The World Wants Vancouverism – Shouldn’t Canada?

The city of Vancouver touts its diversity, green initiatives, parks and mass transit and remains a popular destination for immigrants, who account for 40 percent of the metropolitan population. Vancouver has managed fast-growing urbanization with good planning that includes eliminating vast parking lots. “Vancouver has been remade dramatically, rendered into a thickly vertical city jammed with people and activity,” explains Doug Saunders in the Globe and Mail. “Its combination of high population density in cozy downtown neighbourhoods, intimate street life and popular public transit has become one of Canada’s leading exports.” He notes that cities the US, Europe, Australia look to Vancouver as a model – and points to a 600-page report from Melbourne that mentioned “Vancouver” 300 times. Smart development eliminates urban sprawl, increases housing stock and improves quality of life. As one developer put it, well-planned density is the solution to sprawl. – YaleGlobal