Currently deciding between moving to Vancouver or NL (from SF Bay, a suburban NIMBY sanctuary), and very curious how Europe generally stacks up on this issue
@Greg Rozmarynowycz , Europe is quite diverse, you can't say it's the same everywhere. Though there are old centres in many places that are like these missing middle. Speaking for the Netherlands, we're also dealing with a housing crisis, due to the lack of building activity after the financial crisis and the increasingly smaller households. Urban policies include many different type of zoning here, with a diversity in density, depending on the location. What frustrates me is that in some of these new city edge sprawl development suburban style zoning is still chosen, even though due the lack of density this doesn't add many new homes. Other areas do better like Leidsche Rijn (a new medium density suburb of Utrecht). If you want to be informed/convinced you should whatch some of Not just bikes' video's.
For anyone who is interested, last week's Vancouver public hearing is a great example of this issue. The wealthy westside residents will busted their ass to against these developments, even it is a 14 storeys rental building near the future skytrain station on Broadway. More interest part of the story is that they usually said they support the the lower height project, but when there was a 3.5 storeys rental building in Shaughnessy proposed, these NIMBY still against it.
14 storeys is not a 'missing middle', and carelessly uncoordinated in the middle of nowhere on the edge of an area that's under huge revision with Indigenous now reclaiming it. And Shaughnessy objected to the other building Ony because of it's location next to a HOSPICE.
Not all people especially families want to live in apts duplexes or row houses. And most will fight tooth & nail to keep their little surrounding that way. Especially when you pay huge amounts on property taxes. And there will always be a housing shortage when the country continues to bring in migrants. Can't keep caught up with housing.
@@gauharhayat3461 not blaming migrants you twit! I said more people you bring in and don't keep caught up with housing & infrastructure what do you expect. Duh.
The reality is the only way to get into the Vancouver housing market these days is either by inheriting or by being super rich...so another part of the missing middle is the middle class itself, as they are increasingly relegated to renting or looking further and further outward to find reasonably priced homes.
Only to find out housing further away is pretty darn expensive also. As long as immigration levels increase, there will continually be a housing shortage. Oh sorry just saw that your comment is 8mths old. 😲🤣
It wouldn’t matter if the missing middle wasn’t missing the prices would still be really expensive compared to other cities. You can live 100 km away and expect to pay 700k for a townhouse
Creators and artists fled Vancouver a decade ago due to affordability. It’s no coincidence that there is almost no live theatre, non-government art galleries and museums, live music, etc. The interesting people left Vancouver and that’s why it’s a soulless, miserable place to live. Unless you want to look at towers and hike an urban park, there is really nothing to do even as a tourist.
@@tktty Truth. I started planning a trip to VC as a tourist and quickly decided to go to Turkey instead. I'd spend the same amount but get to ride in a hot air balloon over a culturally rich area. In VC I'd just go to a fancy restaurant at a fancy hotel and fly back home.
Thank you for creating such a brilliant and articulate description of the failure of single family zoning. I live in South Surrey where the you have to have a car to go anywhere for services and shopping. How wonderful it would be to have local shops and restaurants that were a part of the neighbourhood and within walking distance. Mixed housing neighbourhoods are much more interesting and definitely have a community feel.
@chokolokoloko Wow shiny presentation, but clearly an agenda that needs to be disclosed. Take a drive along Oak Street or Cambie Street and you’ll see new townhouses and duplexes - the not so missing middle. They are part of the Cambie Corridor Plan, which was started back before 2010 when the Canada Line was being completed. There is all sorts of misinformation in this video - when he uses Marine Gateway as an example he fails to mention that if you go one block west of Cambie you’ll find co-op housing, blocks of duplexes, and even more blocks of affordable three story apartments. They area is called Marpole. I think this guy should take a drive through the area. Travel up Cambie and you’ll find blocks of townhouses that have been in the works for years - selling for more than $2 million a piece - sure that’s going to solve the housing crisis. I used to live in both of these areas and I can tell you the issue is developers make more money from condos and that’s why they are a priority for them and secondly and maybe more importantly it takes years to build townhouses - partly the process, the weather, and lack of trades people to speed up the process. I think people are watching the video thinking this is the answer, and why shouldn’t they considering how it’s presented but it’s simply manipulative misinformation. Multiplex units already exist in areas across the city and have for decades, and now the city wants to tear them down as part of the Broadway Plan. This guy wants us to believe that added density to single family home neighbourhoods is the answer, but makes no mention of the fact that many of these homes have rental suites, also known as mortgage helpers, and many of these homes have multi-generations living in them. So from the outside someone might watch this video and think wow, yes this the answer, but it’s not because Vancouver already has issues with density - need to use the ER at VGH, expect a long wait, want to use a community centre on the weekend, in the winter, good luck. Vancouver has been considered a liveable city but that is quickly changing because of development and density. Developers are killing the golden goose, and this guy doesn’t get it, or does he? I also can’t believe he played the race card in this video - that was a hundred years ago. Today and for decades there are all sorts of cultural, ethnic single family home areas in Vancouver. Take a visit to South Main or walk along middle Fraser. Seriously does this guy know the city at all? Truthfully this video is quite racist the way only older white people are shown in the public hearings. I know the single family home area shown in the video east of Cambie and south of King Ed and I can tell you it is mostly Asian-Canadians, second and third generation living in the area. Was the violin for them? Single family home neighbourhoods add to the liveability of the city and changing them, adding to the density does not happen without all sorts of issues. Parking sure - if you can afford a $1 million+ multiplex unit chances are you will have a car, secondly many of these SFH established areas would require expensive plumbing upgrades, and then there is the city infrastructures, hospitals, community centres, roads, which are already going to be stressed given the amount of large scale condo development in the city. Again why do people want to live in Vancouver and is more density really the answer? How about thinking about other places in Canada - Calgary a very liveable city where you can buy a nice three level home for less than the price of a one bedroom condo on Cambie. Not everyone has to live in Vancouver or Toronto. I see the agenda now by watching the end of this video - it’s an industry that wants to benefit from this redevelopment. So point fingers all you want at people that live in these areas and want to protect their interest, but clearly you have a vested interest as well and you have a responsibility to be up front about it - it’s called conflict of interest and if you don’t make it clear then your shiny presentation is nothing more than a manipulation of the masses, similar to what happened a hundred years ago.
I think you really see the negatives of this type of zoning when you take the skytrain into Burnaby. Long stretches of passing over single-family neighborhoods and parks until you get to a "center" like Brentwood or Metrotown. These centers only being developed because they were previously large mall/commercial areas owned by people looking to make a profit. So we've ended up with destination centers where you need to transit through low density housing areas to get from one or the other, which leads to cost prohibitive transit systems. It also means that owning a car and polluting more will be more convenient, and thus incentivized. People who praise Vancouverism need to be aware of these major flaws.
Vancouverism is by far the best system North America has developed. Visit anywhere in the United States and you’d see just how horrid urban design can be.
@@Physicalchemistry151513/4 of Surrey, BC are still incredibly tarnished by urban waste. There’s a plan to build a rapid transit line into a new frontier here, and we’re still at most building townhouses right beside the stations.
Having moved from Vancouver to Montreal, the difference could not be any more obvious. Montreal is full of triplexes and middle-sized apartments. If anything, we are missing the high rises. But the housing situation here is much easier... makes you think! Anyway, a fascinating video. If I may offer a suggestion, I think titling it something like "Vancouver's Missing Middle" would get more views. It's hard to know what the video is about for viewers unfamiliar with your content.
Thanks! Yea I’ve definitely heard that Montreal is an exception to this phenomenon, I’ve always wanted to check it out :). And thanks for the advices, I’ll give it a try right now.
@@AboutHere Another important part of the Montreal experience is that most neighbourhoods were built as a parish - every school, shop, professional and service a community needed was within walking distance of the local church or cathedral. Gotta walk on Sunday. The classic Montreal neighbourhood filled with triplexes created walkable density that remains valid to this day.
Hey, I have been thinking of Montreal too, I moved from the Philippines to Vancouver, only stayed there for 2 months, and now living in Toronto. Rent here is crazy, I live in downtown and our homeless situation is becoming wild, and the mentally ill have become so aggressive, last night I had to dodge 4 of them having an episode, I was literally in and out of the building for 15 minutes and that already felt like the most dangerous thing I’ve ever experienced my whole life. Anyway, I visited Montreal last year, I love the housing situation as well as the 3 - 4 stories home, it’s so inviting and it seems really comfortable… there was this area I went to where downstairs were restaurants and the upper floor were residential areas, it’s close to the really big park (omg I forgot the name) but that area. How’s the healthcare though? That’s my biggest concern.
@@absolutelynotnormal healthcare in Quebec is the worst in all of Canada. If you have life threatening illness, wait in line for a few months & hope you don't die, or shell out a couple thousand dollars and get treated instantly in America.
We need this everywhere in BC, and now! Cities elsewhere in BC could learn from Vancouver's mistakes and build middle housing in anticipation of the increasing exodus out of Vancouver. This lack of middle housing is directly connected to the inability for the middle class to afford to live here. And expecting people to rent basement suites for the rest of their lives is a bit unacceptable.
It could be worse. At least Vancouver allows a “single-family” lot to have both a basement suite and a laneway house. Been an uphill struggle (and mostly a losing one) to allow even a single accessory dwelling unit in Seattle. As someone who has lived in Seattle and has recently moved to Vancouver, I really appreciate the laneway house option. Allows me to live in quiet residential neighborhood that would otherwise be off-limits to someone of my means.
I, only today, found your videos and I am watching quite a few of them. What I like about them is that you can listen to them without watching the video which is great for walking longer distances
I just realized that the Zoning bylaw is literally another form of racism. I honestly didn’t think too much about the zoning laws until today so thank you and so love your content!
It’s funny how they wanted the Chinese out and now they’re buying all their homes from them. Plus tearing down their old, crappy homes to build mini-mansions.
@@sharinglungs3226 OMG. You are so right. They are so triggered by Asians doing these things when they themselves allowed it to happen. When Asians are the ones buying the homes it’s bad, but if it’s the white ones, it’s an investment, for them and their children’s future. 🙄
@@absolutelynotnormal It's not Asians living here buying homes that are bad. It's Asians who don't even live here, buying massive amounts of real estate, only to leave it empty and decaying in many cases.
Literally, zoning segregated us all. We either had money to live in a SFH or were trapped renting in a high rise... this had led to a lot of intergenerational issues
Highly informative! I’m writing a PhD on a very similarly-structured problem in Ireland (also experiencing a housing crisis) - for us, it’s the “missing extremes” - our zoning laws basically don’t allow secondary suites, and we’re also not yet on-board with high rise apartments, even where they would be suitable and beneficial.
The solution to the housing crisis is super easy, its to nationalize the land. Abolishing the rent relation entirely. There are plenty of empty buildings around Vancouver. But this is capitalism.
@@chhhhhris Look how well the USSR did and Russia today. NO, this is not the issue. Private investment would love to create more affordable housing if it were not for the issues discussed in this video, we need less government regulation not more. Regulation is the issue and the government creates problems (Such as the housing crisis) and by the time it fixes them its too late.
@@justauser nah the overproduction of housing is whack, plus the high cost of living, plus poor paying jobs. There is your problem. Go look at Haiti... not much government regulation there.
This is really cool to see, having lived in Vancouver for the past 5 years, Brentwood for half of it. Coming from a smaller town it was really weird walking through the suburbs being able to navigate off of those monoliths on the horizon
Building missing middle housing is also essential to slowing climate change. Because of these rules we've pushed out all the growth into the suburbs; clearcutting forests to create sprawling neighborhoods that you need a car (or multiple) to live in. Some neighborhoods in the City of Vancouver have actually *decreased* in population in the last two decades. We need more housing close to the city, where people can take transit, bike or walk to work instead of driving.
Really good point. In addition to slowing climate change by halting the expansion of urban sprawls and reducing the need for vehicles, building middle housing requires less concrete, steel, and other carbon intense construction materials. BC (and CoV) recently allowed the construction of mass timber construction up to 12 stories in height for buildings: hopefully this signals a willingness to pursue a middle housing strategy in the future.
Not to mention high rises are terrrrible for the environment. We could build all of the middle housing from sustainably managed forests. Thats "the greenest city."
Nothing Vancouver or Canada does will affect Global climate change. What, do you think that if Vancouver achieves 'net zero' a majical dome will occur over the city? What a sheep.
The missing middle would help greatly, but in most major Canadian cities (excluding those in Alberta and Quebec), there is not enough housing regardless of type. And there is so much red tape and bureaucracy into actually getting a proposal through the corrupt city council, that it is only profitable for developers to build condos.
I'm super happy that where I live in Langley we're building more middle. I live in a townhouse, there's a 6-storey condo building being built behind me with rowhomes behind, and a cohousing development starting next year down the street. Yay! Another awesome video Uytae!
Small walk ups with 11-12 apartments are the perfect size. Will a bunch of these built every year help solve the housing crisis. Yeah it probably will. It's like building your savings, you don't wait for years and do nothing and hope for a big windfall eventually, you chip away every month and build it up. Building one giant tower somewhere every 5 years gets you 150 units or so. Adding 12 units a month for 5 year adds up to 720 units and 60 new cafes and restaurants across the city that are all illegal to build today. The best buildings and neighborhoods in the city were all established in the early 1900s and our city government, NIMBYs and zoning can't take credit for any of it.
NO. walkups are old tech. What COULD be done is the three story apartments all through the lower mainland (frame with a concrete base) could be re=zoned to FIVE stories (it's being done in some US cities)> Wood framing can easily be five stories. The foundation and boiler room wouldn't even need upgrading, but that would happen. You then have a lot more affordable rents in the very same footprint.
It's an interesting argument in theory. I live in North Burnaby along Hastings Street, where we've had this middle density for many years, creating a solid community with many small independent stores. The city has changed the zoning to allow higher density going from two and three story buildings to to 5 story buildings. They used to be mostly retail on the bottom and rentals on top and now they are retail on the bottom and condos on top. What I've noticed, and I saw this happen in Kits as well, is that the old independent businesses are not moving back in. They can't afford the rents of the new buildings. They are being replaced by franchises and chains. That's a shame.
That's the way it is in the U.S., too. Last night I was at a community meeting about "missing middle" housing and learned that funding for mixed use developments often requires builders to charge a certain amount of rent for their commercial/retail space, which means they can't take chances on small, local start-up businesses even if they want to. In my city there's no minimum square footage requirement for retail/commercial space that must be included, so developers build a bunch of residential units, drop in a Starbucks, and call it "mixed use"- yeah, that's not helpful to the community. I also hate the look of the U.S.'s mixed use development's vs how it was done in european cities. U.S. developments= ugly & soulless. I stayed at the Atrium Inn on E. Hastings St. last weekend. I took photos of the residential area behind/north of the hotel. I was struck by (and not in a good way) the "a-hole to bellybutton" way in which housing was built. It was an uninterrupted sea of pavement , housing, and not a lot of trees. No front yard, no backyard, and houses built within 5 ft of each other with a little walkway between. I can't imagine having your neighbors live practically on top of you like that is pleasant. Do we need HUGE yards? No... but there were literally NO yards at all, not even a place to plant or little patches of grass out front for kids to play. It was depressing and an example of OVERdensification.
Not a single person who spoke against single multifamily homes looked like they had more than 10 years to live. Yet the government still listens to them. Someone should really tell them: You have had the past, let us have the future
That's because they are the ones who vote and show up at those city hearings. If young people want a future, they should vote and get more involved in local politics.
@@noseboop4354they're too busy working to spend 50pct of their take home income to make rent, to have the time to attend a geriatric meeting where they're going to be outvoted anyways. But i get the jist of your criticism of the young. If you're going to go down the path of intergenerational warfare, which frankly i think is just impotent rage in the end just like the topic of this video, my approach would be more about appealing to these old fuggos as parents, as opposed to just drawing the battle lines across age without context. Appealing to the reason their children can't be part of their lives during child rearing of their own might be a more effective way to getting people to agree to densificaton than constantly making YT restating the problem of single family housing without providing actionable policy strategy.
Another point that is not often brought up is that it costs a lot more to build skyscrapers than to build small and medium sized buildings. It can cost twice as much to build the same apartment in a skyscraper as in a 4 story building. This creates a weird situation where the new condos are too expensive to buy because construction costs are high, and houses are too expensive to buy because they come with a huge chunk of highly sought after land. If middle housing is built instead, construction cost go down and quality of living actually improves.
It is interesting how some older neighbourhoods from the 1970s have such middle sized apartment homes. Hopefully the changes to zoning coming from the Broadway project will help creating more such middle sized spaces.
It's wild how in Vancouver we call them "Single Family Homes" but there's always 2-3 suites in each house with sometimes 4+ families living in one home.
To make rules change, the social structures backing those rules need to change. Otherwise, rules change will be superficial, and the rich will always find ways to coopt the change.
Majority of people living in Vancouver bought their homes 30/40/50+ years ago doesn't mean they are rich. Ever since Expo 86 the govt at the time where pushing to have Vancouver's population to increase, so more immigration was welcomed into Canada. And there will continue to be single dwellings, as more families don't want to live in apts,duplexes,row houses etc. Not everyone likes the stackem & packem approach. But do see now that council has approved of bigger lot sizes can build duplexes & such on their property. I just came across this vid. Didn't realize at first how old it actually is. Sorry, peace out.
I think this 'missing middle' is a sustainable urban solution for so many cities - it would transform Vancouver - but it would also help a lot of smaller cities grow!
This was great. You should hook up with The Sightline Institute in Seattle. They are working on the same issue in Seattle and Portland. You and they would have great synergy.
I just discovered your channel. As an urban planner I truly appreciate these videos! I feel like to show some of your videos during our public outreach!
Keep on doing this stuff. So glad I stumbled on to your site. You are among the very best scholars and advocates for land use reform. I love/hate when you show people dissing on mid level scale housing. The stupidity is hilarious and scary at the same time.
Interesting! I loved Vancouver when visiting but this was one of the things I really noticed. Such a contrast between downtown and the rest of the city. Here in Edinburgh (UK) we thankfully have a lot of the middle housing, which is largely made up of sandstone tenements usually 4-5 stories high which makes up a lot of the housing stock in the inner city. This makes it a really walkable, pretty, great city to live in
Burnaby Heights has been building 4 story and 5 story buildings with shop fronts along East Hastings street. They look nice and the rise isn’t too much of a contrast from what was already there.
Great video! I've lived in and around Vancouver proper for 18 years and the cost of single family housing has grown outrageously the entire time, to the point where "hard work" can only account for a small percentage of the valuation and privilege to be in the area. Vancouver has some growing pains it needs to go through if we want future economic and cultural development and phasing out portions of the land taken up by single fam housing is one of those. Unaffordable housing, inefficient land use, and historical exclusivity are just some of the reasons that Vancouver needs to work toward removing single family only zones. If you want a big house with lots of land, go to any of the suburbs just outside of Vancouver. You wouldn't expect big internationally successful cities to have these massive suburb-type residential swathes, because it's so inefficient and limits potential.
Your videos are amazing! Thank you for putting in the effort to make Vancouver history so accessible. Re: missing middle. This vid completely omitted the Cambie and Oak corridor projects that address this very issue. Row housing projects there are under way already. Many current projects are around the Winona park neighbourhood. Despite this, units are small and still values at 1.2M, which is still inaccessible to many. Thus, demand is still outpacing the rate of supply. Outside the box thinking needs to be on the table to better utilize the single family dwellings now.
Great video! I am a Vancouverite born and raised and I feel this problem. Nowadays it is truly only people with incomes in the $200,000 who can afford a house, and even condos are out of reach for a lot of people. Things were not so bad just 18 years ago when my parents bought their house...for less than my sister bought a condo for last year. Keep up the great work.
This is very, very, very good. As a film as an information conduit. Congratulations to all involved. If all documentaries were as good as this we would all know a lot more about what we all need to know about the real world and how to make it a place fit for humans.
Reducing set-back requirements for missing middle housing makes so much sense to me. Perfectly manicured front lawns bug me only be because we seem to be obsessed with devoting space (and time and effort) to maintain lawns but seemingly never sit down to enjoy them. How often do you see someone in Vancouver sitting on their lawn, relaxing on the grass, waving "hi" to their neighbours etc. Instead we love to merely look at the neatly cut grass. That space could be used much better!
I love watching your videos as a young newcomer to Vancouver. You make excellent videos that are keeping your viewers socially aware of issues surrounding Vancouver and what can be done to make it better! Your positive attitude is inspiring and I would like to thank you for helping newcomers to Vancouver be aware of what is going on here and what we can do to change it.
Would love to see a video about the urbanism of Montreal's neighbourhoods built in the first half of the XXth century - Rosemon, Villeray, Verdun, Plateau etc. They do feature that missing middle less often found elsewhere in the city.
Thanks for this video, learned alot about the housing issues in Vancouver. Coming from Bogota and living in Japan I could not understand why the midscale developments where so difficult to implement. Now I know.
I think cities are missing out on the shophouse that has routinely been built in South Asia and Southeast Asia. These properties effectively provide a pedestrian walkway on the street-facing part of the ground floor and build living areas over it. Thus the intersection between the private and public space is very efficiently utilized: not only can apartments be more spacious, the pedestrian also gains a walkway that is _shielded from the elements_. It is a floorplan that strikes at the heart of inefficiency, since pavements don't require overhead clearance, so the space overhead can be used by buildings.
I live in a three storey building in Mt. Pleasant. It was built in 1989 and I love it. It also required a TAKE-NO-PRISONERS, WELL-ABOVE-ASKING-PRICE offer to secure. The demand for places like mine is STRONG!!
Great video Uytae! I grew up in Vancouver but didn't know this history behind the zoning laws, or fully realize the effect they've had on the shape of the city.
You make great videos. You're the best urban planning creator, in my opinion. I agree with you 100%. And would love some middle housing for my young family. Keep up the excellent work!
That topic on Carrall street towards Hastings is timeless. I rode past that neighbourhood and that quote seems to be just about timeless. I don't think we'll solve that problem any time soon.
Vancouverite here; there are low rises and townhouses in Greater Vancouver. Keep in mind that Vancouver itself is very dense; 600,000 people the last time I check, so there’s not much room to build. The suburbs on the other hand have plenty of new low rises, high rises, and townhouse developments.
It’s important our municipalities try these new ways of planning and developing our cities. The old car/suburb focused ways of development are over. We have too many people and not enough land. If folks want that suburban/rural way of life, then they can’t live in a massive urban city. I think that’s already happening in Van, I can definitely see a huge influx of folks from the Lower Mainland moving here to Kamloops and the Interior. (Which is also having big knock on effects on us too, but that’s a conversation for another time!) I expect this trend to continue for a while.
Yup we are going to have to move out simply because the costs are so high. If not for family would have done so years ago. It's not very affordable in most of BC now.
Montreal is the best city in the country for multi-unit housing, it’s full of duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, etc. As a result, housing there is several times more affordable than Vancouver or Toronto, where zoning and building bylaws have kept the supply of housing restricted.
Bro I just had to pause the video halfway through and just wow the editing and effort you put into these videos are great keep up the hard work man you're going places
I worked at a firm that designs a lot of mid-rise developments in single-fam districts so I feel like the truth is somewhat shadowed BUT the pushback is definitely true and the good thing is that this makes for more intricate and human-scaled designs. Much better than the blocky multi-family designs from the +-80s.
These videos are as informative as they are entertaining. Thanks for packaging such valuable information into an enjoyable presentation Uytae. Excellent work!
Out here on the outskirts of greater Vancouver (South Surrey specifically, but I’ve seen in Maple Ridge etc) the vast majority of new builds are middle density chipboard townhouses. Families with active children get $800K mortgages on them while the houses with yards designed for families are occupied by old empty-nesters who bought them on basic salaries for $20K 40+ years ago.
I live in a 20 storey condo building near Metrotown which I consider to be pretty modest for the GVA. Construction on two 40+ condos just finished next door and during the summer they announced plans to rezone the land south of us for a 66 storey condo building. North of me is single family homes. During the pandemic I would walk (socially distancing of course) though those neighbourhoods to get a break from being coped up in inside all day, musing on how unlikely it was I'd ever afford what was considered a middle class home in the 90's but are now easily in the ballpark for $2million+ to buy 30 years on. Watching this video is fascinating and speaks to the sense of grief, frustration and (admittedly) even envy engendered by the way housing is in Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, etc. Despite this I consider myself quite well off to just be able to live where I do. Some of the proposals for increasing the middle look amazing and I hope planners in Vancouver+ take it into consideration though my guess is that it'll be an uphill battle. EDIT: Haha almost forgot to say: Great video! Fantastic production value, stylish, entertaining and informative! Thank you making this!
Thanks Vancouver, now in Richmond they're constantly building a new townhouses on every block and are tearing down all of central Richmond for high rises.
thank you! Urban planning is one of my interests and I've always seen a huge problem in Vancouver: the city is made mostly of (unaffordable) single-family houses (in dead quiet neighbourhoods), or huge towers with shoebox apartments. It also exacerbates class and wealth inequalities. I'm a huge advocate for mixed-use low rises, I do hope they will work on changing the zoning bylaws.
the whole wilder snail bit was awesome for me because my aunt lives like 2 houses down from there, I stayed in her basement for a while, and when she had her wedding we stayed in one of the houses across the street that's shown in this video !!! awesome area really great. wilder snail rules, there's a really cool park with a waterpark right across the street too. I wish calgary wasn't so terrible all the time. I assume it's getting better but who knows
Wow this is such great content. People need to see more of this, and your style is very easy to watch. I feel like North American urban design has been fixated on extremes for too long, and we've forgotten how pleasant that "middle ground" can be. Thanks so much for your work.
Great video! I lived in Vancouevr for 4 years, I loved it, but it definitely had some huge wealth disparity problems. Most of the money there was Chinese, with a huge number of empty multi-million dollar penthouses used simply as investments, but never lived in. I will always remember seeing a homeless guy juxtaposed against a brand new Ferrari.
Holy macaroni, amazing video the production quality is insane, really interesting that these kind of zoning regulations started so early, we had a similar problem in my city around the same time with poor quality of housing beeing built, but we chose to build government housing instead of making them illegal, I think thats another vital part in making cities affordable, of course you have to make it legal to build these types of middle housing first, but I think this would only be the first step in making an affordable city
Another big reason is it's just plain more profitable to build highrises compared to midrises, townhomes, etc. Developers know this and specifically target properties they know they can get the most bang for their buck on.
As a former young municipal elected official, this piece hits hard. One, because I am a renter. Two, because the ignorance / cowardice of local elected officials to tell NIMBYs and BANANAs to pound sand is soul crushing. Don't get into politics if you can't make hard choices. This article hits the nail on the head on how you can densify with out sacrificing the character of the neighborhood. It's just construction materials and paint that make the difference... which can be in the bylaws. And the parking argument is getting so damn old and stale... especially in places like Vancouver that have good transit.
The need for private mobility and transit is a creation of an unbalanced blend of zoning in the first place. These single home lots in their monolithic enclaves create an environment where one cannot get to their place of work nor gather the necessities of life within their own geographic area. These owners don't use their generous sized lots to produce food or do much of anything else these days, mostly because it is prohibited. They travel to other neighbourhoods to participate in all those things that they find undesirable in their own areas, like shopping, entertainment, dining and intermingling with lower income folks. Its too far to walk to public amenities so useful land is allocated to parking privileged user's cars......etc
You are alienating your customers by doing that. They won't come back. The same attitude by elected officials led to middle class flight from cities and it's clear how bad off cities like Baltimore are.
I live in Kerrisdale which is one of the areas in which you will find these middle homes, at least I live with small apartment buildings. If you pass a few blocks away from the center of the neighborhood it becomes single family residences and I never understood why, until I saw this video. Hope this changes, people deserve affordable middle housing in Vancouver.
Local politics often get shafted in favour of provincial and federal crap, but its hugely important! If we want to get rid of BS zoning, then we will need to keep pushing for it.
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Ooh. I was just about to do a video on this topic, but you just did it way better than I was going to.
Nice! The urban planning channels are coming together
Currently deciding between moving to Vancouver or NL (from SF Bay, a suburban NIMBY sanctuary), and very curious how Europe generally stacks up on this issue
@Greg Rozmarynowycz , Europe is quite diverse, you can't say it's the same everywhere. Though there are old centres in many places that are like these missing middle. Speaking for the Netherlands, we're also dealing with a housing crisis, due to the lack of building activity after the financial crisis and the increasingly smaller households. Urban policies include many different type of zoning here, with a diversity in density, depending on the location. What frustrates me is that in some of these new city edge sprawl development suburban style zoning is still chosen, even though due the lack of density this doesn't add many new homes. Other areas do better like Leidsche Rijn (a new medium density suburb of Utrecht). If you want to be informed/convinced you should whatch some of Not just bikes' video's.
@@jamescochran3413 We need a collaboration between all city planning channels.
I would love to hear your take on the topic!
For anyone who is interested, last week's Vancouver public hearing is a great example of this issue. The wealthy westside residents will busted their ass to against these developments, even it is a 14 storeys rental building near the future skytrain station on Broadway. More interest part of the story is that they usually said they support the the lower height project, but when there was a 3.5 storeys rental building in Shaughnessy proposed, these NIMBY still against it.
14 storeys is not a 'missing middle', and carelessly uncoordinated in the middle of nowhere on the edge of an area that's under huge revision with Indigenous now reclaiming it. And Shaughnessy objected to the other building Ony because of it's location next to a HOSPICE.
Unfortunately for them renters now outnumber them quite handily and there's no hiding the wealth disparities.
Not all people especially families want to live in apts duplexes or row houses. And most will fight tooth & nail to keep their little surrounding that way. Especially when you pay huge amounts on property taxes. And there will always be a housing shortage when the country continues to bring in migrants. Can't keep caught up with housing.
@@liquidgal9867 oooh, blaming immigrants. charming.
@@gauharhayat3461 not blaming migrants you twit! I said more people you bring in and don't keep caught up with housing & infrastructure what do you expect. Duh.
The reality is the only way to get into the Vancouver housing market these days is either by inheriting or by being super rich...so another part of the missing middle is the middle class itself, as they are increasingly relegated to renting or looking further and further outward to find reasonably priced homes.
Only to find out housing further away is pretty darn expensive also. As long as immigration levels increase, there will continually be a housing shortage. Oh sorry just saw that your comment is 8mths old. 😲🤣
It wouldn’t matter if the missing middle wasn’t missing the prices would still be really expensive compared to other cities. You can live 100 km away and expect to pay 700k for a townhouse
Creators and artists fled Vancouver a decade ago due to affordability. It’s no coincidence that there is almost no live theatre, non-government art galleries and museums, live music, etc. The interesting people left Vancouver and that’s why it’s a soulless, miserable place to live. Unless you want to look at towers and hike an urban park, there is really nothing to do even as a tourist.
@@tktty Truth. I started planning a trip to VC as a tourist and quickly decided to go to Turkey instead. I'd spend the same amount but get to ride in a hot air balloon over a culturally rich area. In VC I'd just go to a fancy restaurant at a fancy hotel and fly back home.
Damn... No wonder this city feels so apart socially, even with housing we are set apart. Good content buddy, don't stop making these
There always was a split between social classes, Vancouver and any other big city just has a way of making it more obvious.
@@xXJumboSauceXx except central Montreal. rich ,poor and everything in-between live together in cozy dense neighbourhoods a la European.
Thank you for creating such a brilliant and articulate description of the failure of single family zoning. I live in South Surrey where the you have to have a car to go anywhere for services and shopping. How wonderful it would be to have local shops and restaurants that were a part of the neighbourhood and within walking distance. Mixed housing neighbourhoods are much more interesting and definitely have a community feel.
@chokolokoloko Wow shiny presentation, but clearly an agenda that needs to be disclosed. Take a drive along Oak Street or Cambie Street and you’ll see new townhouses and duplexes - the not so missing middle. They are part of the Cambie Corridor Plan, which was started back before 2010 when the Canada Line was being completed. There is all sorts of misinformation in this video - when he uses Marine Gateway as an example he fails to mention that if you go one block west of Cambie you’ll find co-op housing, blocks of duplexes, and even more blocks of affordable three story apartments. They area is called Marpole. I think this guy should take a drive through the area. Travel up Cambie and you’ll find blocks of townhouses that have been in the works for years - selling for more than $2 million a piece - sure that’s going to solve the housing crisis. I used to live in both of these areas and I can tell you the issue is developers make more money from condos and that’s why they are a priority for them and secondly and maybe more importantly it takes years to build townhouses - partly the process, the weather, and lack of trades people to speed up the process. I think people are watching the video thinking this is the answer, and why shouldn’t they considering how it’s presented but it’s simply manipulative misinformation. Multiplex units already exist in areas across the city and have for decades, and now the city wants to tear them down as part of the Broadway Plan. This guy wants us to believe that added density to single family home neighbourhoods is the answer, but makes no mention of the fact that many of these homes have rental suites, also known as mortgage helpers, and many of these homes have multi-generations living in them. So from the outside someone might watch this video and think wow, yes this the answer, but it’s not because Vancouver already has issues with density - need to use the ER at VGH, expect a long wait, want to use a community centre on the weekend, in the winter, good luck. Vancouver has been considered a liveable city but that is quickly changing because of development and density. Developers are killing the golden goose, and this guy doesn’t get it, or does he? I also can’t believe he played the race card in this video - that was a hundred years ago. Today and for decades there are all sorts of cultural, ethnic single family home areas in Vancouver. Take a visit to South Main or walk along middle Fraser. Seriously does this guy know the city at all? Truthfully this video is quite racist the way only older white people are shown in the public hearings. I know the single family home area shown in the video east of Cambie and south of King Ed and I can tell you it is mostly Asian-Canadians, second and third generation living in the area. Was the violin for them? Single family home neighbourhoods add to the liveability of the city and changing them, adding to the density does not happen without all sorts of issues. Parking sure - if you can afford a $1 million+ multiplex unit chances are you will have a car, secondly many of these SFH established areas would require expensive plumbing upgrades, and then there is the city infrastructures, hospitals, community centres, roads, which are already going to be stressed given the amount of large scale condo development in the city. Again why do people want to live in Vancouver and is more density really the answer? How about thinking about other places in Canada - Calgary a very liveable city where you can buy a nice three level home for less than the price of a one bedroom condo on Cambie. Not everyone has to live in Vancouver or Toronto. I see the agenda now by watching the end of this video - it’s an industry that wants to benefit from this redevelopment. So point fingers all you want at people that live in these areas and want to protect their interest, but clearly you have a vested interest as well and you have a responsibility to be up front about it - it’s called conflict of interest and if you don’t make it clear then your shiny presentation is nothing more than a manipulation of the masses, similar to what happened a hundred years ago.
I think you really see the negatives of this type of zoning when you take the skytrain into Burnaby. Long stretches of passing over single-family neighborhoods and parks until you get to a "center" like Brentwood or Metrotown. These centers only being developed because they were previously large mall/commercial areas owned by people looking to make a profit. So we've ended up with destination centers where you need to transit through low density housing areas to get from one or the other, which leads to cost prohibitive transit systems. It also means that owning a car and polluting more will be more convenient, and thus incentivized. People who praise Vancouverism need to be aware of these major flaws.
"... you need to transit through low density housing areas to get from one or the other ..." Ooh, the horror of it all!
Vancouverism is by far the best system North America has developed. Visit anywhere in the United States and you’d see just how horrid urban design can be.
@@Physicalchemistry15151 hahahahahahahahahaha Vancouver is one of the worst designed cities in the western world
@@Physicalchemistry151513/4 of Surrey, BC are still incredibly tarnished by urban waste. There’s a plan to build a rapid transit line into a new frontier here, and we’re still at most building townhouses right beside the stations.
Yay you posted again!! You don’t post often but everytime you do it’s a treat
Having moved from Vancouver to Montreal, the difference could not be any more obvious. Montreal is full of triplexes and middle-sized apartments. If anything, we are missing the high rises. But the housing situation here is much easier... makes you think!
Anyway, a fascinating video. If I may offer a suggestion, I think titling it something like "Vancouver's Missing Middle" would get more views. It's hard to know what the video is about for viewers unfamiliar with your content.
Thanks! Yea I’ve definitely heard that Montreal is an exception to this phenomenon, I’ve always wanted to check it out :). And thanks for the advices, I’ll give it a try right now.
@@AboutHere Another important part of the Montreal experience is that most neighbourhoods were built as a parish - every school, shop, professional and service a community needed was within walking distance of the local church or cathedral. Gotta walk on Sunday. The classic Montreal neighbourhood filled with triplexes created walkable density that remains valid to this day.
@@WabacControl that seems likely, might have to move to Montreal, away from Gastown.
Hey, I have been thinking of Montreal too, I moved from the Philippines to Vancouver, only stayed there for 2 months, and now living in Toronto. Rent here is crazy, I live in downtown and our homeless situation is becoming wild, and the mentally ill have become so aggressive, last night I had to dodge 4 of them having an episode, I was literally in and out of the building for 15 minutes and that already felt like the most dangerous thing I’ve ever experienced my whole life.
Anyway, I visited Montreal last year, I love the housing situation as well as the 3 - 4 stories home, it’s so inviting and it seems really comfortable… there was this area I went to where downstairs were restaurants and the upper floor were residential areas, it’s close to the really big park (omg I forgot the name) but that area.
How’s the healthcare though? That’s my biggest concern.
@@absolutelynotnormal healthcare in Quebec is the worst in all of Canada. If you have life threatening illness, wait in line for a few months & hope you don't die, or shell out a couple thousand dollars and get treated instantly in America.
We need this everywhere in BC, and now! Cities elsewhere in BC could learn from Vancouver's mistakes and build middle housing in anticipation of the increasing exodus out of Vancouver.
This lack of middle housing is directly connected to the inability for the middle class to afford to live here. And expecting people to rent basement suites for the rest of their lives is a bit unacceptable.
This expertly written, animated, and edited. Truly Vox quality. Bravo 👏🏼
It could be worse. At least Vancouver allows a “single-family” lot to have both a basement suite and a laneway house. Been an uphill struggle (and mostly a losing one) to allow even a single accessory dwelling unit in Seattle. As someone who has lived in Seattle and has recently moved to Vancouver, I really appreciate the laneway house option. Allows me to live in quiet residential neighborhood that would otherwise be off-limits to someone of my means.
I, only today, found your videos and I am watching quite a few of them. What I like about them is that you can listen to them without watching the video which is great for walking longer distances
there is actually a lot of middle houses everywhere, they just look like houses but its rented out to 10 people or all separate rooms or basement...
I just realized that the Zoning bylaw is literally another form of racism. I honestly didn’t think too much about the zoning laws until today so thank you and so love your content!
It’s funny how they wanted the Chinese out and now they’re buying all their homes from them. Plus tearing down their old, crappy homes to build mini-mansions.
@@sharinglungs3226 OMG. You are so right. They are so triggered by Asians doing these things when they themselves allowed it to happen. When Asians are the ones buying the homes it’s bad, but if it’s the white ones, it’s an investment, for them and their children’s future. 🙄
@@absolutelynotnormal It's not Asians living here buying homes that are bad. It's Asians who don't even live here, buying massive amounts of real estate, only to leave it empty and decaying in many cases.
Literally, zoning segregated us all. We either had money to live in a SFH or were trapped renting in a high rise... this had led to a lot of intergenerational issues
Omg... the bit where you’re scared of the shadow is perfection.
@JulienPowell Isn't it though? 😊
I'm just here to say that the soundtrack choice of this video is an absolute masterclass of curatorship! ❤
Highly informative! I’m writing a PhD on a very similarly-structured problem in Ireland (also experiencing a housing crisis) - for us, it’s the “missing extremes” - our zoning laws basically don’t allow secondary suites, and we’re also not yet on-board with high rise apartments, even where they would be suitable and beneficial.
The solution to the housing crisis is super easy, its to nationalize the land. Abolishing the rent relation entirely. There are plenty of empty buildings around Vancouver. But this is capitalism.
@@chhhhhris Look how well the USSR did and Russia today. NO, this is not the issue. Private investment would love to create more affordable housing if it were not for the issues discussed in this video, we need less government regulation not more. Regulation is the issue and the government creates problems (Such as the housing crisis) and by the time it fixes them its too late.
@@justauser nah the overproduction of housing is whack, plus the high cost of living, plus poor paying jobs. There is your problem. Go look at Haiti... not much government regulation there.
This is really cool to see, having lived in Vancouver for the past 5 years, Brentwood for half of it. Coming from a smaller town it was really weird walking through the suburbs being able to navigate off of those monoliths on the horizon
Building missing middle housing is also essential to slowing climate change. Because of these rules we've pushed out all the growth into the suburbs; clearcutting forests to create sprawling neighborhoods that you need a car (or multiple) to live in. Some neighborhoods in the City of Vancouver have actually *decreased* in population in the last two decades. We need more housing close to the city, where people can take transit, bike or walk to work instead of driving.
Really good point. In addition to slowing climate change by halting the expansion of urban sprawls and reducing the need for vehicles, building middle housing requires less concrete, steel, and other carbon intense construction materials. BC (and CoV) recently allowed the construction of mass timber construction up to 12 stories in height for buildings: hopefully this signals a willingness to pursue a middle housing strategy in the future.
Not to mention high rises are terrrrible for the environment. We could build all of the middle housing from sustainably managed forests. Thats "the greenest city."
@@aabb55777 Isn't that just suburbia? That would be even worse because it would take up way more space, as well as create longer car trips
Nothing Vancouver or Canada does will affect Global climate change. What, do you think that if Vancouver achieves 'net zero' a majical dome will occur over the city? What a sheep.
Play god and enjoy a quick destruction lol
I LOVED the world's smallest violin there.
Best video yet! Would love to see more. This is what I hope journalism transforms into.
The missing middle would help greatly, but in most major Canadian cities (excluding those in Alberta and Quebec), there is not enough housing regardless of type. And there is so much red tape and bureaucracy into actually getting a proposal through the corrupt city council, that it is only profitable for developers to build condos.
I'm super happy that where I live in Langley we're building more middle. I live in a townhouse, there's a 6-storey condo building being built behind me with rowhomes behind, and a cohousing development starting next year down the street. Yay!
Another awesome video Uytae!
Langley sucks now, too many people, constant gridlock. I sold at the peak and moved to the Kootenays, loving it.
Small walk ups with 11-12 apartments are the perfect size. Will a bunch of these built every year help solve the housing crisis. Yeah it probably will. It's like building your savings, you don't wait for years and do nothing and hope for a big windfall eventually, you chip away every month and build it up. Building one giant tower somewhere every 5 years gets you 150 units or so. Adding 12 units a month for 5 year adds up to 720 units and 60 new cafes and restaurants across the city that are all illegal to build today. The best buildings and neighborhoods in the city were all established in the early 1900s and our city government, NIMBYs and zoning can't take credit for any of it.
NO. walkups are old tech. What COULD be done is the three story apartments all through the lower mainland (frame with a concrete base) could be re=zoned to FIVE stories (it's being done in some US cities)> Wood framing can easily be five stories. The foundation and boiler room wouldn't even need upgrading, but that would happen. You then have a lot more affordable rents in the very same footprint.
It's an interesting argument in theory. I live in North Burnaby along Hastings Street, where we've had this middle density for many years, creating a solid community with many small independent stores. The city has changed the zoning to allow higher density going from two and three story buildings to to 5 story buildings. They used to be mostly retail on the bottom and rentals on top and now they are retail on the bottom and condos on top. What I've noticed, and I saw this happen in Kits as well, is that the old independent businesses are not moving back in. They can't afford the rents of the new buildings. They are being replaced by franchises and chains. That's a shame.
That's the way it is in the U.S., too. Last night I was at a community meeting about "missing middle" housing and learned that funding for mixed use developments often requires builders to charge a certain amount of rent for their commercial/retail space, which means they can't take chances on small, local start-up businesses even if they want to. In my city there's no minimum square footage requirement for retail/commercial space that must be included, so developers build a bunch of residential units, drop in a Starbucks, and call it "mixed use"- yeah, that's not helpful to the community. I also hate the look of the U.S.'s mixed use development's vs how it was done in european cities. U.S. developments= ugly & soulless.
I stayed at the Atrium Inn on E. Hastings St. last weekend. I took photos of the residential area behind/north of the hotel. I was struck by (and not in a good way) the "a-hole to bellybutton" way in which housing was built. It was an uninterrupted sea of pavement , housing, and not a lot of trees. No front yard, no backyard, and houses built within 5 ft of each other with a little walkway between. I can't imagine having your neighbors live practically on top of you like that is pleasant. Do we need HUGE yards? No... but there were literally NO yards at all, not even a place to plant or little patches of grass out front for kids to play. It was depressing and an example of OVERdensification.
Not a single person who spoke against single multifamily homes looked like they had more than 10 years to live.
Yet the government still listens to them.
Someone should really tell them: You have had the past, let us have the future
That's because they are the ones who vote and show up at those city hearings. If young people want a future, they should vote and get more involved in local politics.
@@noseboop4354they're too busy working to spend 50pct of their take home income to make rent, to have the time to attend a geriatric meeting where they're going to be outvoted anyways. But i get the jist of your criticism of the young.
If you're going to go down the path of intergenerational warfare, which frankly i think is just impotent rage in the end just like the topic of this video, my approach would be more about appealing to these old fuggos as parents, as opposed to just drawing the battle lines across age without context. Appealing to the reason their children can't be part of their lives during child rearing of their own might be a more effective way to getting people to agree to densificaton than constantly making YT restating the problem of single family housing without providing actionable policy strategy.
Another point that is not often brought up is that it costs a lot more to build skyscrapers than to build small and medium sized buildings. It can cost twice as much to build the same apartment in a skyscraper as in a 4 story building.
This creates a weird situation where the new condos are too expensive to buy because construction costs are high, and houses are too expensive to buy because they come with a huge chunk of highly sought after land. If middle housing is built instead, construction cost go down and quality of living actually improves.
Smashed that like button right in the intro because that level of dedication to editing and set dec for the title card alone is amazing.
It is interesting how some older neighbourhoods from the 1970s have such middle sized apartment homes. Hopefully the changes to zoning coming from the Broadway project will help creating more such middle sized spaces.
It's wild how in Vancouver we call them "Single Family Homes" but there's always 2-3 suites in each house with sometimes 4+ families living in one home.
To make rules change, the social structures backing those rules need to change. Otherwise, rules change will be superficial, and the rich will always find ways to coopt the change.
Majority of people living in Vancouver bought their homes 30/40/50+ years ago doesn't mean they are rich. Ever since Expo 86 the govt at the time where pushing to have Vancouver's population to increase, so more immigration was welcomed into Canada. And there will continue to be single dwellings, as more families don't want to live in apts,duplexes,row houses etc. Not everyone likes the stackem & packem approach. But do see now that council has approved of bigger lot sizes can build duplexes & such on their property. I just came across this vid. Didn't realize at first how old it actually is. Sorry, peace out.
I think this 'missing middle' is a sustainable urban solution for so many cities - it would transform Vancouver - but it would also help a lot of smaller cities grow!
10/10 amazing work! You deserve more recognition for your videos here on RUclips!! Underrated channel for sure!
This was great. You should hook up with The Sightline Institute in Seattle. They are working on the same issue in Seattle and Portland. You and they would have great synergy.
I just discovered your channel. As an urban planner I truly appreciate these videos! I feel like to show some of your videos during our public outreach!
Keep on doing this stuff. So glad I stumbled on to your site. You are among the very best scholars and advocates for land use reform. I love/hate when you show people dissing on mid level scale housing. The stupidity is hilarious and scary at the same time.
I don’t know how your videos got into my feed, but I am so grateful! 💚
Man, your content is so well done. I always learn so much from your videos! You have found your calling for sure.
Not even from anywhere near Vancouver, but this channel is a gift to urban design RUclips
Interesting! I loved Vancouver when visiting but this was one of the things I really noticed. Such a contrast between downtown and the rest of the city. Here in Edinburgh (UK) we thankfully have a lot of the middle housing, which is largely made up of sandstone tenements usually 4-5 stories high which makes up a lot of the housing stock in the inner city. This makes it a really walkable, pretty, great city to live in
Best video about missing middle housing on RUclips. Editing is amazing.
Burnaby Heights has been building 4 story and 5 story buildings with shop fronts along East Hastings street. They look nice and the rise isn’t too much of a contrast from what was already there.
Excellent video! Missing middle (supply) + unregulated foreign investment (demand) = the extreme unaffordability that plagues metro Vancouver.
Great video! I've lived in and around Vancouver proper for 18 years and the cost of single family housing has grown outrageously the entire time, to the point where "hard work" can only account for a small percentage of the valuation and privilege to be in the area. Vancouver has some growing pains it needs to go through if we want future economic and cultural development and phasing out portions of the land taken up by single fam housing is one of those. Unaffordable housing, inefficient land use, and historical exclusivity are just some of the reasons that Vancouver needs to work toward removing single family only zones. If you want a big house with lots of land, go to any of the suburbs just outside of Vancouver. You wouldn't expect big internationally successful cities to have these massive suburb-type residential swathes, because it's so inefficient and limits potential.
Your videos are amazing! Thank you for putting in the effort to make Vancouver history so accessible.
Re: missing middle. This vid completely omitted the Cambie and Oak corridor projects that address this very issue. Row housing projects there are under way already. Many current projects are around the Winona park neighbourhood.
Despite this, units are small and still values at 1.2M, which is still inaccessible to many. Thus, demand is still outpacing the rate of supply. Outside the box thinking needs to be on the table to better utilize the single family dwellings now.
This is fantastic! You've laid out one facet of the housing crisis so clearly and effectively.
Great video! I am a Vancouverite born and raised and I feel this problem. Nowadays it is truly only people with incomes in the $200,000 who can afford a house, and even condos are out of reach for a lot of people. Things were not so bad just 18 years ago when my parents bought their house...for less than my sister bought a condo for last year. Keep up the great work.
It’s always a good day when you post. I definitely learned some things here.
Man what a great channel! I lived in Vancouver for 5 months back in 2019 and it's great to hear from a Vancouverite about the city!
This is very, very, very good. As a film as an information conduit. Congratulations to all involved. If all documentaries were as good as this we would all know a lot more about what we all need to know about the real world and how to make it a place fit for humans.
I'm so happy I found this video! This did a great job of breaking down the historical factors of Vancouver's housing crisis.
Reducing set-back requirements for missing middle housing makes so much sense to me.
Perfectly manicured front lawns bug me only be because we seem to be obsessed with devoting space (and time and effort) to maintain lawns but seemingly never sit down to enjoy them. How often do you see someone in Vancouver sitting on their lawn, relaxing on the grass, waving "hi" to their neighbours etc. Instead we love to merely look at the neatly cut grass.
That space could be used much better!
I love watching your videos as a young newcomer to Vancouver. You make excellent videos that are keeping your viewers socially aware of issues surrounding Vancouver and what can be done to make it better! Your positive attitude is inspiring and I would like to thank you for helping newcomers to Vancouver be aware of what is going on here and what we can do to change it.
started watching this after moving from Van to Calgary, feels good to still feel kind of involved in the City.
Would love to see a video about the urbanism of Montreal's neighbourhoods built in the first half of the XXth century - Rosemon, Villeray, Verdun, Plateau etc. They do feature that missing middle less often found elsewhere in the city.
Thanks for this video, learned alot about the housing issues in Vancouver. Coming from Bogota and living in Japan I could not understand why the midscale developments where so difficult to implement. Now I know.
I think cities are missing out on the shophouse that has routinely been built in South Asia and Southeast Asia. These properties effectively provide a pedestrian walkway on the street-facing part of the ground floor and build living areas over it. Thus the intersection between the private and public space is very efficiently utilized: not only can apartments be more spacious, the pedestrian also gains a walkway that is _shielded from the elements_. It is a floorplan that strikes at the heart of inefficiency, since pavements don't require overhead clearance, so the space overhead can be used by buildings.
I live in a three storey building in Mt. Pleasant. It was built in 1989 and I love it. It also required a TAKE-NO-PRISONERS, WELL-ABOVE-ASKING-PRICE offer to secure. The demand for places like mine is STRONG!!
Yay!! I get so excited when you post. I’m saving this for later. 💚
Everyone loves touring the residential areas when on vacation. Bet the locals would adore it as well.
Love the quality of these, can’t wait for the next one in a few months!
Great video Uytae! I grew up in Vancouver but didn't know this history behind the zoning laws, or fully realize the effect they've had on the shape of the city.
Thank you Uytae! What a great piece. Curious about the "Something Is Missing Here" track by you!!
You make great videos. You're the best urban planning creator, in my opinion. I agree with you 100%. And would love some middle housing for my young family. Keep up the excellent work!
That topic on Carrall street towards Hastings is timeless. I rode past that neighbourhood and that quote seems to be just about timeless.
I don't think we'll solve that problem any time soon.
Vancouverite here; there are low rises and townhouses in Greater Vancouver. Keep in mind that Vancouver itself is very dense; 600,000 people the last time I check, so there’s not much room to build. The suburbs on the other hand have plenty of new low rises, high rises, and townhouse developments.
It’s important our municipalities try these new ways of planning and developing our cities. The old car/suburb focused ways of development are over. We have too many people and not enough land. If folks want that suburban/rural way of life, then they can’t live in a massive urban city. I think that’s already happening in Van, I can definitely see a huge influx of folks from the Lower Mainland moving here to Kamloops and the Interior. (Which is also having big knock on effects on us too, but that’s a conversation for another time!) I expect this trend to continue for a while.
Yup we are going to have to move out simply because the costs are so high. If not for family would have done so years ago. It's not very affordable in most of BC now.
Montreal is the best city in the country for multi-unit housing, it’s full of duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, etc. As a result, housing there is several times more affordable than Vancouver or Toronto, where zoning and building bylaws have kept the supply of housing restricted.
It's an Anglo North American thing.
Always excited when I see a new video from you
Bro I just had to pause the video halfway through and just wow the editing and effort you put into these videos are great keep up the hard work man you're going places
I worked at a firm that designs a lot of mid-rise developments in single-fam districts so I feel like the truth is somewhat shadowed BUT the pushback is definitely true and the good thing is that this makes for more intricate and human-scaled designs. Much better than the blocky multi-family designs from the +-80s.
These videos are as informative as they are entertaining. Thanks for packaging such valuable information into an enjoyable presentation Uytae. Excellent work!
Out here on the outskirts of greater Vancouver (South Surrey specifically, but I’ve seen in Maple Ridge etc) the vast majority of new builds are middle density chipboard townhouses. Families with active children get $800K mortgages on them while the houses with yards designed for families are occupied by old empty-nesters who bought them on basic salaries for $20K 40+ years ago.
I live in a 20 storey condo building near Metrotown which I consider to be pretty modest for the GVA. Construction on two 40+ condos just finished next door and during the summer they announced plans to rezone the land south of us for a 66 storey condo building.
North of me is single family homes. During the pandemic I would walk (socially distancing of course) though those neighbourhoods to get a break from being coped up in inside all day, musing on how unlikely it was I'd ever afford what was considered a middle class home in the 90's but are now easily in the ballpark for $2million+ to buy 30 years on.
Watching this video is fascinating and speaks to the sense of grief, frustration and (admittedly) even envy engendered by the way housing is in Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, etc. Despite this I consider myself quite well off to just be able to live where I do.
Some of the proposals for increasing the middle look amazing and I hope planners in Vancouver+ take it into consideration though my guess is that it'll be an uphill battle.
EDIT:
Haha almost forgot to say: Great video! Fantastic production value, stylish, entertaining and informative! Thank you making this!
I'm really impressed by the high quality of these videos. Keep it up. 👌
Thanks Vancouver, now in Richmond they're constantly building a new townhouses on every block and are tearing down all of central Richmond for high rises.
thank you! Urban planning is one of my interests and I've always seen a huge problem in Vancouver: the city is made mostly of (unaffordable) single-family houses (in dead quiet neighbourhoods), or huge towers with shoebox apartments. It also exacerbates class and wealth inequalities.
I'm a huge advocate for mixed-use low rises, I do hope they will work on changing the zoning bylaws.
I am circulating this to home builders in Calgary. Excellent work. My neighbours are on board as well ... well just not in my neighbourhood ... :-)
Fantastic video as usual! Thank you!
the whole wilder snail bit was awesome for me because my aunt lives like 2 houses down from there, I stayed in her basement for a while, and when she had her wedding we stayed in one of the houses across the street that's shown in this video !!! awesome area really great. wilder snail rules, there's a really cool park with a waterpark right across the street too. I wish calgary wasn't so terrible all the time. I assume it's getting better but who knows
The production quality is amazing! I hope you continue to make more of these!!
Holy moly, your video quality is phenomenal! Well done!
Wow this is such great content. People need to see more of this, and your style is very easy to watch. I feel like North American urban design has been fixated on extremes for too long, and we've forgotten how pleasant that "middle ground" can be. Thanks so much for your work.
Hello, we hope all is well. . Kind Regards Sarah and Glenn
Great video!
I lived in Vancouevr for 4 years, I loved it, but it definitely had some huge wealth disparity problems. Most of the money there was Chinese, with a huge number of empty multi-million dollar penthouses used simply as investments, but never lived in.
I will always remember seeing a homeless guy juxtaposed against a brand new Ferrari.
Yay, you’re back. Really enjoyed this one. Super insightful as always :)
Great! It's very nice to see thoughtful and provocative ideas
Holy macaroni, amazing video the production quality is insane, really interesting that these kind of zoning regulations started so early, we had a similar problem in my city around the same time with poor quality of housing beeing built, but we chose to build government housing instead of making them illegal, I think thats another vital part in making cities affordable, of course you have to make it legal to build these types of middle housing first, but I think this would only be the first step in making an affordable city
Really excellent video. One of the best I've seen on Missing Middle!
Another big reason is it's just plain more profitable to build highrises compared to midrises, townhomes, etc. Developers know this and specifically target properties they know they can get the most bang for their buck on.
or will get the least opposition
this channel is so incredibly underrated. Your videos are a pleasure to watch
Wholly Molly that is production quality
As a former young municipal elected official, this piece hits hard. One, because I am a renter. Two, because the ignorance / cowardice of local elected officials to tell NIMBYs and BANANAs to pound sand is soul crushing. Don't get into politics if you can't make hard choices.
This article hits the nail on the head on how you can densify with out sacrificing the character of the neighborhood. It's just construction materials and paint that make the difference... which can be in the bylaws.
And the parking argument is getting so damn old and stale... especially in places like Vancouver that have good transit.
I know what NIMBYs are but what are BANANAs?
@@ANTSEMUT1 Dont build anything, near anything, near anywhere
@@MatteusClement what??? how is that even acceptable? That almost seems Criminal.
The need for private mobility and transit is a creation of an unbalanced blend of zoning in the first place. These single home lots in their monolithic enclaves create an environment where one cannot get to their place of work nor gather the necessities of life within their own geographic area. These owners don't use their generous sized lots to produce food or do much of anything else these days, mostly because it is prohibited. They travel to other neighbourhoods to participate in all those things that they find undesirable in their own areas, like shopping, entertainment, dining and intermingling with lower income folks. Its too far to walk to public amenities so useful land is allocated to parking privileged user's cars......etc
You are alienating your customers by doing that. They won't come back. The same attitude by elected officials led to middle class flight from cities and it's clear how bad off cities like Baltimore are.
@About Here, Excellent choice of music (especially for the intro), like always!
The intros are so cool
what's the songs name?
I live in Kerrisdale which is one of the areas in which you will find these middle homes, at least I live with small apartment buildings. If you pass a few blocks away from the center of the neighborhood it becomes single family residences and I never understood why, until I saw this video. Hope this changes, people deserve affordable middle housing in Vancouver.
I love the way you document and present your style in your cinematography, i hope you're finding more ways to enjoy expanding your channel
Local politics often get shafted in favour of provincial and federal crap, but its hugely important! If we want to get rid of BS zoning, then we will need to keep pushing for it.
Great video! The production, the quality, the content. All so good.
Your videos are brilliant. It's so great to see quality content about Vancouver.
I really enjoyed this video, as much as it is disturbing. It's great to see someone talking about this, and the production was amazing. Subscribed!