Development of Heritage Neighborhoods (Granville, Yaletown, Chinatown, etc.)

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by fredinno

- snip -

Kingsway and Joyce-Collingwood then. You've have a point if we were talking about Woodland Park, but Sperling? Not really that steep in comparison.

Eh, “less dumb planning than Surrey” is a fairly low bar to clear... ditto “kinda-sorta not really getting around to laneways until Victoria approved them regardless.” My point was that Burnaby isn’t particularly forward-thinking either... which itself was an analogy for not needing to develop Yaletown’s warehouses yet when two-thirds of the city is still SFH... and since that part of the conversation has moved on, we can probably drop this one.

And nothing actually got banned: the province announced the legalization of several types of housing, and that they’d work with local munis to figure out housing quotas to meet within this many years; AFAIK the whole "banning SFHs" thing is Kevin Falcon making things up again.

I don’t think kicking Yaletown’s tenants out to Mount Pleasant is the way forward.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Changing City

The development capacity I listed are all current projects, or where developers have acquired the site and indicated an intention to develop. There are many others beyond that - The Bay Parkade - the parking lots on either side of The Penthouse Club - the notorious vacant site on Robson for example.

As I was walking down Robson this morning I thought about how different the 1500 - 1300 blocks of Robson could be in just a few years. Landmark is completing and there is the weird lot across the street, but there's also the redevelopment proposal for 1555 and Asia Standard's community garden (are they hoping to assemble the whole block or at least add the Barclay Hotel building before proposing anything?). And further down the street, I can't imagine Whole Foods and that surface parking lot makes economic sense for many more years.

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

You could implement a centralized garbage system for the area. That would reduce that access requirement. Could also eliminate requirements for a loading bay and have that on the street.

Vancouver should get some of those dumpsters under the sidewalk that they have in the Netherlands.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

As I was walking down Robson this morning I thought about how different the 1500 - 1300 blocks of Robson could be in just a few years. Landmark is completing and there is the weird lot across the street, but there's also the redevelopment proposal for 1555 and Asia Standard's community garden (are they hoping to assemble the whole block or at least add the Barclay Hotel building before proposing anything?). And further down the street, I can't imagine Whole Foods and that surface parking lot makes economic sense for many more years.

Asia Standard already have an office/retail building approved for 1394 Robson, which I assume they acquired to make construction staging easier for the Landmark. Another site next to 1555 also sold for development. I wouldn't expect anything to happen to Wholefoods itself, given the tower on top, but the parking lot ought to be a development opportunity, assuming that an 80 foot separation is possible. Something similar was built a few years ago on the Davie St parking lot for London Drugs.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Kingsway and Joyce-Collingwood then. You've have a point if we were talking about Woodland Park, but Sperling? Not really that steep in comparison.

Eh, “less dumb planning than Surrey” is a fairly low bar to clear... ditto “kinda-sorta not really getting around to laneways until Victoria approved them regardless.” My point was that Burnaby isn’t particularly forward-thinking either... which itself was an analogy for not needing to develop Yaletown’s warehouses yet when two-thirds of the city is still SFH... and since that part of the conversation has moved on, we can probably drop this one.

And nothing actually got banned: the province announced the legalization of several types of housing, and that they’d work with local munis to figure out housing quotas to meet within this many years; AFAIK the whole "banning SFHs" thing is Kevin Falcon making things up again.

I don’t think kicking Yaletown’s tenants out to Mount Pleasant is the way forward.

Joyce-Collingwood goes from 20-story towers to single-family homes about another 50 m further out from the SkyTrain station than Sperling.

It's not really, but you're going to see more of them move out as time goes on.

[Migrant_Coconut]

They've rezoned (and are developing six floors) for Kingsway, which is definitely up on a hill and further out.

Possibly. I suspect that City Hall will force a better long-term plan than "musical warehouses" before that happens.

[chowhou]

• Video Link

A nice little discussion by Uytae Lee.

Who exactly do we preserve heritage buildings/districts for?

[fredinno]

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/car-free-vancouver-gastown-motion

Among the biggest changes, creating car-free spots like Water Street or making Cordova a two-way street. Both options could have impacts on transit, which would be addressed, they said.

I guess now the homeless will be able to camp on Water Street now... lol

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by fredinno

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/car-free-vancouver-gastown-motion


I guess now the homeless will be able to camp on Water Street now... lol

LOL a car-free Gastown to boost business? Good luck with that. Just one more reason to avoid the area for most MetroVancouverites.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by chowhou

• Video Link

A nice little discussion by Uytae Lee.

Who exactly do we preserve heritage buildings/districts for?

Awesome video. Great point in there about completely ignoring the Filipino neighbourhood centre as heritage, just shows how arbitrary or even blatantly prejudice these designations can be.

[Vin]

Love the idea of a car-free Water Street. Let's see that happening now, but they really need to renovate the pavements which are in such disrepair.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

LOL a car-free Gastown to boost business? Good luck with that. Just one more reason to avoid the area for most MetroVancouverites.

Yeah, it's not like most of the people who imbibe in Gastown don't already just walk two blocks to Waterfront at the end of the night or couldn't walk one block south to Cordova to catch an Uber. If you think the bounty of parking and easy vehicle access is a boon for the neighbourhood, I would question if you know the current neighbourhood very well. The weight of the vehicles on the cobbles and the associated maintenance costs is reason enough to go car-free.

[officedweller]

The biggest thing to change would be the one-way couplet system on Cordova & Powell/Water.
So that would mean Cordova and Powell become two-way streets.
That, in turn, might free up Water St. to have a 2 two-way streetcar in future,
rather than the one-way couplet system they were planning.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by mcj

Awesome video. Great point in there about completely ignoring the Filipino neighbourhood centre as heritage, just shows how arbitrary or even blatantly prejudice these designations can be.

The post-war bungalows built for unhoused WW2 veterans in Renfrew Heights in the late 40s, the Vancouver specials with illegal secondary suites built by immigrants in East Van in the 70s, the 90s monster houses built by and for the new generation of wealthy Hong Kong immigrants on the West Side, the remaining sawmills and woodfibre yards on the Fraser River, the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, these are all buildings and structures which tell the story of Vancouver and are intrinsic core parts of Vancouver's heritage, but you know the heritage apologists would never try to get those protected. They're not "nice".

Instead we protect mansion #1-15 in the mansion district to make sure the mansion dwellers don't have to live next to non-mansions, and brick buildings #1-40 to make sure downtown dwellers don't expand downtown out too fast and threaten the mansion districts.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

Yeah, it's not like most of the people who imbibe in Gastown don't already just walk two blocks to Waterfront at the end of the night or couldn't walk one block south to Cordova to catch an Uber. If you think the bounty of parking and easy vehicle access is a boon for the neighbourhood, I would question if you know the current neighbourhood very well. The weight of the vehicles on the cobbles and the associated maintenance costs is reason enough to go car-free.

Given that I was born in Vancouver and have been going there since my parents took us all to Old Spaghetti Factory for special occasions , yeah I know it pretty well. Millennial hipster delusions to the contrary, the area won't survive on people getting drunk alone. Kind of the way Granville island merchants recoil in horror whenever some fixie-rider proposes cutting parking at Granville Island.

[Feathered Friend]

For context, here's some info from the Gastown BIA's own reports:

- Only 12% of visitors to Gastown come by car (Mustel Group Market
Research, 2017)
- Water Street west of Richards sees nearly 29k pedestrians vs only 8.5k vehicles in peak times.
- West of Maple Tree Square, Water St sees 18k pedestrians at peak hours, and only 8.5k cars.
- 40% of the public area is dedicated to vehicular traffic despite 88% of visitors arriving by public transport, walking or biking.

page 27
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_8JYke3rcFZFAKdSpgd-qosdmZIK5sZy/view


Sounds like Gastown would be more than fine with a car-free/car-light Water Street.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The biggest thing to change would be the one-way couplet system on Cordova & Powell/Water.
So that would mean Cordova and Powell become two-way streets.
That, in turn, might free up Water St. to have a 2 two-way streetcar in future,
rather than the one-way couplet system they were planning.

Should be relatively simple to do. Dirrect most Powell traffic left on Main and have Cordova 2 way west of Main. Allow local traffic along Powell west of Main and dead end before maple tree square.

[officedweller]

I was thinking they could 2 way all the way back from the diversion.
That would make Powell more local.

[madog222]

Ok sure, all the way from the diversion.

[MIPS]

Gastown might not be the nightclub district but it's absolutely suitable for keeping the streets closed and restricting commercial servicing traffic to specific hours. (EG: 2am to 10am)

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Millennial hipster delusions to the contrary, the area won't survive on people getting drunk alone. Kind of the way Granville island merchants recoil in horror whenever some fixie-rider proposes cutting parking at Granville Island.

Today (Tuesday) at 7pm it was very busy. Patios full. Even non-bar patios. Lots of tourists.

Not sure what folks with money and small business owners under 45 trying to retain pedestrian activity in the area is "delusional".