https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/east-broadway-vancouver-bus-lanes-proposal
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Friday, March 7, 2025
Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto-SF
Auckland, NZ, along with Perth, WA and Seattle, WA have no problems with taller buildings and wider bridges than what Vancouver allows. Established cities like London & Paris, NYC & Chicago, big L.A. and smaller Singapore, all seem to plan, spend & build more infrastructure than backwards Vancouver does.
Cities like Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto-SF are all on a much larger scale, simply because they don't have anything like the restrictions that Vancouver, BC has imposed.
https://x.com/CityHallWchVAN/status/1517347123225718785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Acityhallwchvan%7Ctwcon%5Es1 What seems big in little Vancouver is small or just average in many other cities.
First new generation SkyTrain begins testing on Expo and Millennium lines
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/mark-v-skytrain-testing-expo-millennium
While the stations on the Expo and Millennium lines can accommodate the new 5 car trains, as of March, it's still just 2-4 car trains. Since 2010, the Canada embarrassment Line is still only running a 2 car joke of a train. Those stations weren't even designed to accommodate a 5 car train, just a 2.5 car joke after spending billions to build it. This is another fine example of not building proper big city infrastructure for significant higher capacity.
Fortunately, most real cities can run 6, 8 or 10 car trains. All of the SkyTrain stations should have already been roughed out to accommodate 8-10 car trains. Then it would have been so much easier and less costly to complete long stations.
Jericho Lands project
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/jericho-lands-official-development-plan-vancouver
https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/jericho-lands , https://www.inspirejericho.ca/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jericho-lands-development-vancouver-bc-1.7360726
https://www.urbanstrategies.com/project/jericho/
https://www.jarmanrealestate.com/jericho-lands-development-proposal/
People have gotten so used to Vancouver being a backwater in a vast country which doesn't even have 1% of the world's population.
There is quite a reluctance for small-minded Vancouver to not allow what's big by Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto & SF standards.
https://x.com/CityHallWchVAN/status/1517347123225718785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Acityhallwchvan%7Ctwcon%5Es1 There are only a handful of cities in BC where an attempt of tall buildings can happen. That's because most of BC is a mountainous wilderness, or simply just wilderness.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/lights-out-at-vancouver-house Some people might be jelouse that others might have 2 or 3 homes, just like having 2 or 3 motorized vehicles. Should people in BC be limited to only have 1 home & 1 moto-vehicle? The next step would be to impose an AI run point system to discourage people from having no more than 1 or 2 kids.
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3923923?v=pdf
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto-SF
Thursday, March 6, 2025
The Bentall Centre complex
https://www.bentallcentre.com/burrard-exchange , https://www.bentallcentre.com
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bentall-centre-vancouver-buy-bc-initiative-free-retail-space
The shortest buildings at Bentall_Centre aren't even 25 floors.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Bentall_Centre_2018.jpg
The 3 tallest buildings at Bentall_Centre were not only forbidden to have a 50th floor, they don't even have 40 floors. Indeed, given Vancouver's strict height limitations, it was tough enough just to be permitted to have 35 floors.
Bow_Valley_Square in Calgary was permitted to build a little taller than the Bentall Centre complex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarcadero_Center SF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center Houston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center#Three_Allen_Center
Vancouver developer and philanthropist Peter Wall dies at 87
Born in Ukraine, he immigrated to Canada in 1948 and became one of Vancouver's biggest developers https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouver-developer-peter-wall-obituary
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/peter-wall-vancouver-developer-dies-1.7476721
https://storeys.com/peter-wall-financial-vancouver-obituary/
https://president.ubc.ca/communications/2025/03/06/ubc-tribute-to-peter-wall/
Future of London Drugs at Woodward's uncertain due to crime area
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/london-drugs-woodwards-vancouver-crime-theft-shoplifting
The old Woodward's_Building used to be in the old part of downtown. Then by the time of its redevelopment, the area was starting to decline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward's_Building#Redevelopment
Without an adequate amount of police patrols & security, a business area can easily decline. A lot of the crime & poverty is as a result of various socio-economic issues.
No building in strict Vancouver is allowed to be as tall as the new Hudson's_in_Detroit. Short and stumpy Vancouver buildings just can't attain the same scale of a Hudson's_Site.
The tallest part of the new Woodward's complex wasn't even allowed to be as tall as the old Hudson's in Detroit. That's because unlike Detroit, almost everything in Vancouver is watered down in scale.
Detroit has had a rough & tough reputation for generations, yet its been able to gradually recover from its economic slide.
Of course the QLine streetcar in Detroit was up & running long before Vancouver might ever get around to reviving part of its streetcar network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QLine#Route Backwards Vancouver just might become one of the last cities to revive parts of its streetcar system.
Service cuts at City of Vancouver 311 and TransLink make it harder for citizens to get information
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/03/05/service-cuts-cov311-translink-harder-getting-info
Of course as Vancouver gets even more expensive, pay more for less services.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-operating-funding-fiscal-cliff-bc-budget-2025
Don't have enough funding put towards maintaining rapid and efficient public transit.
Living Shangri-La tower in Vancouver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Shangri-La
The hotel component is just a small part of the building.
Hotel Georgia and Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) The stump hotel building doesn't even have 15 floors, when it should have been 30, even back in 1927.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver)#The_Private_Residences_at_Hotel_Georgia
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Wall Centre Complex in Vancouver
The One_Wall_Centre tower could have and should have been the first 50 story residential building in Vancouver, but it's windows only go up to 48.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Centre_(Vancouver) The complex should have had a 50, 60 & 70 story arrangement. But the tallest building in the centre doesn't even have windows up to the 50th floor.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/peter-wall-financial-corporation-vancouver
Four towers up to 37 storeys proposed for SkyTrain's future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station
Nothing tall there by Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Toronto standards, yet the land is very expensive.
Canadian Bank of Commerce Building (Commerce Court North)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Commerce_Court_West_2021.jpg When the 57 story tower wasd built in the 1970s, the tower from the 1930s would still rival anything in Vancouver.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Toronto_-_ON_-_Commerce_Court_West.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIBC_Square Strange that this wasn't a 55 & 65 story office complex, or even a 65 & 75 story development.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Royal Bank Tower Montreal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Bank_Tower_(Montreal)
It would take until the early 1970s for stubborn Vancouver to permit a building to rival this.
No funding in B.C. government’s new budget to avoid TransLink's service cuts
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-operating-funding-fiscal-cliff-bc-budget-2025
This all fits in with short trains & no express bus bridges. Apparently, short trains & mostly narrow bridges helps people to get around. Its too bad that some of the climate taxes can't go towards big city infrastructure.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-metro-vancouver-transit-service-cuts-risk
Monday, March 3, 2025
Kelowna, BC
Kelowna and the Okanagan+Valley+Region not only should continue to be the 3rd largest urban area in BC, but really start to rise above its backwater scale.
Victoria, Prince George and Kamloops
There seems to be an unwritten rule that as long as Vancouver, BC builds things that are impressive by Victoria, Prince George and Kamloops standards, that's good enough. Kelowna is set to be the biggest urban area between Greater Vancouver and Calgary. Kelowna has already been able to build taller than what's in Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops.
New West advocates for 'urgent' funding for fairs, festivals and events
It's difficult for such a provincial backwater to behave like a proper city, but having fairs & festivals is a good thing for any thriving city to have.
Queensborough in New Westminster, BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensborough,_New_Westminster
Little NW should have annexed at least half of Lulu_Island by the 1870s, when there wasn't much of anything there yet.
44 Montgomery Tower in SF and 611 Place in LA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44_Montgomery 1967 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/san-francisco/44-montgomery-street-building
This could have and should have been the first building in SF over 600 feet tall.
https://sfyimby.com/2021/08/number-20-44-montgomery-street-financial-district-san-francisco.html Given the building sites limitations, it wasn't able to have a plus sign shape +.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Street_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/611_Place 1969 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/611-place-building
This should have been the first building in LA to be over 650 feet or 200m in height.
https://la.urbanize.city/post/long-empty-dtla-office-tower-being-marketed-prospective-tenants It was able to have a plus sign + shape.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Bellevue, Western Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Western_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Western_Australia#Railways
Fortunately, the Transperth_C-series_trains are allowed to be longer than what's in the BC part of Canada.
| Train length | 143.35 m (470 ft 4 in) |
|---|---|
| Car length | 24 m (78 ft 9 in) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transperth_C-series_train#History
From a backwater BC perspective, its amazing that the Transperth_C-series_trains are allowed to be so long. Almost as long as a Montreal Metro train, but closer to the length of the Stockholm Metro trains. It would be chaos if Perth, Montreal & Stockholm had to have short trains like backwards Vancouver does.
Bellevue, Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Washington#Transportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bellevue_station
Unfortunatly, the Portland MAX trains are shorter than the nice, long Seattle trains.
While the Link_Light_Rail trains don't run as frequently as those on the Canada (embarrassment) Line, the stations were allowed to be so much longer, right from the start. Then its just a matter of eventually running more trains each hour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_light_rail#2_Line_(South_Bellevue-Redmond)
Canadian provinces meet in effort to reduce interprovincial trade barriers
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/anita-anand-interprovincial-trade
Fortunately, Australia never adopted internal trade barriers like Canada did.
https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-eyes-nova-scotia-bill-reduce-interprovincial-trade-barriers
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-business-between-provinces
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/insights-blogs-time-to-rethink-internal-trade-in-canada
There are some things that Australia got correct early on, why Canada is still trying to sort some issues out.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/interprovincial-trade-barriers-4-ways-1.7453530
"Canada has free trade agreements with 51 countries, and yet we have never been able to institute free trade within our own borders.
Despite decades of discussion, an array of non-tariff barriers still limits the free movement of people and goods across our provinces. From professional certifications to supply-managed products to regulations in a wide variety of industries, restrictions on interprovincial trade flows prevail." https://financialpost.com/news/economy/beyond-borders-internal-trade-barriers
Federalism and Sub-National Protectionism: a Comparison of the Internal Trade Regimes of Canada and Australia https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/iirwww/files/uploaded_files/SmithAndrewWorkingPaper2015.pdf
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