The Whitney, now the avowed home of the New York 20th century realist painter Edward Hopper, fails to grasp the museum’s own brand in their impressive show of the artists main oeuvre.
Coming to this space over the next few weeks, my reporting on the Edward Hopper show in New York, closing 5 March 2023.
Past DAY 6 of aggressions, the Russian invasion of Ukraine appears mired in undefined stratagems and unspecified conclusions. No Ukrainians are standing to join Russia, while Russians refuting Putin are gaining in number.
54 years ago the 6 DAY WAR took place between the Israelis and Arabs. 35 years later the US unleashed Shock & Awe taking control of Bagdad in 6 days. 8 DAYS into Putin’s invasion of Ukraine this war looks different. On the CBC radio, 28 February, a Russian journalist from Moscow set the record straight:
Putin is calling this the ‘demilitarization of Ukraine’. Russian forces will either destroy or control all military assets in Ukraine. Putin is out to prove that he is right one just point: Ukraine is being swallowed up into the NATO orbit.
Here is a H*I*N*T Mr. Trudeau: Better Transit = Affordable Housing. Guarantee Canadians Affordable Houses at the Next Election & you have my vote!
With a Federal Election Campaign now all but official, Prime Minister Trudeau is out in front of the election announcement tossing transportation money at all big cities in the nation. For Greater Vancouver, its a $1.3 Billion pledge that will fund the WRONG kind of transit.
Continue reading “Better Transit, Alright: But NOT Another Skytrain Extension!!!”
Downtowns have a lot to offer. The key is to make them great places to walk. That way, parking the tank and sending in the infantry on a 5 minute march becomes fun rather than a chore!
Every city has a downtown: A place to go, to see and be seen. Sometimes, changes come to a downtown attracting more people than ever before. That was the case 30 years ago when the Downtown Revitalization Program changed the character of Victoria Street in Kamloops making it a People Place. In 2020-2021 during the Covid epidemic, the sidewalks were widened downtown to provide safe outdoor seating. Now that Covid is under control, a win-win opportunity presents itself:
(1) Make the sidewalks widenings permanent; and
(2) Introduce back-in angle parking to increase the parking capacity in those places where the sidewalks are not widened.
Below is a walk along Victoria today illustrating long-standing strengths, and discussing new emerging opportunities of place.
Continue reading “Victoria Street: The Heart In Downtown Kamloops”
Shenzhen, Communist China’s poster-city planned to take over Hong Kong as a financial hub for the command economy has a BIG problem… And it is not just the cost of housing in China.
Bloomberg is reporting the cost of an apartment in Shenzhen is equal to 43.5 times a resident’s average annual salary. However, they are not reporting the size of the apartment (you can bet it’s not large).
David Bowie speaks to Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight (1999)
Pop icon David Bowie, 11 years ago speaking about the internet as the biggest opportunity, and the worst imaginable nightmare, in the 21st century.
Continue reading “The grey space in the middle that will define the 21st Century”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called the post-Covid recovery ‘Our Moment to Change the Future for the Better.’ The West Coast Charrette explores 4 shelf-ready actions that will transform Canada’s metropolitan regions.
Fourteen professionals, educators, community activists and editors contributed to this response to rising house prices, and the Covid shut-down of the economy.
The second post in the series about ending the 25-year+ Housing Affordability Crisis in Greater Vancouver. Discussion here led to completing the West Coast Charrette.
[T]he Surrey-Langley Skytrain business plan depends on increased ridership along the route, and ridership depends on greater residential development, which in turn is dependent on population growth, which in Metro Vancouver is fuelled largely by immigration.
It is hard to decide what is more ‘improbable’, the quote above suggesting that immigration is fuelling Skytrain ridership, or the photo at the top showing Skytrain as the right technology choice for a Regional Transportation System.
Continue reading “Ending the Vancouver Housing Crisis: A Farewell to Skytrain-and-Towers”
If there is one take-away from the 2009 Financial Crisis, and the 2020 Covid-19 Crisis, it is that when the appellation ‘crisis’ attaches to an event, it is a signal for government to act. The Vancouver Housing Crisis demands action. Council: End the Housing Crisis!
Vancouver Council voted on 27 May 2020 to take a new look at the population growth assumptions behind a plan to over-build Stats Canada projections by 250%. Watch my video presentation to Council.
Continue reading “Ending the Housing Crisis: Recalibrating the Vancouver Housing Strategy”
The ‘Usual Suspects’ have lined up to deliver Subway-and-Towers along what they call the ‘Broadway Corridor.’ Yet, what is really needed is a Regional Transit System capable of delivering a rapid supply response putting houses-on-lots in sufficient numbers to End the HOUSING CRISIS.
There is an affordable, sustainable—and immediately available—option for a Regional Transit System linking the North Shore, Vancouver, Surrey, Chilliwack and places in between that must be considered as a first priority in the Metro Vancouver-Fraser Valley regions (shown as a Blue Line in the map above).
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