Fraseropolis Greatest Hits Volume 2

Vintage houses, Clarke Street, downtown Port Moody

Vintage houses, Clarke Street, downtown Port Moody

It’s more than two years since we launched this blog site, dedicated to reporting on the obvious features of local government and urban life in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. The two subject counties, Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, are about half the size of Belgium when you put them together, with 2.65 million residents bunched up either in the valley itself or around the Burrard Inlet.

The pressures of paid work have reduced the rate of activity here, and the number of visits has dropped off as a result, but only slightly. I’ll provide a list of which posts have been visited most over the past year, as I did in November 2012. Only one of them, the live-work item, is a repeat. Continue reading

Conflict in Marpole

apartments 1

Urban affairs journalist and blogger Frances Bula recently noted a heating up of resistance to densification in Metro Vancouver, especially in the City of Vancouver. A consortium of neighbourhood interests called “Liveable Vancouver” is spotlightlighting the controversy in Marpole, where the City government is trying to develop a plan to accommodate a forecast population increase. On a recent visit, we saw many lawn signs protesting against rezoning; a Marpole neighourhood group claims there are thousands.

The City’s current concept would protect Marpole’s significant stock of rental housing; enable townhome construction on many of the residential streets where there is now single-family housing; and allow condo apartments or towers on the arterial streets. Continue reading