Almost every city in the world needs to urgently understand the need to get really good at planning and designing for shade. #UrbanHeat

Bryn Davidson - Lanefab@lanefab.com · 3d ago

A friend’s recent photo of civic shading in Malaga

I’ve never been a street fair/parades/crowds kinda person but this weekend (Dyke March, Powell St Festival, Pride Parade) was so much fun for mingling with happy people celebrating life. Among them, my neighbour, Willow, whose daughter Sophie organized Powell and took it to a big new level

you can have neighbourhood of multimillion-dollar single family homes or you can have a vibrant, walkable neighbourhood of shops and restaurants but babe, you cannot have both in one place

Over on LinkedIn. Note who reposted

AI "will likely accelerate differences already underway. Commercial news organizations will use more automation. Public broadcasters will include more human oversight. And independent outlets will focus more on stories written and reported wholly by people." www.niemanlab.org/2026/07/how-...

How three newsrooms are charting different paths for AI use

In our recent research, we examined how three different media outlets — Reuters, the BBC, and The Guardian — were deploying AI in their workflows.

niemanlab.org

You know, ABC/Sim had the option to quietly ask staff not to bring the villages plan to council before the election. It's almost like they wanted to create a firestorm then swoop in to "save" the city. Interesting election strategy.

Interesting that ABC has decided that killing off future missing-middle homes is an ideal fundraising pitch

Brief commercial break here. If you join my OneCity gang of fun, progressive but practical idealists or come out canvassing with us, you will likely get some of my cooking at some point. Just sayin’

I just tuned in to commenters on the villages plan. So far, I hear people asking for guarantees of top services on dozens of issues — transit, community centres, affordability, business support, trees for — that don’t exist in any other parts of the city. Interesting

Political campaigning for a newbie like me has had a few surprise bumps, but one of the nicest parts is the people support. Today, a 30-something woman who looked like she was on her way to some important office on West Hastings called out “so excited to vote for you” when she saw my buttons.

New hyperscale AI data centres are coming to Vancouver. We need to make sure our laws are up to the task of regulating them, constraining bad actors, and addressing any risks to the community. I gave ABC a chance to do all of that. Instead, they voted the motion down, calling it 'red tape'.

This is something I’ve been talking about for years. There did used to be housing for extremely poor people —- and it was terrible. We’ve steadily made it more expensive to build but never wanted to admit that was making it unaffordable to the poorest or to fix the gap with subsidies

Denis Agar (he/him)@denisagar.bsky.social · 2w ago

Time to repost this @benschneider.bsky.social article! This woman predicted that a policy decision was going to result in mass homelessness. She was right.

5 storey rental building going up next to the ~3 & 4 storey Vancouver Co-Housing (33rd Ave) VCH had to go through years of epic approval process and design review to get their project approved. Neighbours complained (a lot) but then many were happy when families w young kids moved in.

I came across a little village the city created several years ago with no fuss or fanfare: 22nd/Rupert. It had a small node for years then got boosted with a few new buildings that gives the corner a bit more heft. A good location, provides some extras in a retail-sparse area

Fabulous to run into Melissa Lem at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival this morning, while I was campaign schmoozing in between sets. Melissa, a doctor and advocate with Canadian Assoc of Physicians for the Environment, does amazing work speaking out on environmental issues.

Loving the craft thing going on at the blanket next to me, three young women, two knitting, one with an embroidery hoop

Sunday service, Vancouver Folk Music Festival

As of 530, I will be at the yellow tarp halfway between main stage and sound booth. Come get one of my collectors’ item buttons and tell me what needs to be fixed in the city. iykyk

Some Vancouver election news: next Tuesday me and @cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social will hold an all-candidates forum with the three Vancouver mayoral "progressive" candidates - COPE's Stephanie Allen - Green Party's Pete Fry - OneCity's William Azaroff It'll air on The Early Edition and our podcast.

The mayor said what?? Vancouver mayor Ken Sim threatened the province (without specifics) and made misleading claims today You have to WATCH this story (which is a reminder of the power of broadcast news) My latest: www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/vi...

Vancouver mayor threatens province with ‘unprecedented’ action

Mayor Ken Sim issued a dramatic but vague warning to the province over its handling of involuntary care but refused to provide specifics when pressed.

ctvnews.ca

I think part of my interest in seeing government buy condos at cut-rate prices (if they can get them) is that I have rarely paid full retail for anything in my life. Spent a good chunk of my 40s looking for deals at Liquidation World (for you younguns, the precursor to Winners)

Good op-ed by former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray on why government SHOULDN'T bail out developers but SHOULD rescue housing that is already built and available at good prices www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/7304f28...

Don’t bail out developers. Rescue housing

We can finish valuable projects without rewarding the business decisions that caused them to fail

theglobeandmail.com

With the Knicks epic win & FIFA, there’s currently lots of public joy talk. But let’s remember that we should be amplifying, advocating for, & participating in daily expressions of public joy. This sweet subway moment is a great example of that—spontaneous, cross-racial, intergenerational & $0.

Congratulations to Stephanie Nolen, former Globe and Mail reporter, and now New York Times reporter, who was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for "exposing inequities in health, conflict and social justice...and groundbreaking HIV-AIDS coverage in Africa." www.gg.ca/en/appointme...

My brother, who helped build this city www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article...

Construction supervisor Roger Bula worked hard to be a better father than his own

Roger was an adventurer, a loving father and a funny, helpful brother to his older sister, Frances

theglobeandmail.com

Everyone is having a lot of fun the last couple days dumping on developers, the federal government and B.C. NDP for the condo buyout/infrastruture assistance progam in a veriable "burn the witch" frenzy. That's in part because of the most tone-deaf messaging possible from govt

It’s fabulous , people — you should visit this beautiful project if you can

Bryn Davidson - Lanefab@lanefab.com · last mo.

If any aspiring mayors / council / park board candidates want to learn more about the St. George Rainway, how our community group worked with the city to create this green infrastructure, and how it might scale up across the city ... let me know by DM. I'm happy to do a walking tour.

I recently was lucky enough to do swims in the barge pool on the Seine in Paris, one Atlantic beach and two Mediterranean beaches in Spain, and two Mediterranean beaches in France. But very happy to be back now to my all-favourite, New Brighton in east Vancouver

Some good suggestions here

M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you were assembling a list of essential books on cities and how they work, what would be on it?

If you’re feeling cranky about Vancouver road closures for FIFA, this is Paris today for the Arsenal-PSG Paris team) match — which is being played in Budapest