Ukraine Invasion 2022

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.

Better Transit, Alright: But NOT Another Skytrain Extension!!!

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.

Victoria Street: The Heart In Downtown Kamloops

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.

Housing Crisis 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).

The grey space in the middle that will define the 21st Century

Pop icon David Bowie, 11 years ago speaking about the internet as the biggest opportunity, and the worst imaginable nightmare, in the 21st century.

The West Coast Charrette

West Coast Charrette Report 

Fourteen professionals, educators, community activists and editors contributed to this response to rising house prices, and the Covid shut-down of the economy.

Ending the Vancouver Housing Crisis: A Farewell to Skytrain-and-Towers

[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.

Graeme Wood, The Courier

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.

Ending the Housing Crisis: Recalibrating the Vancouver Housing Strategy

[Play Video]

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.

The Regional Transit System

1. THE BLUE LINE REGIONAL SERVICE

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).

The Trump China Doctrine

The CCP and PRC—the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China—are not to be regarded as one and the same as the freedom loving people of China and people of Chinese origin living in communities throughout the world.

We’ve seen governments with ideologies like this before. The CCP is a Marxist-Lenninist regime that has been practicing for too long a win-lose approach in engaging the West. More often than not the relationships have been lopsided in China’s favor. The reach and the methods China brought when it was invited to joint the international community have created grave problems that can no longer go unheeded.

“Collectively, all of us, need to confront these challenges from the PRC.”