When I got to New West, my first time (what a gorgeous city!), I realized two things: 1. Hoo boy, this is a serious river valley with STEEP hills. 2. It would be blisteringly hot there in the summer without the river breeze.
I saw lots of high rises, and no AC except what folks had rigged up.

First, that corridor is wonderfully, verdantly green. From Waterfront station to New West, the streets are lined with trees and there are public green spaces galore. The region should absolutely continue to plant to create shade and coolness, but it's no slouch on this.

We added a transit overlay. The death line now was closely following the Expo Line (navy blue line). And the dense, transit-friendly neighbourhoods lining it. Neighbourhoods that started densifying before any other SkyTrain line. Older buildings. No AC. As you get closer to the river, deaths go up.

What do you see when you look at that map? I see a line. So I showed it to my second son, Isaac, a geography major at UVic. "Well, that's an obvious pattern," he said. "But following what?" We opened Google Maps. "It's following Highway 1A," he said. "Huh." But was it?

So, @pennydaflos.bsky.social, who has been on this story from day 1, did tremendous work a few years ago mapping where deaths happened. The BC Coroners Service gave her death locations to the first three places of the postal code, and she and an SFU prof mapped it. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...