Reminds me of this 10 year old post where I (somewhat clumsily) tried to figure out what RT zoning was supposed to accomplish.
06.03.2026 22:18
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Reminds me of this 10 year old post where I (somewhat clumsily) tried to figure out what RT zoning was supposed to accomplish.
That's especially the case in Kitsilano, he said, which has an active citizenry and has been the beneficiary of what he refers to as "precious" RT zoning, which encourages the preservation or renovation of older dwellings.
My precioussssβ¦
One Zone to preserve them all, One Zone to guard their character, One Zone to hoard for kith and kin, and in nepotism bind them.
Thatβs a crazily clean break. Iβll have to dig into the microdata to better understand how living arrangements of adults in family households changed.
And now the third crane is almost deconstructed, phase 1 of SenΜΓ‘αΈ΅w is nearing completion.
Nah, these are fun things to think about!
Perfect summary of the letter content.
Ouch, yeah, I can see that.
Am going to use this to place bets on the trains I book being late as a hedge to ensure I am happy no matter if I arrive on time or way late.
Also, a good way to quantify the hidden costs of unreliable rail service.
Mr. Eliason, who advocates allowing single-stair construction for small multifamily buildings as a solution to the housing crisis, said he learned how common the design was outside the United States while working in Germany in 2019. After seeing an 11-story tower his firm at the time had designed, Mr. Eliason recalled, he turned to his boss and said: "Something is wrong here. Where's your other stair?" "He's looking at me, and said: 'What are you talking about? If there was another stair, there wouldn't be any room for the homes'"
Single-stair gets the New York Times treatment. @holz-bau.bsky.social reminds us why they call the last line the kicker: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b... (gift link)
For context, at it's inception the move to quotas to reduce housing and create scarcity was quite deliberate, over time it has been obscured by technocratic language and hidden under the mechanics of the Regional Growth Projections.
Where a bunch of Vancouver-based housing talking heads advocate for bringing back the quota system of the residential floorspace cartel where Metro Vancouver organizes the member municipalities to keep housing artificially scarce... π¬π¬π¬
housingreset.ca/2026/02/25/c...
Well, I basically waited until Germany finally figured managed to allow dual citizenship before (slowly) starting the process.
Became a citizen earlier today. Itβs a remarkable experience, really quite special. Did not anticipate the layers of emotions that come with this.
Last month Surrey news site published a scoop about a Vancouver politician's shock resignation.
Except that never happened.
Our investigation found the website, Surrey Speak, is powered completely by AI. And it has links to a tech company backed by SFU #vanpoli
theijf.org/article/insi...
Agreed on PBR vs mortgage helper.
Confused about the second part, if we are worried about the land value appreciation then the proper response is a land value tax, not taxing new homes or forcing people who want to own into renting.
Douglas Todd: Jarring 18-storey tower on leafy Vancouver street a sign of the out-of-scale times About 10 steel-and-glass highrises, much like the one proposed for Yukon and 14th, are set to arise among character homes within the Broadway plan zone. https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-18-storey-tower-vancouver-out-scale-times
Douglas Todd: Hundreds of quiet east Vancouver side streets upzoned for six-storey apartment blocks Some residents in the vast Rupert and Renfrew area did not know their pleasant side streets had been upzoned for six- to eight-storey apartment blocks. It calls into question the city of Vancouver's murky "engagement strategy." https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-hundreds-of-quiet-east-vancouver-side-streets-upzoned-for-six-storey-apartment-blocks
'Monstrosities' or the evolution of housing? Multi-unit buildings on single-family lots gain traction in B.C. cities The number of multi-unit developments on single-family lots is increasing in B.C. neighbourhoods dominated by single-detached houses. Opinions vary over what these changes will mean for communities. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/multiplex-feature
Anakin/Padme meme I oppose this building because it's too tall It's just this building, not all new housing? You are not against all new housing, right?
A storey in four acts as captured by local news media:
18 storeys is too high, weβd be fine with 4-6 storeys
6 storeys are too big, we'd be fine with multiplexes
Multiplexes are monstrosities, we are fine with existing post-Second World War bungalows
...
I can see how one can make some arguments around security of tenure and tenure mixture that might justify some modest intervention, but I rarely see those arguments being made and the tradeoffs of intervention being weighted.
I dunno. Not sure I would call the aggregate desire for ownership a βbubbleβ, and telling people that they are, in aggregate, wrong to want to own and force higher rates of rental instead seems wrong to me.
I donβt understand why we need to distinguish between tenure at all. Have not heard a clear rationale for why local government is discouraging ownership over rental.
I think there is a lot of overlap with what people here refer to as co-housing, although co-housing in Canada is often associated with significant government subsidies, either direct or in kind by e.g. waving some restrictions or fees in exchange for some fluffy community or affordability messaging.
At least in Germany the baugruppen have a significant common amenity component designed around the shared values of the parties involved. Thatβs the whole point, and the main justification to go through the time consuming, very stressful and inherently risky process of self-development.
Similarly I think Taiwan style QiLou (ι¨ζ¨) would work great in Vancouver. Kind of like what we forced on the Lee Building, but contiguous.
Iβd love that. Although it seems a bit too small for baugruppen. Not enough parties to justify larger common amenities, and high risk when one party sells and a new party moves in that does not mesh well with the existing community.
No real surprises about where rental deserts (by this definition) are located in Toronto. Though of course the city itself is much more mixed than any of the surrounding suburban municipalities.
But maybe there is a smarter way to get at this, I think itβs a really interesting statistic what drives this. And then to see if the reverse happens too, if extended families that previously lived separately come together to buy several units in the same multiplex.
I can think of ways to track this in theory in land title and other data, but in practice the tradeoff of accessing quite private data (detailed land title records and things like homeowner grant information) is probably not outweighed by the information gained.
The paper also looks at how rental deserts interact with other social and regulatory dimensions. Which reminded me a bit of StatCanβs D-index that measures income segregation conditional on dwelling types (single vs multi).
On the surface there are the kindergarten level games played by the government south of the border, but deeper down the details on the government ask that shine through are truly frightening.
And happy to now be officially barred from doing business with the Department of War. (Not that it matters)
Hmm, now I think I need to go back and edit those category names and the map description ...
Fun paper on renal deserts in the US. Quick and dirty interactive map for Canada following the definitions in the paper.