VMV and BCMV

What is the Vancouver Mind Virus and the BC Mind Virus?

Sometimes, it can be a provincial backwater approach to things. Other times, its a total Half-A$$ED attempt towards getting something done in backwards BC.

Its taken the City of Vancouver a very long time to surpass half a million residents. Its amazing that Vancouver finally surpassed having 3 quarters of a million people. 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/cities/canada/vancouver 751,644 

It remains to be seen if Vancouver will ever have more people than Winnipeg. Indeed, Winnipeg, like Edmonton and Calgary don't have something like a Burnaby next to them, or a Surrey & Coquitlam close by. While Vancouver barely makes it into the top 10 biggest cities in Canada, Greater Vancouver is still the 3rd largest urban region in Canada. However, so much of the urban scale and infrastructure is being heled back.

The biggest cities in Canada don't have anything like a VMV to thwart or impeded their scale. Thus, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal & Edmonton all have taller buildings than stunted Vancouver. Edmonton and Montreal, like Seattle and Perth, WA are allowed to have wider bridges. Most major cities around the world have longer trains than what's in provincial Vancouver.

Is there a Canadian Mind Virus (CMV)? Of course not officially. Fortunately, nothing like a CMV ever made it to Australia. Otherwise something absurd like provincial Trade Barriers could have really thwarted things down under.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/interprovincial-trade-barriers-9.7323970 

https://www.mnp.ca/en/insights/directory/what-are-the-barriers-to-interprovincial-trade-in-canada

https://www.canada.ca/en/intergovernmental-affairs/services/internal-trade/federal-investments-internal-trade.html 

Despite Canada being surrounded by water on 3 sides, there is no blue on the national flag. Fortunately, nothing like a CMV ever got Australia, NZ, the UK, France and even the US to remove blue from their flags. 

Of course the flags of England, Switzerland and Japan have no blue in them, but blue is still a very nice color to behold. 

Nothing on the scale of the 10 lane Narrows_Bridge_(Perth) is allowed in Vancouver, Victoria or Kelowna. Certainly, nothing like the Sir_Leo_Hielscher_Bridges exists in Halifax. Even Boston and Montreal don't have a 12 lane crossing like the Gateway_Bridges. 

Despite Australia having fewer people than Canada, its been able to exist on a larger scale in some ways. Its like there is still a plan to have a big country down under.

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

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

Surrey, BC

 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=2&status=15 

https://skyscraperpage.com/b132164/surrey/centre-block 47 office stories? 

As originally proposed, Surrey could have had an office tower that would even be noticeable if it were in Calgary or Seattle.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/10275-city-parkway-surrey-centre-block-office-towers

"Originally, the East Tower was to be 47 storeys while the West Tower was to be 19 storeys.  City staff say the two towers are now planned to be 45 storeys and 17 storeys, although architectural plans indicate the East Tower will be 42 storeys." https://storeys.com/surrey-centre-block-office-tower

If this reduction does happen, Surrey still might be the first city in BC to have an office tower over 40 floors and Burnaby over 45 office stories. Never mind the first 50 story office tower in BC, its difficult enough just to get office floors above 39 storis in BC.

At the very least, Surrey still might have an office tower that might rival the tallest in Bellevue,_Washington. 

Vancouver has heled back the urban scale of BC almost since the beginning. That's because for over a century, practically anything big in BC was in provincial Vancouver. But Vancouver or the VMV, can't stop Surrey, Burnaby and Coquitlam from rivaling some of the things in Vancouver, such as taller buildings.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Bellevue,_Washington#Tallest_completed_buildings

Vancouver, BC

 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=1&status=15 

No 40 story office towers on the horizon within the city limits.

https://skyscraperpage.com/b106925/vancouver/the-stack 

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-stack/35667 162.3 m / 533 ft Floors 38 https://www.skydb.net/building/134386807/the-stack/ 

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/harbour-centre/4144 , https://www.skydb.net/building/357382467/harbour-centre/ 

https://skyscraperpage.com/b63/vancouver/royal-centre

https://www.skydb.net/building/469710364/

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/id/4396  138 m / 453 ft Floors 35 

In accordance with an unofficial provincial backwater mentality or VMV agenda, Vancouver was able to hold back the urban scale of BC for most of its history. However, Vancouver wasn't able to prevent Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam from constructing taller buildings. 

Never mind Calgary and Seattle, strict Vancouver has only permitted 2 buildings to be taller than the 2 tallest in Bellevue,_Washington. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Bellevue,_Washington#Tallest_completed_buildings 

Car drives into McArthurGlen luxury store in Richmond

 https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/car-drives-into-mcarthurglen-luxury-store-in-richmond-12675519 

Buildings in BC can be designed in such a way that makes it very difficult to crash into a structure.

The office stumps of Vancouver, BC

No office tower in Vancouver has eve been permitted to have a 40th floor.

https://skyscraperpage.com/b106925/vancouver/the-stack

https://skyscraperpage.com/b63/vancouver/royal-centre

https://skyscraperpage.com/b5828/vancouver/b5

https://skyscraperpage.com/b66/vancouver/park-place

https://skyscraperpage.com/b64/vancouver/four-bentall-centre

https://skyscraperpage.com/b65/vancouver/the-scotia-tower

https://skyscraperpage.com/b98113/vancouver/the-exchange

https://skyscraperpage.com/b67/vancouver/toronto-dominion-tower-at-pacific-centre

https://skyscraperpage.com/b41476/vancouver/b6

https://skyscraperpage.com/b100729/vancouver/vancouver-centre-2 

https://skyscraperpage.com/b7191/vancouver/200-granville-square

https://skyscraperpage.com/b68/vancouver/three-bentall-centre

https://skyscraperpage.com/b6162/vancouver/320-granville 

https://skyscraperpage.com/b60/vancouver/harbour-centre The office floors don't even get above 28. https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/vancouver/harbour-centre/4144 If the Harbour_Centre office floors had continued right up to the base of the flag-pole, it would be equivalent to 40 stories. However, the revolving_restaurant is more equivalent to 35 floors. With the height to the tip of the antenna as being 177.1 m (581 ft), the flag could be considered to be at the equivalent of 48th floors. But there are no floors in the flag-pole.

Had the flag-pole or antenna not been built, the Harbor Centre would have been slightly shorter than the original height of the tallest Giza_pyramid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza "Initially standing at 146.6 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,700 years." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza#Pyramidion_and_missing_tip

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=117075754&page=1 

Only 2 buildings in restrictive Vancouver have been allowed to be taller than the Cairo_Tower and the Space_Needle. Only 1 building in Vancouver has been allowed to be taller than the Calgary_Tower. 

Vancouver is about implementing short buildings, short trains and narrow bridges. Since the multigenerational power structure can't build a wall around the city to keep people out, the next best thing is to symbolically take a small scale approach to things. Thus, its very difficult for proper BIG city stuff to get built in backwards Vancouver. 

BC is 23 times larger than Switzerland, yet it doesn't even have the population of one CH. 

Despite Canada being the 2nd largest nation in overall area, it has less than half of 1% of the worlds population. Thus, Canada is but a spec of the worlds population. 

Trio of tallest buildings in Vancouver greenlit by city council

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sT_DGhDfKE 

The project should go through as planned. However, the city should have enough leverage to make sure the company to finally follow-through with an earlier agreement to provide low cost housing. 

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/holborn-vancouver-western-canada-tallest-tower-bay-parkade-redevelopment-approved

Concept for Western Canada's tallest tower in Vancouver may need to be shortened to comply with federal aviation requirements

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/holborn-bay-parkade-vancouver-supertall-tower-nav-canada-federal-aviation 

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

In addition to Toronto having much taller buildings than Vancouver, Boston and LV have buildings taller than the current tallest in Vancouver.

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

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

Once again, its like the Vancouver Mind Virus is getting charged up. Whenever a proper big city size project is planned the VMV interferes to stop or at lest water things down. 

You can't have tall buildings in Vancouver, just like you can't have long trains or proper big city bridges. 

Smith Tower in Seattle, WA (1914)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Tower "Completed in 1914, the 38-story, 462 ft (141 m) tower was among the tallest skyscrapers outside New York City at the time of its completion." 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/L_C_Smith_Building%2C_Seattle%2C_1914

It would take almost 6 decades until stubborn Vancouver finally permitted a building to be of a similar height.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) "The skyscraper stands at just under 145m tall and 37 storeys. Royal Centre was the tallest building in Vancouver upon completion in 1973..." 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Royal_Centre_Vancouver.jpg/500px-Royal_Centre_Vancouver.jp 

Fortunately, Seattle+and+Perth never adopted anything like the VMV approach to things. Thus, they are able to have longer airport trains, wider bridges and significantly taller buildings.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LC+Smith+Tower+in+Seattle

How the Seattle to Vancouver area could become a megaregion

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POcg0oFvVf8 

The larger Portland, Seattle and the Vancouver, BC (V-BC) region has a lot of growth potential. However, Seattle size buildings haven't been allowed in Portland and in Vancouver, BC. Nothing like a 12 lane Ship Canal Bridge has been allowed in Portland and Vancouver. While Oregon and backwater BC haven't been able to thwart the largest city in Washington State, Seattle might eventually become more of a magnet in pulling more people into the area between Portland and V-BC. 

Right now, Vancouver, WA (V-WA) still has a wider bridge than V-BC. Most of the V-BC bridges are so damn narrow that its not possible to have an efficient regional express bus network. As long as there is a refusal to build proper BRT bridges as part of a regional system, it remains a sad joke. 

The Skytrain (LRT) was built with shorter stations than what the underground stations in Seattle and Edmonton are at. Whenever possible, the Skytrain stations are shorter than the C Train stations in Calgary, DART stations in Dallas and even the Max in Portland. 

The biggest mistake of the Skytrain was to not build all of the stations with a future level clearance to eventually have Montreal Metro size stations of 500 feet or 152.5 m. Instead, the first 2 lines only have 80 m stations and the line to YVR (The Canada embarrassment Line) is only 50 m. Backwater BC logic is that a 5 car Skytrain could run twice as frequent as a 9 car Montreal Metro train. Someday, a 2.5 car YVR-Canada Line train could also run much more frequently than a 9 car Montreal Metro train. 

There is just one key problem with that type of BC logic. While initially constructing short stations and having short trains can save money, its not proper BIG city size infrastructure. In the long run, it costs more to try to lengthen stations for longer BIG city type trains. 

Concord Metrotown Is Nearly Topped Out in Burnaby, BC, Canada

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcQqiPa-Qa0 Unlike most of the buildings in Vancouver, this one in Burnaby would actually be one of the taller buildings in Calgary and Seattle.

https://skyscraperpage.com/b114729/burnaby/grand-tower-at-sky-park 230 m or 755 feet. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Park_(Burnaby) 

All possible, because its not under the extreme controls and restrictions that Vancouver imposes. 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=31 BC https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=31&status=15 BC https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1 Can https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15

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.

Honolulu and San Diego...

Honolulu is very reluctant to allow buildings to go much higher than 450 feet. SD can't go higher than 500 feet, because of the airport being so close. However, that's not the case in Boston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu#Economy

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=421 

Will Honolulu ever have some Miami or Singapore size buildings? That remains to be seen. For now, Honolulu like San_Diego will remain free of 50 story hotels and condos and 40 story office towers. 

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

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=120 

If SD can ever relocate its airport, then it can have much taller buildings. Once Edmonton closed an airport that was too close to its downtown, the city eventually had the tallest building in Western Canada. 

Honolulu got a nice airport train station long before SD.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/09/05/will-san-diegos-airport-ever-get-a-light-rail-connection/

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. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Vancouver_panorama_%2849988799796%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/3840px-Vancouver_panorama_%2849988799796%29_%28cropped%29.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. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/LA_Skyline_Mountains2.jpg/1280px-LA_Skyline_Mountains2.jpg While the L.A. City Hall looks like a stump there, in Vancouver it would still be one of the prominent buildings.

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. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Vancouver_sunset_%28J%29.jpg/3840px-Vancouver_sunset_%28J%29.jpg 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Los_Angeles_with_Mount_Baldy.jpg/3840px-Los_Angeles_with_Mount_Baldy.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.

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.

A weekend washout for the GTA

 https://www.cp24.com/video/2026/05/23/a-weekend-washout-for-the-gta-its-going-to-be-an-all-day-affair-climatologist-on-weather-update/ 

No matter how much rain in TO, there is always more of it in Vancouver. It shouldn't be fall in May. However, when Toronto finally gets summer, its summer for more than just a few months. Unfortunately, summer in Vancouver always seems so short, just like its short trains and short buildings. Even shorter-swimming-pools. One hopes that from June 1st to September 1st, Vancouver will have constant 25-30C days. Unfortunately, the dam rain sometimes kicks in to reduce the number of sunny summer days. Then by 2nd week of September, summer is fading & you're lucky to have spring like days. 

The Broadway Subway-Mount Pleasant to Broadway City Hall

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z64SisMwIuY 

Another illogical lane reduction project. Broadway was for the most part, always 6 lanes, 7, if you count the turning lane at major intersections. The train isn't a 24 hour service, so its important to always have 1 bus lane each way, especially if the train is shut down for an occasional emergency. Then there still should be 2 general lanes each way, because this isn't supposed to be a small town street or avenue. 

This, combined with so many 4 lane bridges, ensures that BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning remains firmly entrenched. 

A 5 car Vancouver train is expected to do the job of a 9 car Montreal Metro train. That's because a short Vancouver train can run a little more frequently than a 9 car Montreal Metro train, during even the most busy times of the day. Of course many proper cities have long big-city trains, because they aren't under anything like small thinking Vancouver, or a backwater BC mentality.

The standard short trains, narrow bridges & narrow streets and short buildings, are all part of holding the scale of Vancouver back. Apparently, if you can't build a wall around Vancouver, the next best thing is to continually plan and build symbolically for a provincial backwater of a city. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Selective+Door+Operation

Concord | Metrotown in Burnaby

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbFE98Esk9k 

Burnaby isn't under the strict restrictions of Vancouver, so its able to have taller buildings and even a freeway.

Sydney's SEVERED Skyline vs. the stumps of Vancouver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpEoJia-4ns  Fortunately, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth don't have similar restrictions as Sydney. However, NSW still has less imposed restrictions and impediments as backwater BC.

Backwards+Vancouver B$ logic should never make it to Sydney, or any other properly functioning city. Fortunately overall, NSW never was overtaken by anything like the BC Mind Virus (BCMV). Otherwise, Sydney would also have narrow bridges, short trains and mostly short buildings. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_Martin_Place Over 60 levels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Tower Not even 40 levels.

Vancouver still won't allow any office tower to have 40 floors, let alone 50 or 60.

The urban trifecta of backwards Vancouver

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trifecta 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifecta#History 

Ideally, for some small thinking cities, the plan is to symbolically have mostly short buildings and short trains and mostly narrow bridges.

That seems to have been the goal of Vancouver over the past several decades. In contrast, Brisbane after its Expo 88, was able to really go into big city planning mode, because it doesn't have anything like the excessive Vancouver restrictions holding it back. 

1 The+Typical+Vancouver+Size+Stump+Building No office tower has been permitted to have a 40th floor. https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Stumpy+Post+building+in+Vancouver Never-mind 40 or 50 stories, it wasn't even allowed to have 25 floors.

2 YVR-Canada+Line A 2 car joke of a train. 

3 Lions+Gate+Bridge A 3 lane joke of a bridge.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=backwards+Vancouver

Free entry to Vancouver Lookout observation deck for City of Vancouver exhibit on considering higher buildings

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-lookout-city-higher-buildings-policy-review-exhibit 

The Perfect Mass Transit Model is in Montreal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoZVzd9djQ