The Survivors' Totem Pole will be raised by Downtown Eastside communities to serve as a lasting symbol for those struggling for social justice. On the program, we hear speakers from the June 28th Survivors' Totem Pole Open House provide background to the project and discuss its significance for communities who have and continue to experience oppression.
David Vaisbord discusses the importance of the Little Mountain story and his campaign to create a documentary film to showcase the community and residents' struggle against the BC government over Vancouver's first social (public) housing development and the ultimate victory.
On the program, we discuss a new independent media organization, a new model of independent media, and a new media platform to connect Anglophone and Francophone Canada ? Ricochet. In the second half of the program, we hear about Vancouver public school students standing up for their teachers.
One in five shelter users are youth. 25 to 40% of youth experiencing homelessness self-identified as LGBTQ, and 40 to 70% of homeless youth have mental health issues compared to 10 to 20% of housed youth. On the program, we discuss the crisis of youth homelessness in Canada and how we might better respond to the problem. Dr. Stephen Gaetz is associate professor in the faculty of education at York University in Toronto and he is the director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network. He is th...
Former Vancouver School Board Trustee Jane Bouey discusses the state of public education in BC and Vancouver, provides the context to the current strike and lockout, and provides an update on the Vancouver School Board's work on updating their sexual orientation and gender identity policies.
Miloon Kothari is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and he spoke at Simon Fraser University - Woodward's on July 9, 2012. Mr. Kothari's talk is titled 'The Right to Adequate Housing: From Practice to Policy to Practice'. He discusses his work as Special Rapporteur, the similar (and distinct) challenges facing a variety of countries and cities, and how this right can be realized. Thank you to SFU?s Vancity Office of Community Engagement for permission to broadcast...
On the podcast, we discuss the rise of administration of justice offences ? typically breaches of bail and probation ? in Canada and BC, and use of particular spatial practices in Vancouver?s criminal justice system. Are particular criminal justice practices setting marginalized groups up to fail in the criminal justice system? And how do they affect how people negotiate urban spaces?
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a new report ? The Best and Worst Place to be a Woman in Canada: An Index of Gender Equality in Canada?s Twenty Largest Metropolitan Areas. On the program, we discuss the findings with the author of this recent study. Kate McInturff is a senior researcher at the CCPA and director of their initiative on gender equality and public policy ? Making Women Count.
Between now and 2017, one quarter of housing co-operatives in BC will lose rent-geared-to income subsidies for low-income members as federal housing agreements end. Over 1500 households will face a crisis as their homes become unaffordable. On the program, we discuss this situation and how this affects the affordable housing landscape in Vancouver, across BC and Canada.
Urban geographer Nicholas Lynch discusses the findings of a recent study showing an increasingly divided metro Vancouver region and a disappearing middle class. We?re revisiting this important discussion from April 2013. Urban social geographer Nicholas Lynch is co-author of Divisions and Disparities in Lotus Land: Socio-Spatial Income Polarization in Greater Vancouver, 1970-2005. The report was originally published in October 2012 by the University of Toronto?s Cities Centre. The research prese...
What are the conditions that have led to the current labour situation at Canada?s largest port? And what is the significance of Vancouver?s port within wider global supply chains? On the program, we?ll be taking an in-depth look at the current labour situation involving port truckers and we?ll be examining the complexities of global commodity chains, ports, and port cities like Vancouver.
Vancouver's recently approved Downtown Eastside neighbourhood plan raises concerns over the definition of social housing and the plan's ability to stop -- or even slow -- gentrification. Low-income advocates and others express frustration that the significant 30-year plan was rushed through city council. On the podcast, we hear from low-income advocate Tamara Herman (Carnegie Community Action Project), Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Councillor Adriane Carr, and urban planning/geography PhD st...
Seven hundred and thirty-one homeless people live in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) according to the City of Vancouver, and approximately 5000 more live on the edge of homelessness in tiny Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms. Many of these people rely on welfare and basic pension and desperately need new self contained social housing. This year?s Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) hotel and housing report found that SROs in the DTES are more expensive than ever and that fewer still are a...
Highlights from the past year of critical urban discussions and a reminder to support independent radio. Donate online at www.citr.ca/donate and support the alternative programming that you enjoy.
On the podcast, we examine the history and memories of Vancouver's original black community, Hogan's Alley, in a radio documentary produced by Arial Fournier and Andy Longhurst.
Jules Boykoff discusses the Olympics Games -- prominent urban mega-event spectacles -- as a form of 'celebration capitalism' (the complement to Naomi Klein's 'disaster capitalism'). He talks about celebration capitalism and political dissent in the context of the Vancouver, London, and Sochi Olympic Games. Jules Boykoff is author of Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games (2013). He is associate professor of politics and government at Pacific University in Oregon.
On the program, the second part of the conversation with urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki about Vancouver?s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We discuss what the future might hold for Vancouver as a city of consumption ? and whether it might be advantageous for the city to chart an alternative economic path forward.
On the program, urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki discusses Vancouver?s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We examine how the city?s structure, feel, and image of itself have shifted over the last three decades ? and how the rise of precarious employment is implicated in this transformation.
On the program, renowned New York City scholar John Mollenkopf (Distinguished Professor, City University of New York) discusses Michael Bloomberg?s three terms as mayor of New York City and what the election of Bill de Blasio means for the city. We also discuss the history of urban politics in New York. inequality, affordable housing, and urban development ? as well as immigration and the shifting landscape of electoral politics in the US?s largest city.
On the program, we reflect on the Michael Bloomberg era in New York City and what the mayoral election of Bill de Blasio might mean for (in)equality, public and affordable housing, and urban development policies. He is the first democratic mayor elected since 1993. Valery Jean of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) discusses these issues and more.
Has it been a lack of neighbourhood consultation or simply a case of the NIMBY syndrome in Vancouver?s eastside? Or perhaps a bit of both? Is fear and misinformation framing the conversation about supportive housing? On the program, we look at the concerns and politics around the planned 95 units of transitional housing in Mount Pleasant?s former Biltmore Hotel. How significant are the locational conflicts over low-income housing and harm reduction for Vancouver and the region more generally? An...
We hear about the homelessness and harm reduction situation in Abbotsford, BC and an alternative housing model in Portland, Oregon. In 2005, the City of Abbotsford passed a bylaw effectively banning harm reduction services, and in summer of 2013, the City dumped manure on a homeless encampment in an attempt to force them out of the area. Pivot Legal Society's DJ Larkin speaks about legal challenges against the City of Abbotsford that are currently in the courts. Finally, we from Lisa Larson abou...
On the podcast, we look back at the year of critical urban discussions on topics including transportation, neighbourhood change, the environment, social movements, feminism, and labour.
On the podcast, we look back at the year of critical urban discussions on topics including transportation, neighbourhood change, the environment, social movements, feminism, and labour.
On the podcast, we look back at the year of critical urban discussions on topics including transportation, neighbourhood change, the environment, and labour.
Using the storied San Francisco waterfront as a case study, Jasper Rubin (San Francisco State University) examines the reflexive relationship that gentrification creates between the waterfront and the city. Recorded in November 2013 as part of the SFU Urban Studies Gentrification and the City Speaker Series.
What does it mean to say that cities like Vancouver have taken a ?neoliberal? turn, embracing market-oriented policies while paying little more than lip service to questions of social welfare, affordability, and environmental sustainability? Does the embrace of ?creativity? really hold the promise of an alternative path, or does it threaten more of the same? Exploring these questions, Jamie Peck will chart the rise of the neoliberal city, calling attention to its mutations, its limits, and to it...
Failed efforts at the international, national and sub-national levels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have prompted some city governments to set their own greenhouse gas targets and implement policies in pursuit of these. But how can we determine the effectiveness of these policies? Are urban climate strategies just hype or potentially a significant answer to these challenges? We hear from SFU School of Resource and Environmental Management professor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mark Jacca...
Jackie Wong discusses her recent series, Generation Rent: Two Cities, Two Directions, recently published by The Tyee. We talk about the differences and similarities between Vancouver and San Francisco ? and we specifically explore how political attitudes towards renting and renters can shape cities in profound ways. What are the differences between these two west coast cities? And what might we learn from our southern neighbour?
Does the growth of service sector jobs in North American cities imply greater urban inequality? What are the implications of deteriorating job quality in our cities? How can organizers, workers, and policymakers challenge the degradation of work? On the podcast, Marc Doussard discusses his recent book, Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom of the Labour Market, which is based on extensive field research in Chicago. His 2013 book details the deteriorating conditions of employment in local-ser...
