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Entries from January 2016

Vancouver property values go up in Chinatown, Downtown Eastside, Mount Pleasant industrial — speculation maybe?

January 30th, 2014 · 17 Comments

Many thanks to Andy Yan, number-cruncher and city analyst par excellence, for this map and story. Andy scraped or whatever all the data about property assessment changes between 2014 and 2013 and put it on a map. Look really closely and you can see what happened on your block. The map tells the tale of […]

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Would giving everyone free transit change ridership patterns? Maybe not

January 29th, 2014 · 8 Comments

Someone just sent me this interesting story about the free-transit experiment in Estonia.  

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Office vacancy rate starts to climb in Vancouver downtown, Surrey

January 29th, 2014 · 9 Comments

A new report just out from Avison Young on commercial leasing, with interesting news on vacancy rates throughout the region. Surrey saw a significant decline in leased space, with downtown Vancouver’s vacancy rate also climbing. With new construction about to come on board factored in, Avison calculates that the downtown vacancy rate is around 9 […]

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Does public participation slow down cities’ ability to make decisions quickly?

January 28th, 2014 · 68 Comments

I came across something recently that resonated, given the propensity of this council to make decisions quickly in the interest of achieving goals the mayor and his party set out for themselves. (Think: bike lanes, transitional housing, intervention into tanker issues, etc.) This article, written about L.A.’s efforts to get a bike-share program, looks at […]

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Other bike-share companies ready to jump into Vancouver if Alta/Bixi deal falls through

January 23rd, 2014 · 217 Comments

As news of Bixi’s request for bankruptcy protection washed across North America this week, there was a lot of bike-share angst. Also, confusion. A lot of people think that Bixi = bike-share, so therefore if Bixi if having troubles, bike-share everywhere must be doomed to failure. I note that B-Cycle (currently operating in 21 cities) […]

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Do you want to take over the Robson Street space and turn it into a playground? Here’s your chance

January 23rd, 2014 · 6 Comments

City design competition to come up with this year’s ideas for public playspace on Robson between the art gallery and courthouse now open. Entry form is here.

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Majority of owners in jointly owned housing estate get court decision allowing them to sell

January 21st, 2014 · 4 Comments

First off, this decision is about an old-style ownership model for jointly owned properties, the fractional-interest model. So it’s not an exact equivalent of the strata ownership that prevails legally and everywhere else today. But this decision that I wrote about today is interesting because it shows the kinds of issues that are arising when […]

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Transit referendum is making business groups cranky too

January 21st, 2014 · 7 Comments

This just out from the Surrey Board of Trade, who don’t sound like happy campers The Surrey Board of Trade wants the Transit Referendum question now. “I’ve called the Ministry of Transportation today and they indicated that there was no timeline on when the transit referendum question will be ready. I’ve written a letter asking […]

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Mayors say transit referendum could hijack civic elections if held same day

January 14th, 2014 · 172 Comments

The problems in staging this ‘let’s wing it’ referendum just keep going on and on. The latest.

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Vancouver Art Gallery shortlists five architecture firms for new building, all international

January 9th, 2014 · 88 Comments

This just out from the VAG. I’m told by locals that the VAG discouraged anyone local from applying by themselves and instead encouraged them to partner up with an international firm.   Vancouver, BC — January 9, 2014 — The Vancouver Art Gallery has short-listed five architectural firms as finalists for the design of its […]

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