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Originally Posted by Changing City
I don't think Vin could be any clearer - he wants Vancouver to be as liveable as the world's most liveable city - which on both the Mercer and Economist lists is Vienna.
They score higher on affordable housing infrastructure than Vancouver. This would seem to require Vancouver to have much more control over housing. "According to the municipality, 62 percent of Vienna’s citizens currently live in social housing. Here, rents are regulated and tenants’ rights are strongly protected." [ source]
The other thing we'll need to do is to knock all the towers down. Here's the more liveable Vienna. (Their population density is lower than the City of Vancouver too, although that's over a larger area than the city).
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Exactly, I did say many times before that the Vienna style heights would be acceptable if all of Vancouver is upzoned at the same time, and not just along arterial roads, which have pretty much led to nothing so far. In the meantime, towers do help in increasing densities, while at the same time allowing parklands and other industrial areas to remain.
Many European cities have grown organically over the centuries to their present forms, and the splendid architectural sculpturing of the lower-rise buildings makes this form of housing form appealing over there. For the new world, if we emulate such a concept but instead only put in cookie cutter structures such as those in OV, we would only be successful in creating very depressing and claustrophobic neighbourhoods. Taller towers allow for plazas and other open spaces to be created between the taller towers.