Community Planning and Housing Resources

In preparation for a presentation Monique gave at the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s Breaking New Ground Conference here in Vancouver, I did a bit of research on resources. Public housing isn’t an area either of us possess much knowledge about, so we were curious to see what could be found kicking around the internets.

Possibly the best resource for information on urban planning, design, and the development community is Planetizen.com. The site is based out of LA, has been around for six years and is chock full of great content, media, and even professional resources related to urban planning and housing. They have been compiling an annual list of top 10 planning and development website since 2002, and this in itself is an excellent resource.

Listed below are some of the local blogs I came across with a focus on specific neighbourhoods around Vancouver. They aren’t so much focused on planning as day to day life in these neighbourhoods.

* Mount Pleasant community blog
http://livinginmountpleasant.com/mount_pleasant_blog

* Kitsilano community blog
http://www.kitsilano.ca/

* Southlands Community Planning site blog
http://www.southlandsintransition.ca/blog

* Strathcona community blog
http://liveinstrathcona.blogspot.com/

* Commercial Drive community blog
http://thedriveisalive.blogspot.com/

And because Monique’s presentation was very much about citizen media and tools the average person can use to produce content for the web, I took a look through some of my favorite sites to see what I could find related to community planning.

Flickr groups and tag search yielded the following results
* Community planning and design group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/planning/

* UCLA community planning journal group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/critplan/

* Green Buildings + Sustainable Communities
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sustainablebuilding/

* Tag search: “official community plan”
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&ss=2&w=all&q=%22official+community+plan%22&m=text

Facebook groups
* City of Vancouver Planning Commission (a group for those interested in the happenings of the City of Vancouver’s Planning Commission)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19531853336

* Canadian Tire Money: Helping The Homeless (a facebook campaign to collect Canadian Tire money for purchasing items, such as sleeping bags, to donate to the homeless people of Vancouver)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2361803750

* Vancouver25 (Vancouver25 is a group of young people committed to progressive policy for the City of Vancouver . Our goal is to create meaningful dialogue on important issues and to present common-sense, evidence-based policy recommendations on how Vancouver can be improved for all of its citizens.)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14902570116

Del.icio.us
* Tag search “community planning”
http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=community+planning&type=all

* Tag search “Vancouver community planning”
http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=vancouver+community+planning&type=all

UPDATE:

From Monique: Please note that this is not a comprehensive list by any means.
If you have a suitable site to add to the list, please post it in the comments so we can share it with other interested community planners.

Dan of Cyburbia | urban planning community pointed out this site to us.

Cyburbia (http://www.cyburbia.org), founded in 1994, is the Internet’s oldest continuously operating planning-related Web site. Cyburbia has served the planning community for nearly 14 years with very little funding or financial remuneration. The Cyburbia Forums (http://www.cyburbia.org/forums) went online in 1996, and today remains a vibrant virtual third place for planners, students and others interested in the built environment ; 5,800 members, 400,000 posts, and still growing.

Thanks Dan, and anyone else, please add your thoughts.