March 12, 2014
The Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan or DTES LAP is a comprehensive plan for a significant area of downtown/East Vancouver. It goes before City Council this week, where Council seems likely to pass it despite significant opposition.
February 16, 2014
This video, Behind the Walls of 439, corrects a great deal of the misinformation generated by the City of Vancouver. Good job by local television students.
Pretty heartbreaking.
“This is the story of the displacement of people with less power.”
January 30, 2014
Trying to laugh instead of cry over the announcement by Vancouver airport of a kitsch faux-nineteenth century monstrosity of a “luxury outlet mall” next to our quite attractive, Pacific NW contemporary airport with its forest water features, stunning aquariums and significant First Nations art.
January 15, 2014
Orange Cars Powell, 1973, Photo reprinted by kind permission of Equinox Gallery and Fred Herzog. (Contact the gallery if you’re interested in purchasing one of this edition of 20.)
The Ming Sun Building is still standing.
December 3, 2013
The frantic festival of demolition continues in Vancouver, a city whose demolition rate is double that of Toronto’s. And Toronto is no paragon of heritage either.
The City of Vancouver is attempting to force demolition of the 122 year-old building which belongs to the Ming Sun Benevolent Society.
October 8, 2013
Vancouver artist Ken Lum took the opportunity of a Pecha Kucha appearance to talk about the his city, its history and its habits, and its demolition and disappearance. Though he said little about his own work, none of the concerns or ethic of his art were missing.
July 17, 2013
Before the stock market crash, London in the 1920s. From Stephen Fry’s film Bright Young Things, based on Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, 1930
Oh Nina, what a lot of parties… Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Circus parties, parties where you have to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St.
June 20, 2013
In case you think that what follows is an exaggeration, please take a quick look at the recent articles listed below. They are only a small selection from a rising wave of articles on gentrification and the new super-rich.
June 15, 2013
This superb article on public space and cities by Will Hutton appeared in the Guardian on Sunday, June 16. I’ve reprinted it here in full.
Hutton explains why cities are starting to look the way they do by pointing to various financial behaviours.
April 27, 2013
Tower of Babel, 1563 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel painted a series of three pictures of the Tower of Babel; one, on ivory, is lost.
‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ (Genesis 11:4).
