Course:GEOG350/2026/Spatial Inequality: The Georgia St. Viaduct
Constructed in 1972, the Georgia and Dunsmuir St viaducts connect Vancouver's Downtown and Strathcona Neighbourhoods. Initially constructed over a rail yard, the lands underneath are today vacant. The viaducts are currently in need of structural repairs or demolition.[1]

In 2015, Vancouver City Council agreed to demolish the viaducts, reallocating urban space to housing and parks through the Northeast False Creek Plan. This redevelopment seeks to realize the city’s focus on sustainability, active mobility, and equity. The city has entered into active partnerships with the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish First Nation, as well as Hogan’s Alley Society, to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated and that the values and interests of marginalized groups are equitably represented.[2]
The city’s decision will represent their commitment to private automobiles or more equitable forms of mobility. Given the city’s focus on sustainability, active mobility, and equity, the viaduct provides an opportunity to bring these values to fruition. The lands underneath the viaduct provide opportunities for new development. Historically, Vancouver has supported large development, such as Concord Pacific Place or Olympic Village, which have transferred large amounts of wealth into the hands of developers and created new urban spaces which prioritize consumption.

Introduction: The Georgia St. Viaducts
Transportation systems are not neutral infrastructures but political systems that distribute accessibility, environmental burdens, and social opportunities unevenly across urban populations.[3] In Vancouver, mobility planning has historically reflected broader political and economic priorities, privileging automobile circulation, regional growth, and suburban commuting over the needs of inner-city communities. This chapter examines these dynamics through the lens of Project 200, a comprehensive urban freeway plan proposed in the late 1960s that would have fundamentally reshaped Vancouver’s core in the image of automobility.
Project 200 envisioned an extensive network of downtown highways linking the city to regional freeways. Although the proposal was ultimately cancelled following significant community opposition, key elements were already underway. Most notably, the Georgia Street Viaduct was constructed as a partial realization of this plan, permanently destroying Hogan’s Alley, Vancouver’s vibrant Black community, and severing neighbourhoods in anticipation of a wider freeway system that never materialized. As a built remnant of an abandoned vision, the viaduct reveals how transportation decisions can privilege certain forms of mobility and populations while imposing lasting harm on others.
This chapter will ask: Who has a right to the city? Drawing on Henri Lefebvre, this chapter understands mobility infrastructure as a key mechanism through which access to urban space, political voice, and everyday life is granted or denied.[4] Roads, in this sense, operate as political instruments that reflect a city’s priorities in economic growth, automobility, and social equity.[5] Choices about where to build roads, fund transit, and allocate maintenance shape not only how people move, but also how urban space develops. These decisions influence commuting time, land values, and access to opportunity, reinforcing patterns of inequality across the metropolitan region.
The chapter first situates transportation infrastructure as a political system through the ideology and resistance surrounding Project 200. It then applies a Design Thinking framework to identify affected stakeholders and define the central problem of transportation injustice as materialized through the Georgia Street Viaduct. The core case study examines the destruction and proposed regeneration of Hogan’s Alley, followed by an analysis of Northeast False Creek redevelopment and contemporary transit equity challenges. The chapter concludes by comparing Vancouver’s experience with other North American cities and reflecting on the possibilities for reparative urban mobility planning.
Stakeholder Landscape

The wicked problem of spatial inequality in regard to mobility infrastructure in Vancouver is not experienced equally across demographics. Instead, different stakeholders encounter roads as political agents in distinct ways depending on their positionality, power, and historical relationship to the land. Incorporating these perspectives helps us understand how infrastructure mediates rights, distributes burdens, restructures capital flows, extracts time, limits voice, and upholds racial and colonial ideals.
Figure 1 maps the nine key stakeholders by political power and degree of impact. The map reveals a persistent structural imbalance: the communities that are most harmed by past and present mobility decisions often hold the least formal influence, while the groups with significant power experience relatively limited direct impact.
At one end of the spectrum are Hogan’s Alley Society, Indigenous Nations (Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh), and low-income, transit-dependent residents. These groups are highly affected by viaduct construction and redevelopment, yet they have historically been excluded from the transportation planning processes. For these stakeholders, mobility functions as a question of the right to the city, racial and colonial justice, and the unequal distribution of burdens. The viaduct exemplifies how roads can erase communities (like Hogan’s Alley), extract time through longer commutes, and externalize environmental harms onto marginalized neighbourhoods.
On the other end of the spectrum, the City of Vancouver and real estate developers hold substantial power over mobility outcomes. Their interests are primarily shaped by governance responsibilities, political legitimacy, future risk management, and capital accumulation. Infrastructure decisions make these priorities tangible in the form of development trajectories that can either mitigate or reproduce displacement.
A third grouping includes cyclists, active mobility advocates, and suburban automobile commuters, who frame mobility through competing visions of temporal efficiency, climate action, and regional productivity. While often portrayed as technical debates, these conflicts reflect deeper political choices about whose time, convenience, and emissions are prioritized.
Finally, elderly and disabled residents and small business owners occupy peripheral positions in both power and framing, yet they highlight critical gaps in mobility discourse around accessibility and procedural inclusion.
The stakeholder map illustrates why mobility policy cannot be resolved through technical debates or decisions alone. It reveals that roads act politically by translating unequal power relations into spatial permanence, making the question of who is prioritized unavoidable rather than abstract.
The Wicked Problem
The primary problem addressed in this chapter is the persistence of spatial inequality in urban mobility, whereby Indigenous communities, Black Vancouverites, and low‑income, transit‑dependent residents need transportation infrastructure decisions that actively redress historical displacement and exclusion because mobility planning in Vancouver has consistently prioritized suburban automobile commuters and development interests over the right to the city for those most harmed. While roads and transit networks are often framed as neutral infrastructure designed to facilitate movement, they are shaped by political and economic priorities that privilege certain forms of mobility and certain groups of people.[3] Decisions about where to build highways, expand transit, or invest in infrastructure influence commuting patterns, land values, and development throughout Greater Vancouver.
Vancouver’s transportation infrastructure decisions have historically prioritized suburban automobile commuters and development interests, resulting in displacement and long-term harm to Indigenous communities, Black Vancouverites, and low-income residents. Current viaduct redevelopment risks reproducing these inequities unless planning processes actively pursue reparative and anti-displacement outcomes. How might mobility infrastructure be redesigned to uphold a right to the city for communities historically denied access and voice, rather than reproducing patterns of exclusion under the guise of sustainability or revitalization? Without explicit reparative and anti‑displacement strategies, redevelopment risks repeating the infrastructural injustices it purports to address.[6]
The problem of mobility infrastructure and prioritization in Vancouver constitutes a wicked problem because it involves multiple stakeholders with conflicting values and an unequal distribution of influence. For each of the stakeholders, the definition of the problem is different. For suburban commuters, the problem is framed as congestion and travel time; for developers, it is underutilized land and unrealized exchange value; and for Hogan’s Alley Society and Indigenous Nations, the problem is historical dispossession, cultural erasure, and ongoing exclusion from decision‑making. Proposing solutions for one of these issues elicits new problems. For example, solving congestion or enabling redevelopment may exacerbate displacement, while transit expansion can accelerate gentrification if affordability and governance are not addressed. There is no single solution to a wicked problem like this one, and there is no solution that does not create another problem. This raises the guiding question: How might the Georgia Street Viaduct demolition actively repair harm done to Hogan’s Alley rather than facilitate new waves of displacement?
Across North America, highway projects have reshaped urban space, erasing and displacing neighbourhoods and entire communities. Communities of colour were frequently deprioritized for the needs of white suburban commuters. Vast swaths of black and minority neighbourhoods were torn up for the construction of urban highways, cementing the private vehicles' dominance in North American transportation networks.[7] The Georgia St Viaduct operated the same way, taking out Hogan’s Alley, a vibrant black community in Vancouver’s heart, while also reflecting local political choices about whose mobility, and whose neighbourhoods, were expendable. Those most harmed historically did not participate in decision-making, and those with decision-making authority often did not bear the burden.[3] Infrastructure thus becomes political not only in outcome, but in process, prompting further questions: How might Metro Vancouver’s transit expansion serve low‑income and transit‑dependent residents rather than accelerate gentrification, and how might transportation planning center those historically excluded from decision‑making rather than merely consulting them after key decisions have been made?
Case Study: Project 200 and the Postwar Mobility Shift
Roadway expansion represents a structural shift in mobility funding, moving away from past structures which were primarily privatized and funded through user fees. With the arrival of motordom, public roadways were marketed as a publicly funded resource, shifting the burden of funding and maintenance further onto various levels of government.[8]
The Viaducts were only a small portion of a wider initiative to reshape Vancouver in the private automobile’s image. Although the viaducts were built a year before Project 200 was formally proposed, widening was already planned to integrate the viaducts with the planned waterfront freeway. Project 200’s full scope included an eastern freeway extension connecting the viaducts to the Trans-Canada Highway down Union and Prior Streets, along with a western freeway connection directly through the heart of Vancouver’s waterfront and the West End. The $340 million proposal would have demolished Strathcona, Chinatown, and much of the West End.[9] A successful Project 200 would have caused significant displacement across East Vancouver, while drastically increasing car dependency and incentivizing suburban sprawl across the metropolitan region. Significant community opposition combined with a lack of federal and provincial funding led to Project 200’s eventual cancellation in 1971. Notably, Project 200 spared wealthier neighbourhoods on the west side from displacement, calling into question the right to the city along class lines.
Currently, Vancouver has the 2nd worst traffic congestion in all of North America.[10] Despite Project 200’s cancellation leading Vancouver’s city centre towards transit-oriented design through SkyTrain, car dependency persists throughout the wider suburbs and continues to influence urban development patterns in Vancouver itself. Metro Vancouver’s current housing affordability crisis has led to region-wide gentrification, leading residents to move further into the suburbs due to unaffordability in the core. Despite Vancouver’s transit friendly reputation, suburban rapid transit expansion remains contentious. This is exemplified by ongoing opposition to BRT from business owners in Burnaby Heights, primarily under the premise of losing curbside street parking. Business owners believe that rapid transit expansion would have a negative impact on neighbourhood character, arguing it would “turn Hastings Street into a highway.”[11] In addition, they fear that rapid transit expansion serves as a catalyst for higher density development, taking one step toward Brentwood’s towers and one step away from the current environment zoned exclusively for single family homes. This displays that residential opposition towards perceived urban freeway construction continues to persist, even while co-existing with the historical perspective that neighbourhood mobility should be built to centre automobile convenience at all costs.
Vancouver’s inadequate rate of social housing construction further compounds affordability issues with just 478 units approved in 2024, 48% of the annual target.[12] Negative media perception of supportive social housing in tandem with widespread community opposition has played a role in preventing wider adoption across the city.[13] As a result, social housing and services for low-income individuals continue to be centralized around Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside. As real estate commodification continues to drive gentrification, the viaduct’s surrounding communities remain affordable on paper, but only through paying a steep price of continuous governmental neglect. The viaducts represent a vision of car dependency in Vancouver that ultimately never materialized, and their eventual demolition presents an opportunity to redevelop Northeast False Creek into a vibrant, transit-oriented urban village. In addition, displacement and inequality around the viaduct remains a central issue. For-profit development presents a conflict of interest with the viaduct’s historical legacies of displacement, especially when considering the impacts of gentrification towards Vancouver’s most vulnerable marginalized communities. Vancouver must contend with these realities and the Viaduct’s historic legacies as it decides its next steps forward.
Comparative Perspective: Opposition to Freeways in San Francisco & the Embarcadero Freeway

Cities across Canada and the United States have been managing the consequences of overbuilt highway infrastructure. City planners argued for the necessity of these systems based on the demands of downtown businesses, property developers, automobile manufacturers, and politicians in all levels of government.
Highway developments across the United States were in large part fueled by the federal government’s Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which financed 90% of interstate construction. American cities used these funds not only for the construction of roadways but also the demolitions of neighbourhoods identified as problematic by city and regional official. In virtually every American metropolitan area interstate projects were intentionally directed through marginalized and impoverished communities. [7][14]
Demolition was justified under the notion that the physical spaces of impoverished neighbourhoods were the cause of crime and disorder, misdirecting attention away from services which directly address poverty and towards aesthetic concerns. These ideas formed the precursor to what is now called “broken windows policing,” which remains highly debated within academic circles.[15]
One notable example of highway construction was the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco. Like Vancouver, San Francisco is a cosmopolitan metropolis with large service based industries, like media, tech and finance. The Embarcadero was only a portion of a larger proposed highway system halted by citizen opposition. The proposed system cut across multiple neighbourhoods of varying economic statuses and diverse neighbourhoods. In response to the proposal residents organized mass dissidence campaigns, protesting the destruction of their homes and communities for the benefit of non-residents. Notably, property developer Christoper McKeon mailed oppositional materials to his entire neighbourhood, and alongside local politician William Blake drew large crowds to numerous community meetings. Community opposition to freeway expansion grew thanks to the organizing efforts of community and neighbourhood organizations.[16] These efforts were most effective at preventing highway construction in richer residential neighbourhoods in the city’s west. Neighbourhoods such as Embarcadero suffered disproportionate consequences from freeway infrastructure, most apparent in the freeway’s “disamenity effect,” being the freeway’s negative impact on property values and health impacts.[17]
Ideation & Potential Future Uses
Constructed in 1972, the viaducts have been declared unsafe in the event of an earthquake by city planners, leading council to pass a 2015 motion calling for the viaducts demolition.[1] Questions of how to use the lands reclaimed from the Viaducts and rail yard are discussed below.
City of Vancouver's Proposal
The city’s current proposal calls for the development of a surface boulevard, development of approximately 3 acres of park space, 1000 units of housing (up to 30% below market rate), and integrate the area along False Creek with the BC Place and Roger’s Arena into an events and entertainment district. The city’s plan would reintegrate parts of Vancouver divided by the viaducts. Large amounts of land would be opened for development, generating property taxes for the city and profits for developers.[2]

This proposal mirrors the legacy of the Embarcadero viaduct in San Francisco. The city converted the lands from the demolished freeway into developable space. The improved space also generated investment and development in adjacent facilities such as the renovation of the Ferry Building or construction of Pacific Bell baseball stadium.[17]
Critics in Vancouver oppose unlocking new lands for high density development because they argue the city's upzoning policies facilitate gentrification.[18] [19] Similar effects were observed following the deconstruction of the Embarcadero in San Francisco, as areas adjacent to the new boulevard became proportionally white.[17]
Indigenous Development Projects

In the spirit of reconciliation, a large parcel of undeveloped land in Kitsilano was returned to the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation in 2022 after a years long legal battle beginning in the 1970s. The site is home to a historic Sḵwx̱wú7mesh village called Sen̓áḵw, which formed the basis for the nation’s legal case.[20] The nation is using this land to develop 11 high density residential towers, including member housing and economic development through leasing the remaining units. Indigenous nations in Canada have partial sovereignty, which makes these lands legally exempt from City of Vancouver’s jurisdiction concerning zoning laws.[21] Despite Senakw’s economic benefits directly enriching the Squamish Nation, its profits are generated under the same system of settler colonial capitalism used to justify their original dispossession.
Given current disproportionate Indigenous representation within the DTES, returning the land to indigenous nations provides an opportunity to rectify past intergenerational trauma and legacies of colonial subjugation. Transferring sovereignty in this manner maintains their right to provide ongoing community support tailored to the population’s complex needs without interference from colonial governance structures on all 3 levels.
Indigenous led housing development would be culturally sensitive to the needs of the neighbourhood’s indigenous population, taking steps to address the lack of supportive housing construction by ensuring continuous supply and regular maintenance independent from changes in municipal governance. Development of the land is expected to uplift surrounding land values, which disproportionately harms Indigenous residents. By giving indigenous people control over this process, alleviating poverty and discrimination remain front and centre, rather than risking being eroded in the name of profitability.
Hogan’s Alley Society
Despite the previous proposal's focus on reconciliation with disenfranchised Indigenous populations, it falls short at addressing the city’s historical injustices regarding the demolition of Hogan’s Alley. Restorative justice for Vancouver’s Black community aligns with the strengthening of Indigenous rights because the same systems have historically been used to disenfranchise both communities. These new lands provide an opportunity to develop new cultural spaces for the city’s black community, which has been struggling to find a new cultural hub since losing Hogan’s Alley.
Rebuilding efforts have already begun within Hogan’s Alley. The Hogan’s Alley Society currently operates a social housing development in partnership with the city at 258 Union Street, named after community leader Nora Hendrix.[22] The Vancouver Black Library was established in September 2022, also within the historic area of Hogan’s alley. Founder Maya Preshyon is hoping to create “what might have been if Hogan’s Alley wasn’t dismantled,” carrying the neighbourhood’s historic legacy.[23] The community has called for the establishment of a black cultural centre on the lands made available from the viaducts’ demolition. To further facilitate this, the Hogan’s Alley Society signed a MOU with the city in 2022. The MOU seeks to create a land trust with the goal of building social and political capital for the Black community through creating cultural and community amenities.[24]
Conclusion
Project 200, along with the Georgia and Dunsmuir St Viaducts represent Vancouver’s previous legacy, centred around believing in a model of mobility that primarily served wealthy and racially privileged interests. The viaducts were envisioned as part of a larger city-wide network of urban freeway expansion, necessitating the transformation of urban space and the displacement of an inordinate number of working class residents. Residents recognized these grave consequences and organized grassroots protests in response, leading to mass dissent. These organized movements combined with a lack of secured federal funding led to Project 200’s eventual cancellation.
The city’s future land use decisions regarding the Georgia and Dunsmuir St viaducts underscores its broader commitments to mobility and equality within the city. The city must rectify the mistakes of its previous approach, ensuring it does not ignore the voices of the city’s most vulnerable populations in its development process to avoid re-creating urban space which perpetuates long-term racial and wealth inequalities.
Using the Design Thinking framework enabled us to better contextualize the Wicked Problem by centering our thinking around a complex array of viewpoints. Particularly, the empathize stage shaped our stakeholder landscape, allowing us to highlight structural power imbalances in the viaduct’s governance structure. In addition, the ideate stage let us use lessons learned in previous stages, balancing our proposals between past legacies of disenfranchisement with future potential for revitalization.
The proposals discussed rely on vulnerable people’s ability to utilize the economic systems that have historically been the source of their disenfranchisement. Private property has long been used to dispossess Indigenous peoples and marginalize people of colour, as the viaducts demonstrate. It remains to be seen whether these communities will be able to empower their members without replicating the same injustices perpetuated through these systems.

References & Data Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 CBC. “Vancouver Viaducts to Be Removed, Votes Council.” CBC News, 28 Oct. 2015. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-viaducts-vote-remove-1.3291781.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 CIty of Vancouver. “Northeast False Creek Plan.” Feb. 2018, https://guidelines.vancouver.ca/policy-plan-northeast-false-creek.pdf.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pereira, Rafael H.M.; Karner, Alex (2021). "Transportation Equity". International Encyclopedia of Transportation: 271–277.
- ↑ Fefebvre, Henri. “The Right to the City.” The Anarchist Library, 1996, theanarchistlibrary.org/library/henri-lefebvre-right-to-the-city#toc13.
- ↑ Yarbrough, Collin; Smith-Colin, Janille (18 Nov. 2025). "Infrastructure (in)justice: A multi-scalar framework and review of epistemic, restorative, and reparative justice dimensions". Transport Reviews: pp. 1–25. Check date values in:
|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra text (link) - ↑ “What are alternative ways to define the wicked problem at hand: who do we prioritize when making mobility policy decisions, and how do roads act as political agents? Provide feedback and suggest alternative perspectives”. Microsoft 365 Copilot, GPT‑5 chat model, Microsoft, 27 Mar. 2026, https://copilot.microsoft.com/.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Susaneck, Adam Paul (2024). "Segregation by Design". TU Delft Centre for the Just City.
- ↑ Norton, Peter D. Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of The Motor Age in the American City. MIT Press, 2008. Inside Technology.
- ↑ Lazarus, Eve. Project 200 and the Waterfront Freeway, 21 Jan. 2017, https://evelazarus.com/project-200-and-the-waterfront-freeway/.
- ↑ TomTom. “Traffic Index Ranking.” TomTom Traffic Index, 2025, https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/ranking/.
- ↑ “Burnaby Heights Merchants Seek BRT Route Section Option 2 as a Balanced Approach.” Heights Merchants Association, 25 Aug. 2025, www.burnabyheights.com/news/saveourparking/#respond.
- ↑ White, Josh. Housing Vancouver Update 2024 - Council Memo, 11 Apr. 2025, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/housing-vancouver-update-2024-council-memo.pdf.
- ↑ Liu, Sikee, and Nicholas Blomley. “Making News and Making Space: Framing Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.” Canadian Geographies / Géographies Canadiennes, vol. 57, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 119–32. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.2012.00453.x.
- ↑ Mohl, Raymond A. “Stop the Road: Freeway Revolts in American Cities.” Journal of Urban History, vol. 30, no. 5, July 2004, pp. 674–706. SAGE Journals, https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144204265180
- ↑ Lanfear, Charles C., et al. “Broken Windows, Informal Social Control, and Crime: Assessing Causality in Empirical Studies.” Annual Review of Criminology, vol. 3, Jan. 2020, pp. 97–120. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011419-041541.
- ↑ Issel, William. “‘Land Values, Human Values, and the Preservation of the City’s Treasured Appearance’: Environmentalism, Politics, and the San Francisco Freeway Revolt.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 68, no. 4, 1999, pp. 611–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4492372.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Cervero, Robert, et al. “From Elevated Freeways to Surface Boulevards: Neighborhood and Housing Price Impacts in San Francisco.” Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, vol. 2, no. 1, Mar. 2009, pp. 31–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549170902833899.
- ↑ McElroy, Justin. “To Build or Not to Build: The One Election Issue in Play across Metro Vancouver.” CBC News, 19 Oct. 2018. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/urbansim-metro-vancouver-election-1.4869055.
- ↑ McElroy, Justin. “Vancouver City Council’s Rejection of 2 Big Developments about Policy — but Also Politics.” CBC News, 19 Mar. 2026. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/west-end-strathcona-development-vancouver-council-rejection-9.7135425.
- ↑ Zeidler, Maryse. “‘Welcome to Sen̓áḵw’: A Sneak Peek inside Canada’s Largest Indigenous-Led Housing Development.” CBC News, 7 Feb. 2025. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sen-%C3%A1%E1%B8%B5w-sneak-preview-1.7451499.
- ↑ Kaschor, Kim, et al. “Five Things We Learned about Urban Reserves.” Unreserved, 18 Mar. 2022. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/five-things-we-learned-about-urban-reserves-1.6389462.
- ↑ “ABOUT US.” Hogan’s Alley Society, https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/aboutus. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
- ↑ Chong, Kevin. “Hogan’s Alley—The Tumultuous History of Vancouver’s Once and Future Black Neighbourhood.” MONTECRISTO [Vancouver], Winter 2022, https://montecristomagazine.com/magazine/winter-2022/hogans-alley-neighbourhood.
- ↑ Azpiri, Jon. “The Renaissance of Hogan's Alley: Deal Struck to Revive Vancouver's Historic Black Neighbourhood.” CBC News, 13 Sept. 2022. CBC.ca, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/renaissance-of-hogan-s-alley-1.6580215.
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