Planning Pool

Jakarta residents celebrate Car Free Jakarta. Thanks to Luluk on Flickr for the great Creative Commons image!

In Vancouver, Canada, the 2010 Olympics are taking over more and more of the city in preparation for the official games and festivities. Starting last week, the city began closing roads and beefing up security, with more closures happening as time passes. As much as these obstructions are annoying to residents, in the grand scheme of things, they are publicly accepted and really not that disruptive. This has got me thinking: if Vancouverites are able to live with all these streets and access points blocked off for the next month or so, why … Continue Reading

The issue of homelessness is at the forefront of debates, both formal and informal, and is a reality I see every day in Vancouver, Canada. As the 2010 Olympics start take over the city, many wonder what will happen to the city’s large homeless population.

Housing and Development Board flats in the Little India district of Singapore. Thanks to Linkway88 for the Creative Commons photo.

In contrast, homelessness is widely believed to be nonexistent in Singapore, a city state in Southeast Asia. More than 85% of the Singaporean population lives in housing subsidized through the Housing and Development Board (HDB), Singapore’s public housing authority. This week, the … Continue Reading

Just arrived back from a trip to Asia where, among other things, I took part in a short exchange with the National University of Singapore.

This was all part of a History course that took a comparative approach to exploring planning issues in the ethnic spaces (mostly chinatowns) of Vancouver, Singapore and to a lesser extent Malacca, in Malaysia. The students were divided into several working groups, covering areas such as mapping, architectural modeling, real estate marketing, and video (which I helped to facilitate). Each was responsible for creating a final project presentable to university and government officials, professors and local planners.

So as our little group nosed around these two fascinating cities, talking to planners, historians and local residents as we went, we managed to produce this film. Its purpose is to function as a snapshot of life as it’s being lived … Continue Reading