Image of the day: allowing more density where demand is higher
Demand based zoning. Jens von Bergmann and Nathan Lauster, August 2025.
People don’t move to cities randomly, they move to cities because that’s where jobs are. And then within a city, at a location that’s more centrally located, and thus has more jobs that are reachable within about 30 minutes of travel time, the price of land is going to be higher than at a location that’s further out.
As a result, what happens is that in a central location, people consume less land, by living in apartments instead of detached houses, and by living in taller buildings. If taller buildings aren’t allowed, you need to consume more expensive land to live in a central location, and only rich people are going to be able to live there.
Within the city of Vancouver, if we had fewer restrictions on building, we’d get a map that looks something like this. People would build more densely on the west side (where demand is higher and land values are higher, because it’s more central), less densely on the east side (where it’s farther from downtown and demand is somewhat lower).
Previously:
Besides the incessant din from the water main construction, across the street - I can see 2 cranes from my windows, looking up Robson, and will soon have another, then a fourth before the first comes down.
The West End is truly Doing Its Bit.