Saturday, April 11, 2026
Sunday, April 5, 2026
40 years after Expo 86
https://bcanuntoldhistory.knowledge.ca/1980/expo-86
Unlike Brisbane, Vancouver doubled down on its various restrictions. Ideally, any tall building in Vancouver had to be shorter than what Brisbane allows. The bridges kepet narrow and unduplicated than what Brisbane allows. The trains are to be shorter than what Brisbane and most cities allow.
It was almost as if since Vancouver couldn't build a wall around the city to keep people out, a strong level of symbolism was imposed instead. This urban symbolism was all about keeping things small & backwards whenever possible.
Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey have all started the process to allow for taller buildings than what Vancouver permits. That's because they are bound by the same restrictions that Vancouver imposes.
Monday, March 30, 2026
Is Adelaide Is Becoming Australia’s Most Advanced City?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Wol0Q3zDg
Still seems pretty small and quaint today. Nowhere close to the scale of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, but a good rival to Winnipeg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide#Economy Its already set to have many more tall buildings than cold Winnipeg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide#Transport Busses, trams, subways and commuter trains, all can help to provide people with more options than just driving.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramways_in_Adelaide#Mid-century_decline_and_closure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramways_in_Adelaide#Renewal_and_expansion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramways_revival_in_Adelaide#Developments_since_the_2018_election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railways_in_Adelaide#Lines Wow, perhaps backwards Vancouver might have as many lines, someday.
Sunday, March 29, 2026
YVR-Canada Line and REM Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ouk0VifwM&t=42s Even if the YVR-Canada Line had to initially be built as a symbolically small city train, urban transportation infrastructure can be designed in ways that can double or even triple capacity to meet future demand. Unfortunately, its very difficult to build anything in BC with significant future capacity in mind.
Ultimately, the YVR-Canada Line should have had level station clearances to eventually be able to accommodate 10 car trains. Unfortunately, in typical backwards BC planning the stations weren't even designed with enough level clearance to accommodate 5 car trains. The joke that is the Canada Line only has a level station clearance of 50m to eventually accommodate just a 2.5 car train.
Most other cities actually build long stations to accommodate long trains right in the first place. Or, at least allow for enough level clearance so that the stations can eventually be doubled or tripled in length.
The YVR-Canada Line should have started with the Vancouver & Richmond segment, then the Vancouver and Horseshoe+Bay+ferry+terminal segment. Then finally, the YVR to Delta and the Tsawwassen+ferry+terminal.
The SkyTrain Stations in Greater Vancouver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qg78Bmf1fk
Unfortunately, proper big city transportation planning is very difficult to achieve in backwards BC. So much is watered down in Vancouver.
Montreal’s Biggest REM Expansion Yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G1oeIAfxDU&t=106s
The Montreal REM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9O6RzsXIqQ
While the REM was designed to help the Metro, it should have the capability to be gradually expanded. Eventually, REM trains should be lengthened from 4 car trains to 6 and even 8 car trains.
In contrast, every Skytrain line should have been designed with enough level future station clearance to eventually accommodate a train as long as a 152.5 (500 ft.) long Montreal Metro train. The first 2 Skytrain lines have 80m stations and the joke that is the Canada Line only has 50m stations.
While the first 2 lines can accommodate 5 car trains, the C Line wasn't designed to accommodate 5 car trains. Just 2.5 car trains, someday.
Despite there being such a symbolic push for Vancouver to keep having short trains, narrow bridges and stumpy buildings, things are gradually changing in backwards BC. The Vancouver or BC Mind Virus should have been challenged decades ago, but too many loud people wanted to perpetuate the, KEEP THINGS SMALL AND INDEQUATE agenda.
Given how most of the bridges in Greater Vancouver are so narrow, there isn't enough room for proper bus and HOV lanes, or even wide emergency lanes. One would think that at least the trains & stations would have been designed to eventually be doubled or tripled in length. But that would go against the mutigenerational congestive planning agenda. That's why there still is only a 3 lane LGB when there should have been at least a parallel bus, HOV and train tunnel. The Pattullo+Bridge replacement didn't open with 2 bus and 2 HOV lanes, not even wide shoulders or emergency lanes. NW really likes the congestive planning approach. Of course the new tunnel between Richmond and Delta won't have an additional provision for a train tube. This will also help to perpetuate the congestive transportation mandate.
Fortunately, Selective_door_operation technology can eventually allow more sensible transportation planners to enable longer trains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation#International_variations , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdH5d1ZthmM
This means that a 5 car Skytrain (85m) could eventually become a 7 car train, despite the 80m stations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)_rolling_stock#Alstom_Mark_V Thus, an 80m train can become a 117m train.
A two car and 2.5 car (50m) train on the multibillion dollar Canada Line is so absurd and inept! With some slight station modifications, there could be a potential to eventually accommodate three, 20m cars at such short platforms. Then, once 3 car trains could become possible, its just a matter of having an extra 20m car at both ends of each train. A 5 car train of 100m is so much better than a 50m joke of a train.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)#Alstom_Mark_V_fleet
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=SkyTrain-Canada+Line
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
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Last week's malfunction of the Second Narrows (rail) Bridge shows how dependent the Prairie economy is on this transportation chokepoint
https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-users-need-more-say-about-vancouvers-rail-bridges
The Greater Vancouver Region should have had all of its freight rail bridges at least double tracked by now.
https://www.cn.ca/en/stories/20250429-cn-and-port-of-vancouver-collaborating/
There is a subtle KEEP BC SMALL AND BACKWARDS mentality, but sometimes it's right in your face.
https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-vancouvers-port-must-up-its-grain-game
Its as if there is a VMV and the BC Mind Virus. Although no one can actually pinpoint it, the effects of it are quite apparent.
https://financialpost.com/opinion/nutrien-bypass-port-vancouver-underscores-need-change
Despite the size of Canada, it has less than 1% of the world's population.
https://www.portvancouver.com/project/second-narrows-dredging-works
Unfortunatly, by not even keeping up with moderate infrastructure growth demands, Canada keeps falling behind in a world with over 8 billion people.
There should be a way to expand the economy and population, while making things more affordable.
Vancouver keeps holding back the scale of bridges, trains and buildings. This is part of a symbolic mentality and agenda to not think like a proper big city.
Monday, February 23, 2026
Seattle, WA
https://www.reddit.com/r/CityPorn/comments/1rc5hlj/seattle Another scenic city thats allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, BC.
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Sydney's First 300m Towers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUuy94brhLI Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, GC City & Perth, are all allowed to have taller buildings than little stumpy provincial Vancouver, Canada.
How Sydney´s Skyline Will Change by 2030 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzz6aXvTZko Unfortunatly, the AI voice nation wasn't set to an Australian standard.
Why Greater Toronto Has Several Skylines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9WJa9Q8dA
Of course many large urban areas around the world have more than 1 or 2 skylines or tower clusters.
For the longest time, no building in Vancouver or BC, was allowed to be as tall as the 1930s CIBC tower, which is now a stump.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2017/05/toronto-lost-observation-deck-commerce-court-north/
https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building/
https://www.25king.ca/the-history
It wasn't until the early 1970s when stumpy, Vancouver allowed a building to be taller than the L.A. City Hall, or the Smith Tower in Seattle.
The 1930s CIBC tower, the L.A. City Hall and the Smith Tower, would still be prominent towers in Vancouver, but stumps in their own cities.
Despite Vancouver being divided by an inlet and a river, the city wasn't able to build a huge wall along Boundary Road. Thus, the KEEP THEM OUT agenda was a little thwarted. The various White city councils tried to do the next best thing. That was to symbolically impose various restrictions as a reluctance to think, plan and build on a BIG city scale. The time especially from 1960 to 2000 had predominantly White City Hall and its councils continually impose several overlapping restrictions.
Since Vancouver can't control immigration or the movements of non-white people, keeping things small and backwards, means that less people will move there than to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. However, with a mild winter climate, more and more people want to move to backwards BC, especially small-minded Vancouver and provincial Victoria.
In spite of immigration and Multiculturalism, Vancouver was to perpetually promote its small scale agenda.
While the first Skytrain line can finally run 5 car trains, the stations weren't designed to become long enough to eventually accomodate 9 car trains like the big city Montreal Metro has.
The 2nd and 3rd Skytrain lines are still only running 2 car joke trains. Running 8-10 car trains is what a proper big city would do, but not backwards Vancouver.
Narrow bridges provides strong symbolism of the cities narrow-mindedness. When bridges are too narrow, its difficult to have a proper express or rapid bus system. The reluctance to build parallel bus and HOV bridges helps to maintain the congestive planning approach that is vancouver and the Greater Region.
Vancouver's refusal to build parallel bike bridges has meant that 2 lanes were removed from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 lanes from the Granville Bridge.
Keeping buildings symbolically short when compared to what scenic Sydney, Auckland, SF and Seattle allow, also helps to maintain Vancouver's reluctance to enter the big and tall urban scale. In fact, the scenic setting that Vancouver is in has been used as the main excuse to continually scale the city down. Yet, several scenic cities around the world are either able to have wider bridges, wider roads, longer trains or taller buildings.
The world is mostly composed of non-white people. Canada has less than 1% of the world's population and stubborn Vancouver symbolically remains as a small provincial backwater on the Pacific Rim.
https://centralparktower.com.au Unlike Perth, Vancouver forbids 50 story office towers and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne size residential towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_St_Georges_Terrace In fact, no office building in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. However, since Burnaby and Surrey aren't under the restrictive controls of Vancouver, they will eventually allow office towers over 40 stories.
Despite Australia having less people than Canada, Perth is allowed to have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than Vancouver. Taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains are even less likely in Halifax than whats in Brisbane or Queensland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building) To see buildings on a similar scale of what Brisbane allows, one has to get to Greater Toronto. Brisbane is allowed to have some buildings that would even be impressive in Melbourne and Sydney.
While Montreal is allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, Montreal isn't allowed to have Sydney size towers. Especially not on the scale of what Melbourne and Toronto permit.
Friday, January 30, 2026
Tree-inspired office tower concept proposed for revived Waterfront Station project
Singapore, Perth, Sydney, Seattle, SF and Miami are allowed to have tall buildings right near the water, because they are allowed to be big and tall cities.
Vancouver has several restrictions which prevent it from becoming a proper big city.
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Mild Victoria, BC
Victoria has been a provincial backwater for most of its history. Despite being in a mild winter setting, it's so small when compared to Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax.
https://www.onevictoriaplace.ca
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=37&status=15
While Edmonton was eventually allowed to have a tall building, even by Toronto, Calgary and Montreal standards, Victoria was always supposed to have shorter buildings than Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax. That's part of the KEEP THINGS SMALL mentality on V. Island.
Victoria should have had its first LRT line by now, but that might improve urban mobility. Eventually, Victoria and Nanaimo will merge into one linear urban area. Eventually, the Comox_Valley_Regional_District will have over 100,000 people, the Regional_District_of_Nanaimo will have over 200,000 people, the Cowichan_Valley_Regional_District will exceed 100,000 people and the Capital_Regional_District will have over 450,000 people.
Of course there doesn't seem to be any big regional scale planning from Sooke to Courtenay. Perhaps the island's urban planners will wait until there is 800,000 and over a million residents on the island.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Island#Demographics
So, as more people discover that Victoria and Vancouver are the mildest winter cities in Canada, more people just might want to move there. Especially, when Canadian Snowbirds don't feel as comfortable with Florida, Texas & California.
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Does Los Angeles have the Most Confusing Skyline?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ljqamDgwg
Back in the day, the KEEP L.A. SHORT crowd really wanted to make sure that no building in SoCal was as tall as the tallest Egyptian_pyramid. Thus, the Giza_pyramid_complex was taller than anything in LA until the late 1960s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza "Initially standing at 146.6 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History "It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high..." https://calisphere.org/item/cf1903e53170db536690f3f8690925a0 Just a little pyramid on top of a building that is shorter than the tallest pyramid in Egypt.
.jpg/960px-Los_Angeles_City_Hall_(from_the_West).jpg)
.tif/lossy-page1-800px-Pyramids_from_afar_(2).tif.jpg)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif/lossy-page1-800px-Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vintage-photos-los-angeles-1940s-1960s
Of course LA would eventually allow some buildings to be twice as tall as the tallest Egyptian pyramid.
https://www.commercialcafe.com/blog/evolution-downtown-la-visual-timeline/
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=26&status=15
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Transamerica+Pyramid+in+SF
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Westham Island Bridge, B.C....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westham_Island_Bridge So, it would take until the mid 2020s for this wagon road era bridge to be seriously considered for upgrading.
https://deltasheritage.com/buildings/wib.html Whenever a new bridge is built, it should have 2 wide lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks.
https://lifesincrediblejourney.com/explore-historic-westham-island/
https://seabc.ca/rehabilitation-of-westham-island-bridge-and-alexandra-bridge/
The Marpole_Bridge_(1889) was another wagon road era crossing that took a very long time to be upgraded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marpole_Bridge_(1889)#Congestion_and_replacement
The 1970s Arthur_Laing_Bridge (ALB) should have had at least 6 lanes, plus 2 wide shoulders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laing_Bridge#Since_opening There also should have been 2 sidewalks & 2 bike lanes. By now, there should have been a bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it.
Several decades after the removal of the (wagon road) Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894), no replacement has ever been built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Street_Bridge_(1894)#Provincial_government_headache
At the very least, it should have been replaced with a bus+and+bike+bridge in the 1970s.
https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/photos-and-video-was-this-the-unluckiest-bridge-between-richmond-and-vancouver-4475444 However by now, there should have been a new 4 lane bridge with 2 emergency lanes, 2 bike lanes & 2 sidewalks.
https://evelazarus.com/the-fraser-street-swing-span-bridge
The joke that is the Knight_Street_Bridge (KSB) was deliberately designed to be another quintessential BC bottleneck-chokepoint. The bridge should have opened with 6 lanes & 2 wide shoulders or emergency lanes. Pulse, 2 wide sidewalks & 2 bike lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge#Maintenance,_upgrades_and_incidents Instead, the middle of the bridge is just 2 lanes each way, with 2 narrow sidewalks & no bike separate bike lanes. The KSB should have had a parallel bus+and+bike+bridge built next to it decades ago.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Broadway Plan Solar Access Policies
Over the decades, Vancouver planners have ingeniously used shadow restrictions to hold back the scale of the city. Vancouver is cold, dark and depressing for half of the year. Even a 10-20 story stump can cast a shadow. However, when summer does return every year, some people like to have more shade from buildings and trees.
The gentrification of the Downtown Eastside
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/events-before-dec9th-dtes-mass-rezone-public-hearing
I really like tall buildings, but...
The city should be able to use leverage to get developers to not only match, but add more social housing and affordable housing in general.
Saturday, November 29, 2025
2538 Birch Street
https://storeys.com/vancouver-2538-birch-street-broadway-rental-tower-controversy-construction/
https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/2538-birch
Seattle and Calgary have never used shadow restrictions to the extent that Vancouver has. Vancouver has used almost every excuse possible to not permit buildings to be as tall as those in Calgary and Seattle.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/shadow-analysis-2538-birch/
Seattle is a little ways south of Vancouver and Calgary is a good ways NE of Vancouver.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/support-vs-oppose-statistics-2538-birch/
Saturday, November 22, 2025
World’s Tallest Towers Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pmnf8npA8
There was a time when no structure in BC was allowed to be as tall as Blackpool Tower. Then there was a time when no building in Vancouver was allowed to be as tall as the Seattle Space needle or the Calgary Tower. Even in late 2025, only one Vancouver building has been allowed to be taller than the Calgary Tower.
Burnaby, Coquitlam and especially Surrey, don't have such imposed height restrictions as stumpy Vancouver. Thus, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey will all be having taller buildings than Vancouver.
If Montreal can ever have its equivalent of La_Defense or Canary_Wharf, then it might be able to have some tall buildings that would be impressive by Melbourne and Toronto standards. Perhaps even Chicago or NYC standards.
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, November 12, 2025
Cities, the BIG and the small of it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
.jpg/960px-A_look_downtown_(759827996).jpg)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place The BMO. Unlike Chicago, Toronto has no 100 story office towers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentall_Centre_(Vancouver)#Three_Bentall_Centre A 32 story BC office stump.
Being from small Vancouver, its amazing that Canada even has one megacity. Toronto is certainly a big city on a lakeshore like Chicago is. Montreal isn't allowed to have buildings as tall as Melbourne, let alone NYC. Montreal has allowed only one office tower to be over 50 floors and a few residential towers in the 60s.
Calgary has more 50+ story office towers than Denver and Perth. No 40 story office tower exists in BC. The office section of the Harbour_Centre doesn't even have a 30th floor and the revolving restaurant is closer to being like 35 floors up. However, with the overall building being 481 feet, it would be equivalent to 40 floors, if the windows went right up to the top. The flagpole has no windows, but the flag would be like the equivalent of being 48 floors up.
Not just Toronto & Montreal, but Edmonton and Seattle have longer underground train stations than backwards, congested Vancouver.
The Iron+Bridge, Oak+Street+Bridge, Knight+Street+Bridge & the Arthur+Laing+Bridge should all have a bus+and+bike bridge built next to them. The extremely inadequate Lion+Bridge should have already had a bus and train tunnel close to it.
Monday, November 10, 2025
Over half of all Metro Vancouver homes projected to be condos by 2051
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-housing-growth-forecast-condos
For several decades, trains, bridges and buildings had to be half the size of what real cities allow. Vancouver and especially the Greater Vancouver Region couldn't build a huge wall, so the next best thing was to heavily impose a symbolic resistance to build big. Thus, by watering the scale of almost everything down by imposing a series of overlapping restrictions, Vancouver & BC remained stunted.
Then, things started to slowly change going into the 21st century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Wall_Centre Opened in 2001.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Tower 2004
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) 2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver
While restrictive Vancouver started to allow some taller buildings, its still behind what many other cities permit. Especially that of what's in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_One_Yonge Toronto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower Seattle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stantec_Tower Edmonton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky Calgary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_sur_le_Parc Montreal
Since Burnaby, Coquitlam & Surrey aren't under Vancouvers imposed restrictions, they can build taller. Eventually, Vancouver will have to allow taller residential buildings, but its as if there is a strong mind virus determined to hold the scale of everything back.
Lions+Gate+Bridge Still, a 3 lane crossing with no plans for a bus, train & truck tunnel. Australia has no problem building tunnels near bridges.
YVR-Canada-Line Still, a 2 car train of a joke, when several cities will have 6, 8 or 10 car trains.