Architecture
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City Primer — Part 6: Why Civic Literacy Matters
Most people do not spend much time thinking about municipal government. They think about finding housing, getting to work, walking their children to...
By Erick Villagomez -
City Primer — Part 5: Why Municipal Politics Feels So Broken
A public hearing runs late into the evening. Dozens of residents take turns speaking. Some support the proposal. Others oppose it. City staff present...
By Erick Villagomez -
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 2 – How Cities Actually Make Decisions
Many residents encounter municipal government for the first time when a controversial proposal appears in their neighbourhood. A rezoning sign goes up on...
By Erick Villagomez -
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 -
Stop Calling them Villages
The headline image is a composite image showing the former Neighbourhood Centres (gold), which received broad community support as part of implementing...
By scothein -
The City and its Futures
The future seems far, abstract, and fuzzy, yet sometimes it’s right there in front of us. A Sign of Things to Come Walk past a building marked for...
By Yuval Fogelson -
The City in the Present
In today’s city, information and experiences find you and appear on your screens, yet the human craving for physical presence still pulls us out...
By Yuval Fogelson -
The Pasts of the City
Walk through a neighbourhood with someone who grew up there, and the stories start. The diner that used to be on that corner. The whole block that looked...
By Yuval Fogelson -
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 -
UCS #102: The White Elephant
See our Launch and Introduction about the launch of the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate and the announcement by CityHallWatch. *** Related Readings: Vancouver...
By Urban Cartoon Syndicate