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Planning for Vancouver in 2050

May 7th, 2010 · 11 Comments

My infrequent but carefully selected events listing service is taking note of the following:

Exploring the implications of demographic shifts.

Who’s Coming to the Party?

Join Glenn Miller, David Allison and Alan Boniface in this thought-provoking dialogue that will inspire and direct us to make changes in how we build and develop, in order to create more sustainable communities. What are the implications of demographic shifts over the next 4 decades and how will we address them?

Ø    What will Metro Vancouver’s population look like in 2050?

Ø    What demographic trends/shifts will shape land use and real estate development between now and 2050?

Ø    How will immigration patterns shape development over the next 40 years?

 Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 11:30am – 2:00pm

 Terminal City Club

837 West Hastings St.

Vancouver, BC Canada

Register Online:

http://britishcolumbia.uli.org 

The City in 2050: Creating Blueprints for Change is a 6-part event

series designed to examine the needs of the people, places and

policies that will influence development in British Columbia now and

into the future. Through the series, we will explore and help define

what land use professionals will need to consider while seeking

to create communities that are economically, environmentally and

socially sustainable.

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Urbanismo

    The City in 2050: Creating Blueprints for Change
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEPFDIzhNA

    . . . EXAMINE THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE PLACES . . .

    “I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met a old, old man
beneath a weeping willow tree


    He said now if you got some questions


    . . . POLICIES THAT WILL INFLUENCE DEVELOPMENT . . .

    go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you’ll have to pick just three

    And I said

    . . . WE WILL EXPLORE AND HELP DEFINE . . .

    What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he sang for me this song

    . . . WHAT LAND USE PROFESSIONALS WILL NEED TO CONSIDER WHILE SEEKING . . .

    See I once was a young fool like you
afraid to do the things
that I knew I had to do


    So I played an escapade just like you
I played an escapade just like you
I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met an old, old man
he sat beneath a sapling tree


    . . . TO CREATE COMMUNITIES THAT ARE ECONOMICALLY ENVIRONMENTALLY . . .

    He said now if you got some questions
go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you’ll have to pick just three

    . . . SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE . . .

    And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he played for me this song”

  • Urbanismo

    Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 11:30am – 2:00pm . . . be there . . .

    I many have the details mixed up but . . . let me see now, going back a while planning-wise, the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board was sometime in the late ’50’s: sort of the precursor of Metro today.

    Its first director was Harry Lash. Everyone loved him. He was hallowed as a genius because, as gauleiter, he was able to shove the farmers off their lands (democracy at work) in the Arrow Lakes area to make way for the Columbia dam without an insurrection. Funny how opinions differ depending which side you are on!

    Now we are about to embark on site C and for all the planning nothing changes . . .

    Anyway the first bit of big time development the LMRD ushered in was Guilford: before it became a “regional center” it was just another shopping mall: our big time thinking in those day was “little”.

    Guilford’s developer, Grosvenor Lang, sort of the English version of the big “bring-the-lambs-home-to-slaughter” off-shore Chinese developers we have to endure today, also created Annasis Island Industrial park and even proposed “Project 200”, a spectacle to wow the innocent, the precursor to Concord’s and Aquilini’s role in chunking chunks of gray concrete sticking out of the ground at FCN/NEFC.

    . Oh they had not arrived at the will-o-the-wisp techno-glitter, luminous models we are beguiled with today . . . but they were just as dishonest.

    (I’ve never quite been able to figure out how our local self-serving public opinion molders see this place as “paradise”. And God bless Frances B, we are able to call their bluff today). Oh it’s still a speculator’s paradise for sure! And planners are just as smug!

    The point I am trying to make is that even in the late ’50’s the need was seen to set up planning boondoggles, to keep the native constantly on the run, deluded into thinquing they are in the drivers seat and of course, owing to de-industrial job loss, to find jobs for the hoi polloi.

    (How landlord can boast that depletion of fisheries and lumber is good sure beats me)

    Even though we didn’t meet in the rarified halls of the Vancouver club we were allowed our say.

    But for all the bull shitting the speculators still run amuck, sprawl rampages everywhere: green, naive we are, and sustainability is the catch word of the day. Malls became town centers, but still essentially stayed malls, and god is in his heaven.

    Essentially, the whole rotten mélange of chasing after speculators and real estate hucksters then legitimizing their dirty work is sort of the history of pubic participation in planning in this area: you’ve had your say now shuddup!

    So go the Vancouver Club . . . speak up loudly then shuddup and listen . . . as the shysters carve up the land!

    ” Who’s Coming to the Party?”

    Planning? Oh yes planning . . . well that’s just to keep us busy ‘cos there’s nowt else to do!

  • Keith

    The way for any community or country to become sustainable, is to stop increasing it’s population.
    Remember Zero Pop?

  • michael geller

    Urbanismo.. I do hope you are writing all this stuff down, because we are slowly losing our institutional memory when it comes to the planning and development history of the region. While you know I don’t always agree with your perspectives on planning and development, (or version of history), I think it is important that we continue to be reminded of the changes in attitudes that have taken place over the past decades.

    At the same time, I think it is equally important to get together and have discussions regarding our planning future. Wednesday’s Terminal City Club discussion is one such example.

    Another is a discussion that is taking place the night before in West Vancouver…yes West Vancouver…“Housing That Fits Us and Fits In”

    A free public forum on Housing, Hosted by the District of West Vancouver, Tuesday, May 18th, 7:00 to 9:00pm, Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver, (Doors Open at 6:00pm with information displays in the foyer)

    I am now old enough to believe that these discussions, if they happen often enough, do begin to influence public opinion and community planning.

    As evidence, I would point to the work of Patrick Condon who went around for years talking to anyone who would listen (including Lambda Alpha at the Vancouver Club) promoting alternative development standards and new approaches to sustainable development and urbanization. Eventually, his ideas were tested out on the ground in Surrey and at SFU and elsewhere….and tonight, at 5pm at SFU Harbour Centre, he is launching his new book on what else, Sustainable Development.

    Reflecting on the history of the region since 1974 when I first arrived, I believe two of the most important discussions we now need to have are:

    1. How much influence should we grant the planning profession, as compared to neighbourhood organizations, when it comes to planning the future of our neighbourhoods and cities?; and

    2. How much influence should we grant the Regional Government, as compared to local governments, when it comes to planning the future of our cities and region?

    Having just returned from a week in Toronto, Windsor and Detroit, I do believe we are doing a lot of things right here, but we have to address the fact that our housing is so much more expensive, and many people have surprisingly few housing choices, especially in the neighbourhoods where they want to live.

    Hopefully, ongoing discussions such as those planned for next week, and Condon’s new book will contribute some solutions.

  • Joe Just Joe

    Michael, I took a quote of your above post
    “especially in the neighbourhoods where they want to live.”
    I think this is where we need to focus more attention, it’s not enough to provide additional choices in those neighbourhoods. The more complete solution is to make all neighbourhoods desirable, unfortunately it’s also the harder solution.

  • Urbanismo

    Well Michael,

    “At the same time, I think it is equally important to get together and have discussions regarding our planning future. Wednesday’s Terminal City Club discussion is one such example.”

    I know, I know . . . its important.

    While you have the enthusiasm of “once more into the breech!” Henry I am Ancient Pistol cowering in dikes.

    We, Nanaimo, have just gone thru an enervating exercise to revise the Urban Containment Boundary and ended up removing it for yet more sprawl: Sandstone and Ocean View Golf Course!

    GO FIGURE!

    And noW some insensitive brute of a developer is wrecking downtown: Port Plaza: my shopping haunt.

    I cannot believe the design: where do they dredge up these tired quasi-architects?

    Downtown, once an “Urban Place” is about to become a very tired strip mall and parking lot reminiscent of the worst of the ’50’s.

    And on a magnificent waterfront site!

    Two years ago the city commissioned Franc d’Ambrosio to craft downtown guide lines: ignored!

    Debra Bodner’s envisioned a magnificent spatial concept for the area: her 2008 SCARP grad. thesis!

    Her exemplary talents talents languish, unappreciated, NOW, in some dark corner of Central Area . . .

    “We need a new paradigm for urban planning”: Lewis N. Villegas.

    I’ll drink to that . . .

    Asi es la vida amigo . . .

  • michael geller

    Urbanismo, perhaps what we need is a public discussion on the future of Nanaimo at which some out of town architects/planners are invited to speak and comment on the plans for the downtown…including your shopping haunt.

    A few years ago, Larry Beasley, Bing Thom and I were invited by Victoria to speak at an event billed as Victoria 2010…the concern was the lack of vitality, blank retail storefronts, etc. I remember that we all talked about the need for more residential downtown….

    Now, Victorians may not like some of the new developments that have subsequently been built, but I like to think that the conference was a springboard for some of the ‘revitalization’ that has occurred….

    I’m sure Nanaimo could benefit from such a session….

  • michael geller

    Sorry, it was Victoria 2020…not 2010.

    http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/plnnew_downtown_support.shtml#2020

  • Urbanismo

    Michael

    What a good idea!

    I have posted your suggestion on Nanaimo City Hall blog . . .

    Let’s see where it goes . . . thanqxz

  • Urbanismo

    Nanaimo City Hall blog.

    http://nanaimocityhall.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/email-to-mayor-ruttan-council-planners-swabey-tucker/#comments

  • Urbanismo

    Michael . . . “A few years ago, Larry Beasley, Bing Thom and I were invited by Victoria to speak at an event billed as Victoria 2010…the concern was the lack of vitality, blank retail storefronts, etc. I remember that we all talked about the need for more residential downtown….”

    Certainly no lack of vitality summer of 2006 . . .

    http://theyorkshirelad.ca/3sailing/gulf.islands.2006/gulf.islands.2006.bastion.square.html

    But it’s pretty dead in winter . . .