The newly formed Vancouver Tenants Union got well over 200 people out to its founding meeting on a Saturday last week, which was a promising start in don’t-like-to-commit Vancouver. It got a lot of coverage from media, including me/Globe. Now the trick will be to see what the group, started by some active in the […]
Vancouver Tenants Union has successful launch — and now …
May 5th, 2017 · 1 Comment
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Libs not touting it in speeches, but policy position is that referendum still needed for regional share of Broadway, Surrey lines
April 27th, 2017 · 10 Comments
In the 2013 election, Premier Christy Clark was quite vocal about requiring a referendum for any new tax, fee or whatever that the mayors wanted to help pay for the regional share of transit. This time, candidates have stayed away from that. However, the Liberal Party made it clear — in its response to the […]
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Board of Trade issues report endorsing “missing middle” forms of housing and alternatives to home ownership
April 19th, 2017 · 9 Comments
I have to say, it’s a sign of the times that 350 people, many from the business and development community, would turn out to a five-hour session on housing policy. But that’s what they did yesterday, when the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade organized a set of panels to go along with a report they […]
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A rare housing choice: Living in a rowhouse without having to be in a strata
April 19th, 2017 · 5 Comments
For almost as long as I’ve covered the urban-issues beat in Vancouver, people have talked about how great it would be if we had fee-simple townhouses — that is, townhouses where the owners don’t have to belong to a strata. They just own their particular row/townhouse individually, with some agreement about how to handle common […]
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Will putting social-housing buildings in the hands of non-profits save them? Or doom them?
April 6th, 2017 · 1 Comment
B.C.’s auditor general came out with a quietly scathing report on BC Housing’s move to transfer its remaining social-housing assets — about 9,000 units of housing when they started — into the hands of non-profits. That process, when it started a couple of years ago, sparked fears that private developers would be gobbling up these […]
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Infill housing could be part of solution to shortages — if cities would approve more of it, say home builders
April 6th, 2017 · 1 Comment
Infill housing is what many politicians and housing advocates are chatting up these days as a way to inject a little density into single-family neighbourhoods, some of which are managing to lose population even while the region expands by 30,000 a year. The Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association commissioned some special research from Landcor, which […]
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Someone is happy about seeing the river of Chinese capital coming to Canada: the hotel industry
April 6th, 2017 · 1 Comment
Just got this news release from Colliers International about how thrilled everyone is about the volume and prices of hotel sales. Foreign capital account for 67 per cent of total transaction volume. 2016 a Record-Breaking Year for the Canadian Hotel Real Estate Market; 2017 Poised for Continued Robust Activity — Canadian hotel industry capped off […]
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The biggest housing challenge of all: affordable apartments for the developmentally disabled
March 28th, 2017 · No Comments
This story came my way in the most random way. I was at the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association dinner last fall and talking to the man across the table who, it turned out to be the CEO of the Community Living Society. So what, I asked Ross Chilton, is the big story in your world? […]
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Surrey: It’s harder to build a suburban downtown than it looks
March 28th, 2017 · 3 Comments
I’ve been curious about how Surrey will evolve ever since former mayor Dianne Watts set out to transform the city’s image and its reality. Besides the music festivals and the beautification and the stunning new pools and other facilities built in the city, Watts also promised to create a downtown for Surrey out of almost […]
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Community pools in Paris, Madrid, Lyon, San Francisco — a great way to get away from tourists
March 17th, 2017 · No Comments
I love community pools, as I think many of you know. I mourn the loss of the Mount Pleasant pool near me and I’m an ardent fan of New Brighton. The NPA campaign promise that got me the most excited was the one to build three new outdoor pools. As a result of all that, […]
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