… is what Portland already has. According to Patrick Condon, this:
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Go here to explore the interactive map on development in PDX:
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With details and links to proposed and active projects:
And then check out Condon’s latest piece in The Tyee: “Stop the Dubai-zation of Vancouver.“
I have previously emailed the city about their archaic listing of rezoning/DP’s on their website. Many other cities, including many in the Lower Mainland use mapping software to identify where these applications are and then you can click on them to learn more.
Sifting through a list of addresses with no information about them is not helpful.
To be fair, they have their development projects on VanMap under ‘City Projects’. Not very visually appealing and really slow. I say they should just upgrade their VanMap….
Ahh, never thought to look under City Projects….I assumed City Projects meant projects the City was undertaking. Not private development.
But yeah, vanmap sucks.
Looking at the Portland maps, you’d still have to zoom in to read the street names and all the icons seem to overlap so much
– so for some users, it would be good (i.e. what’s up in my neighbourhood?), while for others doing research, etc., exact information like a street address, may be easier to search (depending on whether the reader can read a map well).
Moving away from a “knowledge-based approach” – searching by street address – may not be such a good thing. People generally are becoming oblivious to “detail” as it is. The “point and click” generation seems to rarely take the time to read and digest information, as it is.
Have you seen this? http://www.chicagocityscape.com/
It’s by a friend who originally created it to find contractors approved to do work on the public way in the city. It’s since blossomed into a “freemium” model on contractor activity in Chicago.
Another Portland thing Vancouver could use is land. With roughly the same population but three times the land area (133 sq. miles vs. 44), Portland is substantially less densely developed than this city is.
MetroVan has that option: off UBC, west of Richmond, in Boundary Bay south of Delta and Surrey, off Tsawassen .. like Holland did 150+ years ago or today in the San Francisco Bay Area, Manila or Japan .. but the political will is not there in MetroVan. They rather grow more blueberries besides 12 story highrises in Richmond or don’t touch low-lieing mud land.
Much of the high housing costs in MetroVan are intentional through lack of political will.
WHY ?
Pcitures here: https://www.google.ca/search?q=bay+area+land+reclamation&tbm=isch&imgil=dGNHCv5MNr36mM%253A%253B8D6o92tEtEWGyM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FLand_reclamation&source=iu&pf=m&fir=dGNHCv5MNr36mM%253A%252C8D6o92tEtEWGyM%252C_&usg=__Z0nPjNR97_KdafhvaxGzqjyBhvc%3D&biw=1495&bih=939&ved=0CFAQyjc&ei=ijzcVM6NFMvZoAT90oKwDw#imgdii=_&imgrc=dGNHCv5MNr36mM%253A%3B8D6o92tEtEWGyM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fen%252Fc%252Fc9%252FBay_area_fill.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FLand_reclamation%3B560%3B675
Why not extend Canada Line through Richmond all the way to Delta with a brand new city in Boundary Bay ?
Plenty of land south of Fraser. PLENTY. Plus more could be made … several sq km !
Patrick’s article on the Dubai-zation of Vancouver deserves its own post.
Bob – yes! Would get a lot of comments, I’m sure.