Posts from — April 2011

The city’s 252 units at the Olympic Village are filling more quickly than similar units did in the Woodward’s project, according to a new council update from City Manager Penny Ballem. Full occupancy is expected by summer.

One parcel sits at 84 percent occupancy already  and the first residents are moving into 151 East 1st Ave., the first co-op to open in the city in many years.

With the success of the receiver’s February sales program, commercial tenants are also signing leases. A new Terra Breads cafe on the main plaza is also promising a summer opening.

I want to be very candid. I am not a handy person.

I can’t fix things easily. Stuff I build often doesn’t work out that well.

But I try. And I know that having the right tool can be the difference between getting the job done and botching it up but good.

So I was delighted to see a small poster along the Ontario bikeway this morning for the Vancouver Tool Library.

This emerging co-op is building a lending library for tools, a fantastic idea to fill the gap when the right tool isn’t available for rent or costs an arm and a leg at Home Depot. Pay a lifetime membership of $20 and borrow basic power and hand tools for free!

The VTL is having the grand opening of its shop at 3448 Commercial St. on Saturday, April 30. I’ll try to swing by.

The packed April 7 forum that considered the future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts occurred before Vancouver City Council’s rejection of an expanded casino for BC Place, but the call raised there for a new vision of the city core’s development was right in line with the council vote.

(Thanks to Kurt Heinrich for this video from the forum and a second excerpt of Bing Thom’s comments.)

The forum’s lead presentation by city engineering consultant David Turner confirmed that the Viaducts can be removed with very manageable impacts on city traffic if rapid transit investments are made as planned. That led former city planner Larry Beasley, supported by architect Bing Thom, to call for a “bold decision to get rid of the Viaducts” and have a comprehensive planning process for this section of the city.

That call fits well with council’s unanimous decisions to send the four recent proposals for development around BC Place back for more work. Three were rezonings and one was a package of amendments to the False Creek North Official Development Plan.

Council made it clear it wants options to move up delivery of the Creekside Park extension, intended to occupy the area now dominated by Concord Pacific’s display suites on the north side of False Creek. But final development of the area will have impacts far to the east, especially as the city considers the future of the East False Creek flats and the long-postponed challenge to move traffic to and from the east end of the Viaducts.

The first phase of the Georgia Viaduct study is scheduled to come to council later this spring. A second phase should move well beyond traffic issues to consider these critical areas in the heart of the city.

With Vancouver housing prices soaring out of reach –as high as Richmond‘s! — the focus of the city’s housing debate seems to be shifting away from homeless to the need for cheaper market housing. As this recent piece from the The Dependent webzine points out, Vancouver has lessons to learn from Whistler.