https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-city-ranking-58-out-of-100
That's the problem with the backwater BC mentality. Why have Skytrain stations longer than the underground Edmonton LRT stations or even at the same length as the Toronto subway stations? Vancouver really should have allowed a provision to have 500 foot or 152.5m stations like the Montreal Metro has. Vancouver opted to have narrow bridges so that it's almost impossible to have proper bus & HOV lanes.
Fortunately, Vancouver, BC wasn't able to stop Seattle & Portland, Calgary & Edmonton from having a zoo within their city limits. Of course Vancouver made sure that it never had a proper big city zoo within its city limits like equally small Boston & San_Francisco did. Boston, SF & Vancouver are all less than 50 sq.mi. or 130 sq.km in area. Yet, those cities were allowed to do so much more than Vancouver.
The lack of proper big city museums & art galleries fits right in with the small city mentality of Vancouver.
Its as if there has been a multi-generational mentality to keep Vancouver small & backward since its early years.
"The first viaduct was completed in 1915, extending what was then called Harris St over the CPR Beatty St yards to connect to Georgia St. At that time, Harris St was renamed East Georgia, and the viaduct called the Hart McHarg bridge, but it was more commonly called the Georgia Harris Viaduct. It was poorly built and plagued by difficulties from the beginning; It was not uncommon to see sagging sections, timber propping it up, and concrete falling to the ground below. In anticipation of the viaduct and the planned streetcar providing easy access to the city centre, apartments began popping up in the area in the preceding years, including the heritage building called the Jackson Apartments at 660 Jackson St/501 E Georgia. Although a track was laid for the Georgia Streetcar to offer service across the viaduct, there were immediate concerns about its ability to hold the weight, and the plan was abandoned." https://www.placesthatmatter.ca/location/georgia-st-viaduct (A fine example of inept Vancouver planning & development. So many other cities were actually able to build a bridge for streetcars or trams, as well as cars & trucks.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/this-week-in-history-the-great-georgia-harris-viaduct-opens-in-1915 (Why properly build infrastructure for long-range durability & future capacity?)
https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/before-demolition-of-old-georgia-viaduct-30-9-70-4 If done properly, the original viaduct should have been built to be strong enough to have 6 lanes with 2 streetcar tracks & bike lanes. Then a lower deck provision for another rapid transit line with bike lanes. Fortunately, Vancouver wasn't able to stop other cities from getting rid of their streetcars or prevent the rebirth of tram trains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Viaduct#Demolition Some people believed that with proper strengthening & maintenance, they could have remained for several more decades. Perhaps even past 2070.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2018/06/27/Vancouver-Inner-City-Slum-Clearance-Repair (While the cancellation of a freeway through East Vancouver was a good idea in the 1960s, since the 1970s viaducts were built, they should remain for several more decades.)
To allow Vancouver to have the infrastructure of Montreal or Seattle would mean to fully accept becoming a major metropolitan area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champlain_Bridge_(Montreal,_2019-present) An 8 lane bride with a provision for a rapid transit train. https://dailyhive.com/montreal/montreal-light-rail-train-rem-video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_90_floating_bridges Seattle has this as an 8 lane crossing with an LRT line as well. Unfortunately, such big city infrastructure just isn't allowed by the small city mentality of Vancouver.
If Vancouver, BC was allowed to become a major global city like Sydney, Australia or SF, California, the local power-structure would have to give up on its stunting agenda.
A national power-structure has made sure that Canada has yet to even contain 0.005% of the worlds population. It just so happens that most of the world is non-white, but as long as Canada doesn't officially have a, KEEP THEM OUT agenda, the worlds 2nd largest nation won't even have 40 million people, when the world reaches 8 billion.
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