Portland Transport

Post-Motordom Thursday Night

University of Oregon Graduate Forum
Portland Urban Architecture Program

Gordon Price
Director, Simon Fraser University Urban Center and
Former City Council Member, City of Vancouver, British Columbia

“Vancouver and the Post-Motordom City”

Lecture. Thursday April 22, 7:00 PM.
Room 142, University of Oregon Portland Center. 70 NW Couch Street
Follow-up Seminar. Friday April 23, 9:00 AM.
Room 451 (4R on elevator), University of Oregon Portland Center, 70 NW Couch Street

Both events are open to the public and free of charge.

Gordon Price was elected to six consecutive terms on the Vancouver City Council during the city’s recent transformative years. As a key member of the Council, he is widely credited as a guiding force that re-shaped the city center and inner-neighborhoods, building the high density, transit and pedestrian-oriented city that exists today. Price served on the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro) Commission and on the Commission of Translink, the region’s transportation agency. He is a Board member of the International Center for Sustainable Cities.

As a frequent speaker at urban conferences and events throughout the world, Price will describe the urban design and planning choices a city must make to build a more environmentally-sustainable future. Transportation choices and reduction of automobile dependence figure prominently into his vision, concepts that have been highly successful in Vancouver’s central city regeneration. While increasing its city center population tenfold during the past fifteen years, Vancouver has actually reduced traffic volume by offering high-quality transportation and personal movement options.

As the Vancouver Sun declared when Price stepped down from the City Council,

“Councillor Bikeways” has done more than any other elected official to shape the city and the way we use it. Active in every stage of the decade-long downtown residential housing boom that transformed this city’s core from raw idea to livable community, Price may well be remembered by historians as the man who made high-density living Vancouver’s collective urban dream.”

Chris Smith

7 responses to “Post-Motordom Thursday Night”

  3. Watch to see if he mentions the cost of living in high density in Vancouver. The time I saw him, he neatly forgot to mention the cost until some party pooper asked. Here is the exchange:

    http://blip.tv/file/2622938/

    You may also want to ask him if the influx if Hong Kong millionaires had any effect on the whole high density thing in Vancouver. (Hint: they were used to living in very high density & they had the money to afford it in Vancouver.)

    (In my opinion, everyone living in million dollar condos is not financially sustainable, so the Vancouver high density is, at most, a curiosity. Not a model that can be easily replicated, either financially or socially.)

    Thanks
    JK

    Reply

  5. So let’s see… 1. A site called “Crack Shack or Mansion” which is hidden behind an anonymizing domain registrar so you have no idea who is behind it or their real methodology. 2. A report published and co-authored by Wendell Cox which he sometimes plays coy about when writing to newspaper editors. 3. A blog post from Randal O’Toole where he links to the Crack Shack one. That’s a bit circular.

    There’s probably some meat worth chewing on in reference #2 there, but I’d recommend avoiding bringing up #1 and #3 in any serious academic discussion, it would just be waste of time.

    Reply

  6. Not much time to be thorough, but here is a nice 3/4 million dollar house that Coldwell banker has “just listed”.
    Looks like a real steal:

    http://www.coldwellbanker.com/servlet/PropertyListing?action=detail&ComColdwellbankerDataProperty_id=119178044&page=property&brand=CB

    This is only $675K:
    http://www.coldwellbanker.com/servlet/PropertyListing?action=detail&ComColdwellbankerDataProperty_id=117715893&page=property&brand=CB

    Just guessing that either of these would be under quite a bit cheaper in a low regulation area like Houston.

    Thanks
    JK

    Reply

  7. Let’s take a look at the location of the $750K one:
    Google Map
    It’s just off a central, busy commercial corridor and near the intersection of two major arterials.

    And the $675K one:
    Google Map
    Just a few blocks from the water, near parks, and with a view.

    The values of these properties are more due to the location of the land, and less due to the quality of the structure. (Not to mention the fact that Vancouver recently went through a demand bubble due to the Olympics and that should now begin to subside.)

    After all, the first three rules of real estate are: Location, location, location.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *