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. 

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Catch 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.

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Catch 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

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Catch 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.

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

Sent from my iPad

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/

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music 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.

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  soundcloud.com/andabeat

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.

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://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

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at:  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). 

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music 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.

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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/viewpointvancouver

Music 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/viewpointvancouver

Music for the VWPT Podcast is by Romina Jones, from her lp Elevation. Hear more from Romina at: https://soundcloud.com/andabeat