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Planning, privilege, power: Advocacy as a way out?

The planning ‘profession’, specifically relating to ‘city or urban or regional or rural planning’, and any practitioner involved in making planning-related decisions within the public domain, inherently holds privilege and power. 

Since of the beginning of colonial planning in North America, planners have used power and privilege to dictate where and how people should ought to live, often negatively impacting those most vulnerable, in favour of upholding those with wealth and whiteness. For example, transportation planners during the car-centric 1950s, spent millions of dollars displacing and bisecting equity-seeking communities via way of urban highways. This is in part what made New York City planner, Robert Moses, infamous. Even highway-sparse Canadian cities fell victim to this top down destruction, including Vancouver, where the Georgia Viaduct rammed through the city’s African community, only to fall short of Chinatown, thanks to courageous community resistance. 

Whether it relates to transportation, housing, public space, urban design, etc. one can find historic and contemporary planning decisions that came from a place of power and privilege.

Looking inward through an equity lens, how can planners dismantle power and privilege attached to the positions they hold and the decisions they make? 

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The soul-crushing creativity of condo-capitalism, pt. 1.

Nearly every time I pass a covered steel construction fence or a wooden sign  draped in a gaudy ad for a new condo tower, I can’t help but return to a short passage from Matt Hern’s 2010 book Common Ground in a Liquid City. Hern, a long-time Vancouver-based activist and urban scholar, wrote, “These [developers] are just thumbing through their thesauruses, pulling out anything, and seeing if it sticks. Nothing is impossible and the effect is pure Vegas. It doesn’t matter, don’t worry about trying to make sense of it, just enjoy” (pg. 114). Hern goes on to say, “There’s a certain amount of cultural value in mining and exploring the free-flowing interplay of images and associations, but on the ground, in the real world of cities, in the everyday lives of everyday people, the effect is to suck meaning out, leaving a hollow, facile urbanism” (pg. 117). 

There are so many things wrong with the development industry and the housing market more broadly that any criticism mounted against for-profit development should really begin with housing (un)affordability.  Living in Canada’s most expensive city, with the largest gap between home prices and house earnings “means it takes 22 years of full-time work for the typical young person to save a 20% down payment on an average priced home – 17 more years than when today’s aging population started out as young people” (Kershaw et. al, 2022). 

There is so much more to say about Vancouver’s housing crises but for just a second I want to go back to calling out the absolute bullsh*t that is condo marketing as one of the most effective contributors-- as Hern suggests--to faceless urbanism (not to mention the faceless architecture that these condos often generate). From a cookie-cutter list of sparkly urban-friendly words with absolutely no context (read livability, diverse, tranquility) to a rotating image bank of stock urban-friendly images, Hern concludes “By severing any relationship to place, by throwing up random thematic condos one after the other, wherever permits will be granted with primary regard for profit, any notions of real community get butchered” (pg. 117). Equally as destructive as well as enraging is the feeble attempt at ‘commemorating’ what was previously there through the condo’s name (ex. slapping a “The” in front of the name of the former building, or nearby street name, etc.). Given this is often done in tandem with processes of gentrification and displacement, I see this not as commemorative but instead as “symbolic cannibalism”, as Geographer Zachary Hyde says, referring to “attempts to preserve and partake in the symbols and outward manifestations of working-class or low-brow “authenticity,” while at the same time displacing lower-income people from affordable amenities and public life. In doing so symbolic cannibalism destroys that which it ostensibly celebrates.” 

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Still Cycling, still Trivial? 

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Nearly a decade in with the 9th annual pumpkin ale taste test. Looked high and low for a new BC-based pumpkin ale to no avail. So this year’s line-up was a repeat from tastings past.

1st Place and now five-time champ went to Howe Sound’s Pumpkineater Imperial Pumpkin Ale which remains the premier west coast pumpkin ale of choice.

2nd Place ended in a tie between past tasters Fernie Brewing Co’s Ghostrider Pumpkin Brown Ale (2018) and Phillip’s Brewing’s Crookeder Tooth Barrel Aged Pumpkin Ale (2020). 

3rd Place saw another 2018 appearance from Parallel 49′s Lost Souls Chocolate Pumpkin Porter.

And 4th Place went to Longwood Brewery’s nearly undrinkable Full Patch Pumpkin Ale that also placed last in 2017. 

Shoutout to Elysian Brewing with their Great Pumpkin Beer Festival and their Night Owl Pumpkin Ale that started this tradition for me when I tried it in Victoria in 2012.  

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The tradition continues with the 8th Annual pumpkin ale taste test. This year, it felt like there was a dip in pumpkin ale production...or what was made was bought as soon as it hit the shelves! 

For a fourth year, Howe Sound Brewing’s Pumpkineater Imperial Pumpkin Ale takes top spot with a deep, rich, and boozy brew. Parallel 49′s Lost Souls Chocolate Pumpkin Porter returns from 2018 to remind us that while it’s still sweet and tasty, the pumpkin in the porter remains to be found. Arriving from the north, Yukon Brewing’s Pumpkin Ale made a southern appearance that was as about as memorable as its Microsoft Word generated label. And missing from the picture is Port Moody-based Bakery Brewing’s from-the-tap only Nitro Pumpkin Spice Porter, a wildcard pick that I’d pick again! 

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7th annual pumpkin ale taste test. This year, I revisited two old classics, including Phillip’s Crookeder tooth Imperial Barrel Aged Pumpkin Ale. Others featured Russel Brewing’s Pumpkin Pie Milkshake IPA (all milkshake, no pumpkin), Steamwork’s Pumpkin Pie Ale (2nd Place and would buy again) and my top pick for a third year, Howe Sound’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale. 

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Brannen Lake Bike-Glamp 🚲🏕😎🎈🎂. July 10-12, 2020.

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DOXA 2020 went online and this year, I watched:

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace (Canada)

s01e03 (Canada)

Underdown (Lebanon, Quatar, Germany)

Hamtramck, USA (United States)

The Last Autumn (Iceland)

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DOXA 2019 was my sixth documentary film fest to date. This year, I saw: 

My Home, in Libya (Italy / Libya)

Xalko (Canada / Turkey) 

Jaddoland (USA / Iraq)

Pomelo (Vietnam)

Generation ‘91 (Ukraine)

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Spring Skiing Seymour. March 2019.

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6th annual pumpkin ale taste test. While not nearly as comprehensive as last year, this year featured a surprise appearance from Elysian Brewing’s famed Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. The last time I sampled it was in 2012! Special thanks to JL who brought it straight from Seattle. 

Night Owl is like pumpkin pie in a bottle, but dare I say- almost to sweet. A close 2nd goes to Fernie’s Ghostrider Pupmkin Brown Ale, followed by Parallel 49′s disappointingly pumpkin-less Lost Souls Chocolate Pumpkin Porter.

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Attended VIFF for the first time and saw:

Happy as Lazzaro (Italy). 

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Back in May, I supported the DOXA festival. This was my fifth documentary film festival to date. 

The Rankin File

Harvest Moon

A Feeling Greater Than Love

Wajd: Songs of Separation 

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April 2018.

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Linguistic diversity, ft. Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal (Stat Can, 2016). 

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A very rare sighting of row houses, located along West 1st between Burrard and Cypress in Vancouver. Bonus: these are mixed-use, with residential space above and commercial/ retail spaces below. Reminds me of Toronto! 

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While I’m probably one of the few millennials without a Netflix account, I really enjoy documentary film festivals. The first one I attended was CPH:DOX when  living in Copenhagen in 2013. While living in Toronto, I supported the Hot Docs Film Festival and last year, watched four submissions (listed below) from Vancouver’s DOXA.

Butterfly (Iran)

Brûle La mer (Burn the Sea) (France / Tunisia)

The Dazzling Light of Sunset ( Germany / Georgia)

Brasilia: Life after Design (Canada / UK)