Saturday, July 11, 2026
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Are People Moving To Seattle For The Weather?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvEwubAId_g
While Seattle doesn't quite get as much rain as Vancouver, BC, you still have to endure half a year of cold, damp & dreary weather. At least there usually isn't that much snow to shovel in the middle of winter.
Perhaps some people are getting fed up with 100F summers in other places.
While L.A. can easily have some 100F summer days, that's hardly the case in S.F. Indeed, SF doesn't get as hot as LA in the summer or as cold as Seattle in the winter. Honolulu just might have the best overall weather, not quite as hot during the summers in Miami and LA.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
The 15-30 minute city concept
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15-minute_city
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198222000641
Ideally, if most things are within 15 minutes, that's great.
https://unfccc.int/news/the-15-minute-city
Even in the case of urban sprawl, a lot of things can be built within 15-30 minute town centers.
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2024/10/15-minute-cities-canada
No matter how big a city or urban region is, 15-30 minute town centers can be built, but it can require a lot of work.
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/07/117975-could-la-be-15-minute-city
However, sometimes people still have to get across town for various reasons.
https://medium.com/sybarite/escape-to-a-15-minute-city-ce3707baf145 While its not impossible, to even establish 30 minute urban focal points in Greater L.A. can be challenging. If a person living in L.A. is within 15 minutes of walking or biking, or a bus or train trip from the stores and other services, that's great. However, a lot of people are still a 30-60 minute drive away from work & other places to get to. Thus, a 1 hour+ city is still unavoidable in some cases.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Urbanism/comments/1gtlylo/what_city_is_californias_best_option_for_a/
Friday, June 26, 2026
CN Tower celebrates 50 years of being a skyline icon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujWLEBhbdt8
If it were possible today, the KEEP VANCOUVER SMALL AND BACKWARDS people would still not permit any building to be a 3rd of the height of the CN_Tower. (CNT) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#Height_comparisons
The Harbour_Centre opened just over a year after the CNT, and is just under a 3rd of its height. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Centre#Height
Unfortunately, The Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) was able to ensure that the Canada_Line Stations aren't even quite a 3rd of the length of the 152.5 m Montreal Metro stations.
Even the North-Shore mountains aren't allowed to be as tall as the mountains north of L.A.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_(Greater_Vancouver)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/LA_San_Gabriel_Mountains.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel_Mountains#Gallery
Whether you are from Toronto or Chicago, LA or SF, Melbourne or Sydney, you might be shocked as to seeing how scaled down or watered down Vancouver is. Yet, the City of Paris, despite having a slightly smaller land area than Vancouver, can fit so much more inside. Boston and SF are only slightly larger in area than the City of Vancouver, yet they can also fit in so much more.
Is LA's Airport Train Actually Useful?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-9O8UYX3FQ
Ideally, an airport line can run from the city to the airport station. Sometimes, the airport station is just a stop on a larger line.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
How To Get from Vancouver (YVR) Airport to Vancouver City Center - Downtown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VPFqSyi1Z4
The Canada_Line could also be called Line 3 or the C-Line, but it isn't for some reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YVR-Airport_station
Its not just an airport line, but a line between Vancouver and Richmond.
L.A. has the C_Line_(Los_Angeles_Metro) to the LAX/Metro_Transit_Center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinki_Sharyo_P3010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyLink_(Los_Angeles_International_Airport)
Calgary has the CTrain , witch will eventually reach the airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTrain#Spur_line_to_Calgary_International_Airport
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Sunday, May 31, 2026
City's chief planner emphasizes creating a 'Vancouver approach' to taller towers
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-higher-buildings-review-taller-towers
Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton all have taller and wider downtowns, where as most of downtown Vancouver is confined to a small peninsula. Yet, Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton already each have a taller residential tower than what restrictive Vancouver allows.
So far, only three buildings have been permitted to be higher than the flag at the top of the 581 ft. Harbour_Centre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver
As of 2026, no residential tower within Vancouver has 65 stories and no office tower has been permitted to have a 40th floor.
Backwater BC is 75% mountainous, yet there has been such a cultivated fear that somehow provincial Vancouver could block out most of the mountains by allowing significantly taller towers.
Whenever retuning from Los_Angeles to Vancouver, you quickly realize that even the mountains just north of Vancouver are shorter than the ones in L.A. Its as if even the Vancouver mountains are under height restrictions.
Vancouver 450 ft and Fahrenheit 451
Was a 450 foot height restriction just by chance, or was it intentionally made to be very close to 451 Fahrenheit? Despite being around the same size as Paris, Boston & SF, Vancouver remains as a very restrictive city.
Any tall building in SL City is under 450 feet. Honolulu is still stuck around the 450 foot maximum, while San Diego is stuck at 500 feet. Even Rio DeGennaro still has shorter buildings than Vancouver, BC. Washington, DC has strict height limitations like Paris. However, W,DC could eventually set up their own equivalent of La_Defense. Its a fine example of allowing tall buildings just beyond the city limits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 (1953) By the 1950s, so many things were already banned, watered down or scaled back in provincial backwater Vancouver. Generations later, there was the No Fun City mind virus that further tried to cancel out things in such a small city with so much red tape and other ridiculous obstacles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451_(1966_film) By the mid and late1960s, the city made sure that its first office tower to have more than 29 floors wouldn't be until the 1970s. Its highly doubtful that Vancouver will have an office tower at, or over 40 stories by 2030. However, Burnaby and Surrey could, because they aren't under the extreme restrictions of the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV).
It wasn't until 1973 when Vancouver allowed its first building to be taller than the Los_Angeles_City_Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall
The Scotia_Tower (stump) is a good reference point to visualize the small scale of backwater Vancouver, as its about the same height as the Los_Angeles_City_Hall at 453'.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/scotia-tower/4396 453'
https://skyscraperpage.com/b65/vancouver/the-scotia-tower 452'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Wall_Centre It opened in 2001 at 157.8 m (518 ft). Its 49 feet shorter than the Philadelphia_City_Hall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_City_Hall Opened in 1901 at 548 ft (167 m).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451_(2018_film) By 2018 it was quite apparent that Vancouver was in the process of allowing for more buildings over 450 feet. However, nothing has been permitted to reach 700 feet, so far. A tower over 1000 feet would help to water down its provincial mindset.
_(cropped).jpg/3840px-Vancouver_panorama_(49988799796)_(cropped).jpg)
SF, Sydney & Auckland are just as scenic as Vancouver & warmer throughout the year. They all have taller building than what Vancouver currently permits. Seattle is just as scenic as Vancouver, but its allowed to function like a proper big city, because it doesn't have the imposed restrictions like Vancouver has. While its cold, damp & depressing like Vancouver during the fall & winter, Seattle usually gets noticeably hotter summers than Vancouver, BC. The tallest building in Seattle is the 76 story B of A office tower.
Everything is so small or scaled back in Vancouver. Even the Greater Vancouver mountains aren't allowed to be as tall as the ones in L.A. While the San_Francisco_Bay & Port_Phillip Bay by Melbourne are big next to their cities, English_Bay in_Vancouver is so much smaller. Its even smaller than Elliott_Bay by Seattle.
Vancouver really needs to have bus and HOV bridges built next to its mostly narrow & congested bridges. Only a 5 car Skytrain is the max on the first 2 lines and ultimately, just a 2.5 car joke of a train on the YVR-Canada Line.
Selective+Door+Operation can allow a short train to have an extra car at each end, despite a shorter platform.
.jpg/3840px-Vancouver_sunset_(J).jpg)
Australia like the USA, has some big & tall cities on the Pacific Rim. However, Vancouver symbolically kept watering down its size, because that's how you demonstrate a reluctance towards proper urban planning & growth.
Oddly enough, the imposed small scale Vancouver mentality & agenda wasn't adopted by most cities around the world. Officially, there is no Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV), but somehow something like it keeps manifesting, just like the BCMV.
Despite its size, Canada has less than 1% of the worlds population. Its been difficult enough just for Canada to even have half of 1% of the worlds population.
One expects Melbourne and Sydney to be proper big cities. However, Australia has big stuff at both ends of the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Leo_Hielscher_Bridges#Design Its a 12 lane crossing in Brisbane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth) 10 lanes with 2 commuter train tracks in the middle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Skytower It has 90 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building) Almost has 80 floors.
Perth Central_Park_(skyscraper) at 51 floors and 108_St_Georges_Terrace at 50. Very restrictive Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor. Calgary and Seattle each have a few over 50 stories.
So far, provincial Halifax hasn't been allowed to be on a similar scale as Boston and Montreal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_L._Macdonald_Bridge 3 lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Murray_MacKay_Bridge 4 lanes.
The scale of Vancouver is kept below that of Calgary & Seattle or even Auckland, in some ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge A classic 3 lane BC bottleneck-chokepoint. No parallel bus and truck tunnels and especially, no LRT tunnel.
Provincial backwater Victoria isn't allowed to be on a similar scale of Wellington, NZ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Street_Bridge Another BC 3 lane wonder.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Senakw's first completed tower
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/senakw-rental-housing-rents-rates-first-tower-completion-photos
These towers should have been taller, because they aren't supposed to be under Vancouver's very restrictive height limitations.
So far, no residential tower in Vancouver has been permitted to be as tall as the 222.3 m (729 ft) Telus_Sky Tower in Calgary, or the 250.9 m (823 ft) Stantec_Tower in Edmonton. Then especially, the 850-foot (260 m) Rainier_Square_Tower in Seattle. The former Living_Shangri-La (Park Hyatt) is the tallest within Vancouver's city limits at 200.86 m (659 ft).
Vancouver has yet to ever permit an office tower to have a 40th floor.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Thursday, May 7, 2026
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Saturday, May 2, 2026
U.S. Bank Tower in L.A.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Bank_Tower_(Los_Angeles)
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1t25cdo/us_bank_tower_la
There was a time when no building in Vancouver was allowed to be as tall as the LA City Hall, or the old CIBC in Toronto, or the LC+Smith+Tower+in+Seattle. Today, those are all stumps when compared to the much taller towers.
Thursday, March 26, 2026
K Line (Los Angeles Metro)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Line_(Los_Angeles_Metro)
https://la.urbanize.city/post/metro-seeks-state-funds-extend-green-line-platforms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Line_(Los_Angeles_Metro)#Rolling_stock
| Car length | 89 ft (27.13 m) |
|---|---|
| Width | 8 ft 83⁄4 in (2.66 m) |
| Height | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinki_Sharyo_P3010
.jpg/960px-LA_Metro_Rail_Expo_Line_Kinki_Sharyo_P3010_17th_St_Santa_Monica_College_Station_(48943282587).jpg)
https://www.metro.net/projects/kline-northern-extension Just like in SD, Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton, their LRT trains are longer than the ones on the first 2 Skytrain lines. Especially, the embarrassing Canada Line.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-24/this-rail-line-would-get-you-to-grove-beverly-center-cedars-sinai-is-it-l-a-s-missing-link In backwards BC its like it takes 2 or 3 people to turn a lightbulb than someone in Quebec. An 80m Skytrain on the first 2 lines would have to be about twice as frequent as a 152.5m Montreal Metro train to match capacity. The ridicules 50m maximum allowance for Canada Line trains would have to run 3 times as frequently as a Montreal Metro train.
https://la.streetsblog.org/2026/03/18/metro-committee-again-sides-with-nimbys-postpones-key-north-k-line-rail-decision Unfortunatly, the Vancouver Mind Virus is all about holding back the scale of the city. Thus, anytime that a bridge or street can be narrower, a building kept shorter and especially a train kept short, is all part of the imposed symbolism of refusing to build on a BIG city scale.
Sunny L.A. has been thinking, planning and building like a BIG city for over a century. In contrast, rainy Vancouver has been refusing to think on a big city scale throughout its history. For several decades, all White city counsels kept imposing various restrictions to keep Vancouver on a small scale.
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Why the Widest Freeway on Earth still Made Traffic Worse in Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMwKgT4ZUvQ It is utterly foolish to not have enough space for a commuter train to run above, or in the middle or underneath the widest highways.
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/houstons-15-year-growth-three-charts Simply building wide roads like in Houston, L.A. and Toronto is just as bad as having mostly narrow bridges in Greater Vancouver.
Whether its 10 lanes or 20 lanes wide, there should always be 2 dedicated bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. While the highway will get clogged up during the day, at least the buses and trains can still get through quickly.
The Pattullo+Bridge+replacement is only 2 lanes each way with narrow shoulders. It should have opened with enough space for 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes, but that would go against the congestive urban planning mentality of BC.
The Samuel-De+Champlain+Bridge in Montreal is just as good as similar wide highway and train bridges in Seattle+and+Perth. All were possible, simply because they aren't limited by anything like the Vancouver and BC Mind Virus.
The narrow-minded Vancouver and BC approach is to try to funnel everything into just 2 or 3 lanes each way. Then there just isn't enough space to have 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. Greater Vancouver has certainly gone in the extreme opposite direction of Houston, L.A. and Toronto...
A wide Greater Houston highway has lots of space, but without 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes, everything gets plugged up. In contrast, Greater Vancouver has most of its bridges and highways so damn narrow, there isn't enough space to accomodate a proper express bus and HOV network.
This deliberate backwards BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning approach is totally absurd.
There is no commuter train tunnel near the Lions+Gate+Bridge or even for the Massey+Tunnel+replacement. Thus, they are the best examples of BC choke-point urban planning. Despite having twice the lanes as the inept 3 lane LGB, the newer Iron+Bridge never had any emergency lanes. A bus and HOV bridge was never built next to it. Plus, no commuter train bridge. It's another fine example of BC choke-point, bottleneck planning.
A north and south Boundary+Road bridge system would provide direct access between the North+Shore, Richmond+and+Delta, but that's what a proper big city would do. Backwards BC has quite a problem with thinking and building big. The 2 car Canada+Line is another example. Don't build it to at least have a 5 car train, just design it to only have 2.5 car trains, someday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Houston#Transportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_610_(Texas)#Lane_configurations There is a point when simply adding more lanes won't provide long-term improvement. However, when combined with dedicated bus and HOV lanes, other options become available. Especially, if there is rail rapid transit and commuter rail as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/METRORail While not as extentise as DART_rail, it still works like a tram-train.
Of course longer streetcars or tram-trains are still slow on the actual surface street segments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Melbourne#System_upgrades
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
San Francisco just approved a 67-story, 820-foot residential tower at 10 South Van Ness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-oBDIsEHSQ
SF is finally allowing a building within a few blocks of City Hall to be much taller than the LA City Hall.