Features
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Minority Rules: A Retroactive By-Election Game
With Vancouver’s by-election behind us, the post-mortems have begun—and this one might be more fun than most. One thing was clear: voters wanted to send...
By Erick Villagomez -
Downtown in Transition: An Interview with Sean Bailey
As downtowns adapt to shifting work patterns and rising public expectations, planners and designers are being challenged to think beyond traditional...
By Erick Villagomez -
The Governance Gap
In 2024, Ontario Premier Doug Ford ordered the removal of bike lanes from some of Toronto’s busiest corridors—Bloor, University, and Yonge—claiming they...
By Erick Villagomez -
UCS #45: Retail Reset
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: Hudson’s...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
I Love These Streets. Come Walk with Me
Photos by Kayla Isomura Looking at my house fills me with a quiet joy. She is painted in turquoise with a bright yellow door. Vines gives her a winsome...
By Emilie K Adin -
Rising High, Falling Short: Social and Economic Division
Key Metrics Summary Building: A 40-story residential building constructed of a reinforced concrete frame with a curtain wall facade on a site without...
By Erick Villagomez -
When Settlers Seized and Set Fire to the Kitsilano Reserve
Many settlers in Vancouver had no idea that the land by the south end of the Burrard Bridge was once a village home to the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people. When the...
By Christopher Cheung -
S101S: What Is a Development Pro Forma—and Why Should You Care?
A development pro forma is one of the most important (yet often overlooked) tools in real estate and urban planning. Think of it as the financial...
By Erick Villagomez -
How Art Works
as dialysisdrop by drop, filters toxins from bloodbefore they can poison the heartthis venom, refined, is art. as antivenindrop by drop, binds toxins in...
By Derek DeLand -
Rising High, Falling Short: Construction-Related Carbon Emissions
Key Metrics Summary Building: A 20-story residential building constructed of a reinforced concrete frame with a curtain wall facade on a site with no...
By Erick Villagomez -
Rising High, Falling Short: Introduction
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein Across cities like Vancouver and beyond...
By Erick Villagomez -
The Pro Forma Problem
[EDITORS NOTE: This piece seeks to answer a simple question by a community member: how could the City decision-making about the Broadway Plan be so...
By Erick Villagomez