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Chapter 1: What historical events led to the Squamish Nation's land reclamation?
This is Planet Money from NPR.
A few weeks ago, reporter Alex Maiassi and I headed to Canada to meet a leader of a small nation.
There's dinner. The geese? That's dark meat, man.
This is Gilbert Jacob. Everyone calls him Chief Gibby. He used to be one of the leaders of the Squamish Nation, a nation of around 5,000 indigenous people living in the Pacific Northwest. We met him in this charming little neighborhood full of single-family homes. There was a big open park nearby.
Now, the land that we were standing on used to be a Squamish village. It was called Sinak. Chief Gibby's ancestors once lived here back in the 1800s.
This was one of the most bountiful areas in all of the coast. We had elk, we had moose, we had killer whales, we had seals, sea lions. We had catch lots of different fish out here. And then what happened?
Then the white people came. Government officials from British Columbia in 1913 came and took the land. They forced the Squamish to leave and destroyed the village.
They didn't even give them time to go and take their belongings. They put our people on a barge. And when they were going out there, Turned around and they'd set this whole place ablaze. They burned everything. All our people's belongings. The whole village. They didn't want us to come back.
Because the land that Sanak was sitting on, it was right next to a fast-growing seaport, a seaport that would eventually become a major city, Vancouver.
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Chapter 2: How did the Squamish Nation navigate zoning laws for their development?
the closest I've ever been to a forklift. Last month, we went to visit the construction site.
Hi there. How are you doing? I'm Alex. Alex. Jacob.
Very nice to meet you, Jacob.
Come on in.
Thank you. Do we need hard hats for this? Jacob Lewis III has helped to oversee the Sanak development for years. Three of the 11 towers are almost done. So this is Tower 3. I'd been reading about Sanak for years, but seeing these towers in person, they're sleek and modern. Huge floor-to-ceiling windows made of tinted glass, story after story.
Standing just feet away and craning my neck to see the top, The towers felt massive.
The word tower feels appropriate when we're at the base of it, where they are. They are towering over us. It's an impressive thing to be standing here.
It's got that mountain topology designed into it. So, you know, you feel like you're at the base of a mountain, right?
Yeah, the towers do evoke mountains with a wide base and they're a bit narrower at the top.
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Chapter 3: What was Chief Gibby's vision for the reclaimed land?
The doors open to an active construction site. We walk past bare concrete pillars, exposed pipes, wires dangling from the ceiling.
We walk up one more flight of stairs and this is the roof. And it is. Spectacular. Oh, there's the bay. Straight ahead are the blue waters of English Bay. To our right, just across a narrow inlet, is downtown Vancouver with all those skyscrapers. But here, around the towers themselves, it's all parks and a leafy neighborhood with cute houses.
What's that?
This is this little section here. That's the NIMBY area. From 38 stories up, it was easy to see the collision of the free market and the city zoning laws.
Jacob was pointing out a charming little neighborhood right next to the towers. It's called Kitts Point. And when the Squamish first announced their plans to cram 11 huge towers onto this land, some of those neighbors were not happy. They were like, not in my backyard, you know, NIMBY.
There's some definite resistance and, you know, it was made loud and clear. And I think they'd put signs in their yards and then there's online social media activity. It's not what their view of their neighborhood should look like.
Some people in Kitts Point had real rational concerns. They worried that the towers would bring lots of traffic, that the parks would be overrun. And some said that the high-rises would disrupt the migratory birds.
This is why, even when cities know that zoning is making it harder to build housing, they still have all of these very restrictive zoning laws— Because zoning laws give people a say in what happens in their own neighborhoods, which sounds really great in theory. But in practice, most people generally don't want big new disruptive construction projects in their own neighborhood.
And so they complain about it to planning boards and city politicians. They complain very loudly.
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Chapter 4: How did community members react to the proposed development plans?
The first phase of the project will add about 1,400 new apartments. For context, that's about a third of the number of new rental units built in Vancouver last year. The Squamish expect that the full project, all 11 towers and 6,000 apartments, will finish by 2033.
When we talked to Chief Gibby, who helped lead the fight to get this land back in the first place, we were standing in a park right next to the construction site. It was afternoon and the towers cast these long shadows.
What do you think the story of this village and now these towers means? We're back. We're back. It's displacing our lives. our footprint back on our land again.
And to me, that's important. These towers, they are a case study in what's possible, how big you can build and how quickly, if you don't have to follow the regular rules. And look, the Squamish are very clear about their main goal for this project. Their goal is to make money, to provide for the next seven generations. But these towers are also providing something to the rest of Vancouver.
They're providing housing in the middle of a housing crisis.
Alex, I think it is time to put you on the spot because this entire episode was based on one of the chapters that you wrote for the Planet Money book.
Yes, that's right. It was one of my favorites to work on. But there are lots of other great stories in the book that I hope people will read and enjoy. There is a story about a corporate lawyer who kind of accidentally became a referee of global business.
Guys, I read that chapter. It's amazing.
A very Jeff chapter. There's a story about a bank teller who helped install a machine meant to replace her and a college dropout who won a competition meant to identify the next Warren Buffett. You can find the book at planetmoneybook.com. Please read it. Enjoy it. We're so excited to share it with you.
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