Tagged: metro vancouver
[Podcast] Vancouver: Consumption City Forever?
Photo by Andy Longhurst
Part two of the conversation with urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki about Vancouver’s future economic trajectory
On the program, the second part of the conversation with urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki about Vancouver’s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We discuss what the future might hold for Vancouver as a city of consumption – and whether it might be advantageous for the city to chart an alternative economic path forward.
Dr. Elliot Siemiatycki is a postdoctoral fellow at York University in Toronto, and he completed his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2013. His PhD research examined Vancouver’s urban economic transformation over the last three decades in his dissertation – Consumption City: Precarious Labour and Capital in Vancouver, British Columbia.
[Podcast] Vancouver: Consumption City
Trump Tower Vancouver construction. Photo by Andy Longhurst.
Economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki discusses Vancouver’s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption
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Above all, the many paradoxes of Vancouver’s contemporary economic development trajectory are exposed in the words of local workers, firms, commentators and industry experts: Vancouver is simultaneously the most livable and unaffordable city in the world; Vancouver is a leading creative city in which creative firms and workers alike struggle under conditions of precariousness; Vancouver is mythologized as a healthy, sustainable, lifestyle city while these very qualities often must be sacrificed by working Vancouver residents. Tracing the underlying story and challenges of Vancouver’s emergence as a global consumption city provides important insights into 21st century urban development. –Elliot Siemiatycki, PhD
On the podcast, urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki discusses Vancouver’s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We examine how the city’s structure, feel, and image of itself have shifted over the last three decades – and how the rise of precarious employment is implicated in this transformation.
Dr. Elliot Siemiatycki is a postdoctoral fellow at York University in Toronto, and he completed his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2013. His PhD research examined Vancouver’s urban economic transformation over the last three decades in his dissertation – Consumption City: Precarious Labour and Capital in Vancouver, British Columbia.
[Podcast] Gender, Housing Rights, and Local Solutions to the Housing Crisis
What are local solutions to jointly addressing affordable housing, homelessness, and health? What are the gender dimensions to these issues? We explore these issues in a Vancouver context with four speakers who bring considerable experience and insight into providing safe, adequate, affordable, and gender-inclusive housing in the city.
- Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society and Atira Property Management Inc.
- Janet Kreda, Manager of the Homelessness Secretariat, Metro Vancouver
- Margot Young, Associate Professor of Law at UBC and Co-Principal Investigator of the Housing Justice Project
- Jean Swanson, anti-poverty and anti-gentrification activist, Carnegie Community Action Project
- Christine O’Fallon, homelessness researcher, Women Transforming Cities board member, and discussion facilitator
This discussion was recorded at the Women Transforming Cities National Conference held on May 30, 2013. The panel was called On the Streets Where We Live: Housing Rights and City-based Solutions for Women and Girls.
[Podcast] Divisions and Disparities in Lotus Land: The Social Geography of Income Polarization in Metro Vancouver
UBC geography professor David Ley and geographer Nicholas Lynch co-authored a recent study, Divisions and Disparities in Lotus Land: Socio-Spatial Income Polarization in Greater Vancouver, 1970-2005. Nicholas Lynch presents the worrisome findings of the study, as we see an increasingly divided Vancouver and a disappearing middle class. He discusses the social geography of polarization across the region, the implications, and possible policy solutions.
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[Podcast] Taking on the Premier: BC NDP’s David Eby on Transportation, Housing, and Provincial-Municipal Relations
The BC NDP’s David Eby is running against BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark in the Vancouver-Point Grey riding on Vancouver’s westside in the upcoming provincial election.
We discuss regional planning, education, housing, poverty reduction, and the importance of progressive provincial-municipal policies. In the 2011 Vancouver-Point Grey by-election, Eby came within 600 votes of Christy Clark in the seat previously held by former Premier Gordon Campbell.
David Eby is a lawyer and the former executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. He has also worked for Pivot Legal Society and is adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia.
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[Podcast] Getting From Here To There: Transportation Policy & Planning, Metro Vancouver’s Transit Future, and the UBC-Broadway Line
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What do you think about the proposed $2.8 billion UBC-Broadway subway line (and the economic case for it)? Will this come at the expense of other regional rapid transit projects? How would it shape the city’s transit accessibility and urban development trajectory? What are the lessons to be learned from the Canada Line experience?
On the podcast, Matti Siemiatycki discusses transportation policy, planning metro Vancouver’s transit future, and the UBC-Broadway line. Matti Siemiatycki is assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Program in Planning. His research focuses on transportation policy and planning and how large infrastructure projects are financed and delivered. He has authored many articles on these topics and is involved in the Public-Private Partnership Research Project, which graphically shows trends in the delivery of transportation projects through public-private partnerships (P3s).
[Podcast] The Working City: Future of Vancouver’s Economy
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Looking west down the North Arm of the Fraser River from the Queensborough Bridge in New Westminister. (Photo by A. Longhurst)
Is Vancouver on track to become a resort town with a real estate-dependent economy with an overabundance of low-wage service jobs? Are we on track to be a hub for transportation, technology, and value-added industries? How do highly uncertain global economic and climate forecasts play into Vancouver’s economic outlook?
On this podcast, we continue the ongoing series, The Working City (listen to Part I), examining urban economic landscapes and the future of economic development. We hear three of perspectives on the future of Vancouver’s regional economy, including Bryn Davidson, a laneway house developer, Marc Lee, an economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Shane Simpson, a BC NDP MLA for Vancouver-Hastings. This discussion was recorded at the 2012 UBC School of Community and Regional Planning Symposium in February 2012.
the city 
