Neighbourhoods
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What Makes a Village?
I recently found myself wandering Commercial Drive, reading between its pulsing cafés and restaurants. An empty storefront. Another. A familiar music...
By Erick Villagomez -
Book Review: An Even Better Way to Zone
Author: Donald Elliott (Island Press, 2025) When I first reviewed Donald Elliott’s A Better Way to Zone almost fifteen years ago, I began with a...
By Erick Villagomez -
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 -
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 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 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 -
Vancouver’s Villages Debate in Plain English
If you’ve heard people talking about Vancouver’s proposed Villages Plan and wondered what all the fuss is about, you’re not alone. The...
By Erick Villagomez -
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 -
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 -
Last-Mile Urbanism
A small cube-shaped robot rolls carefully along a crowded sidewalk, weaving between patio tables, cyclists, utility poles, and pedestrians carrying...
By Erick Villagomez -
From Exception to Entitlement
Vancouver is once again asking a familiar question: how tall should the city grow? Framed through the City’s ongoing review of the Higher Buildings...
By Erick Villagomez -
EVENT: Introduction to Neighbourhood Design (SFU) – May 2026
Scot Hein was one of the most respected planners at Vancouver City Hall. For the last few years, he has been using his skills to train other planners and...
By Spacing