Monday News Roundup

Happy Monday! Let's start the week off right by catching up on the top headlines in sustainability and urban design:

Living in Vancouver comes at a price (The Globe and Mail)

With a fresh mandate and another majority on council, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is laying out new priorities for affordable housing. 

How Planning is Like Growing Tomatoes (Planetizen)
An organic system is rarely the sum of its parts. Nothing demonstrates this as clearly as sinking your teeth into a store-bought tomato, writes Ben Brown...

In Copenhagen, gas stations are equipped for bicycle care (Springwise)

Norwegian gas company Statoil has equipped five of its Copenhagen stations with Cykelpleje centers dedicated to bicycle maintenance and repair.

The Benefits of Urban Forests (Planetizen)

This video explains how urban forests provide environmental benefits to densely populated cities that have felt a surge in health problems due to poor air quality.

A day in the life of a pop-up café (Sustainable Cities Collective)

For two years now NYC's DOT has been partnering with local restaurants to install pop-up cafés in parking spaces - creating vibrant public spaces the whole community can enjoy.

HopStop Infographic: Top Urban Travel Trends (Sustainable Cities)

Check out HopStop's infographic for insights into how commuters in more than 68 major metropolitan areas travel.

Addressing Climate Change Via Cities (Sustainable Cities)

This post takes a look back over the collaborative series COP17, discussing the best ideas explored and whether the agreement reached last Friday is enough.

Vibrant & Energy Efficient Social Housing Community in Scotland (Inhabitat)

Grödians, a vibrant social housing project, consists of 34 single family homes all traditionally designed but with major improvements for energy efficient design.

Folding Bikes Gain Popularity in Brazil (Planetizen)
Maria Fernanda Cavalcanti, a resident of Brazil, writes that folding bicycles "...have been catching the attention of urban cyclists everywhere."

VIA Vancouver Cycling Activities

by Stephanie Doerksen, VIA Architecture

Bike to Work Week
This spring, VIA added a couple of extra bike racks to our storage space because of how many of us are cycling to work these days. Some of us are fair weather commuters, but we have a couple of die-hards in the office too. A couple of VIAites recently participated in Bike to Work Week. Collectively we logged almost 75km. Not bad considering us urbanites have pretty short commutes. However, we have a number of cyclists in the office who neglected to log their commutes despite the fact that they regularly ride to work (not naming names here – you know who you are!) Next time we’ll have to ramp up the VIA team spirit and show the city just how many bike commuters there really are around here!

Ride to Conquer Cancer
A few weeks ago, two VIAites participated in this year’s Ride to Conquer Cancer, an annual fundraising ride from Vancouver to Seattle supporting the BC Cancer Foundation. This year’s ride was the largest in history, with over 2800 cyclists who raised over 11 million dollars!

The cold, wet spring we’ve been having continued, making the 240km a truly epic endurance event. Cycling for two days in the rain required as much mental endurance as it did physical. It was all worthwhile when we arrived at the campsite on Saturday to hot showers (and cold beer!). The festive atmosphere was truly amazing.

Getting back in the saddle at 7am on Sunday morning was pretty tough, but the rain provided motivation to get to the finish line and we kept up a pretty strong pace for most of the day. Crossing the finish line sure felt great!

DVA cycling forum
On behalf of the Downtown Vancouver Association, VIA has been instrumental in organising a DVA forum on cycling in the downtown called The Business of Biking. Presentations by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and the BC Food and Restaurateurs’ Association addressed the new role that cyclists are playing in the economic development of the downtown core.