From Strong Towns — Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter Lifting kids out of poverty

There’s a hopeful new sign that how we build our cities, and specifically, how good a job we do of building mixed income neighborhoods that are open to everyone can play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting equity. New research shows that neighborhood effects—the impact of peers, the local environment, neighbors—contribute significantly to success later in life. Poor kids who grow up in more mixed income neighborhoods have better lifetime economic results. This signals that an important strategy for addressing poverty is building cities where mixed income neighborhoods are the norm, rather than the exception. And this strategy can be implemented in a number of ways—not just by relocating the poor to better neighborhoods, but by actively promoting greater income integration in the neighborhoods... Read more: Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter: Lifting kids out of poverty — Strong Towns

Why Vancouver has 5 times more kids than Seattle, 9 times more than Portland

"Why Vancouver BC has 5 times more kids than Seattle, 9 times more than Portland?" DECISION https://t.co/ndhxSeYHEt pic.twitter.com/PazNAX4cKh

— Gil Penalosa (@Penalosa_G) January 7, 2016

When a developer builds a family apartment in Vancouver BC’s downtown peninsula, the dining room comes with easy-to-clean floors that can handle spilled yogurt or spaghetti. Condo and rowhouse projects must have accessible stroller storage and outdoor play spaces, ideally where parents can look out a kitchen window and keep an eye on their kids. 

As of Canada’s 2011 Census, downtown Vancouver’s urban neighborhoods were home to nearly five times more kids than Seattle’s and nearly 9 times more than Portland’s. Read more: Sightline Institute: Are you planning to have kids? (Part 1)

From The Tyee — Part 1 of 3 At Four Sisters Co-op, an Affordable Housing Dream Realized

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

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New Masters of Community Planning Program at @VIUniversity approved by the province!

New Masters of Community Planning Program at @VIUniversity approved by the province! The first cohort is planned for September 2015. Pls RT

— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) September 26, 2014

Tweets from Canadian Institute of Planners 2014 Fredericton NB #cip2014

#CIP2014 Tweets

.@1sidewalkballet I agree with Ned Jacobs that demand-side subsidies (the person) are often better than supply-side subsidies (the bldg)
— Michael Geller (@michaelgeller) December 21, 2013

@1sidewalkballet @michaelgeller Correct. Two parts to unaffordable: price and income.

— neil21 (@neil21) December 22, 2013

Nanaimo News Bulletin Guest Comment —VIU VP, Provost David Witty: Nanaimo has Many Elements of a Successful City

DAVID WITTY There continue to be a number of national and international initiatives focusing upon the well-being of urban citizens and urban environments.

Recently, Canadian Gov. Gen. David Johnston has promoted Smart and Caring Communities. Healthy communities has been a topic on local, national and international agendas for a number of years, and Compassionate Communities has recently emerged as a topic in international conversations.

While each of these movements offers significant insight into the varied aspects that affect the well-being of society in general and cities in particular, there is a parallel concept that captures the collective notions of those initiatives and brings a broader range of factors into the discussion of cities: that emerging global conversation is called Successful Cities.

From Henriquez Partners Architects Archimemo — Council Approves Refugee "Welcome House Centre"

In an interview with the CBC yesterday, Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia (ISS of BC) director Chris Friesen announced that Vancouver City Council has approved a new, first of its kind in the world, 58,000 square foot facility that will address the needs of immigrants and refugees.

Henriquez Partners Architects, ISS of BC, and Terra Housing are working together to create a fully integrated regional service hub that brings together a variety of essential organizations, programs, and services that address the needs of immigrants and refugee newcomers to Vancouver.Read more: Council Approves Refugee "Welcome House Centre" | Archimemo

From ContainerLiving.net — Repurposed Shipping Containers Base for Innovative Social Housing in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

We have had a few container homes in Canada but this is definitely the most recent. 12 Containers are being utilised to form social housing for women in the downtown Eastside of the city.

The project is looking to complete by April 2013 and is the brainchild of the Atira Women’s Resource society, which bought a lot in 2009 to buildtraditional housing. Read more: Container Homes Hit Vancouver! | ContainerLiving.net

The Centre for Social Innovation And its Jane Jacobs DNA

From socialinnovation.ca: The Centre for Social Innovation is a social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation in Toronto and around the world. We believe that society is facing unprecedented economic, environmental, social and cultural challenges. We also believe that new innovations are the key to turning these challenges into opportunities to improve our communities and our planet.

CSI is a coworking space, community centre and incubator for people who are changing the world. We provide our members with the spaces, relationships and knowledge they need to turn their ideas into impact.

An exciting concept, "building a culture of collaboration". I wasn't aware of CSI until Nanaimo City Councillor Bill McKay this week suggested it to a representative from the performing arts community who was addressing Council in regards to a City-owned performance hall which has received a bleak report on the state of its health. But my interest in the work of Jane Jacobs had led me to a couple of the principals, Margie Ziedler and Mary Rowe.
 
When the Jacobs' first moved from New York to Toronto Jane's husband Robert worked for Maggie Ziedler's father's architectural firm and the families were very close through the Toronto years and Maggie's neighbourhood based enterprises (restoring small heritage hotel properties) are strongly influenced by Jane Jacobs. 

Mary Rowe is an urban scholar and Jacobs expert listed on the CSI website as being associated with Ideas that Matter a "Canadian organization… particularly interested in issues related to cities, urban economies and the values of diversity, community and the public good. Founded in 1997, the work of Ideas that Matter is inspired by the wide-ranging ideas and principles of Jane Jacobs".

Which brings me to Alan Broadbent. He's the founder of Ideas that Matter. I heard him at a Sam Sullivan sponsored forum in Vancouver and Sam introduced him as "making money in the morning and spending it in the afternoon on his causes," and said that after each time he'd had a discussion with Broadbent, his life was changed in one way or another.  His main focus presently seems to be his Maytree Foundation and Cities of Migration which works to help immigrants integrate into Canadian society. He's also written a book on municipal governance reform Urban Nation. http://maytree.com/blog/tag/urban-nation/.

Home | Centre for Social Innovation

From changingcitybook.com — Imouto (“little sister") House, Vancouver’s First Shipping Container Housing Will Create 12 Units for Women Aged 55+

Right now, Imouto House looks like a stack of shipping containers that somebody took a cutting torch to. That’s because it is exactly that; Vancouver’s first recycled shipping container based housing project will create 12 units of housing for Atira Women’s Resource Society. Imouto will in part provide housing for women aged 55+ living in shelters or SRO rooms. Imouto is the Japanese word for “little sister”and was chosen because the building in located in Japantown, kitty corner from the Vancouver Japanese Language School.

The first containers were lifted into position in late November, and the Barry McGinn designed project is expected to complete for April 1st after a week-long open house for the public. Each unit will be 320 sq ft, with its own kitchen, bathroom and laundry, and construction is quite a bit cheaper than traditional methods coming in at under $100,000 a unit.

Imouto House – Alexander Street | Changing City Updates

From PlaceMakers.com — Finally Thinkin’ Small, But Can We Build on What We’ve Learned?

The original Katrina Cottage: Hurricane Katrina’s scrappy li’l legacy.

As soon as the destructive path of Hurricane Sandy became evident, I got emails and calls from colleagues who, like me, worked in disaster recovery situations on the Gulf Coast. 

When the clean-up gets underway, could this be an opportunity for the Eastern Seaboard states to apply some of the rebuilding lessons of the Gulf after Katrina? Is there a role for Katrina Cottages?

Read more: Finally Thinkin’ Small: But can we build on what we’ve learned? | PlaceMakers

From The Vancouver Sun — Should Local Government be in the Social Housing Business?

Photograph by: NEWS photo , Mike Wakefield

Should local government be in the social housing business?

As the City of North Vancouver prepares to take possession of six apartments obtained though a 2008 development deal, several councillors aren't convinced.

Read more: North Vancouver City seeks proposals for 6 social housing units

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is the closest approximation I have ever found to Jane Jacobs' Hudson Street of the 1950s, replete with a character Jacobs herself would have had to invent if he did not already exist: Jack Roche, green grocer, unofficial mayor of Meath Street and secretary general of the "United Nations of Fruit and Veg."

— Alex Schafran The Rocky Road to Dublin reposted from thepolisblog.org.
 

From The Globe and Mail —Modern City, Modern Partnerships

If you’re one of the 80 per cent of Canadians who lives in a city, chances are you’re fiercely proud of it. Our cities can match any in the world for vibrancy, quality of life, entrepreneurial spirit and creative and civic culture.

But there’s no guarantee this will last. Canada’s cities face big challenges in the next few decades: managing growth, improving livability, becoming more sustainable and making city living far more affordable.

Just to avoid slipping backward, the infrastructure requirements are sobering: a $5-billion annual drag on our economy from traffic gridlock; a $123-billion deficit for fixing worn-out infrastructure. Read more: Modern city, modern partnerships - The Globe and Mail

Jim is a community developer, housing activist, co-founder of the Portland Hotel Society and a Gastown resident since 1972. In 2003, he spearheaded the Woodward's redevelopment with the goal of creating "redevelopment without displacement." He feels the goal has been realized, and calls the project "a great victory for the Downtown Eastside."

Green's profile is one of several by Andrea Woo and Mark Yuen of The Vancouver Sun, for the Gastown Project. Reposted from Spacing Vancouver.

From francesbula.com: Jim Green battling second tough round of cancer.

SUNN: Vancouver Historic Quartiers —The Dollar-Cost of Housing the Homeless

Social Housing should be part of the regional system, incorporated into neighbourhood planning from the outset. 
— Lewis N. Villegas, The Gastown Principles, March 2011.

Alexander Street in Gastown, pictured here, presents a microcosm of a workable housing strategy. In this photo we see co-op housing, social housing, affordable housing, and hi-end condominiums all on the same city block. There is a higher level of social mix taking place on the street than inside any given building.

The Face of Homelessness

Sustainable urbanism must incorporate social housing. Vancouver’s homeless are:

80% one or more of: addiction, mental health, HIV, other chronic
60% trauma victims
50% released from government care (foster care, group home, corrections) [Kraus, 2010]
33% aboriginal
10% Out-of-province

From: Housing and Homeless Strategy, City of Vancouver, 1 February 2011

In spring 2011, a CBC radio interview suggested that the cost of homelessness per person can be measured as:

$80,000 Federal Incarceration
$70,000 Provincial Incarceration
$55,000 Street Homeless (cost on the system–”Housing and Homeless Strategy,” City of Vancouver, 2011)
$45,000 Housed with supports

Read more: The Dollar-Cost of Housing the Homeless | SUNN: Vancouver Historic Quartiers

Pilot Project That Tackles Homelessness is Saving Money, Too - The Globe and Mail

HEATHER SCOFFIELD

Toronto— The Canadian Press

Published Monday, Dec. 26, 2011

 The federal government’s response to the Attawapiskat housing crisis may well have underscored Stephen Harper’s reputation for his hard line rather than his heart, with his focus on the aboriginal reserve’s financial problems, not its social ones.

From Michael Geller's Blog: Priority Number One: Housing Affordability

On Monday, the new Vancouver City Council was sworn in, and in his inaugural address, the Mayor focussed on his goal to create affordable housing for all. He proposed a 'blue ribbon Task Force" to examine various solutions, including 'leveraging' city owned lands....

Michael Geller's Blog: Priority Number One: Housing Affordability

Michael Geller on housing affordability with links to stories in the Sun and Strait and Frances Bula's blog.

From the NFB — Highrise: The Towers in the World, The World in the Towers

Explore more, including an interactive version at: http://highrise.nfb.ca/onemillionthtower/1mt_webgl.php