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Building an infill/laneway in Vancouver, Part I: The city decides to change the rules midway

February 4th, 2021 · No Comments

Hi all I’ve kicked off 2021 by writing for the Globe and Mail about the five-year process of building my infill (technical term) or laneway, as many people know them. Here’s Part 1, linked and with the text below. FRANCES BULA VANCOUVER SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL PUBLISHED JANUARY 13, 2021UPDATED JANUARY 13, 2021 […]

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Metro Vancouverites on the move: Walking more, taking more car trips to shop, car-pooling more

October 10th, 2019 · No Comments

Like many reporters, I just love census data and census-like data. So it was Christmas Day when TransLink released its big set of data from its 2017 “trip diary,” a massive study the agency does every five years to monitor how people are getting around in the region. Lots of great info to ponder. Their […]

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Impact of out-of-town investors: yes, increases prices; increases them more when supply restricted

November 8th, 2017 · 4 Comments

If you want to be guaranteed loads of clicks in this town, write about how everyone is being driven out by high real-estate prices (caused by heartless politicians, shadowy foreign investors, the real-estate cartel, etc etc) and/or about a study that tries to bring real data to the anecdotes. So this recent study from UBC got […]

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Owners of second homes, empty condos consider renting, lying, selling, and more as vacancy tax looms

June 27th, 2017 · 1 Comment

Vancouver’s impending empty-homes tax — the first in the country — is prompting a lot of angst as owners facing bills of $4,000 to $100,000 a year decide what to do. You urban-life keeners will remember that most of the units identified as empty are condos. The city’s electrical study identified 10,800 homes in the […]

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Vancouver viaducts on the road to demolition, to be replaced by park, housing, new roads

October 7th, 2015 · 205 Comments

Media got a snap invite yesterday morning to attend a “technical briefing” about the viaducts. It turned out to be not so technical, as there were still quite a few details missing (no answers to: when will exactly the park be built, are there hard targets for affordable housing, how much extra density will Concord […]

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Oh my goodness, more rules for recycling

October 5th, 2015 · 52 Comments

This just out from Vancouver. I guess they are not that impressed by this argument published in the New York Times recently, saying recycling is mostly inefficient. Oh well, more opportunities for me to feel virtuous, aside from peeling the labels off my cans and putting cans in one place, labels in another. The City’s […]

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Uber has something to say about the Lower Mainland’s transit referendum

March 19th, 2015 · 37 Comments

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Vancouver launches new legal challenge to CP Rail, saying it has no rights to use Arbutus corridor for rail any more

October 5th, 2014 · 30 Comments

Hoo boy, the Holy War between Vancouver and CPR heated up again Friday when the city launched a lawsuit claiming CP has effectively given up its right to use the Arbutus corridor as a rail line. I’m attaching the city’s statement of claim below so all the legal scholars on the blog can weigh the […]

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Tags: 2014 Vancouver Civic Election

Character houses in Vancouver being demolished at higher rate than newer ones

June 11th, 2014 · 15 Comments

That was one fact that emerged from the presentation by general manager of planning Brian Jackson yesterday, in advance of today’s council vote supporting new policies that are an attempt to slow down the demolitions. More details in Jackson’s Power Point here and my story here. By the way, I popped over the the inquiries […]

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Can you guess which parts of Vancouver get the most parking complaints? I don’t think so

May 9th, 2014 · 115 Comments

The recent news that much of the traffic congestion in Vancouver is caused by people circling the streets for a parking spot is a familiar story. Searching for a home for one’s car several times a day is more of a fraught experience in many people’s minds than searching for a home for oneself. In […]

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