Shaping Vancouver | What do I want from my street?

CONVERSATION NO. 3 – WHAT DO I WANT FROM MY STREET? CHANGE IS COMING TO CAMBIE, MAIN, FRASER

In this panel, speakers discuss the impact of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) along some of our prominent North South arterial streets – Cambie, Main, Fraser, and the communities along them.

Increasingly, we see the character and street level retail disrupted by the creation of high-density mixed-use areas close to public transport. Although this kind of development increases the housing supply, questions around diversity, density distribution, community assets, and neighbourhood quality remain. It is a model that appears to preserve low-density single-family neighbourhoods by introducing Metrotown like developments.

Is this the best way for Vancouver to address the development imperatives it is facing and if the preservation of low-density single family areas justify the creation of high density nodes?

The panel will explore what factors make a street work, including how accessible it is for various modes of transportation, how it allows for a variety of activities, how pedestrian oriented it is, whether it provides comfortable gathering spaces, and how it contributes to a distinct image of its neighbourhoods as a means to assess the impact of the TOD development being proposed for Vancouver. A general discussion with the audience follows at the end.