Viewpoint Vancouver

Welcome to Episode Three of Viewpoint Vancouver's election podcast feature: Three Quick Questions. Where, in under ten minutes, Gordon puts civic candidates on the spot with three unusual questions designed to reveal who they are and what really makes them tick.This time up, Gord turns the political spotlight on John Coupar, running as the NPA's candidate for Mayor of the City of Vancouver.  Listen in on John's long behind-the-scenes family history with the Vancouver Park Board,  and get the dish on the City's dirty little secret.For more about John check out npavancouver.ca/john-coupar/*********************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver.Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Listen in for Episode Two of Viewpoint Vancouver's election podcast feature: Three Quick Questions. Where, in under ten minutes, Gordon puts civic candidates on the spot with three unusual questions designed to reveal who they are and what really makes them tick.This time up, Gord puts it to Ken Sim, running for Mayor of City of Vancouver with A Better City.  For more about Ken check out kensim.ca.*********************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Join Viewpoint Vancouver for a quickie! Introducing our new Election feature: Three Quick Questions, where, in under ten minutes, Gordon puts civic candidates on the spot with three unusual questions designed to reveal who they are and what really makes them tick.First up in the series: Mark Marissen, running for Mayor of City of Vancouver with Progress Vancouver.  What has Amsterdam got that Vancouver doesn't, creating a safer and more vibrant downtown? Mark has an idea.For more of Mark's platform nuts and bolts check out markformayor.ca~~~~~~~~~The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Join Visionary Urbanist Michael von Hausen for a broad yet intimate perspective on Vancouver urban design, from the '70s through to the present day.Michael has been laying Vancouver's groundwork since the ’80s, as a key designer in the early development of False Creek. His multi-disciplinary perspective on urban design draws from landscape architecture, planning, design, and development, to forge an urban ‘greenfrastructure’ to feed our bellies as well as our urban souls.Together Michael and Gord chart the development of Vancouver's design identity, focusing on the evolution of False Creek from '70s Pattern Language, through to Concord Pacific glass-tower mania, to Olympic Village, and consider how False Creek points to the development future, for Sen̓áḵw and the for the Region as a whole. Michael von Hausen is CEO of the Great Communities Institute, which he founded in 2021 to focus on integrating urban design with real estate development and to share progressive ideas. He is Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University in the Graduate Urban Studies Program, and Adjunct Professor at Vancouver Island University. ****************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver.Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeatCatch up on Viewpoint Podcasts you might have missed, HERE.    

With 10 days counting down to Election Day, Gordon Price pulls in ex-NPA-Council-crony-turned-urban-food-security-activist-and-all-around-mensch Peter Ladner for a frank talk on what is up with this wacky election. With 58 candidates for Vancouver City Council and 10 registered parties in the running, how can we make sense of it all?Among the many chewy topics on the table, Gord and Peter consider: can anyone entice the centre Left to ride to a City Hall majority—and do these labels still have any meaning? Are the developers still putting up the campaign bucks and calling the shots? Are the old white guys truly done for, and if so, will the next generation clear the way for a new wave of bulldozers? What are the issues everyone is afraid to touch? And, is there a political dark horse in the race—and if so, is it NPA defector Colleen Hardwick?Along the way Peter floats a plan for a luxury tent city, Gord declaims that property taxes are too low, and Peter does a 180 on the old ward system debate. Hang in there for the moment when Peter says "down, boy!" to Gord.The episode wraps with some serious name dropping. Find out who Peter and Gord personally like. You may be surprised.****************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver.Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeatCatch up on Viewpoint Podcasts you might have missed, HERE.

In this very special episode, author Colin Stein unveils an epic portrait of our place and time: Vanbikes: Vancouver's Bicycle People and the Fight for Transportation Change, 1986-2011 (An Oral History). In conversation with Gordon and a room full of fans, he relates how the bicycle people transformed Vancouver, and how Vancouver transformed Colin Stein.Related as a series of discussions and anecdotes and packed with photos and memorabilia, Vanbikes tells of culture change from the inside out. It's a page-turning story of activism both within and beyond the bureaucracy which includes endless bike-lane battles, naked riders, B.C:Clettes dancers, cycling dinosaurs, City Hall smackdowns, and eventually, the mayor of Vancouver himself fronting the Critical Mass, and committing to make Vancouver the #1 cycling city in North America (which, according to some lists, it now is). From grass-roots to sweeping policy change: how we got there, and where we are going. This podcast includes much laughter, clinking glassware, and some heckling – and concludes with a lively Q&A featuring folks who were featured in the book.To see Colin's gorgeous portraits and profiles of Vancouver's bike heroes, and/or to order a copy of the book for yourself or a beloved bikeshevik, go to vanbikes.ca****************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeatCatch up on Viewpoint Podcasts you might have missed, HERE.

Welcome to a special dispatch from Gordon Price, checking in from Expo 2022 in Dubai. (With our apologies for the sound quality.  At a place like Expo, it was the quietest place he could find.)One of the best things about a world’s fair—after you’ve visited the pavilions, tasted the food, listened to the music —is oddly, also one of the worst things: standing in lines.  Because it is in those lineups where you’re likely to engage with people from other places in way you never otherwise would. My best experience in that respect was a little different—not in a line-up, but at a visitor centre.  I needed help trying to sign up for the bikeshare system.  And it was there that I met Maliha Khan, who was incredibly helpful.  (How helpful?  She even offered me her credit card when the system wouldn’t accept my Canadian one.  Turns out we’re not that global.)Then. the real conversation began. “Where you from, Maliha?”  (When over 70 percent of the people who live and work in Dubai are not from there, it’s a safe question to ask.)And so began the basis for this podcast. Who Maliha is, where she’s from, and why she’s in Dubai.  And really, it is about the global identity of youth, of women, of ethnicity, and of ambition and possibility in this age.  Which is why Dubai is this age’s version of the New York story of the 20th century. Like a magnet it is attracting the talented, ambitious young people from the fastest growing parts of the world— those who want opportunity, experience, and the possibility of the global good life.  As Maliha says —she’s here to make it, not break it.**************************************************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Please subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeatSent from my iPad

The great “BurnaBOOM” started off in the ‘50s, as Willingdon Heights came to model the suburban ideal: a gridded neighborhood of wide streets, tidy flower gardens, and modest single-family bungalows. To some extent, it is still that—but so much more.Lee-Ann Garnett, Burnaby’s Deputy Director of Planning and Building, tells the evolving story of Burnaby housing through the eyes of Albert and Clara—an archetypal blue-collar couple who leave the prairies after the war, to settle in Burnaby and live the Canadian dream. Eventually they are joined by Gord from Grand Forks and Sue at SFU, who settle into affordable three-storey walkups. Then comes SkyTrain and skyscrapers; immigrant families and tech entrepreneurs; condos, and a real town centre. And yet the single-family paradigm maintains a tight grip, with density ('compaction') a dirty word still capable of inciting City Hall protests.How will Burnaby strike the Grand Bargain, providing housing for all while keeping Albert and Clara—and their recently returned grandchildren—happy?Spoiler alert: by legislating 20% of all new development as rental units, and 20% of those units below median market rental rates, plus introducing some of the most stringent rental assistance and tenant protection schemes in Canada, Burnaby has managed to double its rental housing supply since 2018. Clearly, the BurnaBOOM is just beginning.To learn more about the Burnaby plan:Read Burnaby’s Housing and Homelessness Strategy here.Check out Burnaby’s Rental Housing Summary here. *********************************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeat

The City of North Van is no bedroom community. With sexy projects like the Shipyards, the Polygon Art Gallery, and new Lonsdale patios and covered seating, North Van is quickly becoming a destination city. In fact, the City has the lowest percentage of single-family homes of any Greater Vancouver municipality. The buzz now is all about market rentals, and affordable housing. First-term City of North Vancouver Councillor Tony Valente talks to Gordon about housing challenges, rapid buses, construction fatigue, and serving the mobility needs of this notoriously rainy, hilly city (hint: Tony rocks an Urban Arrow e-cargo bike). **********************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeat

Big news for the Region! Translink has just unveiled Transport 2050: its blueprint for the next 30 years of regional mobility. Gordon talks to Translink Manager of Policy Development Eve Hou about the evolution of this important document, and what Translink sees coming down the long-range pipes. Will we have a future of integrated mobility: transit pass, car-share, and share-bike, all in one handy package? Translink calls it “mobility as a service”. The acronym is ACES — automated, connected, electric, and shared — and it’s all part of the big picture.Plus: working from home in the post-pandemic world, inter-regional lines, the war on cars, confronting the climate emergency, and raising a new generation of transit nerds. Listen in as Translink spills the beans.**********************************************The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.  Subscribe to the Viewpoint newsletter, or subscribe to the Podcast in all the usual paces.If you like this podcast and want to help shape our region,  please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes are at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeat

All countries have distinctive urban regions, but Canadian cities especially differ from one another in culture, structure, and history.  SFU prof Anthony Perl’s new book Big Moves: Global Agendas, Local Aspirations, and Urban Mobility in Canada (co-authored with Matt Hern and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy) dissects how Canada's three largest urban regions have been shaped by the interplay of globalized imperatives, aspirations, activism, investment, and local development initiatives. In this episode Gordon and Anthony examine the various historical triumphs and faux pas of Canada’s Big Three cities, and whether the Canadian tendency toward ‘accommodation through equivocation’ has held us back, or helped us dodge some American urban pitfalls. Sensitive listeners be advised: we talk trolley buses.The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.If you like this podcast please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeat

An OWG (Old White Guy) enlists the aid of a YBG (Young Brown Guy) in unpacking modern socio-political vocabulary.Can white people be 'racialized'? Is equity of opportunity the same as equity of outcome? What is privilege, really? Who has it now, and where does the balance tip? And, moreover: what does it really take, to be Gord’s perfect gym buddy? Join us for a rambling and entertaining conversation as Mo Amir of popular culture podcast This is VANCOLOUR joins Gordon Price for a trip through the landmines of contemporary lexicon. The Viewpoint Podcast is a production of Viewpoint Vancouver. Visit viewpointvancouver.ca for more Urbanism, Insight, and Evolution.If you like this podcast please support our labour of love. Cool perks and prizes at: patreon.com/viewpointvancouverMusic for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeatThe photo of Mo Amir is courtesy of Tracy Giesz-Ramsay, who is not only a skilled photographer but also (of course), a podcaster! Swing your ears over to  Capture Queue for still more conversations with forward-thinking individuals.

Throughout her 33-year career, Judy Graves was the public face of City Hall to those living in Vancouver's streets and shelters. She knew who they were, what they needed, and how to get a roof over their heads. She reached out to them, often in the late hours of the night. She knew the ins-and-outs of City Hall, especially the ins, and who did what. She knew how to get the right kind of help to the people who needed it.While her successes were measured by the individuals she helped day to day, her strategy was long-term – how to get the safe and secure housing the city needed to keep people off the streets.  Not something that can be done by a single person, or even single level of government.  Success is rarely acknowledged after a project is funded and built, the ribbon is cut, the people housed – and attention turns to the left out or the newly arrived. But here’s the thing: when Graves retired from City Hall in the spring of 2013, Vancouver’s streets had fewer people sleeping outside because of her unwavering belief that the number of homeless in our city could – and should – be zero.Judy Graves has an insider’s skepticism of the usual narratives, and can dissect, for instance, the social geography of a homeless camp or the surprising insights and support from the city’s elites.Judy has a very Vancouver story to tell — in her youth, in her work, and in her life.  She tells it here.

Marc Lee has a sort of duality imbued in him that gives him a unique perspective on the world. Raised by a single mother who put him through private school at the prestigious Upper Canada College, Marc developed a perspective on both sides of the spectrum. His work as Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives has taken him from the trade agreements, Globalization and Neoliberalism of the 90s, to today’s housing crisis, and on to looking at the growing precarity of the gig economy. In this episode Gord talk’s with Marc about his research at CCPA, the need for more social housing, climate justice, the shifting Overton Window, complete communities, political will, and more. Read more »

 Recently retired from federal politics, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones has had a distinguished career; from grassroots local politics, to helping improve the peace and security of women on a global scale. Gord and Pamela talk about densification, reconciliation, the reason she got into federal politics, being a good neighbour, and more. Read more »

Director of government relations for the Homebuilders Association Vancouver and 4th generation Japanese-Canadian Mark Sakai talks internment, immigration, growing up in Steveston and housing.Housing. What’s important? Mark asks: can you find the housing you want at your stage of life? Single family housing? Spoiler, it still dominates, but you’re probably going to look in Maple Ridge or Abbotsford, or Brandon, Manitoba for that matter, unless your pockets have depth and breadth. Two-thirds of the residential land in Metro Vancouver is primarily reserved for a “certain type of housing” that is unaffordable to most people. Is it time to re-think the grand bargain? Read more »

While the majority of the 27 million practitioners of Sikhism live in India — most living in the state of Punjab — half a million Sikhs reside in Canada.In fact, 1 in 20 British Columbians is Sikh. And according to Gian Singh Sandhu, founding president of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), so is 1 in 4 Surrey residents.Sikhism is one of the (if not the) fastest-growing religion in Metro Vancouver. As the Vancouver Sun noted a few years ago, “B.C. is the only province in Canada, and one of the few jurisdictions in the world, in which Sikhism can claim the status of being the second largest religion.”Yet, what do we really know about Sikhs — in India, in Canada, and particularly in Metro Vancouver? (By “we”, we’re implicating anyone who hasn’t done anything more than skim Wikipedia. Sorry.) What is your understanding of the massacre at Darbār Sahib, aka ‘the Golden Temple’, and the loss of thousands of Sikh lives at the hands of the Indian military? If you consider the phrase Air India, does your brain immediately implicate Sikhs as a whole, instead of a small number of radical extremists? Time to peel back the layers. Read more »

If you needed more evidence that environmental issues are no longer fringe issues, all you have to do is look at Vancouver Greens’ Adriane Carr.Her 74,000 votes in the 2014 municipal election was the most by a Vancouver council candidate since 1996…and perhaps ever? Had she run for mayor in 2018, she might have won, and by as many as 20,000 votes.Born at VGH and raised in east Van, Carr’s future political life began auspiciously — a Master’s degree in Geography under the tutelage of UBC’s David Ley and Walter Hardwick. Her thesis? On the role individuals play in community, specifically entitled, “The Development of Neighbourhood in Kitsilano : Ideas, Actors and the Landscape.”Such fertile ground for our ‘meat and sizzle’ interlocutors Gord and Rob. And oh yes, they go there — the question of the role of individuals in shaping the community, the city, and city-wide planning.But first, a few dozen questions…about such matters as what got her into politics? (Desperation….about wilderness protection.) How did she translate that ambition into the role of power broker? (By founding a provincial political party, of course.) What does she wish she had more of? (Power.) And once she made it into City Hall in 2011, who censured her, told her she wasn’t allowed to speak to staff? (Two people, and you’ll have to listen for that nugget.)Perhaps the question of the decade for Carr, though, is whether she would like to be mayor. It’s also likely both the city’s worst kept secret, and best maintained electoral strategy — yes and no. (Sorry Hector, but you know the drill.)Over the course of the discussion, the trio get into the big issues, like dealing with density, taxes, character, and tree cover, plus the distractions of public life in the digital era.And if you thought age and authority would mellow out this green, wilderness warrior, think again. Carr still espouses civil disobedience — non-violent, mind you — as a key tactic to get people to acknowledge the kind of change we’re going to have to undertake to avert, or cope with, the climate emergency.But do we really need to take another three years, and $16 million, to talk about it? Have a listen, and let us know what you think. Read more »

Sarah Blyth first started to see the spike in drug overdoses in the Downtown Eastside community in 2016.From her vantage point as manager of the DTES Market, she couldn’t help but see it. People were literally dying in the street.So she decided to do something about it. Rob sums it up: “You saw the need, set up a tent, and tried to save lives”. Yup.Blyth’s role as founder and Executive Director of the Overdose Prevention Society is the latest in a series of contributions to the city by a person who, as much as anyone here, can speak to having lived a life of privilege, marginalization, social entrepreneurship, leadership, selflessness, and grace under extreme pressure. (And she’s not even halfway through.)Blyth, the former skateboard advocate, Park Board Commissioner, and City Council candidate, fields the tough questions from Gord — specifically on the question of safe supply and induced demand. They circle around housing insecurity and authority in Oppenheimer Park, tangle on addiction, and there’s a quick tease about Tyndall’s machine.And of course, the big question — will she run again? Maybe she should. Read more »

It wasn’t that long ago that British Columbians were saying, “What the hell is going on in Maple Ridge?”In 2014, voters elected Nicole Read as mayor of the region’s eastern outpost …and then subjected her to a virulent strain of online harassment which, after two years, resulted in threats that prompted an RCMP investigation, and ultimately her decision to not rerun in the 2018 election.The reason for the harassment? The appearance of a homeless camp in an empty lot at a cul-de-sac on Cliff Avenue within six months of her election, alongside Mayor Read’s apparent desire to project empathy for those occupying it, and efforts (fruitless for some time) to work with the provincial government to house them permanently in the ‘regular city’. While that work was underway, the camp at Cliff Ave begat one at Anita Place and, well…it’s still a work in progress. But this time, despite sustained inner conflict amongst the city’s leadership, Maple Ridge is doing the work in cooperation with Coast Mental Health, BC Housing, and the Province of BC.The problem with the ‘protest camp’, says councillor Ahmed Yousef in this wide-ranging interview, were the three types of people thwarting progress. First, the ‘sympathy brigade’ in Maple Ridge took it upon themselves “to be so righteous” in providing sympathy for the homeless, many of them “aggressive panhandlers”. Next was the ‘revolutionary brigade‘ — non-residents who came into the city “to do away with capitalism and private property”, and espouse free everything to everyone. Then there were those behind the ‘so-called treatment centres’, who he felt were not there to help individuals, but to go after government contracts for the funding (“as long as you have a body in the bed,” was his view of their motivation).While homelessness and criminal behaviour in Maple Ridge may reflect the impact of the lack of non-market housing, poverty, and social and health challenges afflicting the most vulnerable of the city’s 80,000-plus residents, Yousef — who experienced hard times and homelessness himself in Maple Ridge, at one point sleeping in his car — is skeptical that housing is a moral right in Canada. A resident since 2010 and a citizen for 3 years, Yousef claims there’s a difference between people who have fallen on hard times and deserve the social safety network (like himself), and those with mental health issues, who legitimately require medical care, but perhaps not a home, and certainly not to be warehoused.It is perhaps for this reason — the tyranny of being lumped in the same category as those who, for some reason, lacked the bootstraps, or the will to pull them up, or the necessary medical support needed to learn how to pull bootstraps — that he dislikes the term ‘homeless’.What e