helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her)
@helenl.bsky.social
3.6K followers 580 following 110 posts
development professional working on vibrant, sustainable & inclusive communities pro abundant & affordable housing, bike & bus lanes, & not getting hit by cars 🏡🏢🚎🚲 ❤️| posts & sarcasm my own | Host of podcast urbanismvancouver.com
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 4d
the demographic of people who oppose more school capacity at a city centre school:

they ask you for grandkids already but not for the school for said grandkids
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 4d
and you can bet those same NIMBYs opposing the proposed additional capacity for the OV school will turn around and oppose the next development bc “there’s insufficient infrastructure, like schools”
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 4d
people protesting an extra floor at the OV school because of congestion when I will quite literally buy a car to drive up to Ontario & 16th for his current catchment if he can’t get into the OV school
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 22d
Why are all the city themed baby play mats just stroads and cars

where are the apartments and bike lanes and busses and SHADOWS
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Reposted by helen (she/her)
lanefab.com
Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 22d
“A lot of what fire depts respond to is car crashes”

“Single family homes have 2x the fire death rate of multi fam”
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 22d
Do the opponents actually live in OV bc have you actually SEEN the amount of children here who currently drive/commute to the next closest schools which are in Chinatown & near main & 16th?!

They’d probably reduce overall congestion with the 4th floor if anything
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · 22d
It should actually be like 8 stories
pwaldkirch.bsky.social
Peter Waldkirch @pwaldkirch.bsky.social · 24d
The CBC did a story on the NIMBYs fighting the rezoning for the elementary school in the Olympic Village. I'm happy with the quote I got in at the end!

youtu.be/Z8j56MEne0c?...
Olympic Village school project faces community backlash
YouTube video by CBC British Columbia
youtu.be
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Reposted by helen (she/her)
jamesglave.bsky.social
James Glave 🇨🇦 @jamesglave.bsky.social · 26d
On Wed Sep 17, City of Vancouver Councillor @lucymaloney.bsky.social will intro a motion that aims to unlock new apartment buildings up to six floors, and corner stores, on quiet Vancouver streets, including cycling routes and local streets around parks. (1/3)
A six floor apartment building in Vancouver’s West End
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Reposted by helen (she/her)
michaelwiebe.bsky.social
Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · Aug 11
Great article by @helenl.bsky.social on non-market housing. One important point: demand for non-market housing is related to the supply of market housing.

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Reposted by helen (she/her)
albertzghuang.bsky.social
Albert Huang - 黃忠堅 @albertzghuang.bsky.social · Mar 18
I’m here with @dannyoleksiuk.bsky.social @amoralorealis.bsky.social @denisagar.bsky.social and @ravikahlon.bsky.social to dig into the future of housing transit for our home of Vancouver!
jennifer, denis, ravi and danny
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Reposted by helen (she/her)
maxdubler.com
Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · Mar 3
YIMBYism is wild because you start to ask questions like “why was single family zoning created?” and “are our regulations for building safety based on any actual safety data?” and soon realize that ~85% of the rules governing our cities are based on nothing but tradition and vibes.
mnolangray.bsky.social
M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · Mar 3
We went through this with zoning, and now we're going through it with building code: trillion dollar industries depend on these things, yet a bunch of precocious bloggers can swoop in and expose these institutions as full of pseudoscience. Does nobody do their job? @aarmlovi.bsky.social
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 21
💪💪💪
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Reposted by helen (she/her)
lucymaloney.bsky.social
Lucy Maloney @lucymaloney.bsky.social · Feb 19
Thank you to the Vancouver and District Labour Council for your support!

With our Mayor having cut wages for janitors and security guards, it couldn't be clearer that we need progressive fighters at City Hall who will call him out and fight back.
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 19
delulu ✨✨
Reposted by helen (she/her)
davidmoscrop.com
David Moscrop @davidmoscrop.com · Feb 18
I want to do a podcast episode on video games, the state of games and the state of the industry.

Who'd you recommend as a guest?
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 19
At least they respond to something
I’ve had responses that don’t answer my questions but are a page long 😭
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 19
To the people who don’t read instructions labelled under “instructions” in emails:

why
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 15
Oh I don’t doubt
It sounds like you all should stay inside Indefinitely
helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 15
I like the kinda cold where I get to wear my nice cosy sweaters, not the kind where I have to put in a puffer coat on top of my sweater cold
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 10
We should definitely compile all public land in a registry to find best ways of mixed-use developments to address multiple but compounding benefits.
Affordable homes + community space + incorporating alternate modes of transportation near transit nodes 🏢🚌🚴🏻‍♀️🎨
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 7
If the city just upzoned massive areas (AHEM SHAUGHNESSY) instead of limiting density to Bway & downtown they’d get way more market homes built faster on more sites
These sites are LIMITED opportunities to build w/ little to no land cost for deeper affordability that other devs & sites can’t do
9/
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 7
And despite it being city owned land & projects these things often take way longer than a comparable market project. There’s just so many more layers of approvals & bureaucracy unfortunately. So is this the best use of city owned land?
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 7
Case & point the CoV real estate dpt loves delaying non-profit projects by arguing about whether they should actually just sell a city owned site for big $$$ instead of using it for non-profit homes
I’ve experienced it personally at least a few times
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 7
But most importantly the “revenue generation” bit gives the CoV real estate dpt even more ammo to squeeze every $$ they can out of these sites
If you’ve ever had to work on CoV owned projects, you’d know that the real estate dpt is all $$$>affordability which is bonkers on non-market sites
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helenl.bsky.social
helen (she/her) @helenl.bsky.social · Feb 7
This is a foot in the door for the city to not do the following instead:
1. Increase our VERY low property taxes & make the wealthier homeowners pay a fairer share, instead of charging higher rents on already struggling rents households
2. Not lower the super bloated VPD budget
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