[caption id="attachment_416" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="False Creek North was Vancouver’s first high-rise downtown neighbourhood to intentionally include families with young children. Photo courtesy of Dani0010."][/caption] [Editors Note: this is a revised version of  a four-piece series originally published on Planning Pool.  You can read the first part here.] To serve a community sustainably, elementary schools require relatively stable populations of children within their catchment areas. Seniors’ centres require relatively stable populations of seniors. Similar principles apply to other types of social infrastructure that represent significant community investment, such as childcare centres, recreation centres, and health care facilities. Jane Jacobs’s prescription for economically vibrant districts was diversity of habitat for businesses. A mix of type, quality and age of buildings allows enterprises of all sizes and stages to thrive. Neighbourhood planning that follows the related principle of providing habitat for a diversity of households could allow both urban and suburban neighbourhoods to foster more stable and resilient intergenerational communities that are able to make efficient use of social infrastructure over multiple generations. Unfortunately, in many core cities, insufficient affordable and suitable housing for families provides a push for young families to leave urban neighbourhoods for the suburbs.

[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption=" Edith Cavell Elementary School in Vancouver during its experimental two-week spring break earlier this year – an attempt by the school board to cut costs."][/caption] [Editors Note: this is a revised version of  a four-piece series originally published on Planning Pool] Recent years have not been easy for public schools in Vancouver. A local newspaper identified threatened school closures as one of the top news stories of 2010. While the Vancouver Board of Education finally placed a moratorium on proceeding with school closures until 2012, the need to consider closing schools at all seems strange in a city whose overall population is growing by over 1% annually. Demographic shift – “low birth rates and an aging population” – is perhaps the most frequently cited explanation for school closures and other measures to scale back school services. The overall population of Canada, like that of many other “developed” countries, is indeed aging. But local demographic trends are more nuanced. Adults of all ages selectively decide where within a city, region or country to settle, whether they have kids or not. The Vancouver School Board’s complaints of declining enrolment made me wonder whether families with kids might be leaving the City of Vancouver for its suburbs in increasing numbers. This would leave the central City with a population made up of even greater proportions of childless households and retirees than could be explained by nation-wide demographic shift.

Planning Pool shares the highlights of the Canadian Institute of Planners Conference. Although the conference was in Ontario, BC was the topic of much conversation. By Daniella Fergusson and Vanessa Kay, Planning Pool