https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-lions-apple-bowl-stadium-kelowna-temporary-cfl
https://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_c9cec7b2-2091-4b86-9ddf-0196a9d6814f.html
https://theprogress.com/2026/06/11/crews-transforming-kelownas-apple-bowl-for-cfl-games-this-summer/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-day-activities-in-ottawa-cancelled-9.7255350 Despite Vancouver having such cold, crappy summer weather, it was the heat that ruined things in Ottawa.
https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/622726/Kelowna-Canada-Day-fireworks-light-up-Okanagan-Lake Vancouver was unable to get Kelowna to cancel their CD fireworks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJqr-6j3yww This would be an impressive building if it was in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops or Prince George. Even in Lethbridge and Spokane, but not in Calgary or Seattle. That's because they been allowed to be proper big cities.
Its not even 25 stories, just like the Post office complex, but if it had at least 50 floors it would have been quite an impressive office tower for BC.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1jav5f9/burnaby_approves_bc_tel_boot_redevelopment_5/ Acording to this rendering, the main part of the Telus boot stump will still be around. Its only a smaller part of its base that will face demolition.
https://www.jarmanrealestate.com/burnaby-telus-boot-redevelopment/
Burnaby or Surrey will likely have the first office tower in BC that's at least 45 stories in the next few years. Vancouver won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/3696-kingsway-vancouver-telus-rental-housing-tower Across the street, not a 50, only a 25 story residential stump.
Boundary Road should have already had an express bus service and eventually a rapid bus route connecting Burnaby to North Vancouver and Richmond. Unfortunately, Vancouver still doesn't seem interested in having a B.Rd. bridge to NV and Richmond, even if it would improve on regional transportation.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/opinion-the-yiyby-critique-bilsker
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-stack/35667 Only 38 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) Just 37 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center Seattle's tallest has 76 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge 12 lanes consisting of three 4 lane sections.
Mostly short buildings, short trains and narrow bridges are all part of the imposed symbolism to keep Vancouver small and backwards.
While Seattle had its first 50 story office tower in 1969 and Calgary in 1984, stubborn Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor.
A 30-35 story office tower would be impressive if it was in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George. However, what's impressive in backwards Vancouver & backwater BC isn't impressive in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Washington State, Victoria State, NSW, Queensland & WA...
Stumpy buildings, short trains and narrow bridges makes for the Vancouver trifecta of B$ city planning.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+McMurray,+AB 10 lanes. Only the TCH bridge between Surrey and Coquitlam in BC has been allowed to have as many lanes as this. Some people still wish that everything could have remained funneled into just 2 or 3 lanes each way.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Quesnell+Bridge 8 lanes in Edmonton.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge 6 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 10 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 8 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lethbridge,+AB It has 6 lanes. Being from backwards Vancouver, its amazing that this 6 lane bridge wasn't funneled into just 2 lanes each way. That's what happened with the Knight_Street_Bridge.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge As a 5 lane TCH crossing, it only has 1 less lane than the 6 lane Iron Bridge in congested, backwards Vancouver. Since Alberta isn't under anything like the imposed BC restrictions, this crossing will likely be eventually upgraded to have 6 lanes, plus 2 wide emergency lanes & 2 wide shoulders that could provide 4 lanes each way, some day.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A TCH bridge with 9 lanes, because no one from narrow-minded Vancouver was able to get them to narrow this crossing. The TCH Iron Bridge in Vancouver just has 6 lanes. No bus and LRT bridge has ever been built next to it, so far.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A 6 lane crossing.
As of 2026, congested Vancouver only allows 2 bridges to have 6 lanes. A total of 5 lanes were removed from 3 Vancouver bridges. Had Vancouver built a series of proper bus and bike bridges, no lanes would have been removed.
Despite NW trying to be one of the smallest cities in BC, Surrey is set to become the biggest city in BC. Fortunately, small NW & backwards Vancouver can't stop that from happening. However, narrowminded NW was able to force a narrower new bridge to Surrey.
This bridge-replacement is one of the best examples of BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning today.
McBride_Blvd. and Royal_Ave_in_New_Westminster are mostly 4 lane corridors.
King_George_Boulevard and Scott_Road both are at least 4 lanes wide. One might think that the new bridge should have had 10 lanes, or at least 8 lanes, because two 4 lane boulevards, a 4 lane avenue and a 4 lane road, are all funneled into a bridge that opened with only 2 lanes each way. The old bridge that it replaced was also a 4 lane crossing. A congestive approach to transportation planning is the name of the game in backwards B.C.
.jpg/960px-Stalewasem_Bridge_(2026-03).jpg)
The narrowmindedness planning by Greater Vancouver to still have mostly narrow crossings, has made it very difficult to implement a proper regional express bus network, let alone BRT.
The first 2 Skytrain lines only have station lengths that can barely accommodate the new 5 car trains. The YVR Line or the C Line, has stations than can only accommodate a 2.5 car train, some day. Given that the Skytrain network is a multibillion dollar transit system, all of the stations should have been designed to gradually accommodate 8-10 car trains, but that's what a proper big city would do.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/02/expo-86-40-years-later-the-memories-live-on
Four decades later and Greater Vancouver remains so far behind with the scale of its infrastructure.
The LGB bottleneck is indicative of how some people don't want Vancouver to become a properly planned functioning big city.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1mehud6/theres_a_single_car_stopped_in_the_only/
Unfortunately, Vancouver still isn't allowed to function like a real proper big city. For several decades, so many key people, especially urban planners don't want to have a wider structural crossing to at least match what Prince George and Kamloops have. Or, to match what Kelowna has and especially don't want to have what Ft. McMurray has.
Indeed, most proper major cities by now would have had a 6-8 lane tunnel right under the park and close to the LGB. Georgia Street is already 7 lanes wide in the first few blocks closest to the park, so the potential for a 7-8 lane tunnel should be possible.
An 8 lane tunnel would be best in that the 3 & 4 lane counterflow on Georgia could easily feed into an 8 lane tunnel. Then once in the tunnel there world be 3 standard lanes each way, plus a bus lane each way.
A commuter train tunnel or an extension of the YVR-Canada Line should also run close to where the LGB is. Unfortunately, some key people for several decades don't seem to want or understand the benefits of having a train connecting YVR with both of the regional BC-Ferries terminals. That's because it could actually help to relieve transportation congestion. https://www.bcferries.com/current-conditions/TSA-SWB
At least by now, there should have been a 2 lane BRT tunnel and a 2 lane truck tunnel, as well as at least a provision for a 2 track LRT tunnel beside that very narrow bridge.
It's always amazing to see what other cities around the world can do, simply because they aren't trapped within the backwards Vancouver mindset or don't have a backwater BC mentality to thwart them.
https://www.th.gov.bc.ca/atis/lgcws/index.html
This has to be one of the worlds best examples of bottleneck-chokepoint planning around.
https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/skytrain A rail rapid transit connection to both ferry terminals and YVR would be a huge improvement, but it's still not likely in the foreseeable future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D42cmFfmI84
Kelowna has over $1 BILLION in major projects either already underway or recently approved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLv1AN6Hlwg
(service disruption ends after 14 hours) https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-service-disruptions-january-14-2026
For a rapid transit line that opened in 2009, on the surface, it sure wasn't designed to be an efficient high capacity line for the future. It's still just a 2 car joke of a train. Fortunately, most real cities around the world planned for not only 6 car trains, but even 8-10 car trains.
Unfortunatly, Vancouver has been hit very hard with a multigenerational agenda of continually imposed small scale infrastructure. Vancouver has water on 3 sides, as its on a peninsula. Since the powers that be couldn't build a Boundary+Road moat or trench, the next best thing was to symbolically show the reluctance to build proper big city size infrastructure. This stunted approach to things is about symbolically holding the scale of the city back for as long as possible.
Despite backwards Vancouver not being able to apply a castle-moat-and-drawbridge control system, the next best thing was to symbolically keep things smaller than what normal or proper big cities allow.
Here are some of the best examples of holding the size of things back. The 3 lane joke that is the Lions+Gate+Bridge has never had a rapid transit rail tunnel and no express bus tunnel next to it. Especially, no 6 lane highway tunnel. It's a classic BC bottleneck-chokepoint, by design.
From a 3 lane joke of a bridge to a two car Canada+Line joke of a train. It met the symbolic requirement to be shorter than the LRT in Edmonton, the C Train in Calgary and the trains in Seattle and Portland.
The+Post+building+complex could have been Vancouver's first 50 story office tower, it's not even 25 floors. It would be impressive if it were in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops or Prince George. That's the unfortunate thing about Vancouver, so much is done to only be impressive to small cities or towns.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+small+Westin+Bayshore+Hotel+in+Vancouver
Things have been kept so small in Vancouver throughout its history, that any big city stuff might seem overwhelming. There has been an unofficial KEEP THEM OUT mentality, but since the city cant have checkpoints, building things small symbolically demonstrates the perpetual reluctance to not allow a big city in backwater BC.
Since Vancouver can't control Burnaby and can't stop Surrey from eventually becoming the biggest city in BC, they are able to build things on a larger scale than Vancouver.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11602959/london-drugs-closing-woodwards-location-safety-issues/
While Kelowna is gradually fitting into its role as the 3rd largest urban area in BC, Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria need to function more like properly growing metropolitan areas.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11602086/victoria-store-owner-frustrated-911-services-hung-up-on/
Giving up and letting crime take over is foolish. An effective effort needs to go towards dealing with the various urban social issues.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tron-ares-review-9.6933888
Unfortunatly, using special effects is the only way to make Vancouver, BC look like its a proper big city.
No bridge within the small city limits of Vancouver has been allowed to be as big or wide as the biggest in Perth, Seattle, Portland, Edmonton & Glasgow...
The Skytrain stations are shorter than train stations in Perth, Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton...
No office tower in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. Of course, Perth, Seattle, Portland and Calgary have office towers over 40 stories.
https://hollywoodnorthbuzz.com/2025/10/tron-ares-vancouver-as-real-life-grid.html
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-landmarks-tron-ares-trailer
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/new-tron-ares-movie-trailer-features-vancouver-sci-fi-setting-10488343 Vancouver is so smallscale, but awesome? Perhaps when compared to Victoria, Kelowna, Prince George, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, it is.
https://henriquezpartners.com/projects/501-595-w-georgia_388-abbott
For several decades, Vancouver was only allowed to have tall buildings that were impressive by Victoria-Kelowna-Kamloops-Prince+George standards.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1&status=15 V
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 BC
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Can
https://ok.ubc.ca/about/ubco-downtown , https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=147739
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=48&status=15
https://ok.ubc.ca/about/ubco-downtown/why-ubco-downtown/
https://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_2957e4e0-d7f1-11ee-84d4-fb12b9ae9269.html
There should be a UBC tower in or around Vancouver that's at least 65 stories.
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/yvr-worlds-best-airports-accessibility
Unfortunatly, the YVR-Airport_station has one of the shortest & narrowest stations of any major airport.
In true lack of a big vision for BC, the YVR-Airport_station_Platform is so narrow & short that only 1 train at a time can stop on the very short single track station. While such small-scale train infrastructure would be impressive for Victoria, Kelowna, Prince George & Kamloops, it's hardly impressive to Seattle, WA and Perth, WA.
https://www.yvr.ca/en/passengers/transportation/public-transportation
https://thecanadaline.com/station-guides/yvr-airport/
https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/station/yvr-airport/schedule
Being from backwards BC, it's amazing to see how several major airports will have at least a double track airport train station. The Portland_Airport_MAX_station is another one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Airport_station , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAX_Red_Line
Ideally, the+airport+train should be more than a 2 car joke. Even 4 car trains should be able to stop at stations with enough future clearance to accomodate 6 car trains.
https://www.welcomebc.ca/choose-b-c/explore-british-columbia/geography-of-b-c
Yet, somehow if Vancouver was allowed to have real big city tall buildings, the mountains of BC would be blocked out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_British_Columbia
The stumpy building limits are part of the agenda to keep BC small.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/geography-of-british-columbia
The Greater Vancouver region & lower mainland is the only part of backwater BC that has a few million people.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-highest-mountains-in-british-columbia.html
Greater Victoria & Nanaimo are far from having a million people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_British_Columbia#Mountains_and_mountain_ranges
Even Kelowna, Penticton & Vernon are nowhere near half a million residents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_British_Columbia#Western_System
https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Columbia
Switzerland can fit into BC almost 24 times, yet BC doesnt have the population of one CH.
The KEEP IT SMALL, BECAUSE ITS VANCOUVER mentality has held this back for a decade. Despite being a major regional SkyTrain intersection, various people are determined to have stunted buildings that might be impressive by Kelowna or Victoria standards. Ideally, the most vocal people would like the scale to not even rival that of what's in Kamloops & Prince George. These very expressive people are too afraid to allow Brentwood or even Oakridge size towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Company_Tower It has 52-stories, at 749 ft (228.3 m).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Gas_%26_Electric_Building It has 34 stories, at 150 m (490 ft).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Power_and_Light_Building
I wish that the old BC_Electric_Building had at least 44 stories, but it only has 22 floors.
Even today, it would be a big building if it were in Victoria-Prince+George-or-Kamloops.
BC_Hydro never got very tall buildings constructed.
https://karen-magill.blogspot.com/search?q=The+BC+Hydro+building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Hydro#History
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-hydro-rates-increase-2025
https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/province-launches-bc-hydro-review-8253022
Vancouver is stuck in a multigenerational trap of overlapping restrictions, which prevent it from reaching the scale of what Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-SF-Boston-and-Toronto permit. As long as Vancouver can do things that are impressive by Kelowna-Victoria-Prince+George-and-Kamloops standards, that's good enough, apparently.
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.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Kelowna
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=K-V-PG-K
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Kelowna-Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-aquatic-centre-new-50-metre-pool-feasibility-decision
Vancouver needs to build things that aren't just impressive by Prince George, Kamloops and Kelowna standards.
Nevermind Seattle, strict Vancouver, BC will have less tall buildings than Bellevue.
As of 2025, Vancouver, BC only has 2 buildings taller than what's in Bellevue,_Washington. Eventually, Bellevue will have at least 5 building that are at 600 feet, while Vancouver will only still have two buildings over 600 feet.
Nevermind Toronto, Vancouver must have no building that would rival the tallest in Mississauga and Vaughan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Canada#Under_construction
Since BC was never able to build a wall or create a forcefield around it, the next best thing was to continually water everything down as much as possible. Thus, the symbolism to have short trains, mostly narrow bridges & short buildings, is all part of not properly planning for growth.
Singapore and Sydney don't have this problem, as they don't have to contend with anything like Vancouver's type of restrictions.
Toronto is a big city like Chicago. Montreal has restrictions, but not as extreme as Vancouver. Unfortunatly, Montreal has yet to become a big city on the scale of Melbourne, let alone Paris or NYC.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kelowna-bennett-bridge-closure-1.7442622
This is why it's a good idea to have another bridge in the region.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10979322/william-bennett-bridge-closed-police-incident/
