Vancouver Thinks Big

kernals12

Banned
It's time for Canada's 3rd Largest City to emerge from its cocoon.

1959
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A new dam began construction on the Fraser River at Moran Canyon. Once it was completed in 1965, it would generate 14000 MW of power, the most powerful such facility in the world at the time.

Thanks to this great abundance of low cost power, the Vancouver Area became a bustling industrial center. Factories producing chemicals, steel, and aluminum popped up everywhere and they needed lots of workers.

The city was becoming crowded and congested.
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So construction began on a freeway network for the city.
metro-vancouver-suburb.jpg

This resulted in mass suburban sprawl all the way to the American border. Langley Township, had it not been split in 2, would today have more people than Vancouver itself.
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In 1967, work began on Tradewinds, a massive waterfront development in West Vancouver. It would house 10000 people and be home to hotels, beaches, canals, swimming pools, tennis courts, and a shopping mall. Construction finished in 1980. Today, it is the most desirable part of the city. It is widely featured in the many movies that are filmed there.

Today, Metro Vancouver is home to 5 million people who enjoy affordable housing, excellent transportation, and lots of amenities. The area looks proudly towards the future.
 
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I grew up in Vancouver. I notice that your various "Think Big" projects are all proposals that were taken a certain distance, and then not followed through on, so I expect some wider studies were done outside of the footprints of the projects themselves. But I notice many of the proposals involve filling in parts of the harbours of major seaports. This can only go so far before it affects the ability of the port to function.

Although the Tradewinds development shown here, if I place it correctly, is outside the working harbour.
 

kernals12

Banned
I grew up in Vancouver. I notice that your various "Think Big" projects are all proposals that were taken a certain distance, and then not followed through on, so I expect some wider studies were done outside of the footprints of the projects themselves. But I notice many of the proposals involve filling in parts of the harbours of major seaports. This can only go so far before it affects the ability of the port to function.
The problem is I don't know enough about Vancouver to make up my own ideas, although I do invent a few of my own in the New York and Bay Area chapters of my series.

I think the other things I'm going to do for Vancouver is move the Skytrain all underground, build a Skyway network, and get rid of the streetcars in favor of buses.
 

kernals12

Banned
I'm also planning on doing a municipal merger, as was done for Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. I'm thinking Vancouver will absorb North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and Richmond.
 

kernals12

Banned
1969
16784511618_080232c833_z.jpg

Vancouver realized that if it was to stop downtown retail from drifting away to suburban shopping malls, it needed to provide some of the experience. Pretty much every other big city in Canada was building a system of grade separated pedestrian walkways, so it followed suit. The Vancouver Pedway Network made it extremely safe and convenient to get around by foot or bicycle.
SBS.jpg

Vancouver's traffic problems were still worsening. And because nobody wanted to knock down more neighborhoods in the city for freeways, public transit was expanded instead. The Subway system opened for the first time in 1975 and was quickly expanded. Bus Rapid Transit also helped supplement the network in suburban areas.
municipalities_a2a70f1b-0041-49d0-8c98-4cb83d618f08.gif

In 1999, the government of British Columbia, taking a cue from the agglomerations of Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, decided to extend out Vancouver's borders to include Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. This vaulted the city's population past Montreal to become Canada's second largest city.
 

kernals12

Banned
1928
tumblr_lojkpsiRKW1qgpvyjo1_1280.jpg

In the spirit of the City Beautiful movement, a new civic center was built by Burrard Street. It quickly became the city's most famous area.
 
... having driven both diesel buses and electric trolley buses through downtown Vancouver ....
OTL Vancouver's rectangular street grid was originally drawn around electric street cars owned by B.C. Hydro Electric.
During the 1930s. street car rails were paved over, but overhead wires remained for rubber-tired electric trolley buses.
Urban activist Jane Jacobs - or was it her son - killed highways west of Cambie. Mind you, they only did it after poorer neighbourhoods in China Town and Hogan's Alley were bulldozed.

As population density increased, Vancouver built the first Sky Train (light rail running overhead) in time for Expo '86. Overhead rails are much cheaper to build than digging subways. Snow-clearance is rarely a problem in Vancouver. Skytrainonly submerges in the densest parts of Vancouver and New Westminster. Every five years, they add another Sky Train line to service densifying suburbs (.e.g. Evergreen Line to Coquitlam). Most new Sky Trains and bridges are built five or ten years too late. The Evergreen Line was standing-room-only the second Monday of operation. High rise condo buildings blossom around Sky Train stations. Those condo dwellers depend heavily upon public transit. Since many of those condos cost close to a million dollars, few downtown dwellers can afford cars, much less pay for parking. Vancouver finds it cheaper to subsidize transit than pave more roads. Half of most bus tickets are paid by gov't subsidies.
The most recent political arguments have been over whether to extend Skytrain to service Surrey and Langley (working class suburbs) or out to the University of British Columbia.

ATL Since the UBC line is planned along narrow and busy Broadway (aka 9th Avenue), city fathers would be wiser to follow Montreal's model of digging the new line a block or three away parallel to Broadway, but a block or three away. Second, fourth, twelfth or 25th Avenues are all less densely populated. 25th Avenue would be the easiest because it already has a grassy median along much of its length. The disadvantage is that 25th Avenue runs through some of the most expensive single-family-housing in Vancouver. Since rich folks don't like the sight of Skytrains, so it would have to tunnel underground. Tunnelling through Kitsilano neighbourhood (between 2nd and 15th Avenues) silly because it is very close to sea level. West of Aburtus, thinnly settled land at CFB Jerico Beach is the logical place to transition to above ground. West of Blanca, it would be much cheaper to run Skytrains above ground, along the edge of the UBC golf course. Mind you, the vast majority of passengers going west of Arbutus are only going to UBC, so it will probably be another decade before that line gets extended all the way to the university and that will only happen after more condos are build on University Reserve Land.
 
ATL high land prices, but cheap electricity would drive more industry to smaller harbours up the coast (e.g. Howe Sound).
Agricultural Reserve Lands also make it difficult to build heavy industry in the Fraser River Delta.
 
1969
16784511618_080232c833_z.jpg

Vancouver realized that if it was to stop downtown retail from drifting away to suburban shopping malls, it needed to provide some of the experience. Pretty much every other big city in Canada was building a system of grade separated pedestrian walkways, so it followed suit. The Vancouver Pedway Network made it extremely safe and convenient to get around by foot or bicycle.
SBS.jpg

Vancouver's traffic problems were still worsening. And because nobody wanted to knock down more neighborhoods in the city for freeways, public transit was expanded instead. The Subway system opened for the first time in 1975 and was quickly expanded. Bus Rapid Transit also helped supplement the network in suburban areas.
municipalities_a2a70f1b-0041-49d0-8c98-4cb83d618f08.gif

In 1999, the government of British Columbia, taking a cue from the agglomerations of Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, decided to extend out Vancouver's borders to include Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, New Westminster, and Richmond. This vaulted the city's population past Montreal to become Canada's second largest city.
Some of my acquaintances who live Toronto are less than impressed with the outcome of merging various municipalities in Canada...

I suspect the issues in Vancouver would be similar..
 

kernals12

Banned
ATL high land prices, but cheap electricity would drive more industry to smaller harbours up the coast (e.g. Howe Sound).
Agricultural Reserve Lands also make it difficult to build heavy industry in the Fraser River Delta.
There are no agricultural reserve lands ITTL.
 
There are no agricultural reserve lands ITTL.

Unless you move the POD much further back this is politically impossible.

I've always thought that one of the biggest factors which retarded Vancouver's growth was the lack of connection south of the Frazer river. The first bridge wasn't constructed until 1905, and development proceeded only slowly. For most of its history some of the best land was seriously underutilized.

Had the capital of the colony of British Columbia remained in the vicinity of Fprt Langley, not only would the government save the costs of carving New Westminster out of the forest, but the CPR would be forced to build a bridge across the Frazer decades earlier than OTL. With the rail connection and the prospect of cheap electric power from Stave lake, Langley could have become a major center in it's own right.
 

kernals12

Banned
I'll be blunt. Reserving a huge tract of developable land right next to the most expensive city in Canada for agriculture is the single dumbest urban policy decision I've ever seen.
 

kernals12

Banned
... having driven both diesel buses and electric trolley buses through downtown Vancouver ....
OTL Vancouver's rectangular street grid was originally drawn around electric street cars owned by B.C. Hydro Electric.
During the 1930s. street car rails were paved over, but overhead wires remained for rubber-tired electric trolley buses.
Urban activist Jane Jacobs - or was it her son - killed highways west of Cambie. Mind you, they only did it after poorer neighbourhoods in China Town and Hogan's Alley were bulldozed.

As population density increased, Vancouver built the first Sky Train (light rail running overhead) in time for Expo '86. Overhead rails are much cheaper to build than digging subways. Snow-clearance is rarely a problem in Vancouver. Skytrainonly submerges in the densest parts of Vancouver and New Westminster. Every five years, they add another Sky Train line to service densifying suburbs (.e.g. Evergreen Line to Coquitlam). Most new Sky Trains and bridges are built five or ten years too late. The Evergreen Line was standing-room-only the second Monday of operation. High rise condo buildings blossom around Sky Train stations. Those condo dwellers depend heavily upon public transit. Since many of those condos cost close to a million dollars, few downtown dwellers can afford cars, much less pay for parking. Vancouver finds it cheaper to subsidize transit than pave more roads. Half of most bus tickets are paid by gov't subsidies.
The most recent political arguments have been over whether to extend Skytrain to service Surrey and Langley (working class suburbs) or out to the University of British Columbia.

ATL Since the UBC line is planned along narrow and busy Broadway (aka 9th Avenue), city fathers would be wiser to follow Montreal's model of digging the new line a block or three away parallel to Broadway, but a block or three away. Second, fourth, twelfth or 25th Avenues are all less densely populated. 25th Avenue would be the easiest because it already has a grassy median along much of its length. The disadvantage is that 25th Avenue runs through some of the most expensive single-family-housing in Vancouver. Since rich folks don't like the sight of Skytrains, so it would have to tunnel underground. Tunnelling through Kitsilano neighbourhood (between 2nd and 15th Avenues) silly because it is very close to sea level. West of Aburtus, thinnly settled land at CFB Jerico Beach is the logical place to transition to above ground. West of Blanca, it would be much cheaper to run Skytrains above ground, along the edge of the UBC golf course. Mind you, the vast majority of passengers going west of Arbutus are only going to UBC, so it will probably be another decade before that line gets extended all the way to the university and that will only happen after more condos are build on University Reserve Land.
That's a conscious decision to halt outward growth.
 
Another good POD for Vancouvers growth would be to keep the University of British Columbia out of Point Grey. Though this would deprive the world of one of the most beautiful university campuses, a more centrally located university campus would remove one of the major transit headaches facing the city.
 

kernals12

Banned
Another good POD for Vancouvers growth would be to keep the University of British Columbia out of Point Grey. Though this would deprive the world of one of the most beautiful university campuses, a more centrally located university campus would remove one of the major transit headaches facing the city.
Yes, I've always argued that having universities makes a big difference. Imagine if UMich hadn't left Detroit for Ann Arbor.
 
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