History
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City Primer — Part 4: Why Cities Are Always Short of Money
Many residents assume cities operate financially in roughly the same way as provincial or federal governments. They don’t. Municipal governments are...
By Erick Villagomez -
City Primer — Part 3: Why Housing Dominates Municipal Politics
It’s possible to attend a Vancouver City Council meeting and come away with the impression that municipal government exists almost entirely to debate...
By Erick Villagomez -
City Primer — Part 1 – What Is Municipal Government?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Vancouver is in the midst of profound urban change. Housing costs, population growth, transportation investments, climate adaptation...
By Erick Villagomez -
Yonge Street, Evening, November 6, 1965
A few of weeks ago, while searching the Toronto Telegram online archive for aerial photos of the historic industrial waterfront, I came across a...
By Peter MacCallum -
New Over Old, but not Forgotten in Mexico City
In July 2026, I had the opportunity to visit Mexico City for the first time. The metro area of nearly 25 million people has a fascinating history that...
By Andrew Cuthbert -
Book Review – Black Public Joy: No Permit or Permission Required
Author: Jay Pitter (Penguin Random House, 2026) What is public space for? Most planners would answer with some combination of safety, accessibility...
By Erick Villagomez -
The photographic techniques of Toronto’s City Photographers
In May 2026, as part of the Contact Photography Festival, the City of Toronto Archives opened a new didactic exhibition entitled “Subseries 58: Department...
By Peter MacCallum -
The City in Tenses
The past feels like a caricature of itself, compressed, simplified, stripped of everything that made it complicated. The future feels like a caricature of...
By Yuval Fogelson -
Book Review – Planning the Future of Abu Dhabi: A Canadian-Emirati Collaboration for Sustainable Urbanism
Edited by Larry Beasley and Michael White (UBC Press/On Point Press, 2026) There is a version of city-building that planners often imagine, if not quietly...
By Erick Villagomez -
The rise and fall of National Rubber
In February, 2026 a friend who lives in the Junction emailed me to report that demolition had begun at the site of the former National Rubber factory on...
By Peter MacCallum -
UCS: The First 100 (Video)
The Urban Cartoon Syndicate launched in May 2024 and reached the hundredth cartoon last week. We mark this milestone by packing them all into a one-minute...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
I’m Voting for Neighbourhoods. Are You?
I believe that Vancouver is, first and foremost, a “City of Distinguished Neighbourhoods”, and that Vancouver neighbourhoods are poised to...
By scothein