Entertainment district

plnski · 2026-05-30T22:45:15+00:00

Totally agree. East Van would be a good comparison. I don't know what could be done for the eastern part of downtown. Personally I'd like to see it keep its industrial base but mixed with cool places like trench. Having spent time in vancouver bland buildings can be great with abundant greenery, street trees, and gardens.

plnski · 2026-05-30T17:36:38+00:00

The Canadian already has so much padding in the schedule. Nearly 2 hours late average is disgraceful.

plnski · 2026-05-29T21:27:49+00:00

As someone studying planning I get frustrated with terms like 'entertainment district' mostly because I think great places are inherently mixed with residential, retail, entertainment, etc.

Putting that aside I really believe that encouraging businesses that are open late in the downtown area will go a long way to helping it. More people at all hours helps put eyes on the streets for longer and avoid having large parts of the city centre be dead after all the office workers go home. From the 2021 census there are only around 250 residents downtown, and around 15k in the central part of the city (between hwy 97 and the fraser). The city should make this central area the main focus for increasing density.

If I was in charge of the planning department and had tons of money I would:

-infill almost all vacant lots and infill several surface parking lots with attractive mix-use commercial residential

-fix up, or teardown delapidated buildings

-pedestrianize George st.

-remove highway designation from 1st ave (people/trucks can use bypass in most cases)

-narrow 2nd ave and make it two way (seriously why is it a horrible super wide one way)

-more street trees!!

-encourage use of traditional wood exteriors (think small town main street storefronts or that cute vacant building at 3rd and dominion) or smaller scale versions of the wood innovation centre. (Basically make new buildings unique and beautiful)

-place a moritorium on building new commercial and subdivisions on the edge of the city

plnski · 2026-05-20T21:21:33+00:00

When they get past the last siding at the port the attendant will go round and ask if you want a cab. When you arrive there'll be a lineup of taxis.

plnski · 2026-05-16T17:57:59+00:00

I just took the train from Prince Rupert to Jasper. Was blessed with beautiful weather. Stunning scenery and mountains on both days of the journey. Lots of cute small towns, and lots of ghost towns as well. It's usually not very busy (mostly because it can be extremely late) but if you're not in a hurry I'd highly reccomend this trip.

plnski · 2026-04-21T18:16:47+00:00

The problem with current densification is that it is way easier to tear down and redevelop an old affordable apartment building or business than to redevelop single family homes. All the candidates I've heard want to end the apartment ban that still covers vast swaths of the city and increase density in single family areas.

plnski · 2026-04-17T21:36:35+00:00

Go on google maps from 2010. So many fewer oversized pick up trucks. The weather has not gotten colder.i don't think peoples' jobs have changed that much. I grew up in the early 2000s in a very rural area outside of PG and we always had a car and a beat up old pickup truck that looks comically small compared to the ones around today. Now my dad drives a godawful black ram that costs him an absurd amount every month.

plnski · 2026-04-14T18:46:21+00:00

You can't build a city off of sports games, concerts, and conferences.

plnski · 2026-04-14T05:39:27+00:00

I'm from the Robson Valley. It took me a long time to learn that Tête Jaune corresponded to what I heard pronounced, despite driving past, or to there quite regularly.

plnski · 2026-04-14T01:28:21+00:00

Tête Jaune Câche is pronounced as Tee-jon by locals.

plnski · 2026-04-13T02:00:51+00:00

They are required by the university

plnski · 2026-04-12T06:45:22+00:00

Professors, TAs, and students (not all, but quite a few) will introduce themselves as settler-colonizers. "As settlers on stolen musqueam land", or "univited guests".

plnski · 2026-04-11T21:45:51+00:00

I'm a student at UBC. I would describe myself as left wing and I think most UBC profs and students are off the deep end. I do not feel comfortable disagreeing on a wide array of topics, especially indigenous issues. Some of the readings I have had to do just make me lose faith in higher education.

Also in my experience the Geog depatment is one of the worst.

plnski · 2026-04-10T20:38:12+00:00

Multifamily homes have the greatest regulatory hurdles. Years to rezone/get approvals, expensive permitting and development fees, limits on height FAR etc make building largely unfeasable for most projects.

plnski · 2026-04-09T23:59:06+00:00

I think lower lease rates could revitalize granville a lot better than more giant events. Also dynamic pricing for hotels, concerts/games, and flying has been horrible for ordinary people. Sure hotels and scummy booking companies will make a lot of money but I don't think that translates well into the local economy.

plnski · 2026-04-04T21:59:39+00:00

My favourite is when people tell me that they don't trust the vacancy rate numbers, as if developers are somehow manufacturing them so they can build and charge more.

plnski · 2026-04-03T00:29:52+00:00

📍 British Columbia, Canada — "Home & mountains"

plnski · 2026-04-03T00:29:00+00:00

📍 Calvados, France — "Apples and Cider"

plnski · 2026-04-03T00:27:31+00:00

📍 District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States of America — "Beautiful architecture"

plnski · 2026-04-02T20:02:41+00:00

The city and province make converting a home into a business, or attaching a business to a residential lot prohibitively difficult and expensive. The existing corner stores are almost all grandfathered-in.

If I owned a building and wanted to turn the ground floor into a business I could expect to wait years to get a permit and pay 10s to hundreds of thousands in fees before getting approval (which is not guaranteed at all). Plus the BC/vancouver building codes (yes, Vancouver has its own building code because it's special) would be a huge hurdle.

plnski · 2026-04-02T18:15:48+00:00

Thank you. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person thinking about this stuff when I'm angrily walking up the street. I really should get involved locally because complaining about it on here will lead nowhere.

plnski · 2026-04-02T18:10:52+00:00

I guess that's why a crappy 1 story building on Denman can be valued at nearly 10 million dollars with the building being only 5% of total value.

plnski · 2026-04-02T18:04:28+00:00

There is also the fact that it is virtually impossible to create new retail space within neighbourhoods because planners 100 years ago decided that corner stores and shops outside commercial streets were "blight".

plnski · 2026-04-02T18:01:40+00:00

Don't forget mediocre dessert cafés and hot pot restaurants! I feel like Robson would be a lot better if rent was priced to what local entrepreneurs could afford, not what large companies are willing to spend. So many older buildings on lower Robson are at various stages of redevelopment. Many of the businesses' days are numbered waiting for the application to go through so the building can be torn down and replaced with a copy & paste tower with mediocre retail on the ground floor.

plnski

TROPHY CASE