Planning Pool

This afternoon in Niagara there are a variety of mobile workshops and concurrent sessions. I’m at a “Building the Regional City” panel featuring Vancouver’s Ann McAfee, as well as Kathryn Friedman, Deputy Director of University of Buffalo’s Regional Institute, and Francis Gentoral, Regional Manager for the Canadian Urban Institute in Southeast Asia. This panel is focusing on regional cities that cross municipal, state/provincial, and even international boundaries.

McAfee compares Vancouver and Melbourne as examples of liveable cities but has different governance structures. The Vancouver has 22 municipalities. Metro Melbourne has a larger regional population and 32 municipalities, but an older built environment and a smaller downtown population. Melbourne’s limiting factor is water.

Unlike Vancouver, Melbourne has no metro government and the state presents regional plans without public engagement. But, both regions have similar goals, namely to diversify the economy, nurture local business, … Continue Reading

A few interesting articles related to globalization showed up in Planetizen this week that I just had to share. Inside: If location doesn’t matter anymore, then why do cities keep growing? India’s Tata is building $10,000 condos! Should immigrants be brought in to take care of fixer-upper neighbourhoods in the USA?