Westside Backyard

@westside-backyard.bsky.social

288 Followers 129 Following

just a millennial, standing in front of a city, asking for an affordable home

Comparison of servicing costs for suburban ($3462) and urban ($1416) households in Halifax by Sustainable Prosperity
One character says "I made this", handing an object over to another who asks "You made this?" The object is labelled 'commercial streets built before modern city planning', and the second character 'city planners'. The city planner looks at the object, then says "I made this".
Contrapoints recaptioned: "They don't want compromise, they don't want housing. They want to endlessly 'critique' housing."
Rainbow Dash saying "It should be about 30 percent taller"
A Facebook comment including the sentence "I prefer organically built cities like Paris that started in the centre and radiated outwards"
A goose squinting its eyes and asking "What's the neighbourhood's character?"
Zoning map around Arbutus & 16th. From two blocks west at Vine, going north and east, are now zoned R3-2 for low rise residential. To the south east is the restrictive First Shaughnessy District, and the remainder southwest and further west of Vine Street is low density residential R1-1 which allows multiplexes.
Satellite view of the blocks of low density residential houses surrounding Arbutus and 16th, where a theatre and bowling alley were redeveloped into a grocery store
A map of grocery stores within Vancouver's West End Neighbourhood
A two storey apartment with white stucco and brown trim. A wood-shingled eave spans the building above the upper windows.
The top floors of Senakw peeking from behind a row of mature trees in Kits Point
Weighted Companion Cube from Portal
Graphic from The City of Vancouver 2022 Housing Needs Report 77,000 households living in unaffordable, unsuitable, or inadequate housing 2,000 people who are homeless 7,000 people living in an SRO 50,000 new households in 10 years from a growing and changing population
"I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at animal cruelty." "You can excuse racism?!"
The Downmarket Impact of New Multifamily Housing: Evidence from a Honolulu Condo Tower Abstract: We test whether new condominium construction generates vacancies in a local housing market through induced moves. Using detailed address-history microdata, we track households who moved into a newly built 512-unit condominium tower in Honolulu, Hawai'i, which included both market-rate and income restricted units. We identify prior addresses and follow vacancy chains across multiple rounds of moves. The vacated homes were substantially cheaper than the new units and spanned diverse locations and housing types. Income-restricted units produced fewer secondary vacancies, but those vacancies were concentrated at lower price points. Our results show that new condominium construction eases supply constraints and expands affordability in a local housing market, and the contrast between market-rate and income-restricted units has important implications for inclusionary zoning policies.
A photo of 4th Ave from the north east corner of Cypress Street looking south west. A recently built five storey building on the corner is the tallest on the block.
A wide angle photo of 4th Ave at Maple in the evening, from the south east corner looking north east. A line sketch of approximately six storey height buildings is drawn over top of the existing row of one and two storey buildings on the north side that would be replaced if the area was redeveloped to its zoned capacity.
Trogdor the burninator thatched roof cottages
A senior citizen riding on the front of a cargo bike
Web page for the city of Vancouver's Yew Open Street Pilot in 2023. A photo shows the concrete blocks and only a couple chairs that were added to the street.
Contestants on the game show Press Your Luck during the final spin that will determine the episode winner
Charlie Brown in a ghost costume with too many eye holes holds a rock received trick-or-treating, captioned "I got the short form (census)"
Kits Beach field is filled with groups of people enjoying the evening sun on a warm day
A social media post with a photo of a Safeway store being demolished for replacement with a new store and housing, captioned "goodbye, old friend"
An aerial image of Vancouver used by the Vancouver Area Neighbours Association. The downtown peninsula in the upper right is labelled "The image", while the low density residential that occupies most of the frame is labelled "The reality".
Photos of the ABC City Councillors, with one of each word in "Thank you for your service" on their image, except for Montague which has "not you" on his.
Pam Beasley "They're the same person"
A cartoon dog refusing to give up a ball. "Community centres?" "No property taxes" "Only funding"
A pile of seasoned potato chips on a box of Nanaimo bars, one half eaten.
The intro paragraph for the First Shaughnessy District zoning schedule: The intent of this schedule is to protect the distinct estate character of First Shaughnessy by conserving protected heritage property while allowing increased dwelling unit density with multiple conversion dwellings, infill, and secondary suites. Multiple dwelling is only permitted on sites without protected heritage property . Renovations and additions should be compatible with, subordinate to, and distinguishable from existing buildings. For all developments, emphasis is on sensitive site planning, compatible building scale, flexible and varied outcomes of built form and high quality design, materials and construction.
A two storey apartment with white stucco and brown trim. A wood-shingled eave spans the building above the upper windows.
An old three story building on a street corner. The ground floor retail space facing the main street is boarded up undergoing a restaurant renovation, but another small cafe at the back along the side street has the brick facade painted a pale pink. The rest of the building is a dirty looking pale brick and a deep red cornice.
Three story apartment with dark green stucco and brown trim. The corner has an octagonal protrusion on the second and third floors.
A three story apartment building with tan stucco and green trim
An older three story apartment building with white stucco and green trim
Three headed Godzilla monster King Ghidorah, with one derpy face
Comment on Facebook discussing neighbourhood intersections where cyclists have been got by drivers: "thats no good, at least it's a roundabout, the cyclist here come down York at 30-50km an hour, much faster than any car, and there is no roundabout to slow them. It's very scary"
Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna with a colourful patchwork facade
A hitching post for horses in a barn
Sim City arcology in Kits Point
Details for an event "Community Planning Matters!" hosted by Patrick Condon in West Point Grey, on how neighbourhood input has made housing cheaper.
Replicant Roy Batty as he gives his final words in Blade Runner
Facebook post: "Another major accident at York & Arbutus. This is also a daily occurrence with screaming bikers and accidents. Who can I contact to make a change? This needs to be a 4 way stop or redirected along the beach." Photo of a person on a stretcher next to an ambulance
Tweet from CityHallWatch: This is an important message from the ONLY non-BCNDP MLA representing nearly 800,000 residents. Of 12 MLAs elected in Vancouver @Dallas_Brodie is the ONLY one challenging the hammer of Provincial housing policy.
Google Maps directions along several blocks of 10th Ave, except taking a jagged route crossing between parallel streets and alleys instead of the direct path that is highlighted as a bike route.
Big Shiny Tunes 2
Summary titles from the provincial small scale multi unit housing policy: Secondary suites, 3-4 units in single family zones within urban containment boundaries, 6 units near frequent bus service
Hein, who lives in Kitsilano, said Vancouver council has misled the public by labelling the arterial the “Broadway corridor.” It’s, he said, “not really a corridor,” because Broadway encompasses varied neighbourhoods. That’s unlike, he said, the more consistent stretch of the city encompassed by the “Cambie corridor plan.” The creators of the Broadway plan made the mistake of imposing “forced-fed generic zoning” on a series of unique neighbourhoods, Hein said, which have evolved in much different ways.
Screenshot from the Minecraft film trailer of a kid wearing a blue jumper and holding a pickaxe in front of a mining conveyor
The Three Headed Giant from Monty Python and The Holy Grail after Sir Robin has fled: "He's buggered off!", "So he has! He's scarpered!"
Anime girl labelled "Khatsahlano Street Party" hides under a desk in the foreground from a Terminator robot in the background
Bluesky muted words settings, with "PST" being added
Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons steps on a field of rakes. The grumbling is replaced with Mayor Ken Sim's muted apology to press.
The multi-level play structure in Rainbow Park
Mean Girls "she said she's a pusher"
Dogs playing on the Kits Point dog park beach in golden hour sunshine that illuminates the West End and north shore mountains in the background
A house with a tree-filled front yard enclosed by a fence with stone pillars and decorative panels with a tree motif that don't obstruct visibility into the yard. An arched trellis on the verge leads from the street to the front gate.
A single family home with slightly recessed front entryway. The front yard is a bare lawn with a few small hedges against the house.