Perhaps Alberta might have to leave Canada, just because its right beside backwards and inept BC. Fortunately, the BC Mind Virus (BCMV) hasn't seemed to have messed up Alberta and Washington State, so far.
UTL is about exploring past, present and future urban technologies in science and fiction, etc...
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Friday, May 29, 2026
The Houston Galleria and Galleria Dallas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galleria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleria_Dallas
Texas is a place where thinking BIG has been going strong for almost a century.
By the year 1900, NYC had to start thinking and building on a big-city scale, simply out of necessity.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/03/11/nyc-big-apple
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple
In contrast, backwater BC has a tough time keeping up with Alberta and Washington State. Especially with Ontario and Quebec. BC is 75% mountainous and has a seawater barrier on its west side. Still, its almost as if some people would like to have a wall around BC, or even a forcefield like out of Star Trek.
Keeping things small and backwards in BC whenever possible seems to be part of a multigenerational symbolic agenda.
Its as if there is something like a BC Mind Virus (BCMV).
Texas has more people than Australia and California has more people than Canada. Despite its overall size, Canada has less than 1% of the worlds population.
Singapore is on an island that's smaller than all of NYC or Chicago, even. Yet, it has proper big-city trains, bridges, roads and buildings.
Friday, May 15, 2026
The AI boom sidelined sustainability and has caused data center safety concerns
https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx
The carbon and water footprints of data centers and what this could mean for artificial intelligence https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666389925002788
https://opportunitygreen.org/data-centres/reports/data-centres-threaten-energy-systems-climate-goals
https://www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts
https://ucalgary.ca/sustainability/mobilizing-alberta/climate-action-blogs/will-ai-data-centres-raise-water-and-power-use-alberta Since Canada is cold for half of the year, its amazing that there aren't more AI data centers.
https://www.siemens.com/en-us/industries/data-centers/cooling-infrastructure-ai-optimization
Monday, April 13, 2026
Quebec
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec#Economy Canada should have become a commonwealth of independent states similar to Australia. However, since Canada is right next to the US of America, some thought that it might be too confusing. Alberta as well as Quebec, should become fully recognized states within Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia
Alberta
The Alberta Secession Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LiCuWV2D9g
Alberta within Canada should have become something like a commonwealth independent state similar to Australia. However, since Canada is right next to the USA, some thought that it might be too confusing, back in the day. As each provincial district wants to become more like an independent state within Canada, that should become possible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia#States
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Surrey should have more night-bus routes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Translink/comments/1rop925/thoughts_on_yvr_movenments_idea_of_making_surrey
Alberta has two cities with over a million people each, those being Calgary and Edmonton.
Vancouver has never had 1 million residents, but the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District has well over 3 million people.
Victoria,_British_Columbia has yet to reach 100K, but the Capital_Regional_District is getting close to half a million.
Surrey has almost 3 quarters of a million people and is expected to be the first city in BC to eventually have a million residents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey,_British_Columbia#Current_transportation_network
Surrey like Burnaby, will eventually have some of the tallest buildings in BC, that's because they aren't under the extreme height restrictions that Vancouver has.
https://www.surrey.ca/about-surrey
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=2&status=15 Surrey
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 BC
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Canada
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Bridges in Fort McMurray, Alberta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McMurray , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FCkJ8ZZ9VI
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/bridge-to-oilsands-the-biggest-in-alberta
https://www.canambridges.com/projects/athabasca-river-bridge
https://khaledalmaaz.blogspot.com/search?q=Athabasca+River+Bridge
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/relief-for-ft-mac-traffic-jams-in-sight-as-127m-new-bridge-opens
https://www.outokumpu.com/en/expertise/2016/built-for-heavy-loads
https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/custom_downloaded_images/geo2017Paper767.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Highway_63#Construction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Municipality_of_Wood_Buffalo
https://www.rmwb.ca/news/posts/join-an-rmwb-board-or-committee-and-help-shape-your-community/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McMurray-Wood_Buffalo
https://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType4942/Production/HIGHWAY_63_STATUS_MAP2.pdf
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
New Year's Eve fireworks in and around Calgary
https://curiocity.com/new-years-eve-fireworks-2026-near-calgary-alberta/
Just like Vancouver can't stop its surrounding cities & suburbs from setting off fireworks, Vancouver can't stop Calgary, Perth and Seattle...
https://www.chatterblock.com/events/427141/new-years-eve-fireworks-calgary/
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Peace River Nuclear Power Project in Alberta
https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/proj/89430?culture=en-CA
It would be very likely for Alberta to have the first such power plants in Western_Canada.
https://www.energyalberta.com Of course there are various risks, but Alberta likes to think big.
https://www.alberta.ca/nuclear-energy-engagement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_River,_Alberta
https://www.peaceriver.ca/business-development/peace-river-nuclear-project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_River,_Alberta#Economy
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/ap1000-under-consideration-for-deployment-in-alberta
https://www.albertawilderness.ca/issues/wildlands/energy/nuclear-power
https://www.energyalberta.com/project#project-overview
Alberta just never had the same impose restrictions that backwater BC has.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Airports and Tall Buildings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_City_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf#Tallest_buildings Tall buildings there are no problem, despite the airport being relatively close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle-Tacoma_International_Airport Prevented Seattle from having a 1000 foot tall office tower in the 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_International_Airport Runways don't conflict with the tallest buildings in Boston.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_City_Centre_Airport#Closure Once closed, Edmonton could eventually plan for the tallest building in Alberta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_International_Airport Untill its ever closed, buildings are kept short, because of its location.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid_International_Airport Tall buildings are relativly close to a runway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_International_Airport Unlike, London and LV, Richmond is forced to have very short buildings, because of YVR.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Ground broken for three towers at north end of Victoria's downtown
https://www.biv.com/news/ground-broken-for-three-towers-at-north-end-of-victorias-downtown-11378830
Despite Victoria being the most mild winter city in Canada, it was supposed to be a provincial backwater for as long as possible. Buildings were to be kept smaller than the tallest in Edmonton, QC, Winnipeg & Halifax.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=37&status=15
In typical upside-down BC fashion, Edmonton is a mighty capital in cold winter Northern Alberta, while Victoria excels as a stunted & thwarted small city in mild SW BC.
Before Victoria could ever rival Edmonton, it would first have to rival Halifax, then Winnipeg and then Quebec_City.
Perhaps someday, Regina might equal or rival Winnipeg, but not likely Edmonton. After Toronto, Edmonton is the largest of the Canadian provincial capitals. Both cities are worlds away from the extreme imposed restrictions of Vancouver and Victoria.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
B.C. set to open Western Canada's first new medical school in decades
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sfu-new-medical-school-9.6938486
Unfortunatly, for most of the history of backwater BC, there was a strong British Colonist antigrowth and anti-non-white immigration.
Ontario and Quebec were able to build more infrastructure and other stuff, and then eventually also Alberta. Primarily as a result of having more economic wealth.
A new big medical school in BC would be nice, but so would be more hospital expansion.
Monday, October 13, 2025
Majority polled in Calgary and Edmonton are unhappy with the pace of population growth
If you are visiting Vancouver or Victoria from Calgary or Edmonton, you will be shocked as to how narrow most of the bridges are in Greater Vancouver and Victoria. Edmonton was wise in the 1970s to have 125 m long underground LRT stations. Foolish Vancouver opted to only have 80 m stations on its first 2 lines and an absurd 50 m for the 3rd line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(Calgary) , https://www.calgary.ca/green-line.html
https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans---projects/lrt/green-line.html
https://engage.calgary.ca/greenline/UndergroundStations Fortunatly, any underground stations in Calgary will be closer in length to that of the Edmonton LRT and not backwards Vancouver.
https://www.railjournal.com/regions/north-america/tunnel-preferred-for-calgary-lrt-green-line/
https://www.calgary.ca/green-line/stations.html
The main roads and bridges in urban parts of Alberta are allowed to be wider than their counterparts in backwards BC. So while people in the urban parts of Alberta are concerned or even angry about rapid growth, at least Alberta can easily build more urban infrastructure. That's because Albertal isn't affect by the (unofficial) BC Mind Virus (BCMV).
A timely example is a new bridge between Surrey & NW. Despite Surrey being expected to become the largest city in BC, the new bridge will only open with 4 lanes. No 3rd or 4th lane each way for busses, HOVs and trucks. Thus, all the road traffic at either end is funneled into just 2 lanes each way. Plus, there are no breakdown or emergency lane, just like the old bridge.
While this new bridge can eventually be widened to 6 lanes, there is no provision for a lower deck for LRT, busses and trucks. Despite SW BC being a seaport area, trucks are funneled onto mostly narrow bridges. There has been a lack of interest to build bus bridges next to almost all of the bridges in Greater Vancouver. Yet, there is a Half-A$$ED attempt to have a better regional express bus network. This regional Rapid Bus attempt will always be a joke, unless a series of bus bridges are built. The Half-A$$ED approach is to try to have bus lanes on 4 to 6 lane bridges. Designating 2 bus lanes would reduce the narrow bridges to only 1 or 2 lanes each way for general traffic in what is suppose to be a major seaport and urban area.
Most of the worlds population is non-white and for a big part of the history of BC, there has been a refusal to build up bigtime infrastructure for everyone. While some Albertains might wish that there was a wall built around their province or a force-field like out of Star Trek, BC is almost pretending like there is. Thus, the keep things small and backwards mentality.
Several decades ago, BC implemented a symbolic slow-growth approach. Despite BC not having any control over immigration, or trying to establish an internal passport & checkpoint system, to KEEP PEOPLE OUT, it opted for the next best thing. Stunt or scale back the urban infrastructure to project a strong symbolic reluctance to growth and thinking big.
When you realize how much larger things are allowed to be in Alberta, Washington State and even Western Australia & compare them to watered down BC, you see quite a difference. Despite BC & Canada in general, being multicultural, BCs cities keep finding ways to water the scale of things down. Canada has yet to have even 1% of the world's population, despite its size.
While there are good arguments to occasionally slowdown immigration, that can eventually become problematic, just like too much immigration. Even in the 2020s, some people in the former White colonial parts of the world still wish that Canada & Australia, etc., could be a White Man's paradise. However, that seems so impractical on a planet that mostly has a non white population.
https://humanrights.ca/story/chinese-head-tax-and-chinese-exclusion-act
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-head-tax-in-canada
https://royalalbertamuseum.ca/blog/chinese-head-tax-george-yees-story
https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/blog/chinese-exclusion-act/
https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/exclusion-chinois-chinese
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/asian-heritage-month/important-events.html
https://stanleyparkvan.com/stanley-park-van-monument-komagata-maru.html
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/10/05/vancouver-komagata-maru-memorial
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/01/30/vancouver-komagata-maru-memorial-vandalism/
Even if Alberta were to eventually become its own country, it would be extremely unlikely that it could ever impose a White Man's Paradise Agenda. The same could be stated for backwards BC. However, something very peculiar has been happening in BC for several generations.
Several BC cities and municipalities play off each other with various slow-growth agendas. Vancouver being one of the most restrictive & backwards on the the planet. Somehow the legitimate anti freeway fears of the 1960s & 70s didn't get the city & region to still build a series of bus & HOV bridges. Plus, a long-term, high capacity urban rail system.
While Montreal planned for 152.4 m stations to accomodate 9 car trains, backwards Vancouver only built 80 m Skytrain stations for the first 2 lines. Then to top that, was a plan to build a line to Richmond with only enough level clearance for 50 m stations. The 1st line only started to run 5 car trains in 2025. Eventually, the 2nd line will also have 5 car trains. However, the line to the airport was deliberately designed not to have 5 car trains. Just a Half-A$$ED 2.5 car train, someday. WTH?
For Greater Vancouver to mostly have narrow bridges, one would think the all the stations could ultimately be at least as long as a Montreal Metro train station. Indeed, Greater Vancouver should have built for 10 car trains, but will only have 5 car trains on the 1st two lines & a 2.5 car joke of a train on the 3rd line. As of 2025, the 2nd & 3rd lines are still only running 2 car trains. Such a great way to symbolically show the resistance to eventually link YVR to both of the main BC ferry terminals.
The inadequate 3 lane Lion Bridge still has no bus & HOV tunnels near it. Urban parts of Australia never seemed to have a similar reluctance to build tunnels as does backwards Vancouver. Tunnels for Montreal & Seattle aren't a problem either. At least BC is slated to have a new and improved tunnel by 2030, that's only a couple of generations late.
Oh, if only people would stop moving to BC, especially Vancouver & Victoria. Well, that's not the case, its just that various BC cities want to only build urban infrastructure that is inadequate. Despite the frustrations that some people have in Alberta, at lest wider bridges, longer trains & taller buildings are allowed there. This watering things down in BC approach is symbolically indicative to refuse to properly build for a growing population.
Surrey should have already had at least 1 hospital the size of VGH. At least Surrey like Burnaby, can build up taller in what is still mostly a mountain wilderness province.
BC is a long way from New England & Southern Quebec. The restrictive urban planning measures in Greater Vancouver keep preventing it from becoming a proper big metropolitan area like Greater Boston and Montreal.
Calgary and Edmonton each should have hand an airport+line by now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA) Calgary will have its own version of a Green Line, eventually. https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Calgary+Green+Line
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Friday, October 3, 2025
The outlook of B.C.’s economic action plan for 2026
https://bcbusiness.ca/industries/invest-in-bc/the-outlook-b-c-s-economic-action-plan-for-2025-2026/
BC has so much red tape to resolve that Alberta & Washington State never had or had gotten rid of long ago.
The transportation infrastructure is so lacking.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lions+Gate+Bridge A lingering sad 3 lane joke of a bridge. No interest in at least having a bus, truck and train tunnel near it.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=YVR-Canada-Line A 2 car joke of a train.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Pattullo+Bridge+replacement A modernern 4 lane joke of a bridge with no emergency lanes, let alone no bus and HOV lanes. Of course there is no provision for a lower deck to accommodate trains and trucks.
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Vancouver’s latest international ranking — 36 on a list of 48 cities
The Vancouver Mind Virus keeps hindering the city. The Backwards BC Mentality makes sure that BC remains as a provincial backwater when compared to Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.