Urban

08.10.2020

[. . . the DSA has been campaigning for some months to get the city to take over the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) utilities and have it managed by a democratically elected board. Unlike Canada, US cities can do this sort of thing without getting approval from the next higher level of government, i.e. the state there, the province here. Gene McGuckin]

Letter:

Dear Council President Gomez and members of San Diego City Council,

July 3, 20-20

For a century our cities have been transformed by the car industry, making way for drivers at the expense of cyclists and pedestrians. A renewed movement for urban public transport is pushing back. 

Review of James Wilt, Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars?: Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk (Between the Lines, 2020)

[A link to the open letter is included near the bottom of the article. There is an option for individuals and organizations to sign on as endorsers.]

May 14th, 2020 

MAY 6, 2020

Drastic service cuts to public transit at TransLink and Coast Mountain Bus Company are having “severe, negative effects” directly on Burnaby front-line workers.

May 8, 2020

With the B.C. economy expected to gradually start to re-open on May 19, TransLink has suspended planned service reductions and the 1,500 layoff notices expected as part of the cutting of routes.

April 1, 2020

VANCOUVER -- Homeless activists and their supporters occupied the recently closed North Surrey Recreation Centre for several hours Wednesday night to call attention to the danger the COVID-19 pandemic poses to people living on the streets or in insufficient housing.

Dubbing the occupation the "Hothouse Squat," the group issued a press release saying it planned to occupy the vacant building as a safe place to live during the pandemic.

March 23, 2020

Vancouver city council has voted unanimously in favour of a motion aimed at enforcing social-distancing measures during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Council met virtually on Monday morning to vote on an amendment to the city’s emergency powers bylaw that would allow bylaw officers to issue penalties to anyone either gathering in large groups or not doing what they can to keep two metres apart.

PNAS February 4, 2020 117 (5) 2354-2365; first published January 21, 2020