Development Patterns, Missing Middle Housing, Zoning

You Can’t Persistently Block New Housing in Your Neighbourhood AND Care About the Environment

I wish to make a simple but provocative point: focusing on building strong cities is also a valuable form of productive conservation. Or, to put it negatively, you can't persistently block new housing in your neighbourhood while boldly claiming to care about the environment. We should do a lot to protect wetlands and other crucial ecosystems while simultaneously reconsidering the way that we have tried to protect our built up residential areas.

McDonald's Mascot is Partially Hidden by a Bush
Development Patterns, Doing the Math, Property Taxes

Hiding in Plain Sight: Localz Cafe Pays 7x More Property Tax Than McDonald’s

We normally look at the total tax bill. Big properties pay big bills and that’s what makes our city’s finance department happy. Right? We should take one additional step to assess the contributions of our property owners in order to have a productive conversation about growth and value in our city.