Nathan Lauster

@lausterna.bsky.social

3803 Followers 1243 Following

UBC sociologist, demographer, housing & urban regulation scholar, author, immigrant, blogs at https://homefreesociology.com/

Orangey-plum blue sunset silhouetting trees and houses and crane building a 6-storey
The band Mitsune dressed in some wild blue costumes at the Vancouver Folk Fest
Orange cat claws out holding a hand in place to chew upon
Western Tiger Swallowtail on a London Plane Tree leaf, kinda curled inside like a fancy cocktail drink, in Clark Park in Vancouver
Sunset in Vancouver this evening, silhouetting a utility pole
Photo of the crowd at the Khatsalano Festival on 4th (between Cypress & Burrard)
A glowing rainbow formation of some sort hanging out over Burnaby
Bee in the bee balm
Figure on what proportion of people feel multiculturalism contributes positively to the Canadian identity, demonstrating widespread support from all demographics polled.
View from Eagle Bluff, with Vancouver/UBC to the left and Bowen Island on the right
Greek Day crowd, wearing a lot of Canada colour, along W. Broadway in Vancouver
The view from the steps of the old Art Gallery looking toward Georgia Street while Bonnie North Graves and the Big Loud play on stage.
Article extract: "Senior HBC officials didn’t care about the challenge of farming, however. In 1839, the same year the fort moved two miles upriver, the Hudson’s Bay Company signed a trade agreement with the Russian American Company in which HBC promised the Russians with a significant volume of butter, most of which was to be supplied by Fort Langley. (The Russians controlled Alaska until its sale to the United States in 1867.) James Murray Yale, who was in charge of Fort Langley from 1833 to 1859, was concerned. The Hudson’s Bay Company sent 29 dairy cows (which Yale labelled “wild California cows”) to Fort Langley in 1839, with the hopes that the fort could supply a significant portion of the more than 5,000 pounds of butter required by the Russian contract. “I shall not presume to express my humble opinion in regard to the Treaty with the Russians,” Yale wrote in a letter, “but judging of their consequence only from the quantity of Butter they require, one would certainly believe them to be very formidable.” Fort Langley managed to produce significant volumes of butter—around half of the amount required by the agreement in 1840—while also farming grain and salting pork."
CatComix Contribution for Make a Terrible Comic Day from my youngest kid, with a more realistic depiction of how our cats relate than my own
My Make a Terrible Comic Day contribution involving my two cats and mouse that is/was really a druid
USGS earthquake map, highlighting Japan and Venezuela quakes at 6.9 and 7.1 magnitude
2024 EHT Vacant and Exempt properties in Vancouver, ranging from 1% to 4% across City neighbourhoods, with the highest proportion in wealthy SW neighbourhoods dominated by mansions.
Burgess' map of Chicago (1925), meant to indicate five basic zones of succession (downtown "loop", zone in transition, workingmen's homes, residential zone, and commuter zone), but also indicating areas by dwelling type and ethnicity.
Map of Census tract-level seismic risk estimated to buildings (and occupants) for the City of Vancouver
UBC Wesbrook Village "Soccer in the Square" event, with a large gathering of people watching the big screen and spilling out of its tented covering.
English Ivy covering the "No" part of a "No Trespassing" sign next to a "Coyotes in Area" warning sign.
A dragonfly with dark spots on its otherwise translucent wings, perched on a bamboo pole, ready for flight, with the sun streaming in behind it, highlighting its fuzzy body
Possibly an orange cat looking out of an overturned laundry basket at the bottom of a set of stairs
Excerpt of zoning map with drawn shipping lines to destinations above extending from the area surrounding the old CPR rail terminal, with industrial uses including Hastings Mill identified along the shore
"Another Seat Lost" comic by Batchelor, from Vancouver Sun May 15, 1930.
I land on "The Empiricist" in the Theodramatist quiz... "Your closest counterpart The Empiricist c. 1689–1776 · England & Scotland · the evidence of the senses Locke, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding The mind starts as a blank page, and everything written on it comes through the senses—so test your claims against what you can actually observe, and hold even your best conclusions loosely. Certainty is mostly a flattering illusion. Push the reasoning far enough and even cause and effect dissolve into habit. Better a little doubt, a little toleration, and a decent regard for what actually works. Representative figuresJohn Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume"
Women in Farm Economics logo, including a devil-red figure in a dress holding a pitchfork that is also the "W" in WIFE. Just wild...
Increasing interest in song as anti-development, no anti-parking mandate, no use fees should be replaced by property taxes, no blaming a vague "they" for interpersonal problems is bad song
Excerpt from the Tax Assessment Form from Vancouver's initial Act of Incorporation in 1886 where livestock are recorded as part of determining taxable property value.
Trees, trees, trees running up to (and through) the downtown Vancouver skyline
A Jenny kiwi flower (open for the first time)
Excerpt of Bartholomew's Plan for Vancouver, link: https://ia801306.us.archive.org/27/items/vancplanincgen00vanc/vancplanincgen00vanc.pdf
Section defining Electors under Vancouver's 1953 Charter, enabling corporations to count as persons for the purpose.
Passage from the 1953 Charter of Vancouver defining personhood as a corporate vote.
A regional map of liquor store density which... does not AT ALL demonstrate how easy it is to find a liquor store across different regions.
Disclosures Dr. Henry has owned a share in a BC winery since 2006. This potential conflict of interest was formally declared in 2018 when she was appointed as BC’s Provincial Health Officer and she has recused herself from any discussion or decisions directly affecting wineries, including in this report.
Chart 9 from linked study, exploring the perception-measurement gap for inflation, where we really see a disjuncture from 2022-onward regardless of measurement choice for owned accommodation.
Bumblebee on a grape arbour with blue sky behind
Giant root revealed under the sidewalk surrounded by orange striped safety barriers in front of the best book store for Fantasy & SciFi type books (Mystery too). A 99 Bus is going by.
An excerpt on Shadow Studies from the Solar Access Guidelines for the Downtown Peninsula from the City of Vancouver from: https://guidelines.vancouver.ca/guidelines-solar-access-downtown.pdf
Steller's Jay on my bean stand / grape arbour.
Chart 2 from StatCan Study on how Canadians’ typical sources of news or information differ across age groups, with gradually rising reliance upon news sources and television.
people keeping watch over the path along Kits Point as Geese herd their goslings across with Senakw in the background https://senakw.com/
A list of ambiguous categories of those in your household according to the Census questionnaire for 2026
Vessel Traffic Density for all vessel types, 2014-2016, along BC's Coast, including the Juan de Fuca Strait into the Salish Sea
Text excerpt from linked article: "This case comment offers a counterpoint to those criticisms, and to the online sound bites and click-bait that have tended to distort the decision and exaggerate its significance.[7] Put briefly, the Cowichan decision is narrowly limited to the particular historical facts in the case. It is not the “tip of the iceberg.”[8] It does not put private property rights at risk across British Columbia. Instead, the Cowichan decision confirms that our existing constitutional framework provides an opportunity for the Crown to remedy a longstanding fraud by negotiating win-win solutions with Cowichan Tribes.[9]"
Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements payments from Audit report highlights in inflation-adjusted 2025 millions of dollars from 1971-2025, showing a growing trend and large spikes in recent years: https://www.canada.ca/en/auditor-general/our-work/audit-reports/commissioner-environment-sustainable-development-202605-flood-hazard-mapping.html
BC Legislative Assembly from across the Victoria Harbour with mountains in the background.
Metro Vancouver Urban Containment Boundary image, from https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/metro-2050-performance-monitoring/goal-1/urban-containment/urban-containment-boundary
Diverging Income and Education splits on Alberta Separation support as linked from CBC story https://www.planetjanet.ca/_files/ugd/586d9d_5d66bc7eeaa347da955f18479423ec7d.pdf
Photo of a miniature galaxy of baby spiders with yellow butts and their shadows against wood painted white.
The three completed towers of Sen̓áḵw (so far) rising up behind a cherry tree in blossom at Seaforth Park
Figure showing individual/couple income spread across generation
A Canada Goose on the street at 8th & Yew, with cherry trees in the background and a fire hyrdant to the right
Exterior view of the buildings ringing the Begijnhof (leaning somewhat ominously from the right), with the evening sunlight casting shadows from people and bicycles and pigeons nearby.
Imaged of zoning & ODP from VanMap https://maps.vancouver.ca/vanmap-viewer/
Yarrow growing in my Haskap box
Figure from page 10 of linked report demonstrating a marked rise in perception that building new market-rate housing will reduce cost of housing for residents.
RECOMMENDATION 3: That Metro Vancouver, in collaboration with member jurisdictions and other regional agencies, develop a consistent definition of ‘industrial’ and guidelines for which primary and secondary (or ancillary) land uses should be permitted in Industrial and Mixed Employment designated areas, respectively. Member municipalities, as part of their regional context statement updates, would commit to review and update their zoning bylaws using the guidelines as a resource to amend the permitted uses in their local industrial and employment lands. The definition of ‘industrial’ in zoning bylaws and associated permitted uses (and scale of accessory uses) varies significantly across the region. Different zoning bylaws permit accessory and non-industrial uses, such as recreation, big-box retail, and places of worship, on industrially zoned lands, creating additional competition for industrial land from uses that should be located elsewhere. The bylaw review and update should remove non-industrial uses from the industrial zoning while adding new types of industrial uses, and limit the scale or size of accessory uses. Definition consistency would limit non-industrial, commercial and institutional uses in certain industrial locations across the region, and would create a clearer understanding and more consistent permissible uses while aligning with the regional growth strategy