Posts from — July 2010

Today’s news that Vancouver’s downtown parking is the cheapest in Canada is not news at all, but says a great deal about the region’s successful shift to transit and, to a lesser extent, cycling.

Traffic to the downtown peninsula has been decreasing for the last decade, despite perceptions of gridlock. Why? Undoubtedly more commuters are using transit, as parking operators note. Soon, we hope, more will be cycling.

It’s hard to credit, however, the claim here that the new bike lanes are emptying the lots. Would that it were so.

With city finance officials already beginning the 2011 budget preparations, these end-of-June building permit stats will be good news: residential construction has nearly doubled this year over the same period last year to $437 million.

A new category this year is laneway housing. Eighty have been issued permits, 17 in the last month alone.  Total value of that construction is $7.7 million.

In councillors’ in-box this morning, this very interesting review of public art from cities around the world from Merle Goertz, who writes: “Here’s what World Class Cities do for public art. Please view. Very well done and informative presentation, and no Vancouver. Not one cheap looking, uninspired, oversized engagement ring or semi-phallic, whatevers, like are foisted on the public in False Creek.”

(Warning: this is a big powerpoint file, so it make take time to load.)

You may not agree with Goertz’s opinion of Vancouver’s art, but this collection is remarkable.

The new mural appearing on the Orwell Hotel, 456 East Hastings.

The Orwell Hotel at 456 East Hastings St. is the latest site for a mural co-ordinated by Strathcona artist Richard Tetrault. (Another is nearby inside Bruce Eriksen Place.)

This mural is part of a federal stimulus grant that “involves system, structural, life safety, internal finishes and sustainability initiatives for 55 social housing units.” (UPDATE, July 15: Funding is also provided by the city’s Great Beginnings program, the Strathcona BIA and RBC.)

Tetrault’s crew group is swinging off the swing stage six days a week and will complete the project in August, weather permitting. The mural is the latest in a long series of Tetrault-inspired projects that are making East Vancouver into an open-air gallery.