Cities for Everyone

Here is a column just posted on the Cities for Everyone website. =============================== "Spread Compassion Stop Diseases" Responding to Homeless People’s Urgent Needs During the Pandemic....Continue reading

People who may be exposed to COVID-19 are told to quartantine at home, which is difficult enough for those of us that have healthy housing and reliable incomes, but infeasible for people who are homeless or living in crowded and unhealthy homes. Everybody benefits if we can reduce the risks of infectious diseases by ensuring that everybody has secure and healthy housing. You can help. Provide your Feedback to the Expert Panel on Housing Affordability in B.C. (www.engage.gov.b...Continue reading

Strongest Town Competition (www.strongtowns.org/strongesttown ). Please act now! Victoria was short listed in the Strongest Town competition! You can help by submitting your vote at: www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/3/9/2020-round-1-matchup-1 . Please act now - the competition ends tomorrow! This bracket-based competition is designed to spotlight communities that are building enduring financial resilience at the local level and actively embodying the Strong Towns approach to ...economic growth and development. We're facing off against Highland Park, Illinois in the first round and now it's up to you to win this thing. What features make Victoria strong? Here are some examples: * Very walkable and bikeable, thanks to traditional urban design and new bicycle facilities * Good public transit service for a city of its size * Transit passengers often thank their drivers when disembarking * Low automobile mode share (half of commuters use non-auto modes), which reduces household spending on vehicles and fuel, leaving more money to circulate in the local economy. * Diversified economy, including emerging technologies, tourism, higher education, government, lots of light industry, and arts. * Neighborhood urban villages with local shops * Lots of trees and public greenspaces * Lots of arts activities * Lots of local restaurants and pubs

Next Generation House Conversion Regulations Comments deadline: February 10 Victoria is developing New Generation of House Conversion Regulations (https://bit.ly/31E6wlz ) designed to allow more infill housing to be built in our residential neighborhoods. This is an important and timely initiative that can help achieve our community's economic, social and environmental goals by increasing housing in walkable neighborhoods.... Cities for Everyone supports the "sprint" option which expands the types and locations of house conversions. Here is our Letter to City Council (https://bit.ly/2SsAwwu ) which includes specific recommendations for improving the current proposal: * Allow conversion of houses built after 1984. * Allow conversions over 2.5 stories. * Reduce or eliminate parking minimums so car-free households are no longer required to pay for costly parking spaces they don't need. You can help! Please send your own comments to the New Generation House Conversion website. Deadline: Tomorrow, Monday, February 10th.

Here is a new Cities for Everyone's post concerning the Caldonia Project which will include 155 affordable housing units in a currently unused parcel of land between Vic High and Chambers Street. "Support for the Caledonia Project" (http://citiesforeveryone.org//support-for-the-caledonia-pr)... Some critics argue that this project will reduce greenspace, harm the community, and be unfair to Victoria High students. I believe that these arguments are incomplete. They reflect standard NIMBY opposition to infill development. As the column points out, in addition to direct benefits to residents, infill reduces per capita land consumption and sprawl-related costs. Many planners are concerned about school sprawl - the location of schools in automobile-dependent urban-fringe area - due to excessive site size requirements. Compact urban development requires more careful planning that maximizes greenspace with smaller footprint buildings, narrower roads and less parking, and more sharing of the greenspace that is available. The Caledonia Project is a win-win opportunity. The School District will benefit from additional revenue, lower-income households will benefit from affordable housing in a walkable urban neighborhood, and students who live there will particularly benefit from their proximity to our excellent local schools. You can send comments to the District 61 School Board at www.sd61.bc.ca/board-of-education/contact-the-board .