Citr -- The City

The Survivors' Totem Pole will be raised by Downtown Eastside communities to serve as a lasting symbol for those struggling for social justice. On the program, we hear speakers from the June 28th Survivors' Totem Pole Open House provide background to the project and discuss its significance for communities who have and continue to experience oppression.

David Vaisbord discusses the importance of the Little Mountain story and his campaign to create a documentary film to showcase the community and residents' struggle against the BC government over Vancouver's first social (public) housing development and the ultimate victory.

On the program, we discuss a new independent media organization, a new model of independent media, and a new media platform to connect Anglophone and Francophone Canada ? Ricochet. In the second half of the program, we hear about Vancouver public school students standing up for their teachers.

One in five shelter users are youth. 25 to 40% of youth experiencing homelessness self-identified as LGBTQ, and 40 to 70% of homeless youth have mental health issues compared to 10 to 20% of housed youth. On the program, we discuss the crisis of youth homelessness in Canada and how we might better respond to the problem.Dr. Stephen Gaetz is associate professor in the faculty of education at York University in Toronto and he is the director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network. He is the author of a new report ? Coming of Age: Reimaging the Response to Youth Homelessness in Canada.

Former Vancouver School Board Trustee Jane Bouey discusses the state of public education in BC and Vancouver, provides the context to the current strike and lockout, and provides an update on the Vancouver School Board's work on updating their sexual orientation and gender identity policies.

Miloon Kothari is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and he spoke at Simon Fraser University - Woodward's on July 9, 2012. Mr. Kothari's talk is titled 'The Right to Adequate Housing: From Practice to Policy to Practice'. He discusses his work as Special Rapporteur, the similar (and distinct) challenges facing a variety of countries and cities, and how this right can be realized.Thank you to SFU?s Vancity Office of Community Engagement for permission to broadcast this talk.

On the podcast, we discuss the rise of administration of justice offences ? typically breaches of bail and probation ? in Canada and BC, and use of particular spatial practices in Vancouver?s criminal justice system. Are particular criminal justice practices setting marginalized groups up to fail in the criminal justice system? And how do they affect how people negotiate urban spaces?

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a new report ? The Best and Worst Place to be a Woman in Canada: An Index of Gender Equality in Canada?s Twenty Largest Metropolitan Areas. On the program, we discuss the findings with the author of this recent study. Kate McInturff is a senior researcher at the CCPA and director of their initiative on gender equality and public policy ? Making Women Count.

Between now and 2017, one quarter of housing co-operatives in BC will lose rent-geared-to income subsidies for low-income members as federal housing agreements end. Over 1500 households will face a crisis as their homes become unaffordable. On the program, we discuss this situation and how this affects the affordable housing landscape in Vancouver, across BC and Canada.

Urban geographer Nicholas Lynch discusses the findings of a recent study showing an increasingly divided metro Vancouver region and a disappearing middle class. We?re revisiting this important discussion from April 2013.Urban social geographer Nicholas Lynch is co-author of Divisions and Disparities in Lotus Land: Socio-Spatial Income Polarization in Greater Vancouver, 1970-2005. The report was originally published in October 2012 by the University of Toronto?s Cities Centre.The research presents worrisome trends, with an increasingly divided Vancouver and a disappearing middle class. We discuss the social geography of polarization across the region, the implications, and possible policy solutions.

What are the conditions that have led to the current labour situation at Canada?s largest port? And what is the significance of Vancouver?s port within wider global supply chains? On the program, we?ll be taking an in-depth look at the current labour situation involving port truckers and we?ll be examining the complexities of global commodity chains, ports, and port cities like Vancouver.

Vancouver's recently approved Downtown Eastside neighbourhood plan raises concerns over the definition of social housing and the plan's ability to stop -- or even slow -- gentrification. Low-income advocates and others express frustration that the significant 30-year plan was rushed through city council. On the podcast, we hear from low-income advocate Tamara Herman (Carnegie Community Action Project), Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Councillor Adriane Carr, and urban planning/geography PhD student Melissa Fong.

Seven hundred and thirty-one homeless people live in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) according to the City of Vancouver, and approximately 5000 more live on the edge of homelessness in tiny Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms. Many of these people rely on welfare and basic pension and desperately need new self contained social housing.This year?s Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) hotel and housing report found that SROs in the DTES are more expensive than ever and that fewer still are available to low-income individuals looking for rooms.Rory Sutherland, is co-author of the report, No Place to Go: Losing Affordable Housing and Community.

Highlights from the past year of critical urban discussions and a reminder to support independent radio. Donate online at www.citr.ca/donate and support the alternative programming that you enjoy.

On the podcast, we examine the history and memories of Vancouver's original black community, Hogan's Alley, in a radio documentary produced by Arial Fournier and Andy Longhurst.

Jules Boykoff discusses the Olympics Games -- prominent urban mega-event spectacles -- as a form of 'celebration capitalism' (the complement to Naomi Klein's 'disaster capitalism'). He talks about celebration capitalism and political dissent in the context of the Vancouver, London, and Sochi Olympic Games.Jules Boykoff is author of Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games (2013). He is associate professor of politics and government at Pacific University in Oregon.

On the program, the second part of the conversation with urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki about Vancouver?s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We discuss what the future might hold for Vancouver as a city of consumption ? and whether it might be advantageous for the city to chart an alternative economic path forward.

On the program, urban economic geographer Elliot Siemiatycki discusses Vancouver?s transformation from a productive city into a city of consumption, dominated increasingly by real estate and tourism. We examine how the city?s structure, feel, and image of itself have shifted over the last three decades ? and how the rise of precarious employment is implicated in this transformation.

On the program, renowned New York City scholar John Mollenkopf (Distinguished Professor, City University of New York) discusses Michael Bloomberg?s three terms as mayor of New York City and what the election of Bill de Blasio means for the city. We also discuss the history of urban politics in New York. inequality, affordable housing, and urban development ? as well as immigration and the shifting landscape of electoral politics in the US?s largest city.

On the program, we reflect on the Michael Bloomberg era in New York City and what the mayoral election of Bill de Blasio might mean for (in)equality, public and affordable housing, and urban development policies. He is the first democratic mayor elected since 1993. Valery Jean of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) discusses these issues and more.