https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge#Public_transportation
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in Seattle
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Friday, April 26, 2024
A little house in Toronto
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/04/little-house-toronto
It's quite rare to find something that is smaller in Toronto than in Vancouver.
A partial subway closure on TTC Line 2 could last 'a few days' after a fire
There can always be better redundancy by having enough parallel bus routes.
So whenever a train line is out of service, the number of buses can be quickly increased.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-subway-kipling-jane-closure-1.7185757
Urban Data Links, Etc.
UDLE isn't just about urban technology and cities, but that still remains the primary focus for this blog.
Toronto's Eglinton-crosstown-west-extension-breakthrough
https://www.blogto.com/city/2024/04/eglinton-crosstown-west-extension-breakthrough-completion/
Some things might take a while in Toronto to get done, but in Vancouver you might have to wait until you have grey hair.
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/eglinton-crosstown-west-extension
https://www.infrastructureontario.ca/en/what-we-do/projectssearch/eglinton-crosstown-west-extension/
SkyTrain Expo Line changes kick in this weekend in Surrey
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-expo-line-surrey-station-closure
No 10 car trains, not even 9 like what the Montreal Metro has. It's been tough enough just to get the first 2 Skytrain lines to handle 5 car trains. The Canada Line, a pathetic 3rd line can ultimately only handle 2.5 car trains.
Short trains & narrow bridges are always great examples of congestive planning in Greater Vancouver.
SUPERMAN and LOIS Wrap Party in Vancouver
https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2024/04/superman-lois-wrap-party-in-vancouver-up-up-away.html
As one production wraps up, another is underway.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/cambie-bridge-closure-april-26
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Sunshine 60: Tokyo's haunted skyscraper
https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/sunshine-60-tokyo-skyscraper
The Sunshine 60 Tower has an interesting history.
https://medium.com/@movingjapan5/haunted-places-you-definitely-shouldnt-visit-in-tokyo-d7c01e7eb1bd
https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/haunted/articles/top-10-most-haunted-places
https://www.travelandleisure.com/holiday-travel/most-haunted-places-in-the-world
https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/most-haunted-places-in-the-world
https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/haunted-places-to-visit
VIA West57 in NYC
https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/skyscraper/via-west57-bjarke-ingels-group-big
At only 450 feet, it's just another stump of a building in NYC, but it's a very nice looking building. Of course for most of Vancouver's history & BC in general, no building was allowed to be built taller than it, until recent years.
Even the Harbour_Centre wasn't allowed to be that much taller than the 481 foot Pyramid in Cairo. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/geometry/height.html
"It originally stood about 482 feet (147 meters) tall, but erosion and the removal of most of the polished limestone casing stones—which made the structure smooth and caused it to gleam in the sunlight—have lowered the pyramid’s height to 449 feet (137 meters)." https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Pyramid-of-Giza
"Initially standing at 146.6 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to the current 138.5 metres (454.4 ft)..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Vancouver_Lookout%2C_Harbour_Centre.jpg
Vancouver Centre 2 office tower, or is it just another stump?
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-centre-ii-office-tower-tenants
Of course the Scotia_Plaza in Toronto is double the height & twice the width.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/geometry/height.html VC Towers 1 & 2 weren't allowed to be taller than the original height of the Great_Pyramid_of_Giza in Cairo.
Vancouver Centre Tower 2 is definitely shorter than the Pyramid_of_Khafre.
A lot of cities have tall office towers, but Vancouver won't permit any to have 40 floors, nevermind 50 or 60.
In many cases, a 60 story residential tower might be the height equivalent of a 45-50 story office tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver
It's interesting that Vancouver & BC chose to use some Egyptian pyramid symbolism.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4627676/bc-liberals-new-brand
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/here-s-what-the-bc-liberal-party-may-change-its-name-to-1.6086133
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-election-2017-bc-liberals-different-federal-liberals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Park_Board 3 mountains that look a lot like pyramids.
Egypt eventually had to allow structures to be taller than their classic pyramids. However, it wasn't until the 1970s when the BC part of Canada would ever so slightly, allow some buildings to be taller than the great pyramid. Fortunately, most real major cities around the world don't have to adhere to anything like the strict Vancouver type height restrictions & other limitations. Even the mountains just north of Vancouver are shorter than the mountains that are north of LA.
The Cairo_Tower was the first Egyptian building allowed to exceed the height of the Great_Pyramid_of_Giza.
| Architectural | 187 m (613.5 ft) |
|---|---|
| Antenna spire | 187 m (613.5 ft) |
| Roof | 160 m (524.9 ft) |
| Top floor | 143 m (469.2 ft) |
| Observatory | 143 m (469.2 ft) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Tower It opened in 1961.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/Transamerica_Pyramid_Tower.jpg
The_Shard in London.
It was was quite a long time before another building in SF was allowed to be taller than the 1972 era Transamerica_Pyramid.
A few other pyramidal towers would eventually rival the height of the Transamerica_Pyramid.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Sapphire by the Gardens in Melbourne
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/sapphire-by-the-gardens/27866
https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/case-studies/a10088-project-in-depthsapphire-by-the-gardens/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Melbourne#Overall
A Vintage luxury car lifted into Vancouver's Butterfly building
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vintage-luxury-car-butterfly-building
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/millionaire-turns-heads-hoisting-car-into-39m-melbourne-penthouse/news-story/2a70430b94355b8f263e21bb11387e1d Of course Melbourne is a real city like Toronto & San Fransisco. Those tram or streetcar cities have something very cool about them. They along with, Sydney & Brisbane or Singapore were never thwarted, stunted or especially, Vancouverized.
https://www.motor1.com/news/667598/mclaren-senna-lifted-57-stories-39m-apartment-cant-be-driven
https://www.forbes.com.au/life/cars/melbourne-millionaire-cranes-mclaren-into-57th-floor-penthouse/
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Sapphire+by+the+Gardens+in+Melbourne
Monday, April 22, 2024
New 57th Avenue bus route and Canada Line station in Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/mla-south-vancouver-new-57th-avenue-bus-route-canada-line-stations
The multibillion dollar Canada+Line is one of the best examples of the Greater_Vancouver areas reluctance to build propersize big city infrastructure. Perhaps starting out with a 2 or 3 car train joke could have worked for a while. However, all the stations should have been designed to eventually accomodate 8-10 car trains.
It's so strange that the extremely underbuilt SkyTrain-Canada_Line was never envisioned to eventually reach the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal. Just like the Canada_Line should have gradually reached to the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal. However, that would conflict with the, Keep Vancouver Small agenda, which is part of the overall Backwater BC mentality.
Unfortunately, the Canada_Line is like the middle section of an incomplete route. Even if the lack of funding was the main excuse, there is still no excuse not to have long range plans linking it to the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal and the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal.
The Canada+Line is a fine example of the lack of vision not only for Vancouver & Richmond, but BC & Canada in general. Indeed, with all the extreme building limitations & restrictions, it's just another case of congestive planning in BC.
Public transit in Vancouver, Canada
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/free-bus-service-translink-bc-transit-earth-day
The cities refusal to build bus bridges next to all the narrow bridges just continues through the years.
The SkyTrain was deliberately designed to have much shorter stations than the Montreal Metro, apparently just to save money. Yet, Greater Vancouver would benefit strongly by having 152.5 m or 500 foot long trains. Even if the budget wasn't there to build long stations for long trains, the stations still could have been designed to be 152.5 m.
It's like Greater Vancouver wants to perpetually be one of the worlds best examples of congestive planning or bottleneck planning.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Robson Street site acquired for redevelopment into two rental housing towers
There is still such a small-minded mentality to only build what's impressive to Kamloops & Prince George, not Melbourne & Toronto. The smalltown planning & zoning agenda that is Vancouver continues to perpetuate this.
At least 35 towers with about 7,000 rental homes now proposed in the Broadway Plan area of Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/broadway-plan-vancouver-rental-housing-tower-proposals
Montreal & Seattle have both grown into 4 million + metropolitan regions. They have longer trains for more capacity, wider bridges & taller buildings than what is allowed in Vancouver. Over the past several decades, Vancouver kept putting in more restrictions & red tape as a sort of, HOLD BACK THE CITY agenda. Thus, keeping things as small and backward as possible in Vancouver helps to maintain the small city symbolism & mentality. This symbolism is meant to be a constant reminder of the reluctance to build up a proper level of infrastructure.
On a larger scale, Canada is still nowhere of close to containing 1% of the world's population. It's a simple formula, allow a small amount of refugees or migrants in every year, but have a main focus of bringing in a wealthier & highly skilled demographic. Most of the world's human population consists of non-white people. Thus, if ever a KEEP CANADA SMALL, IT'S GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT mentality is firmly established, it's just another variation of the KEEP THEM OUT AGENDA.
Such an agenda should be challenged. Especially, when several other countries are able to contain more people on less land area. The old colonial mentality was partially about reducing the influx of non-white people & limiting their rights.
Luxury housing isn't the problem, it's the lack of building more affordable housing that is the problem. If developers are willing to have some mixed income housing projects on some sights, then they should be granted permission to build the more profitable taller Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane size towers.
However, the KEEP VANCOUVER SMALL & BACKWARDS agenda has been so firmly entrenched for several decades. It's part of the larger, KEEP THEM OUT agenda. There has been such a slow growth agenda in BC throughout its history. This BC agenda never seemed to catch on with Alberta & Washington State.
Friday, April 19, 2024
The 14 Lane Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge,[5] carrying a traffic volume of over 104 million vehicles in 2019,[6] and is the world's only suspension bridge with 14 vehicular lanes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge
The 13 Lane Bridge
The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278: seven on the upper level and six on the lower level. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrazzano-Narrows_Bridge
The 12 Lane Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge Its like the upper 8 lane deck is the Seattle bridge and the 4 lane lower deck is the Vancouver, BC bridge. Imagine if everything was funneled into a 4 lane Vancouver bridge there. Fortunately, its a 12 lane bridge. Perhaps some day 1 of the express lanes might accommodate a bus lane.
The 6 Lane Bridge
The 6 lane Aurora_Bridge is a block east of the 4 lane Fremont_Bridge_(Seattle). The wider bridge is more for regional traffic, where as the narrower bridge is more for the general neighborhood. In contrast, the Vancouver, BC approach is to funnel everything into a single point crossing. Then refuse to build a bus & HOV lane bridge next to it.
The 4 Lane Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Bridge_(Seattle)
https://www.historylink.org/File/20389
The north end of the Montlake_Bridge is close to the University_of_Washington_station. The 380-foot-long (120 m) station_layout is almost as long as any underground LRT station in Edmonton. In contrast, the first 2 lines of the Vancouver Skytrain only has 80 m stations. The 3rd line is a joke that is the Canada Line. It was only designed to have 50 m stations. The Montreal Metro & TTC Subway were designed to have 152 m. Unlike Seattle & Edmonton & especially Montreal & Toronto, building for longer trains isn't a problem. That's because they don't have anything like a backward BC mentality or a water it down, because its Vancouver, approach to things. Being from Vancouver, it's always amazing to see what other cities are able to do, simply because they don't take a backwater BC approach to things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Bridge_(Seattle)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballard_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bizard_Bridge Even a backwater part of Montreal will get an upgrade from a 3 lane joke to a 4 lane bridge with wider sidewalks. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/bridge-construction-causing-travel-nightmare-for-ile-bizard-residents-1.6564161
https://www.westislandtoday.com/post/the-construction-of-l-%C3%AEle-bizard-s-bridge-is-well-underway
- Expanding to 4 traffic lanes, 1 more than the existing bridge
- Building a wider two-way bike path and sidewalk
- Complete redevelopment of the road, water and sewer mains and street lighting system
- Refurbishing electrical networks and wiring
https://montreal.ca/en/articles/building-new-bridge-pont-jacques-bizard-26379 Fortunatly, no one from Metro Vancouver was able to stop this Greater Montreal improvement.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10180724/new-jacques-bizard-bridge-west-island-traffic Unfortunatly, the new bridge won't have a couple of bus-lanes. https://www.ebcinc.com/en/2022/04/05/new-jacques-bizard-bridge A 6 lane bridge would have allwed for that. Perhaps a parallel bus-bridge might eventually be built there, someday. That's what Calgary eventually did with the the+Cushing+Bridge upgrade.
The 3 Lane Bridge
A 3 lane bridge, viaduct or tunnel can be great if its for one direction. However, if it's for 2 way traffic, it can easily get very congested, unless its in a rural area.
The Johnson_Street_Bridge in Victoria, BC & the Lions_Gate_Bridge in Vancouver, are quintessential 3 lane bottlenecks. How is this possible? Make sure that a bus & HOV tunnel or bridge isn't built next to them. Especially make sure that a heavy rail & light rail tunnel or bridge isn't built close to them. Thus, both crossings are fine examples of BC congestive planning. It's also crucially symbolic, as BC has been refusing to keep up with urban transportation needs. Thinking big & building big in Texas is no problem, because it's so far away from the backwater BC planning mentality. However, even Alberta & Washington State never seemed interested in taking a backward BC approach to things.
If you are from Montreal & haven't visited Vancouver or Victoria, nothing can prepare you for the shock, if you ever do. As preparation, it might be good to drive over to Jacques+Bizard+Blvd and then over the 3 lane Jacques_Bizard_Bridge. Of course this is in a backwater part of Montreal. However, imagine if this 3 lane bottleneck was at one of the main crossings in Montreal. Well, that's what you would have to prepare yourself for, if you visit Vancouver or Victoria. Whether its a low level bridge or a high level bridge, as long as its a 3 lane chokepoint, it meets the BC standard. Fortunately, Montreal was able to build a new bridge there, simpy becaye it doesn't have a Vancouver like mentality. https://montreal.ca/en/articles/building-new-bridge-pont-jacques-bizard-26379
The Windsor+Bridge is a backwater, 3 lane Sydney crossing. Just imagine if that was on the edge of the CBD. Well, if you are from NSW & you visit BC, nothing can prepare you for such narrow bridges, short trains & stumpy buildings. Fortunately, nothing like the BC mentality was allowed to take over NSW.
If you are from New_Haven,_Connecticut, you might be shocked if you visit the 2 largest urban areas in the BC part of Canada.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Burnaby Hospital
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-hospital-redevelopment-bc-cancer-centre
Hospital expansion has been so slow in BC for several decads.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Canadian-born family shares why they're moving to Malaysia
https://dailyhive.com/canada/canadian-family-move-malaysia
Unless all goods & services in Canada are made available for all income levels, more people will more away. It's absurd to have so many things set at a luxury or deluxe price range.
Some of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_continuously_inhabited_cities
https://history.howstuffworks.com/world-history/oldest-city-in-world.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/16/whats-the-oldest-city-in-the-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/article/ancient-city-damascus
Monday, April 15, 2024
Much more home construction and infrastructure in Metro Vancouver is urgently needed
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-housing-starts-construction-statistics-2023
After Vancouver & the metropolitan region kept imposing so many restrictions for decades, BC is compelled to upgrade & build more infrastructure.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-pre-sales-april-2024
The KEEP THEM OUT symbolism has been perpetuated for well over a lifetime. Especially with short trains & narrow bridges & only a half-assed bus lane network. The Cushing+Bridge in Calgary is a fine example of a new bus-bridge next to a narrow Vancouver type of bridge. The+Tilikum+Crossing+in+Portland is also a great example of the type of transit bridge that should be built next to almost all of the narrow bridges in Metro Vancouver. Fortunately, the backward BC type of planning mentality never caught on in Calgary, Edmonton, Portland, Seattle & Montreal.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-development-permits-changes-2024 Speeding up the permits & rate of construction is a good slap in the face towards the KEEP THEM OUT agenda. It was hoped so many decades ago, that by gradually imposing so much municipal red tape & BC B$, that would help to stunt BC growth. It also helped the old colonial mentality to see less non-white people moving into BC.
It's not that BC isn't multicultural, it's just that by slowing down the growth of the 10 largest BC municipalities, that becomes a perpetual excuse to not keep up with building more infrastructure.
The area of Switzerland or the Netherlands could fit into BC 23 times. Yet, BC doesn't even have half the population of the Netherlands. Indeed, BC doesn't even have the population of one Switzerland.
If Metro Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna & BC in general, would ever allow a proper scale of infrastructure, things would gradually improve.
The proposed plan to redevelop Metropolis at Metrotown mall
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metropolis-at-metrotown-mall-redevelopment-master-plan-concept
No chance now of BC ever having a mall as big as the West_Edmonton_Mall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall#Future_developments
However, Burnaby will gradually get to have a dense downtown core with potentially some taller buildings than Edmonton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Edmonton_Mall#West_Edmonton_Mall_Transit_Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_at_Metrotown#Transportation Perhaps the WE Mall might eventually become like a 2n core for Edmonton. However, since Vancouver won't permit buildings to be taller than the tallest in Montreal, Calgary & Edmonton. Thus, Burnaby, Coquitlam & Surrey will have to take on that roll.
Metrotown_station will become the key downtown core stop in Burnaby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_shopping_centres_in_Canada
For most of Canada's history, it was about keeping out or at least slowing down the influx of non-white people. Then in more recent years, its been about using environmental concerns to keep Canada in a perpetual slow growth mode, except for a few cities. Canada still doesn't even have half of 1% of the world's population. Yet, it's the 2nd or 3rd largest county in overall area. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm 41 million people. How is it that so many other countries can accommodate more people? Better urban planning can make all the difference.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/population_and_demography
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population , https://www.census.gov/popclock/world
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/
https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100
The City of Vancouver simplifies more permitting to reduce timelines and costs
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-development-permits-changes-2024 For too dam long its like there is a diffrent set of physics in Vancouver & BC in general. Things take longer or just seem to be more difficult.
Vancouver has been under a multigenerational stunting & thwarting agenda that just never caught on with Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg & Halifax. They all have much larger municipal boundaries than Vancouver. No building in Vancouver is permitted to rival the tallest in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary & Edmonton. No underground train station in Vancouver has been built to be as long as any underground train station in Toronto, Montreal & Edmonton or any future underground stations in Calgary. Vancouver has so many narrow streets & bridges, making it difficult to have a proper bus-lane network. Indeed, several cities around the world established bus-lanes before Vancouver got around to it.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Metro Vancouver renters are spending more than 60 per cent of salary on rent
Greater Vancouver is still like a toy city with mostly narrow roads, short trains & short buildings, but very expensive.
Toronto is a genuine BIG city like Chicago and Melbourne, but without any 100 story buildings, as of yet.
https://currencymart.net/toronto/which-city-is-more-expensive-toronto-or-vancouver/index.html
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Sunday, April 7, 2024
SUPERMAN and LOIS at its LuthorCorp location in Downtown Vancouver
https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2024/04/superman-lois-at-its-luthorcorp-in-downtown-vancouver.html
Another Vancouver building that might be impressive, if it had been at least 50 stories, but it wasn't even permitted to have 25 floors.
Saturday, April 6, 2024
4.8 magnitude earthquake in New Jersey, aftershocks felt across NYC and Tri-State Area
If there is ever a very strong earthquake in that part of the world, a lot of older buildings could be seriously affected.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/us/earthquake-nyc-nj-northeast/index.html
Earthquakes and aging buildings in NYC
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/earthquake-new-york-city-aging-buildings/
So many older NYC buildings just weren't constructed to modern earthquake standards.
Fortunately, this was nowhere as intense as what can happen in Taiwan, Japan, NZ or California.
Unfortunately, urban earthquakes can strike at any time without warning.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-10-most-earthquake-prone-countries.html
The SkyTrain - Canada Line in Richmond to close early for seven weeks due to construction
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-capstan-station-spring-2024-service
An entire section of the line has to close early, due to a new station being added. If or whenever all the stations are lengthened, the entire system might have to close early.
Fortunately, all the underground stations in Toronto & Montreal & even Edmonton, were built to be much longer, in the first place. Fortunately, any new underground C-Train stations in Calgary won't be Vancouverized. They will be as long as any underground LRT station in Edmonton.
The biggest mistake for the Skytrain was not building 152 m or 500 ft long stations. Then as longer trains are required, the longer stations would already exist.
The 3rd line or the C._Line, is such a fine example of BC congestive planning. Why bother to have long big city trains? https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-skytrain
Aparenty, short trains help to match the many narrow bridges in BC. Of course narrow bridges make it tougher to have bus & HOV lanes.
"The five busiest stations have platforms 50 metres (160 ft) long, while the rest of the stations have 40-metre (130 ft) platforms that can be easily extended to 50 metres." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Line#Stations
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-rebuilding
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-burrard-innlet-rapid-transit-brt-translink
Greater_Vancouver has been stunted or thwarted for several decades, in so many ways.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
The sad joke that is Vancouver, Canada
Talk about a city that continually refuses to live up to its potential. Vancouver is an incredibly small city in total area. [ 123.63 km2 (47.73 sq mi) ]
The Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District_of_BC is more comparable to some of the larger cities on the planet. [ 2,878.93 km2 (1,111.56 sq mi) ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District
The Lower_Mainland_of_BC is more comparable to some of the larger urban & suburban regions of the world. Thus, there is a lot of potential for growth.
| Area | |
|---|---|
| • Total | 36,303.31 km2 (14,016.79 sq mi) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Mainland
Yet, somehow so many things are continually underbuilt, as if to signify & perpetuate a KEEP THEM OUT agenda. Indeed, if you can't build a wall or generate a Star Trek or Star Wars like forcefield around BC, then you build a symbolically stunted transportation infrastructure. This helps to create more congestion & frustration. Of course one has to wonder where all the money has gone over the past several decades?
How did the KEEP THEM OUT agenda ever get started? How did the KEEP BC SMALL mentality become so firmly entrenched? That remains partially a mystery, but it's as if some kind of a vibe or energy has been continually been tapped into over the course of several generations. Somehow this thwarting force or mentality, never seemed to catch on with Alberta, Washington_(state), Ontario & Quebec...
1886 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Incorporation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1886_Vancouver_anti-Chinese_riots (1886) A classic case of government & corporate mentality of the day, using one group of people over another.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/03/questions-and-answers-migrant-worker-abuses-uae-and-cop28#:~:text=Even%20though%20migrant%20workers%20primarily,Rights%20Watch%20has%20extensively%20documented. Unfortunately, this still happens all over the world.
Unlike so many big cities, Vancouver seemed to have a reoccuring backwater mentality right from the start. While Vancouver & Canada in general have become multicultural over the recent decades, a provincial backwater mentality was ideal for Vancouver, back in the day. The old White colonial mentality just didn't see indigenous & other non-white people as that important or even necessary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Oriental_riots_(Vancouver) 1907 https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/settlement-immigration/the-lessons-of-the-anti-asiatic-riot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komagata_Maru_incident (1914)
Of course Canada, Australia & other White European colonies eventually had to accept that most of the world is non-white. Thus, maintaining a White Only Policy didn't fit in with the world's demographics.
https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/settlement-immigration/not-just-immigrants
https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/books/harriet-s-legacies
However, suppose that a gordian knot of overlapping restrictions, red tape & other B$, could gradually be imposed throughout the White BC of the 1950s & 60s. Then even more Vancouver & BC restrictions in the 1970s & 80s, in spite of multicultural immigration. Of course Southern Ontario & Southern Quebec grew rapidly, because that's where most of the urbanization-and-industry is in Canada. Then by the 1990s, Vancouver should have been building things to the scale of Montreal in the 1970s & 80s.
Instead, the first 2 Skytrain lines were built to only be about half the length of a Montreal Metro station & the 3rd line (the Canada+Line) with only 50 m stations. No bus bridges were ever built next to the existing narrow bridges. It's all about creating congestion, instead of properly planning to handle more capacity in BC.
"One was that superhighways created new traffic as much as they relieved old bottlenecks; by 1972 bypass highways like the 401 were multi-laned traffic jams of bumper-to-bumper vehicles at first during rush hours and eventually for almost the entire day.
Improving connections between the city and its outskirts only prompted more people to move away or use the roads more frequently.
The other problem was that freeways constructed in populated areas could be built only by tearing down existing housing and devastating neighbourhoods. An extended period of Toronto opposition finally managed to stop construction of a projected expressway in 1971, which brought to a symbolic end the period of unrestricted and unplanned expansion in the city. In Vancouver at about the same time, proposals to extend the Trans-Canada Highway into the city’s centre, virtually demolishing many neighbourhoods — including the traditional Chinatown district — were fought to a standstill. https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/arts-culture-society/home-sweet-suburb
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/800-granville-street-vancouver-proposal-office-cancelled Yet, once again, another project was cancelled, due to the slow planning & processing pace of the city.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Canadians slam Loblaw CEO Per Bank after discovering he was paid $22 million in 2023
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canadians-react-per-bank-loblaw
The US is still a lot less expensive, in some ways.
Toughest time ever to afford a house in Vancouver, Canada
If developers were allowed to build, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane size towers, as long as they also built some commonly affordable rental buildings, that would be an incentive. Sure, developers can build sky-high in Dubai, NYC & Chicago, but that's usually just for luxurious condo suites.
If developers in Vancouver & BC in general want to build much taller towers, they should also build a lot of low to mid-rise commonly affordable condominiums & rental units. Thus, by doing that in tandem, would allow them to build, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane size towers.
Unfortunately, unless the very strict Vancouver height limitations are updated to proper big city standards, semi-tall luxurious condo towers will be built, but with no incentive for developers to build a lot of affordable housing for a much larger market.
More people left B.C. for other provinces in 2023 — mostly Alberta
https://globalnews.ca/news/10398435/people-left-bc-provinces-alberta-stats-canada/
Fortunatly, Alberta was never absorbed by BC.
Monday, April 1, 2024
Stumps and Towers in various cities
Every city starts out with stumps and several cities eventually have some tall towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane#Timeline_of_tallest_buildings
https://mapfight.xyz/compare/queensland-vs-us.fl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Square At 151 m (495 ft) it's just another Vancouver like stump, especially, AMP_Place.
Queensland & especially Florida have grown substantially over the decades. A year round warm climate is certainly part of the big attraction. Something that Canada just doesn't have.
The Southeast_Financial_Center and One_Biscayne_Tower in Miami.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Brisbane
Another Vancouver type stump is the Miami_Center, which is 484 ft (148 m) tall and has 34 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Miami#Tallest_buildings
One_Biscayne_Tower contains 39 floors and is 492 ft (150 m) tall. Today it's just another Vancouver stump building in downtown_Miami.
The Miami_metropolitan_area, like Brisbane and the Gold_Coast, have been able to grow & flourish on a large scale, because they aren't under anything like the very restrictive Vancouver & BC limitations.
The BC part of Canada is very mountainous like Switzerland. Usually, SW BC is the most mild part of Canada during the winter. Thus, it's the best place to avoid most of the harsh Canadian winters. Yet, there has been quite a lacking approach to building & expanding infrastructure. Combined with very strict zoning & a haft-assed approach to urban planning, one can clearly see a much larger scale of things in Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton & Portland.
https://mapfight.xyz/map/ch 23 Switzerland's can fit into BC. Yet, BC has yet to reach the population of 1 CH.
Jean-Drapeau station (1967)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Drapeau_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Line_(Montreal_Metro)#Opening_for_Expo_67
The MPM-10 consists of 9 articulated cars per train. Indeed, why just have a 3 coch joke, when you can have a 9 car train? If only Vancouver would have such forward thinking & planning.
| Train length | 152.43 m (500 ft 11⁄8 in) |
|---|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPM-10#History Unlike Vancouver, Montreal planned for 500 foot long stations right from the start. 9 car trains are great, but ultimately there should be 10-12 car trains.
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