Vancouver offers tips on vibrant urban living

Vancouver offers tips on vibrant urban living:


it’s not just the shimmering, skinny buildings touted by Mayor Greg Nickels and others pushing to raise building heights in downtown Seattle that have made our Canadian counterpart’s urban lifestyle so popular.
Vancouver requires developers to fund a broader range of public amenities in its downtown neighborhoods — community centers, art, playgrounds, school sites, waterfront promenades, lush flower gardens flanking stair-stepped water fountains.

Previously, I’d talked some about the problems of revitalizing downtown San Jose, and pointed to Portland as a model San Jose should watch and emulate.

In this Seattle PI article, Jennifer Langston looks at Vancouver as a model for how Seattle look to grow — and it’s another wonderful, vibrant, growing city that’s figured much of this out (and we’ll be visiting it again soon). I keep hoping to find time to write more about these urban environments and why they work (maybe this trip, maybe not) — but read this piece. And if you want to see your downtown work, or if you’re one of those who cares about downtown San Jose; I think Vancouver has some of the answers, too.

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