A quick review of what setsVancouver apart: Concocted instantly in the late 1870s as a land promotionscheme for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver is the continent`s youngestmajor city - younger than Seattle and Denver, even Phoenix and Calgary. Alwaysa place of innovation in urban planning and housing design, Vancouver has seenits downtown population double in the past 15 years. The continent`s youngestmajor city with its highest residential density?: iron rule number one ofNorth American urbanism broken.Broken rule two is just asimportant. Vancouver is the only major city in North America without a singlefreeway within its boundaries. Citizen activism in the late 1960s saved Gastownand Chinatown by stopping a roadway with the Orwellian name of the ìEastDowntown Penetrator,î followed by significant investment in elevated railpublic transit. Rule three is thatVancouver`s current planning decisions are almost entirely insulated frominterference by city councilors and mayor. This does not mean unbridled powerfor planners {land use policy remains politically accountable}, but it doesallow for decisions in the long-term interest of the city to often prevail overthe short-term needs of getting re-elected.   Rule four has to do with oneof the urban forces most difficult to discuss: race. While having immigrant andnon-white population ratios comparable to New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles,Vancouver has escaped many of the striations and frictions that come withneighborhoods sorted by ethnicity.  Rule five has to do with therole that developers have in providing the social, cultural, and recreationinfrastructure in new and renewed neighborhoods. For nearly 20 years, Vancouverhas used a form of social bonus zoning, in which extra density in housingdevelopments is granted in return for such public amenities as culturalfacilities, parks, schools, and social housing. After resisting it at first,our development industry likes the current system, one where density is tradedfor a better public realm, because they find such investments increase thevalue of their projects.
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