Politics
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The Costs We Don’t See
Vancouver’s proposed 2026 Budget arrives with a promise that feels, at first glance, like a reprieve: a 0% property tax increase in a year when almost...
By Erick Villagomez -
Nostalgia about neighbourhood retail is not a strategy
I have lived for many years less than 30 metres from what was once one of Toronto’s storied corner stores — a green grocer known locally as...
By John Lorinc -
UCS #75: Planning Department Disposals
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: Vancouver’s...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
LORINC: We built it, but now will we ride it?
As befits a fall when the Blue Jays have again become contenders, the $10 billion-plus question hanging over the soon-to-be-opened Crosstown LRT is...
By John Lorinc -
UCS #72: Democracy Detour
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: City...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
Four Projections, One Crisis
What happens when four different reports give four different answers to the same housing question? Every few months, a new report is released with a...
By Erick Villagomez -
Who Gets to Lobby?
When most people hear the word lobbyist, they think of expensive suits, closed-door meetings, and backroom deals. In Vancouver, as in most Canadian...
By Erick Villagomez -
UCS #71: Some Things Never Change
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: A Citizen’s...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
LORINC: Is the 401 Tunnel an off-ramp or money pit?
According to Doug Ford, his pal the prime minister is giving serious consideration to elevating the premier’s 401-tunnel scheme from the muck deep...
By John Lorinc -
UCS #70: A Brief History of Housing Policy
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: The Slow...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate -
The Slow Emergency, Part II: The Emergency Escalates
What began as a procedural memo has become a full-blown shift in how decisions are made. The City of Vancouver’s September 2025 rezoning...
By Erick Villagomez -
The Coriolis Effect, Part IV: When Viability Becomes Destiny
In my earlier Coriolis Effect series (Part I, Part II, and Part III), I argued that city planning has been quietly absorbed into the logic of the...
By Erick Villagomez