Planning Pool

Portland Food Carts: Photo by Author

In Portland you might enjoy a steaming bowl of curry, while in Accra a spicy box of jollof.  Both purchased for a low cost and in a convenient location.  What is known as a cart in Portland or New York, a kiosk in Accra or Moscow, might also be a booth, pavilion or a stand.  Each is a different form of micro-enterprise that plays an increasingly important role in our cities today. A kiosk is an efficient way for an individual to start a business with low costs and short time, while providing an immediate service to an urban area.  Congruently, the vibrancy of a neighborhood can be accentuated through the articulation of these small forms.  But … Continue Reading

A banner in support of Insite, Vancouver's safe injection facility. Thanks to Roland Tanglao for the Creative Commons photo.

January 14 brought good news – at least for now –  for residents of the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, Canada, and more broadly for supporters of harm reduction policies. That’s when the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a decision made by the British Columbia Supreme Court back in 2008 which ruled that the closure of InSite would violate the Charter right of the facility’s users to “security of the person”.

Vancouver’s only supervised injection site, InSite has provided intravenous drug users with a safe place to inject drugs and access care services, including addiction counselling and treatment, since 2003. Working under the harm reduction model, InSite’s … Continue Reading