iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 25/09/2026

bizarre to me that so much reporting on housing fails to interrogate the assumptions that homeowners (1) should always get to approve of changes to their neighbourhood (2) should be protected by government from any possible decline in property values www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

Toronto needs more homes. These neighbours say they're paying the price | CBC News

An elderly downtown couple says they’re shocked and upset that the city has approved a duplex next door to their three-story Victorian home that they say will tower metres above their chimney and rend...

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My building is literally half transplants and half immigrants

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Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com · 19/09/2026

This outcome highlighted a recurring challenge for urban transformation: politicians and planners often hear most from those who oppose change, not necessarily from those who stand to benefit from it. While opponents may be more organised, vocal and visible, they don’t represent the silent majority.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

🎶 Goodbye Rustad Goodbye? What? Hey! What's going on here? Guh... what happened? They took my freaking party!

static.klipy.com

Silly Sleepy Head Unicorn Wakes Up

Alt: Charlie the Unicorn Silly Sleepy Head Wake Up

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"How high should city dwelling densities go? How high can they go? Obviously, if the object is vital city life, the dwelling densities should go as high as they need to go to stimulate the maximum potential diversity in a district." - Jane Jacobs

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"We are dealing with the economics of time, not hour by hour through the day, but with the economics of time by decades and generations. Time makes the high building costs of one generation the bargains of a following generation." - Jane Jacobs A generation of future bargains erased

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

50 years later, they're still opposing smaller apartments in the area.

A crowd protesting a bulldozer in 1970s Kitsilano. In the background a six storey apartment is already constructed. Behind the bulldozer is the location of a recently constructed 5 storey apartment that was also protested in the neighbourhood.

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Jens von Bergmann @jensvb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Randomly thought of this photo today taken by David Ley in 1974 of people protesting the construction of what would be the last mid-rise in Kitsilano before the downzoning. Apartments build in the 60s and 70s are now often celebrated as Vancouver's (relatively) affordable housing stock.

A bulldozer-blocking anti-high-rise protest in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano in 1974. Among the attendees, wearing a tie, is a city-paid community organiser. Photo: David Ley

Taken from https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2089031/david-and-goliath-priceless-vancouver-academic

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

TEAM doesn't think Bligh is worth mentioning 😂

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver would like to thank William Azaroff for his contributions to the political debate leading up to the October 17 civic election. Azaroff withdrew from the mayoral race today.

With that race now having narrowed to four contenders, this election is about a choice for residents.

Will Vancouver continue to be governed by a City Hall that puts developers' profits ahead of residents interests? There are three parties that represent this approach: ABC, the Vancouver Liberals, and the Greens.

Or will Vancouver voters choose a new approach that respects the needs and interests of residents and neighbourhoods and puts people before profit? That party is TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

"I'm running because no one else is standing up for the residents of this city," says TEAM mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick. "No other party is offering the change that Vancouver desperately needs."

Pete Fry says he cares about community and livability. But his voting record shows the opposite. When decisive votes were held this past term, he repeatedly joined Ken Sim and ABC in advancing the same sweeping development agenda that TEAM is fighting to stop.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Pretty "quiet part out loud" here. Low rise apartments, but not anywhere near me. Put it on suburban stroads instead of in the city where people need homes.

“There is a lot of land out there that isn’t effectively used,” said Mr. Beasley. “A little bit further out in the suburbs you have these strip malls with these huge parking lots. You could add three-storey walk-ups on an edge of it.”

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Mihai Cirstea @mihai-cirstea.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I think light industrial space in a city is good. Put jobs close to homes! But I don't understand why we carve out so much industrial space in Kits if all of it is luxury car dealerships. These are boutique stores for the rich with few jobs and no real industrial use. Anyway another is coming!

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 30/08/2026

"Yes, there is a housing crisis. True, there are not enough homes for everyone who needs one. But the bigger issue is that there are already enough homes to house me. Constant concern for people who don’t have homes oppresses those of us who do."

buff.ly

To Solve the Housing Crisis, We Simply Need to Build More Homes (Just Not in My Town)

“The last new building that was acceptable and necessary (my house) was completed four months ago, right when I moved here. Yet ever since, the township keep...

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

I was worried the conservatives would be able to wear their skin suit of the United née Liberal party long enough to be a threat in the next election but lmao that sounds so silly now

media.tenor.com

a man in an apron is walking down a street

Alt: From the movie Men In Black, a hostile alien wearing a man's skin as a disguise walks in jerky motions down a city street.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

An open patio door on a rainy summer day 😌

Lo-fi girl on an apartment patio while it is raining

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Ian Bushfield @bushfield.ca · 13/08/2026

In the last couple Vancouver municipal elections, I crowd-sourced your thoughts on where the various parties sat on the traditional political compass plus the urbanist axis. It's worked pretty well so let's do it again! Add your votes here: forms.gle/fEqcGzbiHGg5...

forms.gle

Plotting the Vancouver municipal parties

In 2018 and 2022, we at the Cambie Report relied on you to help us plot the chaos that is Vancouver politics. We used a survey to help plot political parties along three axes (extending the concept of...

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Steffani Cameron 🇨🇦 @snarkysteff.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Elections people turn out for LEAST is the election impactong their life the most. Community centres? Local lifeguards? Parking? Bike lanes? Developments? Transit? That's all the city election. Not voting only fucks YOU. If wealthy landowners vote, they're the ones whose voices get heard.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Mid-rises at Vine: Hopping Single-lot multi-units at Stephens: Chill Detached houses west of Bayswater: Sleepy

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Alyssa_Jayne @alyssajayne.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The Villages plan is exactly how this city MUST BE A CITY. It is everything even the constantly loud voices scream we should be doing. “Why can’t we build Arbutus Walk instead of towers?!?” they have yelled over me for years. This plan is exactly that — and yet.

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Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

ABC Vancouver told reporters that the Villages plan was “disrespectful”, that city staff went too far, and that they were protecting residents from the sins of bureaucracy. But who told city staff to come up with a transformative plan? Here’s the receipts.

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Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

For as long as I’ve been a reporter in this city the complaint has been that we build too many giant luxury condos in a few places and not enough medium density housing across neighbourhoods. But this week reaffirmed why that approach is so baked into the DNA and political culture of Vancouver.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

How many people are going to be displaced by owner-use eviction in the meantime of figuring out the perfect plan to build any new homes?

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I don't know how ABC thinks they're appealing to anybody instead of alienating everybody

In the Mos Eisley cantina, an alien labelled "NIMBys" stares with slight menace, as someone in the background says "They don't like you". The other character, labelled "YIMBYs" leans in front and says "We don't like you either".

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This is such a BS framing. The need for more housing is pretty concrete, and many of the worries about infrastructure are not.

Yan said it was interesting that the most common arguments in favour of the plan were less concrete concepts like the need for greater and more affordable housing, while opposition comments tended to focus on specific concerns, like the loss of tree canopy and infrastructure worries.
Article content

“There are clear parts of the city that support the idea of the villages, and then the opposition deals with the people who are trying to work through the reality, the possibility of these villages,” he said.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

VanPoli: "This is a false flag by YIMBYs to discredit opposition" The YIMBYs that suffered sitting through the filibuster for the second call for speakers:

static.klipy.com

Unimpressed Not Impressed Boy Meme

Alt: A young boy, not impressed, slowly blinking

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Me being a weirdo: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! Me being around all these other weirdos: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 22/07/2026

what's really funny is when they go through multiple cycles of community input until they get to the layer that tells them "no," and then that's the one that counts as the community

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

How would the poors survive on the west side when there is only cake for them to buy for food?

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Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 22/07/2026

5 storey rental building going up next to the ~3 & 4 storey Vancouver Co-Housing (33rd Ave) VCH had to go through years of epic approval process and design review to get their project approved. Neighbours complained (a lot) but then many were happy when families w young kids moved in.

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Alyssa_Jayne @alyssajayne.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I love the bus. I love the farmers market. I love getting bougie coffee with my neighbours in a 5-over-1 building that everyone walked to. The part of Kits that is good has apartments. The part of Mt Pleasant that is good has apartments. It’s almost like villages within cities are good.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Too late, perhaps too late. But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just one place he could transfer this punishment. And he was shouting frantically, over and over. Do it to Point Grey Village! Do it to Point Grey Village! Not me! Point Grey Village!

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

No man ever walks in the same neighbourhood twice, for it's not the same neighbourhood and he's not the same man.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Today in VanPoli, someone posts that certain criticisms of new or denser housing have racist connotations. Responses defend hypothetical racists, rather than agree it's better to not use those terms.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

So some people are mad that Kits Pool has three hour time slots, and I'm thinking, I used to go to a pool with water slides and a lazy river and even then hour, hour and half max for me? Definitely not three hours ALSO IN THE SUN 🫠

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Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

There is an incoherence of a certain sort of urbanist who wants there to be organic growth but is unwilling to actually do anything that might permit organic growth

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 13/07/2026

"Residents didn't oppose it blindly. We just wanted engagement. We read the plans, cited city code and asked questions about scale, traffic mitigation, safety and impact. But our concerns were ignored."

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I understand people are really worried about the character of their neighbourhood, so I think it's reasonable that new buildings have the same design standards the neighbourhood had 100 years ago.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

One of my favourite parts about Khatsahlano is not the street festival, but walking through the rest of the neighborhood and hearing all the people who have invited their friends to the neighbourhood for the day because of it.

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Westside Backyard @westside-backyard.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Khatsahlano is just not the same without the risk of heat stroke while waiting in line for a food truck 😔

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