Blog - Yurbanism

Vancouver Urbanist Meetup and Jane’s Walk Wrap Up—May 12th

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

This month’s get together is a special event. In addition to the monthly Vancouver Urbanist Meetup, we will also be celebrating last weekend’s successful Jane’s Walks in Vancouver. We’ll be meeting on May 12th from 3-5pm at the Lions Pub in downtown Vancouver. (map)

Come out to enjoy a drink and say hi to your fellow urbanists, walk leaders and volunteers. It will be a great opportunity to share your Jane’s Walk highlights and discuss the latest in Vancouver urban planning and development.

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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Discover the ‘Real Places’ of the Internet on May 2nd

This looks to be a fascinating SFU City Program lecture coming up on May 2nd. The event should appeal to a wide cross-section of people—even those of you who didn’t think you had an interest in the inner workings of the interest!

Tubes and Exchanges: Discovering the Real Places of the Internet

DATE: May 2, 2013, 7:00-9:00 pm
LOCATION: SFU Harbour Centre [1400-1430], 515 W Hastings St, Vancouver (map)
ADMISSION: Free, but seating is limited, so reservations are required.

When a squirrel chewed through a cable and knocked him offline, Andrew Blum, a journalist, started wondering what the Internet was really made of. So he set out to go see it—the underwater cables, secret switches, and other physical bits that make up the net. Blum’s talk will take you on a journey through this network of networks.

He will explore its evolution over time and discuss how centralized hubs called Internet Exchanges (there are 350 in the world) are making the Internet faster and more affordable for everyone in the cities where they operate. He will highlight Vancouver’s Internet Exchange, operated by BCNET and located at Harbour Centre, as well as what it means for the city’s businesses, public post-secondary institutions, and future economic development.

Speaker/Lecturer

Andrew Blum is the author of Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, the first book-length look at the physical heart of the Internet.

AndrewBlum 606x404 600x400 Discover the Real Places of the Internet on May 2nd

Tubes was reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Salon, The Guardian, The Economist, The Independent, Kirkus Reviews, Bookforum, Scientific American, New Scientist, Brain Pickings, Ars Technica,Science News, and others. It was also featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, CBS News, Fox News, APM’s Marketplace, BBC’s Book of the Week, The Leonard Lopate Show, KCRW’s DnA, Motley Fool, Larry Mantle, and CBC’s Spark, among others, and presented on the stages of TED Global, the London School of Economics, Microsoft, Town Hall (Seattle), The Architectural League of New York, The Mechanics Institute (San Francisco), Studio-X New York, The Skyscraper Museum, The Boston Athenaeum, and The Free Library (Philadelphia), among others.

When not immersed in the Internet’s depths, Blum writes about architecture, design, technology, urbanism, art, and travel. Since 1999, his articles and essays have appeared in Wired, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg Business Week, Metropolis, Popular Science, Gizmodo, The Atlantic Online, Architectural Record, Slate, and many more publications. He has degrees in literature from Amherst College and in human geography from the University of Toronto. He lives in his native New York City.

Sponsored by BCNET, British Columbia Internet Exchanges, and SFU Continuing Studies (City Program)

Discover the Real Places of the Internet on May 2nd

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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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The Bridge Came Tumbling Down—Stompin Tom Conners [Weekend Watch]

In memory of a Canadian Icon and all the everyday Canadians his music represented. Thomas Charles “Stompin’ Tom” Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013).

This 1972 song was written to the memory of the 19 men killed in the collapse of the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing on June 18 1958.

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Why TED is Coming to Vancouver

Via Vancouver is Awesome:

TED curator, Chris Anderson, speaks to a crowd of media at the Vancouver Convention Centre West on March 6th, 2013, explaining to them why they’ve chosen to bring the global conference to Vancouver in 2014 and 2015.

chris anderson ted talks Why TED is Coming to Vancouver

Image via Vancouver is Awesome

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Vancouver Urbanist Meetup—March 10th

NOTE NEW START TIME

March’s Vancouver Urbanist Meetup is upon us!

This Sunday, March 10th, we will be venturing down Broadway to check out the newest neighbourhood bar in town. Colony Bar, located at 3255 West Broadway in the old The old Kits Billiards space recently opened with the goal of being “the mainstay watering hole for locals.”

This month’s meetup is conveniently located around the corner from the Broadway Subway Public Forum that is taking place Sunday afternoon at St James Community Hall. To accommodate those who wish to learn more around Vision Vancouver’s plans for mass transit along the Broadway corridor, the Urbanist Meetup will be started an hour later at 4 pm. For hockey fans, the bar will also be screening the Canucks game starting at 5 pm.

As always, feel free to drop in when you can and stay as long as you want. We will be there from 4 pm until at least 6 pm.

You can RSVP on Facebook or Eventbrite.

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Jane Jacobs On Writing [Weekend Watch]

Jane Jacobs talks about how she approached her writing.

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The Punisher: A Renegage Bus Driver [Weekend Watch]

This is a compilation of videos taken from the YouTube channel of one Russian bus driver. He often encounters with drivers who don’t respect traffic rules, and uses his bus to teach them a lesson.

HT Atlantic Cities

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Density Done Well [Weekend Watch]

Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian), Consulting City Planner and Urbanist at TODERIAN UrbanWORKS discussing the concept of “density done well” at Downtown Seattle Association’s 2013 State of Downtown Economic Forum on February 13, 2013. Brent is the former Planner at the City of Vancouver.

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Jane Jacobs on Visual Order, Art & Life [Weekend Watch]

A short reading from The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs.

This copy published by Vintage Books, copyright 1961. Chapter 19, Visual Order: Its limitations and possibilities. Beginning with the 2nd paragraph (p. 372 in this copy).