citiZEN | Vancouver round-up

Some items about Vancouver that have caught my attention recently...

To start with, the City of Vancouver is moving toward making its data more open and accessible. [cbc] This is a huge move forward. As silly as it sounds, I'm actually excited about being able to watch council meetings on YouTube... right now they are only on the City's web site, and only viewable with the most recent version of Internet Explorer!

Anyhoo.

The long and winding debate seems always to be about Transportation. This will intensify over the next while as the Burrard Street Bridge Bicycle Trial gets under way. Price Tags is all over this, and posted an excellent primer of Burrard Bridge Basics. [PriceTags] Here's an interesting re-thinking of the intersection at Burrard and Pacific. [PriceTags]

With another fantastic map, Erick Villagomez at re:Place Magazine shows us the methods used as transportation by different neighbourhoods. [re:Place] From the "general info" file here's A Brief History of Transportation graph. [good]

And cyclists have a new tool developed at UBC to find the best route in Vancouver, called the Cycling Route Planner. [buzzer] [cbc] And what I think is actually a positive development, for reminding some cyclists they are vehicles on the road, not glorified pedestrians: the police department is ticketing cycling violations. As one may expect, the public comments have been barely short of a flamewar. [VanSun] And I'm not favouring drivers over cyclists here, or even pedestrians... we all need to get along and share.

Translink is going to shorten or reduce certain bus routes in an effort of increasing ridership on the new Canada Line. [VanSun] Just what bus riders need: less service and more frustration. With such a high-tech central nervous system as "T-Comm", the Transit Communications Centre, it's a surprise there seems to be such negativity about our transit system. [Buzzer]

Will there be a car-free Granville Street this summer? [straight] Sorry: will there be "summer spaces" in Vancouver? [straight] Here's a story about a german city that has completely eliminated cars. [nyt] There's always the Personal Rapid Transit option. [good] I love these pods.

Since we're here: here's a list of things to do on Canada Day, at Granville Island [kits.ca] [GI], and at Canada Place [VanBuzz] [CP].

Hand in hand with transportation is the issue of Urban Development.

Vancity Buzz has a good analysis of the plans for North East False Creek. [VancityBuzz] And Paul Hillsdon makes a case for tearing down the Georgia Street Viaducts. [PaulHillsdon] And Chicago is using technology created at UBC to plan their city. [ubc] And after 20 years, Cafe S'il Vous Plait, at the corner of Robson and Richards, has closed because the landlord wanted to double their rent.



At the neighbourhood level: Some interesting thoughts about Laneway Housing. [PriceTags] The Kits Farmer's Market, which re-opens July 1, will offer free home delivery by bicycle. [kits.ca] And the debate about rapid transit options to UBC (the UBC Line) is starting to heat up. Merchants along West Broadway are already getting nervous. [kits.ca] Another dude, as reported at Kits.ca, makes fun of the idea of a European-style tram along Broadway, and asks if Tram-Supporters (such as Mel Lehan) even ride the bus. [kits.ca]

And finally, a quick round-up on some history-themed posts... The Vancouver Museum changed it's name to... The Museum of Vancouver. [straight] Bruno Wall, Vancouver Developer, will put $12 million to restore the 97-year-old York Theatre on Commercial Drive. [cbc] The buzzer blog posted a history of interurbans in the Lower Mainland. [buzzer] And a historic railway car returned to the Lower Mainland. [ctv]

Here's the "ghost sign" on the side of 325 Carrall Street, the old Louvre Saloon. Click on the photo to go to laniwurm's excellent flickr page that describes this further.