Did you know that 80% of Singapore residents live in public housing?

The city-state of Singapore is arguably the most business-friendly and economically open society in the world. But when it comes to housing, their approach has been described as a kind of “municipal socialism.”

Singapore is a city like no other: a place where free market capitalism meets socialist housing policy, and where drug trafficking is punishable by death.

In this episode of On Site Report, we are joined by Erick Villagomez, who—having recently travelled to Singapore for an urban planning field school—helps us unpack this bizarre and complicated place, describing for us the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:

As a result of its progressive approach to housing, Singapore has roughly 9 homeless people per 100,000 residents. In comparison, Vancouver has about 430 homeless people per 100,000.

If you’d like to know more about what Singapore does well, and what it doesn’t do so well, then please enjoy this episode of On Site Report!

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Reading List: Housing Booms in Gateway Cities by David Ley.

On Site Report is hosted by Theodore Abbott and produced by Charlie D.

In this episode of On Site Report we sit down with esteemed researcher and educator Erick Villagomez. Erick is a lecturer at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning and the Editor-in-Chief of Spacing Magazine Vancouver. Our conversation takes many twists and turns as we assess the direction of urban development in Vancouver, debrief on the city’s recent by-election, and discuss the importance of strong neighbourhoods in the face of a declining capitalist system. 

Enjoyed the episode? Help support our podcast by making a donation using this link: https://ko-fi.com/theodoreabbott (if you don’t have a PayPal account simply select ‘try another way’).

Various films and books are discussed in this episode, the links to which are provided below: 

* David Harvey Rebel Cities: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/2236-rebel-cities?srsltid=AfmBOooX83HQoQnW3CsuWkhAzx_UF63FdNSULXJ_TMwE9s7DB05ufYXT 

* Ada for Mayor Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzqaj54_A-g    

* Douglas Todd for the Vancouver Sun: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/despite-voters-rebuke-vancouvers-abc-party-new-towers-higher-increase-density

* Hospicing Modernity: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675703/hospicing-modernity-by-vanessa-machado-de-oliveira/

* A House Deconstructed: https://actar.com/product/a-house-deconstructed/

* Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: https://royscranton.net/books/learning-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/

* Feminist City: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/2626-feminist-city?srsltid=AfmBOopZLBtWfKqWaqcR_Tkaeluqa45Rs0vD3m9HSm7F6S18I4-4-nZd

* Resilience, Reciprocity, and Ecological Economics: Northwest Coast Sustainability: https://www.routledge.com/Resilience-Reciprocity-and-Ecological-Economics-Northwest-Coast-Sustainability/Trosper/p/book/9780415782524?srsltid=AfmBOopMv1S4FtSWRhm7TlCEQX_yf6k7WsNiP29bP5DpVxxfR-yEk7Yn

On Site Report is hosted by Theodore Abbott and produced by Charlie D.

Voting day is April 5th; advance voting is March 26th & April 1st

https://vancouver.ca/your-government/2025-by-election.aspx

Learn more about TEAM & Theodore here: voteteam.ca

“Pause the Plan!” This is the call to action declared by thousands of residents across the City of Vancouver. In this special episode of On Site Report we take a moment to review the Broadway Plan and its growing opposition.

Follow us on Instagram: @onsitereportpod

Follow Michael: linkedin.com/in/fergusson

False Creek South is an area of Vancouver that exists adjacent to one of North America’s most up-scale neighbourhoods. In stark juxtaposition to the affluent and largely unaffordable district of Yaletown, False Creek South represents a model of livability that has been widely celebrated amongst urban planners and academics since its inception. Episode #4 of On Site Report marks our second dedication to exploring the area of False Creek South, and in this episode we highlight how this unique enclave provides us with an important alternative to thinking about how our cities should be built. Are unaffordable high rises and market-rate condominiums the only way forward? To answer this question I sat down with long-time area resident and social commentator Ward Stirrat. We hope you enjoy!

Subscribe to our Patreon: patreon.com/onsitereport

Follow us on Instagram: @onsitereportpod

Further reading:

• 
  

  Andy Yan on Building The Kind of Housing We Actually Need: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1en8wl2/our_tax_dollars_funded_a_developer_to_create/?share_id=ifNtiw6t9MhAyAzl_Dtfp&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=3

  
  


• 
  

  City Hall Watch: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/

  
  


• 
  

  There is No Alternative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_is_no_alternative

  
  


• 
  

  Hugh Segal: https://www.ubcpress.ca/bootstraps-need-boots

  
  


• 
  

  Cameron Murray: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=P5s-_d0AAAAJ&hl=en

  
  

As we continue to map the city of Vancouver, the neighbourhood of False Creek South comes into view. Heralded for its progressive approach to urban design, False Creek South demonstrates the core principles of the city livable movement. In the early 1970’s The Electors Action Movement (TEAM) championed a turn towards human-scale urbanism that prioritized aesthetics and livability. But fifty years later Vancouver has transitioned from being a beacon of livability to a city that commentators have recently referred to as “impossibly unaffordable”. In the midst of Vancouver’s embrace of bad urbanism, the False Creek South neighbourhood has come under threat. In episode three we sit down with Colleen Hardwick to discuss this and more. 

More Colleen/TEAM:

https://www.voteteam.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/voteforteam/

Subscribe to our Patreon: patreon.com/onsitereport

Follow us on Instagram: @onsitereportpod

Further reading:

Patrick Condon, Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/10/18/City-False-Promises-False-Creek-South/

City Hall Watch: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2021/08/07/palmquist-false-promises-false-creek/

David Ley: Liberal Ideology and the Postindustrial City: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2562952

In our second episode we discuss an area of Vancouver that is the epicenter of the city’s newly acquired and carefully polished identity. In False Creek North almost everything is made of glass and tinted with green, and the mid-rise towers are podiumed  with town homes, some of which exit onto manicured park space, while others overlook the Sea Wall. Emanating from this place is the spirit of Vancouverism, a form of urban planning that has evolved as a contemporary response to the outdated precepts of last century’s Manhattanism. That said, how is it that False Creek North has come to be recreated in the Arabian desert? In this episode On Site Report I sit down with artist and educator Henry Tsang to better understand this peculiar pastiche and discuss some of the issues facing Vancouver and other cities like it. 

Learn more about the Maraya Project and check out Henry's work here: https://henrytsang.ca/maraya-sisyphean-cart/

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Follow us on Instagram: @onsitereportpod

Photo credit: Maraya Project (Glen Lowry, M. Simon Levin, Henry Tsang), 2011

Expo86 marked a new era in Vancouver’s urban development. Now a city that shines on the international stage, Vancouver is a place that is grappling with the side effects of globalization. In this inaugural episode we explore the realities of a city caught in transition while paying close attention to one of the most enigmatic features of Vancouver’s cityscape.