Given what is transpiring across Canada on native lands, across the US from Standing Rock to Oregon, and across the world, it seems a good time to revisit the words of Thomas Banyacya of the Hopi delivered at Habitat Forum at Vancouver’s Jericho Beach in 1976. Read more about Banyacya here. As Cultural Survival writes:… read more Thomas Banyacya delivers Hopi prophecy at Habitat ’76

It was irregular for a civilian not part of an official delegation to address the UN, but economist and author Barbara Ward spoke at Habitat I. She had after all written the theme books for the conference, Human Settlements: Crisis and Opportunity, and The Home of Man.  More on Barbara can be found at IIED,… read more Barbara Ward’s famous speech at Habitat I

The UN’s 1976 Habitat I conference in Vancouver produced The Vancouver Declaration. The Declaration was accompanied by the Vancouver Action Plan (also known as “64 Recommendations for National Action”). While the work of many—as all UN declarations and documents are—this portion of the  Vancouver Declaration known as the Vancouver Action Plan owes a great deal… read more UN Habitat I: The Vancouver Action Plan

Believe it or not, the above image is of the official PDF of this important declaration, on the UN’s own website. Doodles, spills and all Since the UN Habitat: Conference on Human Settlements was held in Vancouver in 1976, there have been major Habitat conferences every 20 years. Habitat II was held in Istanbul in… read more UN Habitat – The Vancouver Declaration, 1976

Dear friends of Habitat ’76, My friend Jim MacNeill, who served as Commissioner General of Habitat I (the 1976 UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements) and was one of the key intellectual and administrative forces behind it, died in Ottawa last Saturday at the age of 87. Pneumonia had got the better of him. It… read more Goodbye to Jim MacNeill, Habitat I Commissioner General, April 22, 1928 – March 5, 2016

The plaque in memory of Alan Clapp will be mounted on his old office on Granville Island at 2 pm on Wednesday September 16, 2015. 1290 Cartwright Street (near Arts Umbrella). As most of you already know, Al was the genius behind Habitat Forum 1976, and was a key figure in the conception of Granville… read more Alan Clapp plaque unveiling – Sept 16

Hi Habitat family members, Can anyone fill in the missing names? And please let me know if any of these names are wrong! The image is property of the City of Vancouver Archives and I can’t publish the original. Please don’t reproduce! Thank you… I am only publishing this marked up version for research purposes.… read more Habitat crew photo – wood delivery day

Photo credit: Erol Baykal OK everyone, I need your help! I had not wanted to release this photo before the book came out but we haven’t identified enough of the crew, so it would be wonderful if you could assist in identifying faces. Click on the image and then use the zoom tool to zoom… read more Habitat Crew Photo 1976 – please help identify faces!

“Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlements, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice;… read more Statement on land – Vancouver Action Plan 1976

Human Settlements: Crisis and Opportunity, 1974 – book cover showing Vancouver Barbara Ward is the under-celebrated economist whose work with the UN drove the formation of UN Habitat and provided the basis for its founding document, The Vancouver Declaration. In preparation for Habitat ’76 (or the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements as it was… read more UN Economist Barbara Ward writing in 1974 on Vancouver, cities and income inequality

“ONU [UN] GO HOME!” Graffiti near the botanical gardens in Medellín, far from the WUF7 site Guardian Cities, section in the Guardian on urban issues, ran an op ed today by a rep from from the Rockefeller Foundation. It was a glowing encomium to Medellín, host city for UN Habitat WUF7. Given the odd soft-pedalling… read more Assessment of UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum 7

I didn’t realize that First World* cities would get their own day. I suppose if they didn’t require the spotlight too I might not have ended up here. I’m at the UN Habitat World Urban Forum in Medellín, Colombia, April 5-12. After all, Vancouver—the site of Habitat I, the very first UN Habitat conference ever… read more At UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum 7 in Medellín, Colombia 2014