Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Seattle. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Seattle. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, February 19, 2024

Vancouver faces hotel shortage ahead of 2026 World Cup

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-hotel-shortage-2026-world-cup-1.7117696

The city has failed in attracting many more hotels over the decades. 

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/09/08/vancouver-hotels-shortage-city-councillor/

With so many strict & extremely limiting building restrictions, Vancouver has made it tougher for more hotels to set up shop in the city. A 30-40 story hotel with 30-40 condominium floors above that would provide a great incentive for more hotels to be built.

Unfortunately, there has been a strong, KEEP VANCOUVER SMALL agenda for several decades.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/seattle-vancover-tourism-infrastructure-facilities-economy-strengths Fortunatly, Seattle isn't under any of the Vancouver type restrictions & limitations.

www.seattletimes.com/business/as-seattle-area-keeps-building-hotels-there-soon-may-be-too-much-room-at-the-inn If only BC had such an issue, but it's the total opposite in Vancouver.

https://www.costar.com/article/1967732614/seattle-experiences-influx-of-hotel-rooms-in-construction

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/downtown-seattle-hotels-occupancy-nearing-pre-pandemic-levels/281-fffc5a41-8145-46f4-a375-f90384c34158 

"As of 2022, Metro Vancouver has a hotel supply of 23,292 rooms across 163 properties, including 13,290 rooms in 78 properties within the City of Vancouver." https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-hotel-supply-shortage-demand


  • Hotel rooms available in Downtown Seattle: 14,861
  • Hotel rooms available in King County: 43,490

https://visitseattle.org/press/press-kit/seattle-facts

Seattle like Calgary, Toronto & Montreal, have a think big & plan ahead mentality, which Vancouver continues to avoid.


https://versus.com/en/seattle-vs-vancouver

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

The very narrow The Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge

 "The 1933 bylaw authorizing construction included a provision mandating that "no Asiatic person shall be employed in or upon any part of the undertaking or other works". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge#History

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm While Canada has allowed for more diversity over the decades, Canada has nowhere near  even 1% of the world's' population. It's been a struggle just for Canada to accommodate half of 1% of the human population.

Unfortunately for most of the 20th century, Vancouver was to remain as just a provincial backwater for as long as possible. For had the city been allowed to flourish onto the scale of the likes of SydneySan_Francisco or even Seattle, that would mean there would be a lot more people. Which means more non-white people and that was just too uncomfortable a notion for the White colonial mindset.

Of course the colonial mindset could be seen all over the world, but so many other cities weren't thwarted like Vancouver and Victoria. You will never find any official BC mandate revealing that it was to remain as a provincial backwater for as long as possible. 

Thus, the local power structure continually tried to hold things back for most of the cities history. A multigenerational stunted growth policy is a clever way to slow a city and province down. Calgary and Seattle became big business cities, because they aren't under any BC type restrictions.

One only look at what Alberta and Washington_(state) have been able to do, because they aren't in BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta#Transportation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state)#Transportation

The 12 lane Ship_Canal_Bridge in Seattle is the closest big & wide bridge to V-BC. Although the Port_Mann_Bridge is much closer, it only has 10 lanes. Unfortunately, both bridges don't have any existing rail component. 

Fortunately, Vancouver, WA wasn't forced to indefinitely endure a 3 lane bottleneck like V-BC has.

The planners of the Sydney_Harbour_Bridge didn't have a backwater BC mindset. However, after several decades, the SHB was augmented by the Sydney_Harbour_Tunnel. Unfortunately, there was no provision for a 3rd lane each way to allow for express buses.

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/current-projects/western-harbour-tunnel-and-warringah-freeway-upgrade How is this possible? Of course NSW isn't under any backwater BC type restrictions.

https://caportal.com.au/rms/wht

The Western_Harbour_Tunnel should have had an extra section for future express busses or even another train line. 

While something like the Sydney_Metro should have already gone under the harbour decades ago, at least it's not as late to the party like Vancouver is.

"Stage 1 (Metro North West) operates with 6-car trains running on 4-minute headways. After the addition of the Stage 2 extension to Bankstown, the stations’ platforms will be configured to allow for future use of 8-car trains and the signalling system designed to allow for 2-minute headways, both of which are planned to be introduced once sufficient patronage demands it. Eight-car trains have a design capacity of 1,539 customers and increasing the running frequency to ultimately 30 trains per hour (2-minute headway) would provide a maximum capacity of 46,170 passengers per hour per direction." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro#Capacity 

"In the event that extensions to 8 cars happens if sufficient demand warrants the contract, two infill carriages will be added between cars 05 and 06." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Metro_Metropolis_Stock#Service_formation This allowace for such expansion just isn't part of the BC mentality, but for NSW, it's not a problem.

With the Lions_Gate_Bridge being so narrow, it's impossible to have proper HOV & express bus lanes. Yet for decades, the city refuses to build a bus & HOV tunnel.

Although Portland is a stunted city when compared to Seattle, Portland still has a much better set of bridges than Vancouver, BC. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area,_Oregon


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=bridges

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=BC

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Seattle

Friday, February 16, 2024

Bellevue, WA - Eastside Link light rail set to open in April

 https://komonews.com/news/local/eastside-link-light-rail-opening-april-27-south-bellevue-redmond-technology-stations-belred-2-line-public-transit-security-king-county-transportation-travel

https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/departments/transportation/projects/east-link-light-rail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Line_(Sound_Transit) , https://www.soundtransit.org/blog/platform/get-ready-new-link-service-eastside-next-spring

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/trains-in-training-sound-transit-powers-up-its-future-eastside-light-rail-route/

https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/east-link-extension

https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/08/11/the-east-link-light-rail-starter-line-is-officially-a-go/

https://www.mercerisland.gov/community/page/light-rail-east-link

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Mercer_Island_East_Link_under_construction 4 lanes each way with 2 tracks in the middle. You would be hard-pressed to find something similar in or around Vancouver, BC. A balanced approach with efficient rail lines and a good road system can make all the difference.
Seattle, Calgary & Perth, 8 lanes & 2 tracks, but not in Greater Vancouver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Line_(Sound_Transit)#Route

Grade Separation for trains is always the best option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aADuNDv7Wc But sometimes things are done to cut the cost of a rail line down.

Why You Shouldn't Put Light Rail in Tunnels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9sLvdqcJY


Greater Seattle is able to do so much more, simply because its not under a Vancouver & BC lack of vision perspective.

Monday, December 18, 2023

The Ship Canal Bridge in Seattle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge The SCB should have HOV & bus-lanes in all of its three 4 lane sections, or at least on the lower deck. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ajGMRXlYmg

It's not amazing to have a 12-lane section of highway in Ontario and even in Queensland. 10 lanes in Alberta, but it would take until 2015 for all 10 lanes to open up on the new Port_Mann_Bridge in BC. The 8 lane Fremont_Bridge_in_Portland,_Oregon opened in 1973 with 2 levels. Far beyond the 4 lane joke that was the old Port_Mann_Bridge of the 1960s.

https://historylink.org/File/3312 For Seattle to have a 12 lane structure so close to BC in the early 1960s, was amazing, but so was the Space_Needle

https://mynorthwest.com/3931367/when-i-5-ship-canal-bridge-became-13-million-parking-lot/

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/prioritize-fixing-i-5s-ailing-ship-canal-bridge/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Seattle

https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bridges-stairs-and-other-structures/bridges

Of course the decades of simply building more & more traffic lanes have become quite evident for the induced demand argument. However, today it should be about making streets, roads & highways much more efficient. More bus & HOV lanes & alternate powered vehicles can really help. While the EV option can be a good thing, there should also be more hybrid vehicles.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Data Tower

Here are a few examples of data towers or telecommunications buildings.

375_Pearl_Street is quite an example of fitting a lot of data support systems in one concentrated location since 1975.
http://www.informationweek.com/government/information-management/new-yorks-32-story-data-fortress-inside/240151545
Of course in effect, any such building becomes a node within the Internet.
http://www.greenbuildingsnyc.com/2013/04/18/375-pearl-street-continues-transformation-into-intergate-manhattan-data-center,
http://observer.com/2012/10/enter-the-matrix-high-tech-high-rise-data-farm-puts-down-roots-in-lower-manhattan/375-pearl-street,
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/06/07/sabey-acquires-huge-verizon-building-in-nyc

33 Thomas is even more of a modern fortress high rise, albeit from 1974.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street#History

The 1927 Verizon_Building is a strong old bulky telecommunications complex.
Although its a tough old building, it has sustained a couple of strong impacts.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204707104578091171538491386.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/140_New_Montgomery, SF
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=59752123&page=2

In the 1920s & 1930s it was amazing enough just to have a big telephone building in the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunication#Computer_networks_and_the_Internethttp://www.fiberise.com/computer-networks-and-the-internet,
Several decades later, telecommunications & marketing networks & other systems have become immense.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/microsoft-twitter-rivals-nsa-requests

At this point, big data is only limited by the level of technology being used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_hotel#Benefitshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreSite

One Wilshire L.A.
http://www.coresite.com/one-wilshire-data-center.php,
http://www.emporis.com/building/one-wilshire-los-angeles-ca-usa,
http://www.carrierhotels.com/properties/onewilshirehttp://ix2.net/infrastructure/west-coast-leadership,
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/08/06/las-one-wilshire-sold-for-287-million

AT&T Center_(Los_Angeles)
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2525
The 611_Place was an AT&T tower for a while & the Whitacre_Tower in Dallas still is.

The Westin_Building, Seattle. http://www.seattleix.net,
http://www.westinbuilding.com/telecomhttp://www.carrierhotels.com/properties/westin

Amazon has big plans to locate near the Westin Building.
http://www.djc.com/news/re/12048070.html,
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2012/03/amazon-denny-triangle-office-project.html,
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019996116_amazonrealestate27.html,
http://www.planetizen.com/node/59965http://www.geekwire.com/2013/city-records-amazon-expansion,
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/amazons-bezos-urban-campus-inherently-environmentally-friendly-biospheres

Data-marketing & commerce in general, have become so intertwined over the years. Indeed, corporations & governments like to acquire as much data as possible.
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/monicas-nsa-column-links-pic-put-tonight

Friday, February 16, 2024

Transperth and WA

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transperth Unlike the BC approach, WA allows for longer trains, as well as many lanes. Why just have a 3 coach train when you can have a train consisting of 6 carriages?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Transperth_B-series_train_on_the_Mandurah_Line_in_Como,_Western_Australia,_March_2022_05 4 lanes each way with 2 tracks in the middle. One would be hard-pressed to find something similar in or around Vancouver, BC. V-BC infrastructure is all about short trains & narrow roads. 
Perth, Calgary & Seattle, 8 lanes & 2 tracks, but not in Greater Vancouver.

Train length72.42 m (237 ft 7+316 in)[1]
Car length
  • 24.21 m (79 ft 5+18 in) (end cars)
  • 24 m (78 ft 8+78 in) (intermediate cars)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transperth_B-series_train Of course a 3 car train might be alright during the slow hours of the day, but a 6 car train makes all the difference. A 475 foot long train is getting close to the length of a 152 m or 500 foot long Montreal Metro train. Unfortunately, the Vancouver & BC approach is all about limited capacity & congestive planning.


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Perth

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Australia

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Renovation planned for Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/nat-bailey-stadium-vancouver-renovations

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/dan-fumano-nat-bailey-stadium-set-for-20-million-upgrade-city-memo-says

https://parkboardmeetings.vancouver.ca/files/MEMO-NatBaileyFacilityImprovements-20240202.pdf

https://theprovince.com/sports/baseball/vancouver-canadians-upgrades-to-nat-bailey-stadium-slated-to-begin-this-winter It really takes a long time to get things done in Vancouver.

https://ballparkdigest.com/2020/03/13/planned-nat-bailey-stadium-upgrades-stalled-by-audit/

Could Nat_Bailey_Stadium ever undergo an extensive expansion? That remains to be seen.

"The stadium's seating capacity is 6,500 and as of 2019 they led the short-season A clubs in attendance and outdrew Vancouver's AAA team." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Bailey_Stadium#Stadium_history

Perhaps the baseball stadium in Winnipeg is in a better setting. It certainly has a little more capacity than NBS.

Theirs is in Downtown_Winnipeg, right by the Red River. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Winnipeg#Broadway-Assiniboine 

"Blue_Cross_Park opened on May 24, 1999."

"Blue Cross Park has a seating capacity of 7,481, as well as 30 luxury skysuites, a picnic area, and an open patio overlooking the field from the right field corner."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cross_Park#Features

Of course Seattle has a big-time baseball stadium. 

CapacityBaseball: 47,929

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile_Park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Park Having a baseball stadium near the water doesn't effect the game, one way or another. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Coliseum However, a baseball stadium next to a river, the ocean or a lake, just might add to the overall setting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre

Friday, January 5, 2024

Building Height Restrictions in Various Cities

Height_restriction_laws can be a great way to hold back the vertical scale of a city. Usually, the cities with the tallest buildings are also the more economically prominent ones. However, that's not alway the case.

Honolulu has several buildings over 40 floors, but none are office towers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Honolulu

Phoenix only has one building with 40 floors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Phoenix , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Phoenix#Tallest_buildings:_approved,_site_plan_under_review_or_proposed

San_Diego has some buildings over 40 stories, but none of them are office towers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_San_Diego

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_restriction_laws#Canada Despite Canada having a vast area of land, only a tiny portion of that land has some very tall buildings on it. 

Montreal is small when compared to Toronto, but big when compared to Vancouver.

https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=2762,3101387&_schema=PORTAL

Montreal won't be allowing any 100 story towers like those in NYC, Chicago or Melbourne anytime soon.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-politicians-debate-whether-to-allow-skyscrapers-higher-than-mount-royal-1.5401429

Just allowing a 50-60 story building is still a big deal for Montreal.

https://cultmtl.com/2021/05/in-defence-of-building-height-restrictions-in-montreal-mount-royal-urban-plan-denis-coderre

Vancouver won't permit any building to rival what is in Calgary or Seattle

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-view-cone-impacts-broadway-plan-cambie-street

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/central-broadway-plan-view-cones-mountains-queen-elizabeth-park

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-tower-building-shadowing-solar-access

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Time Travel and Transporting Patterns of Data

Space and Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos&feature=relmfu,
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/tags/subjects/world-trade-center,
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/03/astrophysicist-gets-james-cameron-to-correct-the-stars-in-titanic-3d,
Titanic & the-WTC

The time travel Mythology_of_Lost seems to indicate that the island is not only part of a time_travel initiative, but also portals into other realities realities & dimensions.
www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m12d31-Second-whistleblower-emerges-to-confirm-reality-of-time-travel,
http://www.whatthebleep.com/rabbithole,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iPGxyVGsbI&feature=related
-
Lost in a Norway Portal
http://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_29.html,
http://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/2009/12/narvik.html,
http://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post_20.html
The word Pearl doesn't only have a connection to the TV series, but to some key places & interesting moments in time.
http://patternsofsynchronicty.blogspot.com/2010/05/lost-pearl.html
-
There are ancient & modern methods that can enable some people to see through time.
http://www.andersoninstitute.com,
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/guercio-paul/6206,
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/tenen-stan/6379,
http://desertshapes.blogspot.com/2010/01/david-l-anderson-time-travel.html,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Bot,
http://www.halfpasthuman.com/RadioArchives.html,
http://desertshapes.blogspot.com/2010/07/clif-high-web-bot-predictions.html
-
ADB has quite a fascinating story to tell, but its difficult to confirm.
http://desertshapes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/andrew-d-basiago-temporal-quantum.html
Seeing & thinking through time.
http://desertshapes.blogspot.com/2010/10/pkd-jules-vern-etc.html
Walking through time.
http://desertshapes.blogspot.com/2010/10/time-traveler-1928-chaplin-movie.html

http://www.newser.com/story/157018/astrophysicist-finds-supermans-planet-krypton.html

TT 

Sunday, December 31, 2023

No fireworks in Vancouver, BC for New Year's Eve 2023

 https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/no-fireworks-in-vancouver-for-new-years-eve-2023-8043481 Its all part of being a provincial backwater. Just one of the many bizzare things about Vancouver & BC.

However, Vancouver wasn't able to stop Seattle and Calgary with their NYE plans. Of course it's not Vancouver, its the Vancouver & BC mentality, but it seems to have no effect on Washington State or Alberta. That's why they have been able to do so much more through the years. 


"Also as is now tradition, there will not be any (official) New Year's Eve fireworks, which have not taken place since 2018." https://storeys.com/new-years-2023-open-closed


"There will be no fireworks lighting up Vancouver's night sky on New Year's Eve again this year.

Event organizers announced Thursday that the official celebration on Dec. 31, 2023 has been cancelled." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nye-fireworks-cancelled-vancouver-1.7017024


https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=No+fireworks+in+Vancouver

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=New+Year's+Eve

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Vancouver, BC's tallest office tower

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/the-stack-office-tower-1133-melville-street-vancouver-tallest-greenest

Auckland, NZ which is just as scenic as Vancouver, has permitted taller office towers such as the Vero_Centre and more recently, the Commercial_Bay_(skyscraper)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Auckland

Of course scenic Sydney, Seattle & San Francisco, all have taller office towers and residential towers, as well.