2012 · 31 Comments

The city’s housing report is up here. Working on my overnight story. Your thoughts?

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

A Friday good-news post: London Olympics and Toronto Pam Am Games copy our community-garden goals

June 22nd, 2012 · 17 Comments

Peter Ladner, many moons ago, suggested that Vancouver set a target of 2010 garden plots by the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver when he was on council. The city reached that goal, without fanfare, at some point. Now others are emulating the idea. London is setting a goal of 2012 plots for this summer and […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Mandatory bike-helmet laws: Preventing head injuries or discouraging people from cycling or all of the above?

June 21st, 2012 · 114 Comments

Gentle reader Frank Ducote pointed out that I’m creating havoc (just like mixing pedestrians and cyclists on the same path!) in a previous post by mixing discussions of the Granville Bridge greenway and the mandatory-helmet law together. Therefore, I declare this post to be open for helmet discussions only, where people can continue to tell […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Granville Bridge greenway: A Brooklyn Bridge-style attraction, but a surprise entry to the city’s transportation plan

June 21st, 2012 · 33 Comments

Following up from yesterday, I did do a story on the Granville Bridge greenway, which doesn’t actually appear in any text of the city’s draft Transportation 2040 plan, but does appear in the “maps and graphics” section attached to it as one of the illustrations to suggest how future policies might look when carried out. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Park-and-ride system coming up for overhaul to reduce subsidized parking where bus options are good

June 20th, 2012 · 6 Comments

Transit, transit, transit. It’s the story every day, as the region tries to figure out how to keep its veins and arteries unclogged while continuing to add 40,000 people a year. Today’s story: The tussle over park-and-rides, a part of the transit system that some of us don’t think about much. As Coquitlam Mayor Richard […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

A greenway in the middle of the Granville Street bridge: useful or just symbolic?

June 20th, 2012 · 80 Comments

Amid the 187 recommendations in the Transportation 2040 plan, I missed the idea of creating a greenway in the middle of the Granville Bridge, which I gather would run from Sixth Avenue on the south side to Drake on the north side. There seem to be rendered images floating around here and there, which I’m […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized