Our City- Diverse, Informed, Together
4545 West 10th Avenue - Second Enquiry (Archived Link)One does not have to be an expert at ranking well… pretty much everything, to know that out of all our city’s retail nodes, the West Point Grey Village is suffering the worst. As a UBC alumni myself, I watched that decline everyday for years as store... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – June 15th, 2023 Whether you’re a morning person like Hannah, or a night owl like me, there’s never really a good time to sit down for a public hearing, especially when they often drag on late into the night. City council’s recent decision to move the start time for these meetings from... Continue Reading →
Updated - May 19th, 2024 Since 2009, various policies have been crafted in Vancouver with the intent of incentivizing the construction of new rental homes as as very few have been built after the 1980s. While Hannah and I have written about some of these largely failed measures, this article is meant to track the... Continue Reading →
4545 West 10th AvenueTo say I was excited when I saw renowned journalist Frances Bula tweet out a notice about an in-person pre-application meeting in West Point Grey would be an understatement. I was worried this event could be a heated affair in light of the backlash to the Jericho Lands, which includes a GoFundMe... Continue Reading →
Jericho Lands Planning ProgramAt ninety acres, it’s unlikely the Urban Design Panel will ever again get to examine something as large as this former military base, now dubbed the Jericho Lands. These volunteers were clearly excited by this process, a sentiment I didn’t share it as I’ve sat through enough of these meetings to know... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – October 5th, 2021As comedy can help keep powerful institutions humble, I’ve joked that perhaps Vancouver’s new Auditor General should examine if public hearings are held primarily for the taxpayer funded catering. Hannah often notes even bad humour occasionally reflects some truth, and Item #1 demonstrates how enacting wider changes can be more... Continue Reading →
3701 W Broadway (DP-2020-00888)It’s rare for the Urban Design Panel to run ahead of schedule, let alone by 15 minutes, so I imagine this applicant team was quite surprised when they were told to log in ASAP. The only thing more uncommon, at least according to Hannah and I’s friends, would be finding a rental... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – October 27th 2020While we may have spent most of our Halloween puns earlier this month, this night has far more of a connection to that holiday. Whether it’s the focus on public transit, the responses of hundreds of individuals, or the fear some have of renters, there’s a clear connection between the... Continue Reading →
3701-3743 West Broadway A lot has happened since this Urban Design Panel review, but I still remember my surprise when city staff revealed a petition against these homes had already received 1,250 signatures. As Hannah recently noted, that number has grown to over 2,000, partially spurred by a mistaken belief that this is a strata... Continue Reading →
3701 - 3743 West Broadway It seems like whenever St. James Community Square hosts an open house, it is either packed with people, filled with angry voices, or often both. Still, Darren and I tried to keep an open mind, but before we left this event history had repeated itself, as over 220 individuals had... Continue Reading →
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