Planning Pool

In case it is not yet obvious, chickens are now hip. Reacting to concerns about local food security, factory farming and dislocation between urban dwellers and their food, people who used to buy their eggs at the store are deciding instead to keep a few hens in a backyard coop. Cities around North America are changing their bylaws to allow households to keep chickens. Posh dwelling options for these urban hens abound, including stylish molded plastic Eglus imported from England.

The photo from Seattle shows children at last year’s Northwest Folklife Festival checking out the Seattle Urban Farm Co’s display. The little purple and yellow coop, built from recycled materials, illustrates the minimum amount of backyard space that residents would need to devote … Continue Reading

Today’s post comes to you from Toronto Chickens, the blog of an underground hen-keeper in Canada’s largest city, where urban hens are not yet legal. As (s)he notes: “Living with chickens below the radar could be stressful at times. Sadly, despite the fact that I would like to share with you my identity, I have to be chicken about it and thus the name Toronto Chicken.”
This post, originally published at Toronto Chickens, addresses the important question of whether urban hens meaningfully contribute to food affordability. Toronto Chicken argues that they do!

Many people have asked me just how much it costs to produce a dozen organic backyard chicken eggs. Time to show off my … Continue Reading

Creative commons hen photo from Loungerie on Flickr.

We hope that will enjoy this upcoming week of posts about urban chickens in policy and practice! To kick off Chicken Week, we present a story about a very special urban chicken as told by Vancouver-based musician Craig McGregor. He begins disarmingly with “I don’t feel like playing a guitar solo; I feel like telling you a story!”

To my mind, his (true!) tale perfectly presents the disconnected, uncomfortable and absurd relationship that many urban North Americans have with our mainstream, industrial food system. It’s also very funny.

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Special thanks to Craig McGregor and to Celtic Traditions, the tiny and wonderful Vancouver folk music venue where this concert was recorded.

The University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning is hosting a symposium on March 13 and 14. Entitled “From Sustainawhat? to Sustainahow! Moving from knowledge to action,” the symposium will explore the implementation of sustainability planning. Specifically, speakers will be focusing on affordable housing, resilience of government institutions in climate change planning, intercultural communications and multicultural planning, collaborative and participatory design, regional water governance, and many other topics.

 Confirmed speakers include :

• Dr. Tom Campenella: Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
• Stephen Owen: Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations, UBC
• Dr. Leonie Sandercock: Faculty, SCARP, UBC.
• Dr. John Freidmann: Professor, SCARP, UBC.
• Karen Stone: Executive Director, B.C. Not-for-Profit Housing Association
• Brent Toderian: Director of Planning, City of Vancouver 
• Naomi Steinberg: Professional Storyteller
• Shannon Daub: Communications Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. Chapter

Perhaps most excitingly, … Continue Reading