"The City of Vancouver has added more housing units per capita than any city in North America over the last 30 years yet housing prices have increased faster in Vancouver than any other North American city." — Patrick Condon
Housing advocates are expected to urge government officials to devote more effort to acquiring land for affordable housing rather than just building affordable housing units during a three-day conference starting Monday.
The link below is to the text of a letter from City of Burnaby Lawyer Greg McDade to the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) objecting to the regulator's decision to grant Trans Mountain permission, going far beyond what Trans Mountain even requested, to destroy any trees in Burnaby for whatever reasons for the indeterminate future. Can you say "captured regulator?"
The bylaw is sold as a way to create new rentals. Council should insist what’s built reflects real incomes.
Aproposal to rezone about half of the city for rental housing finally lands on council floor for public hearing today, Nov. 2. It has a seemingly benign title: A Bylaw to amend Zoning and Development Bylaw No. 3575 Regarding Residential Rental Tenure in C-2 Districts and New Residential Rental District Schedules.
[Note: Mine was just one of many, sometimes very eloquent, presentations to Council on the topic Future of False Creek South: Advancing a Conceptual Development Plan and Addressing Lease Expiries. The meeting extendedover three days because of the large number of presentation, (over 170 signed up to speak), and only very few were in favour of the plan. The presentations may be viewed/heard on the videos of the Council here starting on Oct.
As all eyes turn to COP 26 in Glasgow, we hear the case for cities to get more money and power as they find themselves on the frontlines of climate change. 36:23 listen here
Given that the majority of the global population lives in urban centres, cities are responsible for organizing many of the activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, such as public transportation, land use planning and construction.
Demonstrators take part in a protest on Sept. 11 against the soaring living costs of tenants in Berlin. In a referendum later this week, voters will be asked if they support expropriating more than 200,000 rental housing units from the city's biggest landlords. (Paul Zinken/AFP/Getty)
