I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said but this is an act of abject cowardice. All the endless hand-wringing about towers and concentrating development on existing rental areas, and when the opportunity comes to do something about it everyone except Lucy votes for the status quo.

Peter Waldkirch 華彼德@pwaldkirch.bsky.social · last wk.

Ok, they severed the SES part, so this is the vote on the main part of it: A-J. And, the Villages Plan is dead. This hurts. ABC, COPE, and the Greens are all unwilling to take even quite modest action on expanding low-rise apartment areas.

Really demoralizing day to be a Vancouver area housing nerd for precisely this reason. When there’s no imminent sky-is-falling crisis, the Vancouverite political establishment reverts to their preservationist (NIMBY, if you wanna be cynical) instincts.

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦@jmcelroy.bsky.social · last wk.

For as long as I’ve been a reporter in this city the complaint has been that we build too many giant luxury condos in a few places and not enough medium density housing across neighbourhoods. But this week reaffirmed why that approach is so baked into the DNA and political culture of Vancouver.

one thing that I hate about ADHD is that I need to be hyper interested, extremely stressed, etc. to really get into something. no gears beyond locked in or kinda listless. this isn't a quirk chungus so wacky thing, it's a character flaw that makes my life worse.

Can someone who knows ball explain why that’s a pen and a yellow? Kane is clearly trying to play the ball and just misses?

“The lesson for me is that scarcity is the ultimate gift to the far right,” Galindo said. “When there isn’t enough housing or public transit or health-care services for everyone, it’s so much easier to point a finger at immigrants than to address the actual causes of that shortage.”

The Spanish Exception

The country’s leaders avoided a populist backlash by engineering an economic boom. Now the boom is creating problems of its own.

theatlantic.com

@movementyvr.bsky.social has never told anyone to take the bus. Instead, we tell politicians to make transit good. Because we know - through examples like this!* - that when it's good (frequent) people choose to take it! *and countless examples local to Metro Vancouver

Infrastory@infrastory.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Infrastory is back with more posts this week - today’s is about how Toronto completely inverts expectations of what is possible for transit in car-oriented areas. Much to learn here for cities in North America and across the world! open.substack.com/pub/infrasto...

ST is using the Canada Line as an example AGAINST doing ALR? What?

Robert Cruickshank@robertcruickshank.com · 3mo ago

ST's blithe dismissal of ALR based solely on the Canada Line shows a lack of seriousness to tackling high costs. There are many forms of automated rail out there to examine. ST should do that examination rather than this mad rush to scale back the ST3 projects that we voted for and are paying for.

American states are like "Unitary governance? That pales in effectiveness to my strategy, having each state be a lab of democracy" and then just be a carbon copy of the federal government

Building bike lanes at the same time as roadwork was supposed to save money, expand the network and reduce opposition. The reality is more complicated, argues Ruofan 🚎

Should sewers dictate where bike lanes go? - Better Columbia

Bike lanes tied to road resurfacing opportunities aren’t delivering on their promise.

bettercolumbia.ca

I think Vancouver's become too reliant on using unrelated roadwork as an opportunity to build bike lanes. I argue that it doesn't save that much money, does little to quell local opposition, and often fails to create network effects.

Better Columbia@bettercolumbia.ca · 3mo ago

Building bike lanes at the same time as roadwork was supposed to save money, expand the network and reduce opposition. The reality is more complicated, argues Ruofan 🚎

Twin Peaks is supposed to be somewhere near the Idaho border. I call BS, this is a coastal PNW landscape not an Interior one. This is obviously Whatcom County. (it was actually filmed mostly in King County, fwiw)

Why hasn't transit kept up with growth? @bettertransityyj.ca Chair Sam Holland argues that the Province has never taken transit as seriously as highways. When deficits need fixing, transit is first on the chopping block.

Why hasn't transit kept up with growth? - Better Columbia

Sam Holland is the Chair of Better Transit YYJ In 1978, British Columbia had a robust public intercity bus network, two publicly owned intercity rail operators, robust and rapidly growing urban transi...

bettercolumbia.ca

“Waiter, more overtimes please!”

“Increase transparency around project costs. “ Meanwhile average construction cost FOI in Canada be lookin like:

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · 4mo ago

Transit construction costs in the US keep rising, and projects keep taking longer and longer to build. One possible explanation? Ineffective, inefficient community engagement processes, we argue @urbaninstitute.bsky.social ⏬

Is housing demand fake? Absolutely not, writes Will Dawson #bcpoli #housing #yyj #vanpoli

Housing Demand Isn't Fake - Better Columbia

Why do people assume that demand for expensive apartments is fraudulent? If you follow housing news in Canada at all, you’re surely familiar with two competing ideas for what’s to blame for the housin...

bettercolumbia.ca

Like the specific cultural valence of the flag carrier CEO being unable to speak to the family in french, or worse not doing it. touches an incredibly sensitive nerve in QC, where they fought for more institutional control against an anglo business class for a looooooong time

Treating passenger rail as an ineffectual jobs program instead of as a vital transportation connection is how we end up with a national railway that somehow manages to lose $55 per boarding moving people between Montreal and Toronto and insists on weighing your luggage

Michael Hall@michaelhall.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I love trains too but marketing rail as a jobs program is missing the forest for the trees. Public transportation has the potential to provide access to millions of people (and directly employ people doing so), but only if it is is a useful service. The first goal should always be quality.

Come to BC we have The socialist party(panicking popularists) The conservative party(identity crisis between fascists and conservatives) The green party(socialists now I guess?)

Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Okay, well somebody should attempt Ontario. I'll say The conservative party (populist) The socialist party (socialist?) The liberal party (leaderless unknowns) The green party (gray environmentalists)

Born by the Charles, raised by the St-Laurent, but now I race the roaring Fraser to the sea

@thinkingbayonet.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My favorite Twitter prompt was "RT this with your home river," so reskeet this with your home river. Mine is the Patuxent.

this really should be framed as a policy choice, not as a naturally occurring phenomenon

Kenneth Chan@iamkennethchan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The City of Surrey's population could exceed the City of Vancouver in 2038, becoming B.C.'s new most populated city. Based on the latest population growth projections for Metro Vancouver. #bcpoli #vanpoli #vanre dailyhive.com/vancouver/su...

Now that I'm done defending Quebec time to dunk on them again: I see they're once again doing the "facially religion-neutral law that basically only affects Muslims" bit again www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Quebec plans to table bill banning prayer in public | CBC News

The Quebec government intends to present a bill banning prayer in public. Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said Thursday that the “proliferation of street prayer is a serious and sensitive is...

cbc.ca

N: Gulfoss, Iceland S: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa E: Tokyo, Japan W: Pearl Harbour, Hawaii

Nilo@nilo.bsky.social · 12mo ago

N: as a very small child I went to Brussels E: Shanghai S: greater São Paulo W: The Marin Headlands or the west coast of San Francisco

@chittimarco.bsky.social I was writing something for a more general audience on transparency in infrastructure costs to emphasize how bad we are on it, but for the comparison to work I need some concrete examples of a better way. I already have the Italian benchmark prices, do you know of more?

It felt weird to do this post on my usual public transit beat. It felt like I was pretending that the world isn't going over a cliff. But there's a thematic connection to the moment: We'll need more transit capacity soon, as lots of people will no longer be able to afford cars.

Jarrett Walker@humantransit.bsky.social · last yr.

Vancouver's @translink.ca has a "community shuttle" product that uses small vehicles. Some considered them cuter than buses, but on this line in the dense downtown they were too small for the demand, leaving ppl behind. So it's great to see this change. Capacity > cuteness!

This is a good initiative. My biggest question remains how to get municipalities to get on board. Right now many are actively legislating against scalable housing solutions, and it will likely take significant pressure to break through municipal resistance against dramatically increasing housing.

Mark Carney@mark-carney.bsky.social · last yr.

We've solved a housing crisis before. Here’s how we’ll do it again.

And that’s a wrap…for now! As we anxiously wait for the decision of our political leaders, we want to acknowledge all the folks who have put their whole hearts into this campaign!

One thing I don't miss about Preston Manning is him always saying "the west" when he obviously means "Alberta" or "the prairies." Stop dragging BC into your grievances, Preston. You're alienating us.

Come out, bring your friends!! Make a cool sign!

Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders@movementyvr.bsky.social · last yr.

We’re organizing a RALLY to save our buses! Join us at Metrotown Station from 1-2pm on Sunday, March 23 to make our voices heard and tell the government to address TransLink’s operating budget shortfall before it’s too late.

Really, really hoping Trump didn’t take my bus too. (BC govt please save Translink and don’t use tariffs as an excuse, we need more public transit in tight economic times not less!)

my friend dropping a banger in the dms