Time zones were an invention due to technology limitations of the early railroad era that impose sub-optimal conditions on the majority of people versus their local solar time. In this essay I will...
There is a publicly maintained database of time zone rules that pretty much all software uses. Any computer set to "America/Vancouver" would automatically adopt the new time zone offset.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_data...
Big Shiny Tunes 2
Summary titles from the provincial small scale multi unit housing policy: Secondary suites, 3-4 units in single family zones within urban containment boundaries, 6 units near frequent bus service
Same with the provincial multiplex requirements – one size fits all, except for variances based on municipal population, lot size, sewer service, heritage or environmental protection, proximity to frequent transit...
Opposition of the Broadway Plan decries a "one size fits all" approach and "force-fed generic zoning", but Kitsilano has twelve sub areas.
The largest, "Kitsilano North - Area A", covers about 20 blocks divided by a unique area to preserve lower heights for the 4th Ave shopping district.
The children yearn for the mines
Oh, to be a fly on the wall of ABC's candidate recruitment efforts for the fall election...
Bluesky muted words settings, with "PST" being added
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, we’d 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
...
[Pitching to BC Green Party]
"As you can see, many of our Rental Rain Forests, as in Vancouver's West End, have grown quite tall. But others were clear cut by downzoning in the 1970s, and are only now starting to recover."
🔈
The multi-level play structure in Rainbow Park
There's a reason play structures have signs not to climb the outside
(It's me, hi. I'm the problem, it's me)
Some public speakers said they were opposed to the rooftop play area "for the sake of the children", as if the kids wouldn't think it's the coolest fuckin' thing.
Who *didn't* want to climb onto the roof of their school as a kid?
Someone go cover the development notice signs with balloons and streamers
19 years after it was first conditionally approved, all levels of government have finished signing off on the necessary steps to build a school in Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
A final year of debate and planning was required to raise the number of floors for the school from 3 to 4.
It seems like it depends on how many people that voted superficially for cops and nurses last time will think it's not worth voting Sim again. They're probably not paying attention to or swayed by this news, but also less likely to buy that Sim has done well when the general vibes are not good.
They've voted the party line, including on the supportive housing ban that caused Bligh's exit.
This could be an opportunity for a pivot, but would they be willing to - and would Bligh/Allam/the public buy it? They might need to go independent and distance themselves from ABC a bit first.
🤔 Before this they were maybe safe enough as incumbent councillors that they were willing to wait out Sim getting ousted, then change the party's direction.
Are they eager enough to jump right now, or will they try to wait this out hoping it doesn't stick as a scandal?
We need to stop reinventing the wheel we know how to build stacked, larger, family sized homes on a single lot. No need to get more creative, or overthink this. Just build what we always have. They’ll sell, they are beloved, they need to be allowed again
There was a pair of dogs wearing red cat-eye glasses 🥺
My sunset too warm, the park dogs too cute
AR did already get their Safeway redevelopment, the discourse usually just is on upzoning Shaughnessy and WPG, that AR gets forgotten about like a middle child amongst the west side neighbourhoods.
It's hard for me to stay negative when Vancouver is sunny. Oh no, my oceans too blue, my mountains too high.
There's a mix of houses built in each decade of the last century, and I think it exemplifies that neighbourhoods will change even if the typology doesn't.
I don't think any house when it was built was ever cheaper than one from the decade before.
A house with a tree-filled front yard enclosed by a fence with stone pillars and decorative panels with a tree motif that don't obstruct visibility into the yard. An arched trellis on the verge leads from the street to the front gate.
A modern house. The front yard has a mature tree and low garden beds with stone borders. A matching garden bed is on the verge between the street and sidewalk.
A few did stand out by having yards that look like someone would actually spend time there, and adding features that extend across the sidewalk.
A little bit of an invitation to a shared space as you pass through, rather than an implicit or explicit distance between public and private space.
A single family home with slightly recessed front entryway. The front yard is a bare lawn with a few small hedges against the house.
A new looking two storey house. The rather plain looking front yard has a row of tiny hedges across the front of the house and a single young tree in the lawn.
A large boxy house with a row of person-height hedges along the property line. The front entryway is enclosed with an iron gate.
A two storey house with a barrier hedges that reaches the second story
I'm not getting "neighbourhood character" or "interaction with the street" from this architecture & bare-ass front lawn, or barrier hedges & iron gate over the front entry.
I'm used to "20% below market is not enough; we don't need more market housing", so hearing "I'm stopping more affordable housing so there's as much market rate as possible" is wild
