LOCAL • Highlights of the B.C. budget [Globe and Mail] • Rogers Arena towers proposal: Green roofs, a hockey rink and less viaduct [OpenFile] • Ned Jacobs: Say no to Rize Alliance rezoning at Kingsway and Broadway [Straight.com] • Vancouver Airport Authority opposed to Richmond high-rise developments [Vancouver Sun] INTERNATIONAL • Nation's largest public Food Forest takes root on Beacon Hill [Crosscut] • Providing for Usable Open Space for Multifamily Developments [MRSC Planning Advisor] • Near Our National Parks, to Build or Not to Build? [The Atlantic Cities] • Creating buildings that repair themselves [...

Editors: Gloria Ohland & Shelley Poticha (Reconnecting America, 2006) On June 27, 1890, an event occurred in the little boom town of Vancouver that altered its destiny forever. Two parallel rails, little more that three miles (5 kilmeters) long, wound past Burrard Inlet's squatters and wooden shacks, part tree stumps and plank roads, and beyond West End mansions. Mere strips of steel, they passed seven lumber mills, dozens of hotels and three chartered banks and ran almost up to the original wooden Granville Street Bridge. The first car to run on these rail lines introduced a remarkable services that this port town had ever seen - one only newly available even in New York - public transit.  -  Vancouver's Glory Years: Public Transit 1890 - 1915 No words more accurately describe the unassuming yet colossal advent of the streetcar to Vancouver than those written above by Heather Conn and Henry Ewert. Streetcars in Vancouver - and in cities from coast to coast - were revolutionary and powerful shapers of the urban environment. And despite there decline beginning in the 1920's, a renaissance has already begun in urban centers across the continent. Yet for all the increasing interest to implement this form of public transit, there continues to be resistance from all sorts of directions - political and otherwise. That makes books such as Street Smarts: Streetcars and cities in the Twenty-First Century all the more important. Self-published by Reconnecting America - a national non-profit organization working to integrate transportation systems and the communities they serve, with the goal of generating lasting public and private returns while giving communities more housing and mobility options - this book offers readers a comprehensive and holistic look at streetcars.

LOCAL • The New Pattullo Bridge – we want to hear from you! [The Buzzer Blog] CANADA • Covering Canadian Urbanism [The Atlantic Cities] INTERNATIONAL • Park 101 Keeps the Ball in the Air [California Planning & Development Report] • Bipedal? Curious? Americans give walking and biking a try [Grist] • How Cities Can Build a Cultural Identity [The Atlantic Cities] • Yoshiko Sato 1960-2012 [Observers Room: Design Observer] ***

Please join City of Vancouver staff at the second in a series of open houses and help shape new park spaces in Hastings Park. See how initial public feedback has helped shape park concepts. Provide further input on the next stages of the park design. This project is a result of the Hastings Park/PNE Master Plan adopted by City Council in 2010. The Master Plan outlines a plan to transform Hastings Park into a greener, year-round destination that provides improved community access, significant additional park space, and renewed facilities for the annual PNE Fair, ...

Wilmar (Willard Kitchen Residence) 2050 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC Built 1925 | Architects: Benzie & Bow Architectural style: Tudor Revival Vancouver Heritage Register: B-listed Heritage Vancouver wishes to clarify the alarmist and misleading statements expressed in the media related to Wilmar, the Kitchen Residence, a Heritage Register "B" building located at 2050 SW Marine Drive. These statements have portrayed a very negative situation that could threaten the survival of this very important heritage site, without any corresponding coverage of factual information that presents an entirely different point of its financial and heritage value. There is no ...

LOCAL • South Delta at risk from disastrous flooding [Vancouver Sun] • Tofino, Ucluelet unprepared for quake [Vancouver Sun] INTERNATIONAL • New York vs. London, in Debate Form [The Atlantic Cities] • Cuba Unleashes the Pent-Up Energy of Real Estate Dreams [The New York Times] ***

INTERNATIONAL • How Rent Control Subsidizes San Francisco's Super-Rich [The Bay Citizen] • A Blueprint for a 21st Century Workforce [The Atlantic Cities] • The Unspeakable Pleasure of Ruins [Observers Room: Design Observer] ***

LOCAL • Hip spots and doughnuts spring up in the Downtown Eastside [Globe and Mail] • Vancouver's capital plan reveals city's spending priorities [The Georgia Straight] • Year-round Vancouver farmer’s market planned near historic 1908 location [Vancouver Sun] • A plan to behead Vancouver’s urban serpent: The Georgia Viaduct [Globe and Mail] INTERNATIONAL • Why Alleys Deserve More Attention [The Atlantic Cities] • An Early Eco-City Faces the Future [The New York Times] ***

Residents and media are invited to join Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Vancouver Park Board Chair Constance Barnes and Grandview Community Centre Association President Kate Perkins at the official opening of the $21.2 million Trout Lake Community Centre and an afternoon celebrating the history and future of the vibrant and diverse neighbourhood. When: Saturday, February 18 Time: Official opening ceremony 11 am - noon; celebration of living community noon – 3 pm Where: 3360 Victoria Drive (in John Hendry Park) What: Remarks and ribbon cutting, cake, bbq, live music, theatre, storytelling, figure skating demos, historical multi-media ...

The design style known as art deco began in Paris in the 1920s and quickly gained worldwide popularity. Here in Vancouver, we see the art deco’s geometry-inspired style captured in the architecture of the Marine Building and the Burrard Street Bridge. Starting March 8, the public can also see it captured in women’s fashions of the 1920s and 1930s on display in Art Deco Chic: Extravagant glamour between the wars at the Museum of Vancouver. “The garments chosen for exhibition have been selected because of their beauty and fine quality,” ...