Cascadia Report

Category: Vancouver

  • Cascadia’s housing may be the “revenge of the small”

    BusinessWeek.com says Portland, Seattle and Vancouver are making such strong efforts to encourage urban housing that visiting them is like going to a different country.

    We won’t deny the similarities across Cascadia. But there’s a big gap among the cities when it comes to the transit and zoning that makes urban housing liveable.

    Still, the article highlights progress, including how small, well-designed houses are going onto lots formerly of large single houses with yards. Apparently this offers more liveable space than refitting existing buildings with mother-in-law apartments.

  • New big-box stores a big draw in B.C.

    A pair of new big-box stores in Squamish are a big hit with residents from Whistler, Pemberton and farther inland. Town officials hope the development will spur a retail hub and keep area residents from traveling to the Vancouver area to shop. The hope the new stores don’t damage existing retail in downtown Squamish.

  • Urban growth squeezes local-food industry

    The craze for locally grown food in Cascadia supports an industry of suppliers. But it’s being squeezed by urban growth.

    Consider three Vancouver markets that serve 5,000 customers per week and are on track to break sales records, according to this story in The Tyee. British Columbia reportedly is the only area of Canada where the number of organic farms rose in 2005, though pressure to convert farmland and the difficulty of maintaining a supply chain for meats is a threat.

    The Seattle area has seen a similar trend, with an increasing number of community farmer’s markets in King County — 27 this year, up from 7 a decade ago. The demand for locally grown farm goods competes with transportation costs and land conversion. Even the Pike Place Market has converted some space for tourism-related businesses.

    Vancouver’s markets reportedly hope to find permanent, covered locations to accommodate customer demand — if they aren’t pushed out by construction staging for the 2010 Olympics. It will be interesting to see if corporate retailers help the cause. Organic home delivery is increasingly available and once-rare Whole Foods has grown from two stores in Cascadia to at least 13 open or planned.

  • Two B.C. industries may face better year ahead

    Lest anyone ponder the durability of British Columbia’s economic boom, the province’s main newspaper weighed it with forecasts of a rosy year ahead for segments of both the old and new economies.

    Rising global demand for commodities will continue to propel the mining industry in B.C., according to the head of a trade group. The province has 25 of Canada’s 52 viable mine projects and growth is likely to continue, despite land claims from native groups or concern that new mining could spoil fisheries, he said.

    Meanwhile several B.C. video game companies are expanding, thanks to the popularity of new game platforms. The sector employs only about 3,000 but apparently hopes for growth are high. One reason for buoyancy: the federal government is giving 10 game companies a total C$2 million in development funds.

  • B.C. report predicts bonanza from Asia trade

    A British Columbia government report says Canada could see a bonanza of another C$230 billion a year in trade and as many as 500,000 new jobs by 2020 — if the country gets behind plans for massive new port and transportation projects.

    The report, leaked to the Vancouver Sun, is likely to stoke the upcoming federal election campaign and encourage examination of B.C.’s ties to Asia. Completing the projects on the government’s wish list could eclipse the planned trade-related development in Washington and Oregon.

    The report assumes constant growth in Asia and no disruption in trans-Pacific trade. B.C. would gain 55,000 direct jobs by 2020, with the rest indirect or in other provinces. According to the report, B.C. would see about $76 billion of the additional trade in goods and services, the equivalent of 50 percent of B.C.’s current trade activity.

  • Vancouver skycraper latest in regional boom

    Plans for one of Vancouver’s tallest skyscrapers recently passed a design-review hurdle, the latest sign of a tall-building boom sweeping Cascadia’s biggest cities.

    The new 59-story hotel-office-residential combination would rival a new Shangri-La Hotel slated for completion by 2008. The projects will dramatically alter the modest Vancouver skyline that has preserved views of the mountains. They could even begin to shift the feel of the city — if you buy the idea, quoted in the latest issue of Dwell magazine, that the focus on the outdoors has kept Vancouver’s urban culture restrained.

    Meanwhile Seattle recently approved taller towers, a step that had been verboten since the building boom of the 1980s. Even Portland, with its small blocks and human-scale buildings, may grow taller as it fills underused land near downtown.

    The difference from earlier building booms is that channeling growth appears to be a larger part of the calculations, in addition to the vanity of building taller towers. Vancouver, where the first building above 37 stories opened in 2001, needs more office space in the center city to counter sprawl. Seattle’s traffic is bad enough to stoke demand for more close-in housing. Concentrating building along Portland’s existing transit corridors would maximize return on the investment.

  • Why Cascadia needs more diverse media

    Conservative Seattle-area radio talker John Carlson this week said the federal government should act to prevent further media-industry consolidation. Meanwhile, regardless of owner, the real need is for diversity of content.

    seattle newspapers; photo courtesy of seattle.govConsolidation is a critical issue because snuffing out local voices could make Seattle more like British Columbia, where a single company controls most of print and broadcast media. In B.C., CanWest’s ownership of both Vancouver daily newspapers has led to fawning coverage of the ruling party and a pro-business slant on issues such as the 2010 Olympics.

    In Seattle, variety of coverage is what’s missing. The Seattle Times sponsored preliminary FCC hearings last month where speakers of all political stripes spoke against allowing more consolidation. But how often have Seattle’s daily papers reported virtually identical information on their pages, despite different ownership?

    It’s true that almost all Seattle broadcast outlets are owned by out-of-town chains, including some that have cut local investment. This year McClatchy took over several Washington newspapers, ownership of Seattle Weekly changed again and Victoria’s Black Press bought the King County Journal. Against this backdrop, remaining local media need to stand up and show why they matter.

  • New flights from Cascadia

    A couple of new air connections from Cascadia stand out:

    — Nonstops between Seattle and Austin daily on American Airlines, beginning in April. The first such connection between the cities is driven by business demand, the airline said.

    — Nonstops between Vancouver and Manchester, Glasgow and Gatwick at least once per week during ski season on Zoom Airlines, a Canadian low-fare carrier. During the summer the airline offered tourism-focused nonstops from Vancouver to Belfast and Cardiff.

  • Toxic shipments seized at Vancouver port

    Officials in Vancouver seized 50 containers of hazardous garbage bound for China, a portion a what they called a “very large” toxic industry doing business through the port.

    The waste from 27 companies across Canada reportedly includes computer monitors containing lead, lead-acid batteries, fluorescent lamps with PCBs and toxic scrap metal. An international treaty bans shipment of toxics to developing countries, which can be cheaper than recycling in Canada.

    A Seattle-based activist trying to curb toxic exports told the CBC that Canadians could still ship the materials through ports in the U.S. because it hasn’t signed the treaty. A new American law requires exporters to notify the government before shipping hazardous materials but there is little enforcement, according to this recent report.

  • “Husband of the Year” represents King County

    King County Executive Ron Sims was named “husband of the year” by Seattle Magazine and apparently is proud enough of the distinction to post it on his official Web site. The Seattle area’s top elected official drew attention by skipping a dinner with the president of China at Bill Gates’ home:

    ron sims and wife; photo courtesy of seattlepi.com

    Was his absence caused by some sort of county-wide emergency or pressing issue? Well, if you consider “date night” a pressing isue, as Sims does, yes. Instead of eating halibut with the richest man in the universe and the president of the most populated country on earth, the King County executve enjoyed the evening with his wife of 19 years, Cayan.

    The approach is a contrast to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who reportedly has made hospitality toward official Chinese visitors a priority. The city appointed a person to handle protocol because such niceties can influence the direction of any future business relationship.