Easy Beet & Black Bean Burgers (Vegan)

“The cost of buying a home in B.C. increased by as much as five per cent last year due to more than $5 billion in dirty money from organized crime laundered through the province’s real estate sector, according to a new expert panel report. Former deputy attorney general Maureen Maloney chaired the panel on money laundering, which released a report Thursday that concluded it “cautiously estimates that almost five per cent of the value of real estate transactions in the province result from money laundering investment.” In addition, she concluded: “The estimated impact of that would be to increase housing prices by about five per cent.” “Successfully reducing money laundering investment in B.C. real estate should have modest but observable impact on housing affordability,” read the Maloney report.” – excerpt and image from ‘$5 billion laundered through B.C. real estate, inflating home prices: report’, Rob Shaw & Joanne Lee-Young, 9 May 2019 An extra 5% price rise last year? Gee, that’d be the difference between supernatural 7% a year housing price increases that have characterized our bubble, and… inflation (about 2%). [But we don’t think this means we can conclude that this has been a long term effect. It may have been, but we can’t be sure]. As readers of this blog know, we’ve long thought that the primary driver of the bubble has been local buyers prepared to extend debt to the gills to get in, and that those buyers have been particularly besotted by the ‘Chinese-are-coming’ story. There has, of course, been a direct effect of foreign-buyer-demand, but this pales when compared to local speculation. Money-laundering juice certainly could have contributed, both directly, and perhaps more importantly indirectly by further cementing the foreign-demand story. Interesting to think that it may have been a critically important amount. With a coming clampdown (or even threat of a clampdown) it’ll be interesting to see the effects this has on prices going forward. Speculators (foreign and local) hate falling markets, and floor prices determined by fundamentals are far below. – vreaa

I found this on Vancouver Condo info, hat tip China bust, it is a legal action brought by investors who purchased units at the Olympic Village and who now want their contracts  rescinded . They are suing the City of Vancouver. Here is the list of investors named in the law suit: ok J. Choi, Il Ho Ahn and Ra Young Choi,Yen Hai Doan, Tian Gao, Thomas Gisby,Jung Gu Han and Hyun Joo Han,Jung Kyoo Han and Sung Sub Han,In Cheol Jang and Sunkyu Choi,Heebo Kang and Soon Bin Kang,Mi Hyang Jin and Yung Jun Kwon,Mohamad Lafta, Hak Hyung Lee, Flora Kwangah Lee,Sang Wook Kwang and Hyun Jung Lee,Kyoung Won Lee and Nam Won Park,Gordon Mah, Wendy Milligan,Sook Ja Oh and Mu Hong Oh,Young Ock Park and Yi Yong Pan,Young Mi Seo, Shermar Holdings Ltd.,Susana Yim and Hardy Yim,Sook Ja Yoon and Eul Byong Yoon Here is the case, and from what I can understand, the first question is whether the City of Vancouver can be deemed to be the developer of the project. I definitely do not know or even understand the legal intricacies.  But I am an over-taxed Vancouver resident worrying about cuts to other City-funded services or a Provincial bail-out. I am also a student of the speculative frenzy in this city, where Billions of Dollars of real estate are bought and flipped or bought and left empty. A few things come to mind: 1) The names are apparently mostly Korean. I don’t know whether they are resident in Canada or not. They could be German or Mongolian, but the fact that one ethnic group has so many unhappy buyers, makes one wonder if the project was aggressively marketed to this group by a realtor. 2) Are they end users who have some concern about construction or are they speculators who are upset about the drop in value. ie were they speculating. The GetLegal blog linked thinks they are investors who bought at the top and are now regretting their decision and trying to get out of their obligations. Certainly there have been a lot of condo projects built in this city which have been late or have had issues. When the market is flying no one seems too bothered, but once it falters the law suits start flying, like Sangrila and now OV. 3) How much more is this going to cost us? What we do know is that when lawyers have the Government as a client, ie the taxpayer, the fees are exorbitant. Let us not forget the defence that we paid for in the Dave Basi and Bobby Virk case which cost us $6 Million, before they pled guilty.  To add insult to injury Judge Robert Bauman who IMVHO is a very misguided Judge, refused to allow the tax-payer’s watchdog, the Auditor General, to audit the Legal bills to see how come they were sooo high. Apparently the rights of two individuals who have already pled guilty trumps the ability of the Auditor General to do his job and point out waste and corruption. What message does that give the legal profession? If you can get a clerk in Victoria to sign off on your billing, you are audit free!!! I cannot believe what a carte blanche Bauman has given his fellow lawyers! Once again I say PPP do not work. If the project is profitable, the Private keeps it, and if it doesn’t the Public owns it. The financial sharks make sure they write the deals so that is how it works out. The other side of the table are well-meaning but naive councillors and city officials who are no match for the sharks. We are witnessing the result now. Of course the councillors are mostly gone and the officials still get their bonuses and pensions and us suckers get to pick up the tab.

Bastion Development has submitted a rezoning application for their site at Arbutus & West 10th Avenue for a 20-storey condo tower. The site at 2120-2150 West 10th Avenue is 17,248 SF and located just one block from the Arbutus Station. A previous proposal for the site in 2021 was for a 5-storey condo building with 42 units under existing zoning. The project is the first application under the Broadway Plan seeking 100% condo use. Most sub-areas of the Plan require rental, or a mix of condo and social housing. This particular sub-area, known as Kitsilano Arbutus Broadway Sub area C, allows for 100% condo with a CAC payment. Details of Bastion’s proposal for the site is a 20-storey tower that includes: 86 condo units; 71 two-bedrooms, 12 three-bedrooms & 3 townhouses; 3,900 SF of retail space on the ground floor; a total density of 6.93 FSR; A building height of 217 ft. 144 parking stalls on 4 underground levels. The rezoning will require a CAC payment, yet to be determined. The architect for the project is Arcadis. The full application can be viewed here: https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/2120-2150-w-10th-ave The post A Rare Sighting: A 100% Condo Tower in the Broadway Plan appeared first on Vancouver Market.

Cities host our lived experiences. They are more than mere words in reports or policy documents; they are tangible environments that shape our daily lives. These urban spaces consist of physical materials molded into structures and places that influence how we move, connect, and think.  Yet, it’s easy to lose sight of this reality, especially when cities are viewed as abstractions—defined by terms like “economies,” and “social networks,” rather than as physical entities with concrete impacts. City planning suffers from a disconnection between policy and physical reality. Politicians, municipal workers, and decision-makers frequently focus on metrics like unit counts, floor space ratios, and density figures without considering the real-world implications for communities. This tendency to reduce cities to numbers, graphs, and other abstractions can result in sweeping changes that ignore the day-to-day experiences of residents and are detrimental to how the city works and feels on the ground. In contrast to abstract planning, Barcelona’s Superilla initiative demonstrates a more grounded approach to urban transformation. The Superilla, a neighborhood-level project, reimagined public space by prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists over cars. While initial policies set targets, the real impact was seen in the physical changes experienced by residents. Within a decade, the initiative had transformed the city in meaningful ways. The Superilla‘s success was rooted in a clear strategy: Prioritize all citizens by ensuring that public space serves the community. Set cross-disciplinary targets to address social, environmental, and economic goals. Launch small, viable pilot projects that could be tested and refined. Use evidence collection and analysis to inform decisions and adjust strategies. Scale successful interventions incrementally while discarding ineffective models. Empower local decision-making to keep citizens engaged and involved. This approach allowed the city to evolve naturally, adapting to changing circumstances while avoiding the risks associated with drastic, large-scale reforms. The importance of incremental, evidence-based planning is not a new idea. It goes back to the earliest settlements and is found in Cerdà’s Eixample design in Barcelona, despite being a large-scale masterplan. As discussed in previous pieces in the Barcelona Chronicles, the 19th-century urban plan was based on rigorous analysis, including demographic studies, building assessments, and environmental factors such as sun and wind patterns. Cerdà’s plan laid a flexible framework for gradual implementation and ongoing refinements over decades. However, even Cerdà’s method had its flaws. As we’ve seen, the Superilla addressed the system-wide problems that developed from the initial plan. More recently, the failures of Modernist architecture and urban planning in the mid-20th century serve as a cautionary tale. These large-scale projects often imposed untested models on cities, leading to outcomes that will negatively impact urban life for generations to come. The lesson is clear: large-scale planning can succeed only with a solid foundation of data, flexibility to adapt, and meaningful citizen feedback. In Vancouver, recent initiatives like the Broadway Plan and Transit-Oriented Area regulations ignored these principles,  failing to prioritize neighborhoods and their residents . They involve broad, large-scale transformations that have not been sufficiently tested through evidence-based methods. Their reforms aim to radically reshape thousands of hectares of land and existing communities but overlook critical factors, including infrastructure impacts, park space provisions, and the specific needs of neighbourhoods, to name a few. The city’s Social Housing Initiative and Vancouver Plan also overlook these essential considerations, favouring developers’ interests over citizens’ quality of life. The demolition of community-oriented urban fabric is planned without proper assessment of those who will be affected or what is and isn’t working in these areas.  This is a recipe for disaster. The risks associated with these untested policies are significant; if they fail, the consequences will be severe and difficult to reverse. Longstanding, more affordable, housing in older buildings once lost can never be recaptured.  This is why incremental approaches are preferred. On a smaller scale, Vancouver’s parklet program exemplifies the value of community-focused, incremental urban design, but it also has many shortcomings in comparison to Barcelona’s counterparts. The initiative began as a pilot project from 2011 to 2013, replacing parking spaces with public areas where people could gather and socialize. The city officially adopted the program in 2016, and parklets can now be found across Vancouver, maintained in partnership with local businesses and organizations. Despite their popularity, the parklet program remains limited in scope. The interventions are still considered “temporary,” with little discussion about expanding the program or integrating it into a broader urban planning strategy for the city. Roughly half remain in downtown Vancouver, with few other neighbourhoods receiving the benefit. This reflects a larger pattern in the city’s urban design efforts, where successful initiatives are left in a state of stagnation rather than evolving into permanent solutions. Other recent projects, like separated bike lanes and community public plazas, share similar challenges. While they offer benefits, they lack a systematic approach that could help scale them up across the city and create a cohesive, long-term vision. An example of a more ambitious urban transformation is Vancouver’s Arbutus Walk , a mixed-use development that replaced a former industrial site over two decades ago. The project prioritized pedestrians and cyclists with a central greenway and converting existing roads into public spaces. Drawing of Arbutus Walk central greenway concept. Courtesy of Scot Hein & Sean McEwen. Community involvement played a significant role in shaping the project, leading to the choice of mid-rise housing over high-rise towers, which allowed for more sunlight, open spaces, and a diverse demographic

Jordi Honey-Roses, Silvia Casorran Martos, and Xavier Matilla, warmly greeted the British Columbian planners as we approached the intersection of Carrer de Roc Boronet and Carrer de Sancho Avila—ground zero of the first Superilla experiment. As mentioned in Part 9, the pioneering urban planning project focused on making the city more livable, sustainable, and community-centered— addressing modern environmental and social challenges. While earlier mobility plans laid the groundwork, the concept was included in the   2013-2018 U rban Mobility Plan (PMU) . However, it was under the Colau administration that the first pilot project was launched in El Poblenou. The city sought to reduce car dependency and prioritize sustainable transport like walking, cycling, and public transit, while expanding limited public and green spaces in the densely populated city. The core concept reorganizes parts of the city into “superblocks,” clusters of nine city blocks that restrict car traffic to accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, and green spaces. Interior streets are closed to through traffic but remain accessible to residents, emergency services, and deliveries. The aim: to reduce noise, pollution, and accidents while creating more public spaces for walking, playing, and socializing. The first experimental Superilla was in El Poblenou—where we now stood— a neighborhood undergoing transformation as the 22@ Innovation District with a mix of residential and industrial spaces. The intersection where we sat offered the ideal setting for our hosts to explain the key elements of the pilot: streets closed to through traffic and converted into green areas, pedestrian paths, and public seating. This transformation followed a tactical urbanism approach—low-cost, small-scale interventions that tested new ideas and encouraged community involvement. This allowed the city to experiment with innovative solutions before making long-term investments, allowing flexibility and adaptability. Key elements of this transformation included: Restricted traffic access for residents and essential vehicles only. Expanded sidewalks and pedestrian zones. New green spaces for gathering and socializing Dedicated cycling paths, for safer, non-motorized transport safer. In keeping with an evidence-based approach, the City and Honey-Roses gathered and analyzed data immediately after its implementation to assess effectiveness. It wasn’t perfect —conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles arose, However, perfection wasn’t the goal—learning was. Despite initial imperfections, the Poblenou experiment quickly showed clear benefits: reduced air and noise pollution, fewer accidents, and increased public space usage by the local community. These were in line with Barcelona’s goals. It needed to evolve. Remarkably, the next iteration didn’t take place in the same area. Though the transformations in Poblenou were “unrefined,” the community’s attachment to them was so strong that they largely remain to this day. Some areas, like Carrer dels Almogàvers, continue to be improved as a new pedestrian axis, and new public spaces, such as Plaça Isabel Vilà, have emerged. The next Superilla experiment was set in a higher-profile location:  around the iconic Sant Antoni market designed by Antoni Rovira i Trias in 1882, at the other end of the Eixample. Here, the Superilla concept transformed into something even more ambitious—moving to its second three stages. We hopped on our bikes… *** Other pieces in the Barcelona Chronicles : Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Cerdà and Colau: Two Key Figures Part 3 – The Barcelona Housing Policy 2015-2023 Overview Part 4 – Defining Affordable & Social Housing Part 5 – Supplying Affordable Housing Part 6 – The 30% Measure and Others Part 7 – Vancouver v. Barcelona – Foundations Part 8 – Barcelona v. Vancouver – Strategies Part 9 – The Eixample and the Superilla Part 11 – The Superilla…Evolved Part 12 – Vancouver v. Barcelona – Urban Design Part 13 – Reflections on Two Cities ** Erick Villagomez  is the Editor-in-Chief at Spacing Vancouver and teaches at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning. The post The Barcelona Chronicles: The Superilla Pilot appeared first on Spacing Vancouver.

“In the ruin of all collapsed booms is to be found the work of men who bought property at prices they knew perfectly well were fictitious, but who were willing to pay such prices simply because they knew that some still greater fool could be depended on to take the property off their hands and leave them with a profit.”   – Chicago Tribune, April 1890 Look at the date it was written! This comes from the weekly post of one of my favourite commentators, John Hussman. You can read it here. He is talking about the stock market but outlines how one bubble bursting leads to the next one inflating and the foolish actions of Central bankers who think they know better.