How can city planners and economists work collectively to create an reasonably priced Vancouver, particularly for younger individuals?
Alain Bertaud has suggested 50 cities around the globe in his profession as an city planner. Now he is taking a look at Metro Vancouver. What he sees is disturbing.
Younger individuals can’t afford an condominium; Solely 5 p.c of Vancouver residents can afford to purchase 60 p.c of the land they stay in. Farmland inside the metropolis is empty or used to subsidize juice corporations, contradicting meals safety claims. The Downtown Eastside has been falling into disrepair, bringing dying and distress to 1000’s because it was created by metropolis actions 50 years in the past.
Metropolis and provincial governments appear paralyzed and not sure why, regardless of their actions, it is getting worse and worse. Some blame international on line casino playing speculators for property costs. However regardless of years of presidency motion to squeeze out international cash whereas casinos have been closed for over a yr, home costs are up 30 p.c. This sample of blaming foreigners is extra widespread in creating nations, however the outcome is identical. A rise in assaults on minorities and no answer to the issue.
Alain Bertaud has seen the issues of Metro Vancouver in different cities. He started his profession for le Corbusier, the “god of modernity”, in his design of Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab. He and his spouse Marie-Agnes raised their rising household in seven world cities in his function as Principal City Planner of the World Financial institution.
Bertaud gained nice perception into cities whereas working for Russia and China as they made the transition from purely deliberate cities to market-oriented cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen. He was shocked whereas working with a metropolis economist and realized how a lot he did not know concerning the highly effective dynamics of engaged on cities.
Bertaud got here to imagine that city planners and concrete economists have to work extra intently collectively. He realized that he could not simply draw strains on a map and assume that the town would do what he needed. He needed to perceive the forces performing on a metropolis and work with these forces, not towards them. This led him to jot down his internationally acclaimed e book Order With out Design and has been the main focus of quite a few conferences and podcasts.
Previously few months, Bertaud has heard about Zoom from 12 Vancouver city lunches specialists attended by over 400 residents. On September twentieth, on the massive display of the Vancouver Playhouse, he’ll take to the stage with six key native urbanists to debate potentialities for a extra dynamic and reasonably priced metropolis on the Vancouver Playhouse. That is earlier than his go to subsequent spring, the place he’s invited to talk with the leaders of the planning departments of Metro Vancouver communities and maintain workshops for college students and dedicated residents.
The occasion on the Vancouver Playhouse shall be attended by Chris Lewis of the Squamish Nation, a driving power behind the outstanding explosion of indigenous growth tasks like Senakw that shall be residence to almost 10,000 individuals close to the Burrard Bridge. Additionally on stage are UBC Planning Prof. Julia Harten, information visualizer Jens von Bergmann, researcher and historian Wendy Waters, city planner Michael Mortensen and SFU Prof Andrey Pavlov.
20 free tickets shall be reserved for college students and 15 for group volunteers to scale back the price of participation. To use for these tickets, contact data@globalcivic.org and write a couple of sentences about who you’re and why you need to get free tickets. In any other case you should purchase tickets on-line right here.
Alain Bertaud: city planner and writer
When: 09/20/2021 at 7:30 p.m.
The place: Vancouver Playhouse – 600 Hamilton Avenue
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