https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/paul-myers-tower-lions-gate-hospital-north-vancouver
In some cases, BC isn't just decades behind on infrastructure upgrades, but generations.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
New acute care building at North Shore hospital opens
Monday, March 10, 2025
The Precarious state of Hudson's Bay made clear in creditor protection
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hudsons-bay-canada-creditor-protection
https://vancouversun.com/news/the-bay-vancouver-struggles
https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca Looks like an interesting building, but it's a 3rd of the height that it should be.
https://vancouver.thebaybuilding.ca/about/
Not 60 floors or 50, not even 25 stories.
https://www.urbanyvr.com/hudsons-bay-vancouver-redevelopment/
Just another bulky stumpy building+complex, like The+Post.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hudsons-bay-vancouver-redevelopment-proposal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Building_(Vancouver)
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Bay+Building+in+Vancouver
Columbia Center in Seattle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center , https://columbiacenterseattle.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center#Design
https://columbiacenterseattle.com/gallery/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Columbia_Center_in_Seattle.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Seattle
Calgary vs. Denver and Dallas
The scale Calgary is impressive, but Alberta just doesn't have the same imposed restrictions as backwater BC.
Denver is a big city & metropolitan area in its own right, but somehow Calgary has more 50 story office towers than Denver. Dallas has more tall buildings than Calgary and Denver, combined.
Dallas is a landlocked_city like Calgary and Denver.
The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in Seattle, WA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge
The new Evergreen+Point+Floating+Bridge is certainly an improvement over the old bridge.
https://seattletransitblog.com/2008/02/25/eight-lane-520
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/eight-lanes-for-the-520-bridge The 520 Bridge should have been designed to eventually have 8 lanes. Then in addition to having 2 general lanes each way, there not only could have been the 2 HOV lanes, but also 2 bus lanes.
At this point of the bridge is a remnant of what could have been an 8 lane section. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Evergreen+Point+Floating+Bridge
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Evergreen+Point+Floating+Bridge
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Vancouver, BC makes list of world's worst cities for traffic
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-worlds-worst-cities-traffic
After several decades of Vancouver & the metropolitan region trying to keep most of the roads & bridges as narrow as possible, the ineptness of such an agenda is really showing. While there was a legitimate concern for the region potentially being overrun with various freeways & expressways between the 1950s & 1970s, a few key things were ignored.
https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/vancouver-traffic/
A network of bus bridges was never implemented. There wasn't a proper regional HOV system either. Instead of proper long-range, high-capacity rapid transit planning, the first 2 SkyTrain lines have stations that are barely more than half the length of the 152.5m Montreal Metro stations. The shortsighted Canada embasesment Line was only designed to have 50m stations.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/02/22/vancouver-traffic-worst-north-america/
Such inept urban planning is a Vancouver, a regional & a BC problem. Fortunately, most major cities around the world aren't interested in following the backwards BC example. Where did all the money go over the coarse of several generations, because what was built is just a bunch of half-size infrastructure?
Friday, March 7, 2025
Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-SF-Boston-Toronto (B-S-M-SF-B-T)
Auckland, NZ, along with Perth, WA and Seattle, WA have no problems with taller buildings and wider bridges than what Vancouver allows. Established cities like London & Paris, NYC & Chicago, big L.A. and even smaller Singapore, all seem to plan, spend & build more infrastructure than backwards Vancouver does.
Cities like Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-SF-Boston-and-Toronto are all on a much larger scale, simply because they don't have anything like the overlapping restrictions that backwards Vancouver & BC has imposed for itself.
https://x.com/CityHallWchVAN/status/1517347123225718785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Acityhallwchvan%7Ctwcon%5Es1 What seems big in little Vancouver is small or just average in many other cities.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane+Airport+Railway+Line
First new generation SkyTrain begins testing on Expo and Millennium lines
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/mark-v-skytrain-testing-expo-millennium
While the stations on the Expo and Millennium lines can accommodate the new 5 car trains, as of March, it's still just 2-4 car trains. Since 2010, the Canada embarrassment Line is still only running a 2 car joke of a train. Those stations weren't even designed to accommodate a 5 car train, just a 2.5 car joke after spending billions to build it. This is another fine example of not building proper big city infrastructure for significant higher capacity.
Fortunately, most real cities can run 6, 8 or 10 car trains. All of the SkyTrain stations should have already been roughed out to accommodate 8-10 car trains. Then it would have been so much easier and less costly to complete long stations.
Jericho Lands project
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/jericho-lands-official-development-plan-vancouver
https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/jericho-lands , https://www.inspirejericho.ca/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jericho-lands-development-vancouver-bc-1.7360726
https://www.urbanstrategies.com/project/jericho/
https://www.jarmanrealestate.com/jericho-lands-development-proposal/
People have gotten so used to Vancouver being a backwater in a vast country which doesn't even have 1% of the world's population.
There is quite a reluctance for small-minded Vancouver to not allow what's big by Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto & SF standards.
https://x.com/CityHallWchVAN/status/1517347123225718785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Acityhallwchvan%7Ctwcon%5Es1 There are only a handful of cities in BC where an attempt of tall buildings can happen. That's because most of BC is a mountainous wilderness, or simply just wilderness.
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/lights-out-at-vancouver-house Some people might be jelouse that others might have 2 or 3 homes, just like having 2 or 3 motorized vehicles. Should people in BC be limited to only have 1 home & 1 moto-vehicle? The next step would be to impose an AI run point system to discourage people from having no more than 1 or 2 kids.
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3923923?v=pdf
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto-SF
Thursday, March 6, 2025
The Bentall Centre complex vs...
https://www.bentallcentre.com/burrard-exchange , https://www.bentallcentre.com
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bentall-centre-vancouver-buy-bc-initiative-free-retail-space
The shortest buildings at Bentall_Centre aren't even 25 floors.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Bentall_Centre_2018.jpg
The 3 tallest buildings at Bentall_Centre were not only forbidden to have a 50th floor, they don't even have 40 floors. Indeed, given Vancouver's strict height limitations, it was tough enough just to be permitted to have 35 floors.
Bow_Valley_Square in Calgary was permitted to build a little taller than the Bentall Centre complex.
.jpg)
Of course one of the stump buildings in the Toronto complex is still a little taller than its stump counterpart in Vancouver.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/EmbarcaderoCenterHighlight.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#Technical_details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarcadero_Center SF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center Houston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Center#Three_Allen_Center
Vancouver developer and philanthropist Peter Wall dies at 87
Born in Ukraine, he immigrated to Canada in 1948 and became one of Vancouver's biggest developers https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouver-developer-peter-wall-obituary
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/peter-wall-vancouver-developer-dies-1.7476721
https://storeys.com/peter-wall-financial-vancouver-obituary/
https://president.ubc.ca/communications/2025/03/06/ubc-tribute-to-peter-wall/
Future of London Drugs at Woodward's uncertain due to crime area
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/london-drugs-woodwards-vancouver-crime-theft-shoplifting
The old Woodward's_Building used to be in the old part of downtown. Then by the time of its redevelopment, the area was starting to decline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward's_Building#Redevelopment
Without an adequate amount of police patrols & security, a business area can easily decline. A lot of the crime & poverty is as a result of various socio-economic issues.
No building in strict Vancouver is allowed to be as tall as the new Hudson's_in_Detroit. Short and stumpy Vancouver buildings just can't attain the same scale of a Hudson's_Site.
The tallest part of the new Woodward's complex wasn't even allowed to be as tall as the old Hudson's in Detroit. That's because unlike Detroit, almost everything in Vancouver is watered down in scale.
Detroit has had a rough & tough reputation for generations, yet its been able to gradually recover from its economic slide.
Of course the QLine streetcar in Detroit was up & running long before Vancouver might ever get around to reviving part of its streetcar network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QLine#Route Backwards Vancouver just might become one of the last cities to revive parts of its streetcar system.
Service cuts at City of Vancouver 311 and TransLink make it harder for citizens to get information
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/03/05/service-cuts-cov311-translink-harder-getting-info
Of course as Vancouver gets even more expensive, pay more for less services.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-operating-funding-fiscal-cliff-bc-budget-2025
Don't have enough funding put towards maintaining rapid and efficient public transit.
Living Shangri-La tower in Vancouver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Shangri-La
The hotel component is just a small part of the building.
Hotel Georgia and Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) The stump hotel building doesn't even have 15 floors, when it should have been 30, even back in 1927.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver)#The_Private_Residences_at_Hotel_Georgia
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Wall Centre Complex in Vancouver
The One_Wall_Centre tower could have and should have been the first 50 story residential building in Vancouver, but it's windows only go up to 48.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Centre_(Vancouver) The complex should have had a 50, 60 & 70 story arrangement. But the tallest building in the centre doesn't even have windows up to the 50th floor.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/peter-wall-financial-corporation-vancouver
Four towers up to 37 storeys proposed for SkyTrain's future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station
Nothing tall there by Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Toronto standards, yet the land is very expensive.
Canadian Bank of Commerce Building (Commerce Court North)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Commerce_Court_West_2021.jpg When the 57 story tower wasd built in the 1970s, the tower from the 1930s would still rival anything in Vancouver.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Toronto_-_ON_-_Commerce_Court_West.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIBC_Square Strange that this wasn't a 55 & 65 story office complex, or even a 65 & 75 story development.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Royal Bank Tower Montreal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Bank_Tower_(Montreal)
It would take until the early 1970s for stubborn Vancouver to permit a building to rival this.
No funding in B.C. government’s new budget to avoid TransLink's service cuts
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-operating-funding-fiscal-cliff-bc-budget-2025
This all fits in with short trains & no express bus bridges. Apparently, short trains & mostly narrow bridges helps people to get around. Its too bad that some of the climate taxes can't go towards big city infrastructure.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-metro-vancouver-transit-service-cuts-risk
Monday, March 3, 2025
Kelowna, BC, Canada
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
Kelowna-Victoria-Prince George-Kamloops
There seems to be an unwritten rule that as long as Vancouver, BC builds things that are impressive by Victoria, Prince George and Kamloops standards, that's good enough. Kelowna is set to be the biggest urban area between Greater Vancouver and Calgary. Kelowna has already been able to build taller than what's in Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops.
or
New West advocates for 'urgent' funding for fairs, festivals and events
It's difficult for such a provincial backwater to behave like a proper city, but having fairs & festivals is a good thing for any thriving city to have.
Queensborough in New Westminster, BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensborough,_New_Westminster
Little NW should have annexed at least half of Lulu_Island by the 1870s, when there wasn't much of anything there yet.
44 Montgomery Tower in SF and 611 Place in LA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44_Montgomery 1967 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/san-francisco/44-montgomery-street-building
This could have and should have been the first building in SF over 600 feet tall.
https://sfyimby.com/2021/08/number-20-44-montgomery-street-financial-district-san-francisco.html Given the building sites limitations, it wasn't able to have a plus sign shape +.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Street_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/611_Place 1969 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/611-place-building
This should have been the first building in LA to be over 650 feet or 200m in height.
https://la.urbanize.city/post/long-empty-dtla-office-tower-being-marketed-prospective-tenants It was able to have a plus sign + shape.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Bellevue, Western Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Western_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Western_Australia#Railways
Fortunately, the Transperth_C-series_trains are allowed to be longer than what's in the BC part of Canada.
| Train length | 143.35 m (470 ft 4 in) |
|---|---|
| Car length | 24 m (78 ft 9 in) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transperth_C-series_train#History
From a backwater BC perspective, its amazing that the Transperth_C-series_trains are allowed to be so long. Almost as long as a Montreal Metro train, but closer to the length of the Stockholm Metro trains. It would be chaos if Perth, Montreal & Stockholm had to have short trains like backwards Vancouver does.
Bellevue, Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Washington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue,_Washington#Transportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bellevue_station
Unfortunatly, the Portland MAX trains are shorter than the nice, long Seattle trains.
While the Link_Light_Rail trains don't run as frequently as those on the Canada (embarrassment) Line, the stations were allowed to be so much longer, right from the start. Then its just a matter of eventually running more trains each hour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_light_rail#2_Line_(South_Bellevue-Redmond)
Canadian provinces meet in effort to reduce interprovincial trade barriers
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/anita-anand-interprovincial-trade
Fortunately, Australia never adopted internal trade barriers like Canada did.
https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-eyes-nova-scotia-bill-reduce-interprovincial-trade-barriers
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-business-between-provinces
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/insights-blogs-time-to-rethink-internal-trade-in-canada
There are some things that Australia got correct early on, why Canada is still trying to sort some issues out.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/interprovincial-trade-barriers-4-ways-1.7453530
"Canada has free trade agreements with 51 countries, and yet we have never been able to institute free trade within our own borders.
Despite decades of discussion, an array of non-tariff barriers still limits the free movement of people and goods across our provinces. From professional certifications to supply-managed products to regulations in a wide variety of industries, restrictions on interprovincial trade flows prevail." https://financialpost.com/news/economy/beyond-borders-internal-trade-barriers
Federalism and Sub-National Protectionism: a Comparison of the Internal Trade Regimes of Canada and Australia https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/iirwww/files/uploaded_files/SmithAndrewWorkingPaper2015.pdf
Friday, February 28, 2025
An active storm track and changeable temperatures could make for a messy March across much of Canada
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/anita-anand-interprovincial-trade 1
https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-eyes-nova-scotia-bill-reduce-interprovincial-trade-barriers 2
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-business-between-provinces 4
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/interprovincial-trade-barriers-4-ways-1.7453530 5
Former B.C. deputy finance minister to lead audit of North Shore sewage plant
While a Burnaby to North Vancouver express bus and rail link is a good idea, there should also be a link between Vancouver and West Vancouver. Unfortunatly, so much extra money will be going toward a shit-pipe and a shit-box, instead of a rail tunnel & a new bridge. So many people are still in denial, but urban planning & funding in BC is really the $HIT$ for Greater Vancouver.
So much money was wasted on a $HIT-BOX and a $HIT-PIPE that could have gone towards a train tunnel near the LGB.
Metro Vancouver regional district governance review changes
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-regional-district-governance-review-changes
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/metro-vancouver-treatment-plan-audit-1.7239051 Why have a train tunnel fromWest Vancouver to Waterfront_Station in Vancouver when instead, you can put a few extra billion dollars into a North Shore shit-pipe?
#/media/File:Vancouver_064.jpg){kind=link}
"The reasons behind the escalation are the subject of duelling lawsuits between the contractor Metro Vancouver fired and the regional district, but the now $3.9 billion is five times beyond the original $700 million budget Metro set a decade ago and more than double a revised $1 billion budget from 2021.
The issue’s complexity lies in the fact that Metro Vancouver’s sewage treatment services are broken up into four sewerage areas, unlike the drinking water system that is operated as a single entity.
The sewerage areas are: North Shore; Vancouver, which includes UBC and parts of Burnaby and Richmond; Lulu, which is most of Richmond and Fraser, which is most other Metro municipalities.
All municipalities pay for the capital costs of new facilities, but those within each district pay a bigger share for facilities in their own district." https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/metro-vancouver-will-pay-for-north-shore-sewage-plant
https://www.nsnews.com/in-the-community/north-vancouver-district-asks-province-for-public-inquiry-on-sewage-plant-debacle-9777554 So much extra money will have to be paid out for a shit-box & a shit-pipe cost overrun. A few extra billion dollars could have easily paid for an improved Canada+Line and extension from downtown Vancouver to Park+Royal and the Horseshoe+Bay ferry terminal.
https://vancouversun.com/news/new-westminster-mayor-sides-with-metro-vancouver-in-surrey-spat Surrey wants to eventually become the biggest city in BC. That means not having similar restrictions that Vancouver, NW & Victoria have. Surrey wants to have taller buildings than restrictive Vancouver. First, it will have to rival Burnaby & Bellevue, WA and ultimately, Vaughan, Ontario. Instead of having 1 big downtown area, there will be a few town centres as well.
While Surrey might want to have more autonomy, its still part of the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District.
50-metre pool at new Vancouver Aquatic Centre becomes by-election issue
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-aquatic-centre-pool-by-election-issue
Unlike most cities, Vancouver has had a history and mentality for refusing to think on a big scale.
Is Too little being done to fix Vancouver’s hotel room shortage crisis?
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-hotel-room-shortage-crisis-solutions
How can a city that wants to cultivate its tourism business not encourage more hotel development?
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/keefer-house-hotel-vancouver-chinatown
There just aren't enough BC+hotels to meet current and future demands.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
The Burlington Canal Lift Bridge
The Burlington_Canal_Lift_Bridge only has 4 lanes, but that's OK, because the 8 lanes of the Burlington+Bay+Skyway+Bridges are right beside it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Canal_Lift_Bridge
https://www.hopaports.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Burlington-Canal-Lift-Bridge.pdf
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Burlington+Canal+Lift+Bridge
The Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway Bridges
The Burlington_Bay_James_N._Allan_Skyway went from being like a 4 lane BC bridge to an 8 lane Ontario crossing. That took place from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Bay_James_N._Allan_Skyway#History
There is a point where it would be likely to have 2 HOV lanes or 2 bus lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_Way#St._Catharines%E2%80%93Hamilton
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Burlington+Bay+James+N.+Allan+Skyway
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Bus Lanes
Given so many narrow streets & bridges in Vancouver, its difficult to have a proper bus lane network, even for the metropolitan region.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/opinion-bus-lanes-urgent-vancouver
https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/bus-network-improvements.aspx
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/11/18/burnaby-hastings-street-bus-lane-city-council/
https://visionzerovancouver.ca/2024/07/10/take-action-add-bus-lanes-to-translinks-priority-routes/
HOV Lanes
With so many narrow streets & bridges in Vancouver, its difficult to have a proper HOV lane network, especially for the metropolitan region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-occupancy_vehicle_lane
https://www.drivesmartbc.ca/lanes/using-hov-lanes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-occupancy_vehicle_lane#Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-occupancy_vehicle_lane#New_Zealand_and_Australia
hollywood-theatre-in kitsilano and york theater in east-vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/hollywood-theatre-kitsilano-vancouver-new-ownership
https://henriquezpartners.com/projects/york-theatre/
https://heritagevancouver.org/top10-watch-list/2008/6-york-alcazar-theatre-1913-saved/
https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/new-new-york-theatre-a-celebration-of-cultural-heritage
Park board votes to request 50-metre pool at Vancouver Aquatic Centre
Amended motion came after dozens of people spoke out against a redesign plan that would cut the pool in half https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/aquatic-centre-50-metre-pool-1.7468681
This horrible multigenerational half-size Vancouver and BC mentality is so firmly entrenched. At least if a half-size Vancouver Aquatic Centre, like the half-size Canada+Line, was designed to eventually become a proper big city facility, that's one thing. However, certain people just wanted to have a half-size Vancouver Aquatic Centre, just like a half-size Canada Line. Indeed, the objective was to have infrastructure deliberately designed to just be another Half-A$$ED small-scale backwater BC joke.
Let it fall-apart like the crappy & inadequate Pattullo+Bridge, then just build a half-size joke. It's all part of the mentality to not want more people living in BC, which is almost 2 dozen times larger than Switzerland.
Fortunately, enough people believe in a growing Vancouver & BC, so the new Vancouver+Aquatic+Centre will be a proper big city infrastructure redevelopment. While the argument to just build a half-size facility to save money might make sense to some people, unless it was designed to eventually be brought up to a full-size standard, it's a sad joke.
The Burrard+Street+Bridge (BSB) was originally planned to have a permanent 6 lane upper deck & 2 streetcar tracks on a lower deck. Unfortunatly, the BSB was Vancouverized to become scaled back & remain incomplete. Had there been a nice & wide bike-bridge built next to it, then the BSB could have still had a 6 lane deck. Then there could have been either 2 bus lanes or 2 HOV lanes. Unfortunatly, everything is funneled into just another 4 lane BC bridge.
Since backwards Vancouver wants to be one of the last major cities to bring back streetcars & tram-trains, there has been a mutigenerational lack of interest in completing the lower streetcar deck.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Park Board backs 50-metre pool for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre after outcry over proposed small replacement
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.
Big upgrades coming to Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal in West Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-ferries-horseshoe-bay-terminal-upgrades
Its such utter foolishness & inept planning to not have a rail rapid transit line between the Horseshoe+Bay+ferry+terminal and downtown Vancouver, but this is backwards BC.
$2-billion Richmond Hospital redevelopment
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/richmond-hospital-new-redevelopment-acute-care-tower-contractor
Having a big hospital in Richmond is important, not only because YVR is part of Richmond, but there are a lot of people travelling between Delta, Richmond & Vancouver.
City of Surrey to withdraw from Metro Vancouver's Regional Growth Strategy
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-withdraw-metro-vancouver-regional-growth-strategy
Surrey is destined to become the largest city in BC, but in order to achieve that, it has to be freed from the backwater BC mentality. Surrey needs to think and build like a proper big city.
Monday, February 24, 2025
Delta-hospital-emergency-room-closed-staffing-challenges
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/delta-hospital-emergency-room-closed-staffing-challenges
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/delta-hospital-er-closure-1.7466840
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/02/23/delta-emergency-room-closed-second-night/
Every city or major municipality should have a big hospital and other appropriate infrastructure. Of course there should be a good working arrangement for all hospital staff.
Unfortunatly, Delta seems to have been treated with a backwater mindset for generations. The East side of Delta is like an urban extension of Surrey. The West side of Delta has a major seaport and a ferry terminal & a big shopping mall. Unfortunatly, it seems in accordance with the backwater planning mentality, that there is no train linking the ferry terminal and the shopping mall to Richmond & YVR, on the horizon.
Watered-down Vancouver and BC
Auckland & Seattle and especially Sydney and SF are very scenic cities. Yet, none of them has taken a watered-down approach to the extent that Vancouver has. Indeed, a mandate to thwart, restrict & limit things, has been part of the water-down Vancouver agenda for generations. This watered-down approach or agenda, has become a clever way to hold back all kinds of infrastructure in the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District. The mentality to keep things small & backwards is all part of the horrible symbolic desire to not build for a big future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District#Regional_planning Not planning to have trains as long as the Montreal Metro or the Toronto Subway, was an utterly foolish and inept decision. However, it makes sense from a congestive planning perspective.
In the meantime, a short train system can still work efficiently. Thus, there is no good reason as to why the SkyTrain can't be upgrades to the same level as the 24hr Copenhagen_Metro. However, BC is so stubborn & isolated with its approach to things, it would be quite a challenge to get to the standard of the Copenhagen_Metro, but it should be possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Metro#Route Eventually, backwards Vancouver will require proper long trains like on the Stockholm_Metro and the Montreal_Metro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Metro#Rolling_stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Models
Not planning & building a regional network of express bus and HOV bridges, was also foolish and inept decision. However, that also makes sense from a congestive planning perspective. Indeed, bottleneck or chokepoint planning is something that commuters don't like, but BC urban planners seem to perpetuate it every year. Of course the lack of infrastructure funding is also a big problem.
Unfortunatly, with Greater Vancouver having such an anti-bridge mentality, it makes it difficult to have a proper regional Bus_Rapid_Transit network. Yet officially, the region isn't against having a proper BRT network. Funneling busses onto the same narrow bridges with cars & trucks is idiotic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport#Environmental_impact
Hundreds climb thousands of stairs for Hustle Chicago at former John Hancock Center
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/hustle-chicago-former-john-hancock-center-2025/
https://www.beck-technology.com/blog/how-did-they-build-that-john-hancock-center-chicago
https://www.architecture.org/online-resources/buildings-of-chicago/875-n-michigan-ave
875 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
https://875northmichiganavenue.com Formerly the John_Hancock_Center.
https://www.beck-technology.com/blog/how-did-they-build-that-john-hancock-center-chicago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Center#History
https://360chicago.com https://360chicago.com/cloudbar
https://360chicago.com/experience
https://www.chicago-voyage.com/en/hancock-observatory-chicago.html
https://www.architecture.org/online-resources/buildings-of-chicago/875-n-michigan-ave
Manulife Centre in Toronto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manulife_Centre , https://manulifecentre.com
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Manulife+Centre
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/toronto/44-charles-street-west/2979 166 m / 545 ft
Fortunately, 44 Charles wasn't just 44 stories. Indeed, it was the first 51 story mixed-use residential & office complex in Canada, but it should have been taller. Chicago has had the 100 story John Hancock Center since 1969. If Toronto couldn't have its own 100 story building in the mid 1970s, similar in scale to the John_Hancock_Center, there should have been two buildings with more than 50 floos.
https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/canada/properties/for-lease/office/on/toronto/55-bloor-street-west/s119707755-l This should have been the first 55 story office tower outside of downtown Toronto.
https://www.loopnet.ca/Listing/55-Bloor-St-W-Toronto-ON/17793768
https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/manulife-centre-podium-and-streetscape-renewal.19539
This is a nice, wide Toronto building, but it got Vancouverized or miniaturized, right from the start.
https://www.cbre.ca/properties/retail/details/CA-Plus-268572/manulife-centre-55-bloor-street-w-toronto-ontario-m4w-1a5 It would have been quite impressive if it opened as a 55 story tower.
https://sgconstructors.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/55-Bloor-Manulife-Redevelopment-Profile.pdf
https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2018/09/glazing-enclosing-manulife-centre-addition-bay-and-bloor.33926
Australia was able to go above 99 floors before Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_108 Actually has 100 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STH_BNK_by_Beulah 102 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Canada#Under_construction
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Metro Vancouver Regional District considers $22M in budget cuts
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/02/21/metro-vancouver-regional-district-22m-budget-cuts/
https://globalnews.ca/news/11016648/vancouver-mayor-ken-sim-board-metro-vancouver-waste-of-time/
Not enough money for an express bus and train tunnel between downtown & the North Shore.
However, there are plenty of funds for an overbudjet shit-box!
Big backlash over smaller pool plan for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre sparks petition
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-aquatic-centre-proposal-controversy
Just because backwards Vancouver gets a lot of rain, that doesn't mean that almost everything should be symbolically watered down.
Why have a Canada+Line with 152m long stations, like on the Montreal+Metro, when a 50m joke of a station provides excellent watered down symbolism? Why have bridges wide enough for bus & HOV lanes, when everything can be funneled into just 2 lanes each way?
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Vancouver+Aquatic+Centre
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Hawaii Has the Highest-Earning Hotels of All 50 States
https://beatofhawaii.com/its-the-rip-off-honolulu-hotels-that-are-killing-us/
Luxurious accommodations always have their high-end market, but having enough basic and mid-quality hotels, are just as important.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hotels_in_Honolulu
https://www.de-simone.com/projects/project/ko_olani-tower Resedential tower with the most floors in Hawaii.
30-storey tower with a Marriott hotel and rental homes proposed for the Yaletown part of Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/888-896-cambie-street-vancouver-marriott-yaletown-hotel-npg
This should be a mixed-use hotel and tower of at least 65 stories.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-hotel-shortage-2026-world-cup-1.7117696
From 1985 to 2010, there should have been a continual hotel expansion. Then, from 2010 & well into the 2040s, the number of hotel+rooms should still keep growing.
The number of BC+Hotels must dramatically be increased in order to meet growing tourism demands. However, there is a multigenerational mentality or agenda to symbolically keep things small and inadequate in backwards BC.
Despite its size, Canada has less than 1% of the world's population. BC is 23 times the size of Switzerland, yet it still doesn't even have the population of 1 CH.
There are 2 prominent mindsets that would like to keep Canada having less than 1% of the population. The first mindset would still like Canada to be primarily just for people of European descent. The other mindset just has an overall, KEEP THEM OUT mentality, because its good for the environment.
It seems odd that in this day & age, there is a mindset that would like Canada to still be a Whitman's Paradise. Then the extreme environmentalists just want the rest of the world to deal with most of the population & keep Canada under 1%.
Since most of the world is nonwhite, there almost seems to a crossover of the KEEP THEM OUT agenda. Since most of the world's population is nonwhite, a SLOW GROWTH AGENDA would primarily be directed towards nonwhites.
Multiculturalism_in_Canada should mean that everyone can retain their heritage & cultural identity as well as be part of the nation at large.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism_in_Canada#Criticisms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism_in_Canada#Historical_context
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_head_tax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komagata_Maru_incident
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/culture/canadian-identity-society/multiculturalism.html
https://www.multiculturalcanada.ca , https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/rp02_8-dr02_8/p2.html
I have never been to Europe, but my ancestors are from there.
https://ancnl.ca/guide/culture-and-social-life/multiculturalism-in-canada/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_demographic_decline
The White vs. the rest of the world mentality is becoming more out of place in the 21st century.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-diverse-countries
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects
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