World Cup lodging shortfall predicted in Vancouver

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-wants-str-rules-relaxed-for-upcoming-2026-fifa-world-cup-in-vancouver-1.7649128  

The proposed 27-storey hotel tower at the edge of Stanley Park is drawing pushback from West End residents over its scale https://vancouversun.com/news/proposed-west-end-tower-that-aims-to-fill-vancouvers-hotel-shortage Parking lots and almost delapadeted buildings should be selected first. This building still seems to be in reasonable shape. 

https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/vancouver-needs-10k-more-hotel-rooms-says-report-10508458

https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouver-major-hotel-policy-overhaul-room-shortage

https://www.destinationvancouver.com/media/media-releases/BC-hotel-association-provides-recommendations-to-spur-new-hotel-development 

Lots of people in some parts of the West_End end are still accustomed to stumpy buildings, despite the very high land costs. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Vancouver-stanley-park.jpg/960px-Vancouver-stanley-park.jpg Many other cities aren't afraid to build tall close to the water or parks.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Vancouver_west_end.jpg/960px-Vancouver_west_end.jpg People shouldn't be displace just becaus of a new development. An agreement should be reached so that they can still remain in the new structure. However, it's the height issue that usually keeps popping up. A lot of people that still remember Vancouver as a provincial backwater of a city want it to remain that way for as long as possible.

https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/2030-2038-barclay-st , https://stop2030barclay.ca 

https://henriquezpartners.com/projects/2030-barclay The height proposal is at lest a dozen floors too short, it should be about 20 stories taller.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/2030-barclay-street-vancouver-stanley-park-hotel-tower

https://storeys.com/marcon-barclay-street-vancouver-hotel The issue here is that a lot of people don't want a stump replaced with an atempt of a taller building. The people that live there should have the option to live in the new building. If the city and the developer could reach an agreement to allow the current residents to move into the lower floors of the tower. Then remain there at a reasonable rental rate for as long as they want. Then eventually after all the former residents have moved on or passed on, the lower floors could be repurposed into hotel rooms. If a developer in such a situation could agree to that, then the city should allow them to build 15-20 floors higher than 27 stories.

That gets back to the height restriction issue in Vancouver. Other cities have allowed tall buildings right up to the edge of a park. It seems that no one from Vancouver was able to ever stop Sydney. Rather, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) never made it there to thwart big, bustling Sydney.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Sydney_CBD_on_a_sunny_day.jpg/960px-Sydney_CBD_on_a_sunny_day.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Global_Citizen_Festival_Central_Park_New_York_City Anything like the VMV would have thwartted NYC so badly. 

Of course it would have been great if there was future space south of the Hotel+Vancouver (with only 507 rooms) to build a 55-65 story tower. A VPL and Hotel+Vancouver tower could have been started there in the mid 1950s, but Vancouver was still too much of a provincial backwater then. The Fairmont_Royal_York is nice and wide with 1,363 rooms. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_St._Francis "...the St. Francis one of the largest hotels in the city, with more than 1,254 rooms and suites." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_San_Francisco_Union_Square "Renovated in 2017, it is the largest hotel on the West Coast,^[8] with 1,921 rooms."

Fortunately, Sydney, Melbourne, SF and Toronto were never under anything like a Vancouverization agenda. Somehow that backwards mentality was never adopted in most real cities.

https://bcbusiness.ca/industries/real-estate/land-values-how-the-hotel-shortage-in-vancouver-is-coinciding-with-a-boom-in-tourism The BC Mind Virus is so firmly entrenched that its still very difficult to properly upgrade things.

 https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=BC+hotel+shortage

Honolulu’s Skyline Rail Expands to West Honolulu, and to a New Airport Station

 https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/honolulus-skyline-rail-expands-to-west-honolulu-bringing-faster-more-sustainable-public-transit-to-oahu-with-a-new-airport-station 

Even if the widest parts of the H-1 could be 10 or 12 lanes, it would still get plugged up. Nevertheless, being from Vancouver, it's quite impressive to see such a wide H-1 by the airport. If you visit Vancouver from Hawaii, you might think that Vancouver is a big city like Sydney, SF or Seattle. Then you discover that the roads & bridges are much narrower than what's in those cities. The real big surprise is that Vancouver not only has shorter trains than Sydney, SF & Seattle, but even Edmonton. Fortunately, the Skyline to the airport isn't a 2 car joke of a train like Vancouver's airport line is.

https://honolulutransit.org/about/route-map , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu)#Route

https://www.honolulu.gov/dts/skyline

The Airport Segment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu)#Segment_2:_Airport 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelepaua_station If only Vancouver's line to the airport could have opened with 4 car trains, then with Selective_door_operation, eventually 6 car trains. Unfortunatly, backwards Vancouver has been stuck with a 2 car YVR train since 2009, but it has the potential to become a 2.5 car joke of a train, someday.  

Downtown Honolulu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu)#Segment_3:_City_Center 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu)#Ala_Moana_extension 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(Honolulu)#Rolling_stock "The line uses 256 ft (78 m) four-car train sets, each with the capacity to carry nearly 800 passengers..."  "Each car is 64 ft (20 m) long, weighs 72,000 lb (33,000 kg), and has 36 seats with a listed total capacity of 195 people, and sits on standard-gauge (1,435 mm) rails." 

While the Skyline cars are similar in length to the YVR-Canada-Line cars, they are of a heavier construction. Plus, the trains are twice as long as any on the embarrassingly short Canada+Line trains.

While it took a long time to get the Skyline to the airport, at least the stations were all initially built to accommodate 4 car trains. Unfortunatly, the joke that is the SkyTrain-Canada+Line is still only running 2 car trains and wasn't designed to eventually have 5 car trains. Its difficult to understand why the joke-line stations are only designed to accommodate a 2.5 car train, someday.

Honolulu like Brisbane, are very far away from the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) and much warmer. Thus, they are able to have longer trains to the airport, because they can build on a proper big city scale.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane+Airport+Railway+Line 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=the+airport+train

Vancouver's middle-density housing unable to keep up with other Canadian cities

 https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6951497 

It's all part of the Vancouver Mind Virus. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=VMV

The Battle continues over Vancouver Aquatic Centre

 https://globalnews.ca/video/11480236/battle-continues-over-vancouver-aquatic-centre-renovations 

There isn't officially a Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV), but somehow through the decades, the KEEP VANCOUVER SMAL AND BACKWARDS mentality keeps manifesting.

https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/aquatic-centre-25vs50m-officials-misled "This scandal exposes how Vancouver’s development approval processes can be corrupted if staff predetermine outcomes and manufacture justifications rather than conducting evidence-based analysis. If municipal staff can systematically mislead elected representatives on a project this significant—with technical evidence this clear—what other decisions have been corrupted in the past or could be corrupted in the future?"

Why have a modern full-size pool, when there can be a half size, Half-A$$ED pool? That's the VMV resurfacing again.

https://vancouversun.com/news/proposed-vancouver-aquatic-centre-seeks-height-density-relaxations "Swimmers have mounted a court petition over plans to replace the 50-metre Olympic-sized pool with one half that length"

A scaled down Vancouver+Aquatic+Centre is part of the pay more to get less mentality. One of the most obvious ways to perpetuate the BC antigrowth agenda is to go backwards and build smaller infrastructure. Where does the money go if it's not always going towards proper big city size infrastructure?

Half sized buildings, half sized trains, half sized bridges, that's the VMV & BCMV in action. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SHIT-BOX 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Lions+Gate+Bridge An absurd 3 lane bridge without a parallel bus and train tunnel to help relieve this quintessential chokepoint. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Canada+Line A 2 car train that should have started with 5 cars, but can only be expanded into a 2.5 car train, someday. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Richmond-Delta+Tunnel No provision for a train tunnel, because that would make it easier to have a line connecting YVR with the Tsawwassen+ferry+terminal. Just like there is no desire to have a train between YVR and the Horseshoe+Bay+ferry+terminal.

This Vancouver and BC Mind Virus is horrible, because it keeps stunting the potential of BC by watering down the infrastructure.

Rainbow Bridge (Tokyo)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_(Tokyo) Unfortunatly, such double deck bridges just aren't allowed in Vancouver and BC in general.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEjugfrP3wS/?img_index=2 

https://www.kanpai-japan.com/tokyo/rainbow-bridge 

https://www.alamy.com/rainbow-bridge-to-rainbow-town-daiba-tokyo-japan-image921088.html Tokyo has no problems with curves and loops. Unfortunatly, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) and the BC Mind Virus keeps the city and metropolitan region as a warped mess just going round in circles.

https://www.gov-online.go.jp/eng/publicity/book/hlj/html/202403/202403_02_en.html 

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20230828-132566/ 

https://www.tokyobybike.com/2014/08/tokyos-rainbow-bridge-by-bicycle.html 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Pattullo+Bridge+replacement Will open with only 4 lanes, not 6 or 8 and no provision for a lower deck. Another fine example of BC bottleneck planning. There just isn't any interest in correcting most of the chokepoints in Greater Vancouver. A key giveaway is the lack of funding for a regional network of bus-bridges. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Arm_Bridge This should have had 2 tracks for the airport and another 2 tracks for an eventual Vancouver-Richmond & Delta extension to the ferry terminal. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/North_Arm_Bridge_%284378906640%29.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/North_Arm_Bridge_shot_from_SkyTrain_3622.JPG

Vancouver Park Board to consider extended beach hours around summer solstice

 https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/legalize-sunsets-vancouver-park-board-to-consider-extended-beach-hours-around-summer-solstice/ 

Vancouver is such a strange and backwards provincial city.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/no-fun-city-calls-to-extend-hours-at-vancouver-beaches/

For a city that claims that it doesn't have a NO FUN CITY (NFC) vibe, it occasionally keep emerging. 

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/06/25/vancouver-police-english-bay-beach-sweeps-questions/ 

Fortunately, the mind virus that is Vancouver hasn't caught on with most cities around the world.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/people-escorted-off-vancouver-beaches-2024-9130597 

It's one thing if some people living close to the beach don't want to hear drinking parties going on until 2 or 3 AM. However, reasonably behaved people should be able to enjoy summer sunsets from a beach vantage point. Summer goes by too quickly in BC, so the best time to enjoy the beach is during the summer. 

To think that there used to be a Vancouver Sea Festival. Fortunately, Vancouver was unable to get Seattle to give up on its Seafair. https://www.seafair.org/what-is-seafair

Vancouver was never able to waterdown the Calgary_Stampede. https://www.calgarystampede.com 

Vancouver should be making it easier to have summer festivals, not more difficult.

https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouvers-african-descent-festival-shutters-amid-dispute-over-city-imposed-costs 

Hopefully, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) will never be accepted in proper cities around the world.

https://vancouver.ca/news-calendar/unpermitted-african-descent-festival-aug-2025.aspx 

https://vancouversbestplaces.com/events-calendar/festivals-and-events/african-descent-festival  

Fortunately, the Caribana Festival is far away from backwards Vancouver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribana#Economics_and_impact May it never be watered down or cancelled by anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus. The VMV is so horrible, don't let it take over your city.

SF and Sydney...

 https://publish.reddit.com/embed?url=https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/comments/1ntjh3p/san_francisco_usa 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/San_Francisco_Downtown_Aerial%2C_August_2025.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/San_Francisco_skyline_from_Marin_Headlands.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/San_Francisco_and_SFO_Aerial_2018.jpg/960px-San_Francisco_and_SFO_Aerial_2018.jpg , 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Sydney

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Sydney%28from_air%29_V2.jpg   

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Portjackson.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Sydney_02_11_2008.JPG

SF is just as scenic as Sydney. They allow taller buildings, longer trains and wider bridges than backwater Vancouver. Unfortunatly, backwards Vancouver keeps going in the opposite direction, despite more people wanting to move to SW BC. 

The longstanding argument is that since Vancouver is in a scenic setting, every excuse should be used to scale back or water down the urban prescience. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/False_Creek%2C_Vancouver_%282025%29.jpg 

Fortunately, this watered down approach hasn't made it to Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, SF, LA and Seattle. Thus, all of them are able to have taller buildings, longer trains and wider bridges. The Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) or the Backwards Vancouver Mentality (BVM) is an intertwined horrible concept. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Vancouver_Skyline_and_Mountains.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_Mountains Even the San_Gabriel_Mountains are allowed to be taller than the ones near Vancouver.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Los_Angeles_with_Mount_Baldy.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_San_Antonio 10,064 ft (3,068 m)   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lions_(peaks)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Mountain_(North_Shore_Mountains)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Seymour  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unnecessary_Mountain

The $1.3 BILLION Struggle To Build Houston’s Giant New Bridge

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I3sbe2QRUM 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Houston_Ship_Channel_Bridge Its as if somehow a backwater BC bridge got built in Texas. While a bridge with only 2 lanes each way & no emergency lanes seems to fit with the small-scale Vancouver mentality, such a narrow bridge in Houston was almost inadequate right from the start.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Houston_Ship_Channel_Bridge#Future While it doesn't seem to have a provision for rail, it's still on a grand scale like the Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge in Montreal. Especially like the new Tappan_Zee_Bridge near NYC. 

Several cities around the world are able to build nice wide bridges, because they aren't hindered by anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV), or the Backwards BC Mentality (BBCM). 

https://www.traveltexas.com/articles/post/everything-is-bigger-in-texas Being from the BC part of Canada, its difficult to grasp that BIG Texas has more people than Australia, yet still has mostly wide open spaces. The THINK BIG mentality in Texas is the total opposite to the BBCM. 

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/03/11/nyc-big-apple When you live in Vancouver for several decades, its amazing to see what several other cities can do, simply because they aren't hindered by the VMV.

The Old City Hall and The Simpson Tower in Toronto

The Old_City_Hall opened in 1899 at a height of 103.64 m (340.0 ft).  Even in the 21st century, many parts of Downtown Vancouver aren't allowed to have buildings taller than Toronto's Old City Hall.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Torontos_Old_City_Hall_2009.jpg If you are visiting from Toronto or Montreal, Sydney or Melbourne, you might be shocked as to seeing how small and backwards Vancouver is. Various imposed restrictions have cause a multigenerational watering down of what should actually be a properly functioning big city and greater metropolitan region.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Front_of_Old_City_Hall_in_July_2024.jpg Being from backwater Vancouver, its always amazing to see what cities like Toronto, Montreal, Sydney,  Melbourne, Seattle, SF & LA are permitted to do. They and most other cities just don't have anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) to thwart them.

The Post is a stumpy building+complex in Vancouver. Despite the high land costs, strict Vancouver wouldn't permit it to be taller than Toronto's Old City Hall. The Stump, rather The Post, should have been taller than the LA City Hall, the Philadelphia_City_Hall and the Manhattan_Municipal_Building. It should have really been closer in size to that of the Seattle_Municipal_Tower or even the Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building. 

Library Square in Vancouver just like The Post, wasn't allowed to have 25 floors, when they both should have been well over 50 stories.

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/library-square/25126 84.1 m / 276 ft

https://www.da-architects.ca/projects/library-square Strict Vancouver just doesnt allow buildings in that part of the downtown to be taller than The Old City Hall in Toronto.

https://viewpointvancouver.ca/2018/10/05/library-square-best-new-public-space-in-vancouver 

https://montecristomagazine.com/design/secret-garden-top-vancouvers-library-stayed-hidden-20-years#gsc.tab=0 

Unfortunatly, Library Square and The Post are so scaled back or watered down, they would hardly be impressive in most proper big cities around the world. Library Square and The Post should have both been in the 50-60 story range, but don't even have a 25th floor. This was a lost opportunity for Downtown Vancouver to have a proper size big city and government complex.

The Simpson_Tower opened in 1968. It has 33 floors and is 144 m (472 ft) high. It would be equivalent to being the tallest building in BC until 1973. Even in 2025, most office towers in Vancouver aren't allowed to be taller than this 1968 Toronto stump.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Simpson_Tower_2022.jpg 

The Simpson-Tower is only 18 feet taller than the LA+City+Hall.

The Simpson Tower has become just like another Vancouver size stump in Toronto.

It's really astounding that not only did The+Post+in+Vancouver have to be shorter than the Toronto Simpson Tower and the LA+City+Hall, it had to be shorter than the Old City Hall in Toronto. Now that's very small, but it fits in with the small-minded Vancouver mentality. Indeed, Vancouverization is about a backward, rainy city that has a multigenerational restrictive agenda to water everything down. Even the mountains north of Vancouver are shorter than the mountains north of L.A. WTH?   

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+building+complex

A Rapid Transit Line to the North Shore

 https://www.railforthevalley.com/latest-news/zweisystem/a-letter-to-north-shore-mayors 

Fortunately, most real cities around the world aren't affected by anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV). Thus, they are able to have at least one major regional train or commuter line directly extend from their downtown (CBD) and cross a river or inlet... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth)#Railway_bridge:_2005 WA

https://www.wsp.com/en-us/projects/i-90-track-bridge Seattle, WA.

Unfortunatly, a YVR-Canada-Line to Park Royal and the ferry terminal would make too much sense in backwards BC.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=North+Shore-Metrotown+SkyTrain+Line