Urban

11/10/23
Author: 
Helen Lui
Vancouver - PHOTO BY NATTIPAT VESVARUTE VIA PEXELS.

Oct. 10, 2023

When it comes to addressing the housing crisis, few people think about zoning. The correlation isn’t easily apparent, despite this being the most powerful tool cities have.

21/09/23
Author: 
Michelle Gamage
A supervised injection site in Surrey. ‘Decriminalization is about seeing the harms that the actual system is doing to the individual person,’ says Brittany Graham, executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, ‘and addressing those harms at the system level.’ Photo by Jonathan Hayward, the Canadian Press.

Sept. 21, 2023

The recent focus has been on banning drug use in playgrounds and parks. But advocates say that’s a red herring.

12/09/23
Author: 
Helen Lui
Density can actually change our city for the better. PHOTO BY JEREMY VIA PEXELS.

Sept. 11, 2023

We constantly hear about the problems with density: tiny shoeboxes in the sky, looming towers and their shadows, traffic congestion, and overcrowding. But despite popular discourse, denser living can actually be good for us and our communities.

Density as health

Density brings public services, transit, parks, and amenities closer together. When we can walk our children to school or cycle to the nearby park, grocer, or restaurant, we reduce carbon pollutants, save money otherwise spent on cars, and get some exercise, too.

01/09/23
Author: 
Greg Sakaki
Nanaimo city council voted to accelerate implementation of the province’s zero carbon step code, which will effectively eliminate natural gas as an energy source for heating space and water in new homes starting a year from now. (News Bulletin file photo)

Aug. 29, 2023

City council votes 5-4 to accelerate adoption of zero carbon step code

Natural gas will not be the primary heat source in new homes built in Nanaimo starting next year.

City council, at a meeting Monday, Aug. 28, voted 5-4 to accelerate adoption of the zero carbon step code to 2024, six years ahead of the province’s timeline of 2030.

31/08/23
Author: 
Emily Fagan
photo: Samuel Engelking via Now Magazine

Aug. 28, 2023

 ‘Many Canadians, especially renters, are closer to homelessness than they might imagine’

Increasingly since the pandemic, in cities across the country, more and more people are choosing to live in a tent, often out of necessity, because they feel unsafe in overcrowded shelters, or they’re turned away because shelters are at capacity.

Encampments have become a regular fixture in parks and sometimes on city streets, as more and more people face rapidly increasing rents and fewer and fewer options.

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