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Vancouver Urbanist Meetup—April 14th at Vancouver FanClub

It’s time for April’s Vancouver Urbanist Meetup!

On Sunday, April 14th, urbanists and city lovers will be gathering at one of the Granville Entertainment District’s newest venues, Vancouver Fan Club (1050 Granville Street). While FanClub has quickly gained a reputation for it’s great live music, it has an equally great decor and menu that brings a touch of New Orleans’ French Quarter to the West Coast.

Potential topics of discussion include the continuing transformation of Granville St (and the proposed BIG tower), the upcoming provincial elections and what it means for cities, and spring events for urbanists, including the upcoming Jane’s Walk weekend!

As always, feel free to drop in when you can and stay as long as you want. We will be there from 3 pm until at least 5 pm. You can RSVP on Facebook or Eventbrite.

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Civic Engagement for a New Generation

I recently appeared on the Bill Good Show, a morning talk radio show in Vancouver with some of my PlaceSpeak colleagues to talk about online civic engagememt and the impact that our father’s had in shaping our city.

Click on the media player ‘Play’ button (▶) below to listen to our segment. You can also download the interview.

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Civic Engagement for a New Generation

Their fathers helped shape Metro Vancouver as we know it today and our next three guests will likely have a hand in influencing the region for the future. Colleen, Yuri and Justen are involved in PlaceSpeak, a new start-up that provides a virtual consultation forum with the goal of improving civic engagement and the democratic process.

Will this method of civic engagement appeal more to a generation that does everything online? What kind of Metro Vancouver do we want to see in the future?

Does this trio feel the need to carry on the civic torch because they have such famous names in the planning circles?

Colleen Hardwick, Founder and CEO, PlaceSpeak

Yuri Artibise, Director of Community Engagement, PlaceSpeak

Justen Harcourt, Planing Consultant, Colliers International; Secretary to PlaceSpeak’s Board of Directors.

During our conversation with Bill, we also discussed the Urban Futures Survey 2012 and the Cloverdale Covered Youth Park (Surrey BC) consultation.

7454942 Civic Engagement for a New Generation

Yuri, Colleen, and Justen. Photograph by Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun.

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June Vancouver Urbanist Meetup in the West End

7 600x450 June Vancouver Urbanist Meetup in the West End This month, the Vancouver Urbanists are returning to the West End. We’ll be meeting on Sunday, June 10th from 3-5pm, at The Fountainhead Pub (1025 Davie St, Vancouver, BC.)

Come out to enjoy a drink, say hi to your fellow urbanists, and discuss the latest in Vancouver urban planning and development.

There will be a lot to talk about this month, including debriefs on the Andreas Rohl talk and the Vancouver Urban Forum, not to mention the upcoming Velapalooza and Velo-city Conference

As always, feel free to drop in when you can and stay as long as you want. We’ll be there from 3 pm until at least 5 pm.

You can RSVP on Facebook or Eventbrite, or simply show up if you are in the neighbourhood. Give me a call or text at 604-992-4197 if you have any questions.

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December’s Vancouver Urbanists Meetup is this Sunday

Join me for the final urbanists meetup of 2011 and connect with your fellow urban geeks one last time before the holidays!

We’ll be meeting this coming Sunday (December 11th) from 3-5pm for a few pints and a lively discussion about urbanism in Vancouver, focusing on Chinatown and Strathcona.

This month we’re heading to the historic London Pub in Chinatown on the edge of Strathcona. (700 Main St - map)

Feel free to drop in when you can. We’ll be there from 3 pm until at least 5. Give me a call or text at 604-992-4197 if you have any questions or are running late.

You can RSVP on Eventbrite, Facebook, or by leaving a comment letting me know if you’ll be coming.

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November’s Top Posts

I’m a few days late, but here are my top posts in order of unique page views from November 2011. Overall, I had 2,017 visitors and 8,053 page views, a slight decrease from October. Nevertheless, I’m happy that anybody is still reading given that it has been a while since I’ve written anything substantive here. I have been pretty busy managing the PlaceSpeak blog and contributing to Spacing Vancouver.

Links in bold are new posts written during November. All others are from my archives.

One of the re:CONNECT winning entries

Did you catch-all of these posts the first time around?

If not, here’s your chance to read what others have found most interesting over the past month.

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Why I Remember

Memorial Hall at the National War Museum in Ottawa

Whether you call it Remembrance Day or Veterans Day, November 11th has always be a profound day for me. From the age of ten, as a Navy League cadet, through high school as a Air Cadet and into my university years at Royal Military College, I took part in ceremonies in cities across Canada. While it wasn’t always easy to get up and stand outside (particularly on a cold Ottawa day), I always felt honoured to take part.

But for me, the true power of the day didn’t occur during the two minutes of silence at 11 o’clock as we remembered the men and women who have served—and continue to serve—our country during times of war, conflict and peace. Rather it can afterwards at the Legion halls as I shared a hot chocolate—or a whiskey—with the men and women who have sacrificed for our country. Hearing their stories first-hand gave me appreciation of their experiences.

Their ‘war stories’ were not the stereotypical glorification of battles. They didn’t even talk much about what they endured, or about the brothers and sisters they lost. Often times their most interesting stories didn’t occur on the battlefield, but years afterwards as the returned home, raised families and followed their careers, and continued serving their communities.For these veterans, war wasn’t something to be either glorified or forgotten, but to be learned from and applied in other ares of their lives.

Thus, it wasn’t the details of their experiences that have stuck with me, but rather the power of the human will and spirit they reflected. When they returned home, these veterans would have had every right to walk away and say “I’ve served my country; time for somebody else to step up.” The veterans I remember most didn’t use their service as an excuse. They use it as a launching pad to continue serving their community. They used their stories to create awareness; they used their leadership skills to coach sports, lead community groups, or run for office; they used their tenacity to start businesses to provide services and create jobs.

Whenever I have been defeated, or endured set back, I don’t dwell on what I have lost. Rather, I reflect on what I have learned from veterans and focus on how I can use the negative experience to strengthen my next endeavour. On the flip side, when I have enjoyed success, I remember that we are never done serving our communities and begin looking for the next opportunity to engage. This is why I remember. Not to glorify war, or celebrate sacrifice, but to strengthen myself and my resolve to improve my community.

So today, after you spend time remembering the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country, why not head over to you local Legion? When you are they, buy a veteran a coffee or whiskey and chat for a while. You’ll not only learn more about them and their experiences, you will learn more about what humans—including yourself—are capable.

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October’s Top Posts

Here are my top posts in order of unique page views from October 2011. Overall, I had 2,586 visitors and 8,101 page views, a significant increase over September. Links in bold are new posts written during October. All others are from my archives.

Examples of urban fabric

Did you catch-all of these posts the first time around? If not, here’s your chance to read what others have found most interesting over the past month.

Is your favorite post in this list? Let me know in the comments section.

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Mobility for Tomorrow [Weekend Watch]

I love the concept behind this system. It would be great to have an integrated mobility system that allows you to go from bike to bus to car as needed. The idea of recovering costs through generating miles as you cycle is especially intriguing.

mo is a new mobility system – it helps make the city a better place to live.

mo-bility.com

mo subscribers can rent bikes, cargobikes, ebikes and cars or use public transportation with just one card. With mo it pays to be eco-friendly: choose an eco-friendly transport or use your own bike to collect momiles. The more momiles the lower your bill. For instance if you mostly ride bikes, renting a car gets cheaper. Cycle and save money.

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“Speak your Mind” on the Upcoming BC Municipal Elections

For the past few months, I’ve been working with PlaceSpeak, a Vancouver-based online community consultation platform that connects people’s online identities with their residential addresses. We do this to enable residents to voice their opinions on local issues electronically in an authentic and meaningful way.

As you may know, municipal elections will be held across British Columbia on November 19th. With this date quickly approaching, we thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase the features and functionality of PlaceSpeak, by creating a series of topic pages for several municipal elections.

Our goal is to make it easier for Lower Mainland residents to engage with each other to discuss the local election issues that are most important to them.

Metro Vancouver Votes

Using PlaceSpeak’s unique geo-verification platform, we have created topic pages for metro Vancouver’s five largest cities, including Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, and Coquitlam. In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the topics to include other municipalities in the province.

On each city’s local topic page users will find information about the candidates, how and where to vote, a calendar of important events, surveys, and—most importantly—a forum where they can discuss the issues that interest them most in their own neighbourhoods. Residents can ‘claim their place’ and join the discussion at www.placespeak.com.

PlaceSpeak is a non-partisan platform. The goal is to familiarize residents with key election issues and to encourage relevant, respectful discussions with one another in their local areas. We are deeply concerned about the declining voter turnout in recent elections; according to PlaceSpeak CEO Colleen Hardwick:

“A more informed—and engaged—resident is a more likely voter.”

If you live in one of the five municipalities listed above, be sure to claim your place and connect to the relevant topic page. Also, I’d really appreciate it if you would ask your friends and neighbors to sign up and connect to a topic as well. If your city isn’t list, please let me know, and I’ll add it ASAP.

If you live outside BC, I’d appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to claim your place’ anyways. Our goal is for PlaceSpeak to promote engagement in communities around the world. I am already in conversations with people in Ottawa and Phoenix to start discussion s in those cities. They more people we have signed up, the easier it will be to create topics in your community.

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Steve Jobs Taught Us to Think Different

The world lost a great leader this week. Although some people may think it is a stretch, I’d say the Steve Jobs is to Gen X and Y what JFK is to the Baby Boomer. He truly motivated a generation to “Think Different.” His leadership style and products have inspired countless entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and start their own businesses.

Jobs revolutionized the way we interact not only with each other, but the world around us. His focus on the user experience has introduced millions people to the personal computer, portable music and mobile computing. His focused on design reminded us that form doesn’t follow function, but that when done right form IS function (and function is form).

Steve is best known for tools such as the iMac, the iPhone and the iPad. To me, however, his legacy is not the products he imagined, but rather in the imagination he inspired in us. Here’s hoping that we all continue to heed his advice to “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” Though his life may have been cut short, his memory will live on each time we are crazy enough to think we can change the world.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

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