Travel+Escape just released their top 5 North American Cities for trailer food.  Vancouver comes in at number 3, beating #4 New York and #5 Toronto.

For March 2013, a total of 25 units of strata properties, i.e. condos and townhouses, were sold in UBC.  This is an increase from the 17 units that sold in February.

Of the 25 units that sold last month, 3 were 1-bedroom homes, 15 were 2-bedroom homes, and 7 units were 3-or-more bedroom homes.

For a free private consultation to sell your home, please call me, Len Diaz, at 604-551-1323.

Sold units does not include single detached homes, pre-sale, under construction, and private (FSBO) sales.  All figures are taken from MLS.

Canada advanced to the World Group semifinals for the first time by defeating Italy 3-1 in their quarter-final tie.

Be Active, Stay Active & Have Fun On Campus

Did you know?

UNA residents receive discounted rates on select UBC Athletics and Recreation program and rentals. These discounted rates can be claimed by displaying your valid UNA Community Services Card (CSC) to the facility staff upon registration or rental.

What is available?

Discounts are available on public swimming, drop-in skating, tennis court bookings, fitness passes, summer camps, lessons, varsity game tickets and much, much more! Free drop-in sports at the Student Recreation Centre.

For February 2013, a total of 17 units of strata homes, i.e. condos and townhomes, were sold in UBC.  This is an increase from the 15 units that sold in January.

Of the 17 units that sold last month, 4 were 1-bedroom homes, 8 were 2-bedroom homes, and 5 units were 3-or-more bedroom homes.

For a free private consultation to sell your home, please call me, Len Diaz, at 604-551-1323.

Sold units does not include single detached homes, pre-sale, under construction, and private (FSBO) sales.  All figures are taken from MLS.

For January 2013, a total of 15 units of strata properties, i.e. condos and townhouses, were sold in UBC.  This is an increase from the 8 units that sold in December.

Of the 15 units that sold last month, 10 were 2-bedroom homes, 5 units were 3-or-more bedroom homes, and no 1-bedroom homes were sold.

For a free private consultation to sell your home, please call me, Len Diaz, at 604-551-1323.

Sold units does not include single detached homes, pre-sale, under construction, and private (FSBO) sales.  All figures are taken from MLS.

Here's a very interesting article on the history of the UBC Pt Grey campus by Chris Gordon for REW.ca published January 30, 2013.

The University of BC might have begun its life as an academic institution in the middle of the forest, but it’s grown beyond its roots into a desirable neighbourhood for all comers. Through the UBC Properties Trust, profits from land development are reinvested to fund the university. With more development planned and an aim to be a net-zero energy consumer, its future can still be linked to the historical campaign that helped shape it…

Few of those who organized and took part in the Build the University Campaign in 1922 could have predicted the scale of development that would take place decades later.

When the student population outgrew the existing university— in the Fairview district, where Vancouver General Hospital now stands—they used Varsity Week in October 1922 to raise awareness of their need to move to a bigger, permanent home. Their efforts culminated in The Great Trek, when 1,200 students walked and waved banners from downtown Vancouver to the Point Grey campus.

A week later they handed in the 56,000-signature petition they’d amassed over the summer and fall to the legislature in Victoria. This, combined with the presentation and public support, persuaded the Province to finish what it had stopped due, largely, to the advent of The First World War.

On September 22, 1925 UBC as we know it held its inaugural assembly.

There is more to the backstory of UBC, which you can read about here and also in this article by Emma Spenner Norman, which details how UBC’s idyllic setting was considered a place of inspiration, and how the area had long been used for education by the Musqueam people.

The initial 175 acres of Crown land at Point Grey was set aside for a university by the University Site Act of 1912, and in 1920 the British Columbia University Loan Act increased the amount of land for residential development to 3,000 acres.

Former BC Premier and then Lands Minister Duff Patullo drew up the first subdivision plan for Point Grey in 1926. Only the first phase was completed as the Great Depression and later the Second World War came and halted the development of all the UEL.

This loss of momentum, combined with later opposition to numerous development attempts rolled on into the modern era and the undeveloped land, almost 2,000 acres, became Pacific Spirit Park in 1988.

The park and the private properties on the original 175 acres are not part of UBC and have their services provided by the Provincial government. The remaining 1,000 acres is the university’s and is what UBC is developing to endow the university.The UBC Properties Trust develops and manages land. Its function is to reinvest in the future of the university, with UBC and the UBC Foundation being its sole beneficiaries.

And as the UBC Campus and Community Planning Department states on its website: “The land is being used to transform UBC from what was historically a commuter campus into a vibrant, sustainable, live-work-learn community of scholars.” Five UBC neighbourhoods embody that transformation.

By Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver Sun

A campaign by the University of B.C. to raise $1.5 billion by 2015 for aspects of university life not funded by the government is getting close to its goal.

The Start an Evolution campaign, the largest of its kind in Canada, has been targeting philanthropists and UBC alumni to help raise money for the university and has crossed the $1 billion mark, according to a UBC news release Friday.

“I am deeply grateful to our alumni and donor community for their overwhelming support in this campaign,” said UBC president Stephen Toope, in the release.

“Their generosity and involvement is providing more student aid, improving learning environments, and extending the impact of research and community engagement. With their help, UBC can really be a catalyst for change and transformation.”

The campaign also aims to double its active connections with alumni to 50,000 former students.

Robert Lee, who earned a bachelor of commerce and a doctor of law from UBC and chairs the Prospero Group of Companies, is honorary chair of the Start an Evolution Campaign.

“I am thankful to the donors, alumni and everyone who has helped move the campaign forward,” said Lee.

The campaign features hundreds of specific opportunities for involvement and investment at http://www.startanevolution.ubc.ca

Read the article

By Monte Stewart, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER – In all his days as a player and coach with the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada’s men’s soccer team, Bob Lenarduzzi never had access to a permanent training centre.

But at long last, barring any unforeseen changes, the Whitecaps and Canada’s men’s and women’s teams will have a West Coast training facility to call their own by 2015.

The Whitecaps and provincial government officials announced plans Thursday for a new $32.5-million National Soccer Development Centre at the University of British Columbia.

Lenarduzzi called the announcement a “significant milestone” for the sport in B.C., the rest of Canada and for the Whitecaps.

“I’ve been involved for 38 years in the professional game (since) 1974 when the Whitecaps started up, and we have never had a place to call home – that seems ridiculous,” said Lenarduzzi, now president of the Whitecaps, during a news conference at Thunderbird Stadium, which will be part of the centre.

“I also coached the national team for six years (and) never had a place to call home.”

Plans call for the B.C. government to provide up to $14.5 million in funding while the Whitecaps are slated to contribute $15 million and UBC will donate land valued at $3 million. The Whitecaps men’s, women’s and residency squads as well as UBC teams, community soccer organizations and other groups will use the facility.

The site will include a new fieldhouse and five new, refurbished or improved fields – three consisting of grass and two of artificial turf.

The Whitecaps have been trying for seven years to develop their own facility, but efforts at previous locations fell through. Lenarduzzi said the facility will help the Whitecaps recruit top players while aiding professionals, amateurs and young and old players.

Forced to practise at various venues in Metro Vancouver, the Whitecaps have “camouflaged” their training facilities during recruitment, but now have “the final piece to the puzzle.”

The club was also required, as part of acceptance in Major League Soccer in 2009, to have its own facility, and has faced “plenty of questions” from the league on the topic over the past three years.

Lenarduzzi said the facility is also a requirement for Canada to host the Women’s World Cup in 2015.

“One of our core objectives is growing the sport in British Columbia and Canada,” he said. “This is certainly something that fulfills that objective, and we feel like we now have a place that not only the Whitecaps, but our national teams can call home.”

John Herdman, whose Canadian women’s team won the country’s first Olympic medal in soccer, a bronze in London in August, also welcomed the announcement. His squad reached the podium after deploying a Vancouver residency program at fields throughout the city.

“We achieved a bronze medal, but one of the things that will always nag at me is: Would we have achieved gold if we had a decent facility to train in consistently when (were) in our residency program?” he asked. “Without the sirens, without the balls from other fields hitting us on the head?”

The lack of a regular training facility was also an issue for the women’s squad in 2011, when it made a disappointing early exit from the World Cup after training in Italy. Herdman said there should no longer be any excuse about having national teams train in Canada for global events.

The facility will show kids what it takes to be “the next Christine Sinclair.”

“This may be our little tipping point,” said Herdman. “We need to find a number of things that are going to take us from bronze to gold – to take us onto the podium at the World Cup.”

The Whitecaps will practise occasionally at UBC this season and be based at a temporary facility on campus starting in 2013.