Eugene McCann
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ejmccann.bsky.social
Eugene McCann
@ejmccann.bsky.social
1.4K followers 710 following 390 posts
Geographer at Simon Fraser University. Policy mobilities; urban politics; harm reduction; social movements. Managing editor, EPC: Politics & Space (journals.sagepub.com/home/epc). Host, 'Minor Revisions' podcast (http://bit.ly/3suN9ur). Views my own.
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ejmccann.bsky.social
Pancho needs your prayers, it's true But save a few for Lefty, too (lyrics from Pancho & Lefty, a 1972 song by the great Townes Van Zandt).
November 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
See the wooden boxes? 100 of them just installed on the Little Mountain land in Vancouver. Site of a viable social housing nhd demolished ~2 decades ago by developer who bought it from Provincial govt. Site's sat empty since, despite promises they'd build housing. So what's up w the boxes now? 🧵👇
A fenced-in plot of land covered by small, regularly-spaced numbered wooden boxes, each with fresh soil in them. On the fence, signs announce the new "Temporary Community Garden at Little Mountain" and "New Gardeners Wanted." A fenced-in plot of land covered by small, regularly-spaced numbered wooden boxes, each with fresh soil in them. On the fence, signs announce the new "Temporary Community Garden at Little Mountain" and "New Gardeners Wanted." Close-up of the signs announcing the new "Temporary Community Garden at Little Mountain" and "New Gardeners Wanted." Details here: https://www.communitygardenbuilders.com/little-mountain-garden
November 2, 2025 at 5:52 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
And around the corner at the developer's open house ...
Part of a page from the development permit submission for 570 Columbia (formerly 105 Keefer). A TV camera operator records the proceedings. (A dog isn't that interested, tbh). An attendee reads an information board. Audience members listen to the project architect discuss details of the design.
October 2, 2025 at 3:25 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
At the Vancouver Chinatown People's Open House against 105 Keefer/570 Columbia & for a People's Vision for Chinatown.
A poster, written in English and Chinese, for The People's Open House in Vancouver's Chinatown. It is part of a decade-long opposition to a condo development in the neighbourhood and to neighbourhood's gentrification. Seniors gathered for the People's Open House in the plaza of the Chinese Cultural Centre. Attendees read information boards in the plaza. A summary, written in English and Chinese, of the 2017 People's Vision for Chinatown, a community strategy for social and economic change.
October 2, 2025 at 3:15 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Holborn's Little Mountain development in #Vancouver. "A Generational Masterplan," apparently. 'Generational' cuz it took, like, a generation to get round to building it? #vanre #vanpoli
A black shiny billboard emblazoned with two lines of white text: A Generational Masterplan. In Vancouver's Most Beloved Neighbourhood.
September 28, 2025 at 1:07 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
The First Peoples’ Gathering House at SFU looking lovely in the autumn sunshine. www.sfu.ca/about/truth-...
A cedar-sided building under a deep blue sky. A cedar-sided building under a deep blue sky A cedar-sided building under a halo of sunlight.
September 23, 2025 at 12:12 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
And ignore the green checks -- a glitch in the system, or in me using the system.
September 16, 2025 at 5:02 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
A quote from sociologist, Ruth Glass (1964), providing the original definition of gentrification, with reference to the London Mews: "One by one, many of the working-class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle-classes - upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages - two rooms up and two down - have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences ... Once this process of 'gentrification' starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed."
September 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Some random pretty #Vancouver pictures
Deep Cove with purple flowers in the left foreground and calm waters behind. Pretty enough for you? Ambleside Beach before the beach bodies arrive. A long swathe of sand stretching into the distance with the trees of Stanley Park in the background. Stanley Park from mid-span on the Luon’s Gate bridge. The green metal structure of the bridge casts a shadow on the green water of the First Narrows below. Geese have the right of way. Geese acting like they own the place in the West End (cuz they do). Cyclists wait for the all-clear.
July 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Graffiti on a brick wall saying "Love Football Hate FIFA." Anyone who knows anything about world football would agree.
July 19, 2025 at 3:24 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Part of the Filipino communities & supporters' week of mourning, a vigil at 6pm Wednesday April 30. Organized by students, at the #SFU #Burnaby campus, in the Student Union Building.
April 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
An excellent undergrad gave me this home-made card. My in-class discussion of a certain classic city marketing campaign seems to resonate with my Canadian students … #Glasgow #iykyk #geosky #teachwhatyouknow
A hand-drawn reinterpretation of Glasgow, Scotland’s classic Glasgow’s Miles Better logo, featuring Mr. Happy. In this version, “Glasgow’s” been replaced with “Geography’s”.
April 25, 2025 at 6:03 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Went fully invisible (or 99% Invisible) in my 200-level urban geography course this semester. Used @romanmars.bsky.social & @kurtkohlstedt.bsky.social's @99pi.org book, The 99% Invisible City, as the textbook, & academic geographers' writings. Getting students to critically notice the city. #geosky
Cover of The 99% Invisible City book and photos of the authors. The Scarchitecture chapter in the book, along with a list of key related themes: Scars, change, investment, (re)zoning, Land (re)use, infill, palimpsest. Putting the burn in Burnaby. The ghost streams chapter in the book and a map of waterways in Burnaby, including Still Creek, which is more or less covered/daylighted along its course from Vancouver into Burnaby. A slide from the wrap-up lecture. A version of the 99% Invisible podcast 'motto,' always read the plaque' with my admonition for critical geographers: "And ... always read between & beyond the lines on the plaque."
April 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Early reporting but … yes #vanpoli
April 6, 2025 at 6:04 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Voted!
Photo of a guy who waited two and a half hours to vote proudly displaying a purple and white sticker telling passersby, “I Voted”.
April 5, 2025 at 8:56 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
People are motivated #vanpoli #vancouvervotes
April 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Geographers, going back to the office on Monday after #AAG2025.
A detail of Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals showing three workers, rendered in grey, almost like a pencil drawing. They wear hats and coats of different types and all hold lunch bags. They're walking over a bridge or gantry and, behind them, there are massed ranks of 1930s-era cars. (Ok, it seems pretty clear in the mural that these people are leaving work, tired, after a long day, rather than going to work. But I'm not going to let 'facts' get in the way of a dumb social media post.)
March 29, 2025 at 11:22 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Some conferences get a welcome banner in Detroit. Others don’t. #knowyourplace #aag2025
Banners at Detroit airport welcoming a lubricant expo and bearing show and a regional conference. But not a certain geography conference.
March 23, 2025 at 12:37 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Grey cloudy SFU (and environs)
Convocation Mall & the library at Simon Fraser University on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Grey brutalist buildings highlighted by electric lights and reflected in wet pavement. The Academic Quadrangle from Convocation Mall at Simon Fraser University, looking up stairs with people silhouetted in the distance. Grey brutalist buildings shrouded in clouds. An outdoor walkway at Simon Fraser University. Wet grey pavement reflecting lights and posters. Grey concrete columns to the left and right, wooden rafters above. Ainu sculptures (Kamui Mintara) in Burnaby Mountain Park. Wooden poles. In the distance, Vancouver's skyline under dark grey rain clouds.
February 23, 2025 at 2:21 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Hey Siri, what is an example of being 'ratioed'? #CBC
An egregiously wrongheaded tweet by a CBC journalist, who should know better, getting ratioed. (He's trying to justify having a call-in show to have "a conversation" about rump's statehood ambitions.)
February 22, 2025 at 4:55 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
5 hours after the earthquake, this from our house insurance company. I hope somebody in their marketing dept is getting a bonus this month #Vancouver #earthquake #WeWillRebuild!
An email offering earthquake insurance.
February 22, 2025 at 2:33 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
SFU Wrapped
An interior hallway at Simon Fraser University. The floor (which is about to be torn up) is orange and the walls and ceiling are wrapped in reddish orange plastic sheets, intended to stop the dust from the floor removal spreading and killing us all. In the distance, on a cross-cutting hallway, a student passes by, no doubt on their way to ace their midterm exam.
February 18, 2025 at 5:53 PM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Walking by this billboard, I keep wondering why Mathieu Flamini is doing an ad for the local Business Improvement Association. He doesn't need the money & he's neither Canadian nor Italian! #WhenYou'reHereYou'reFlamini #Vancouver
A billboard showing a photo of a smiling bearded man and emblazoned with slogans: The Drive; When You're Here You're Family; & Little Italy. A photo of French footballer, Mathieu Flamini, celebrating a goal while playing for English football team, Arsenal.
February 14, 2025 at 6:47 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
Nice day on the river in Vancouver.
A sunny shot of the Fraser River, at the Southern edge of Vancouver, BC, on a sunny, chilly Spring afternoon. A raft of cut logs floats in the left foreground, a tugboat tows another raft across the blue water in the middle distance, and the snowy slopes of Mount Baker (in Washington State, US) are visible on the horizon to the right. "I don't wanna stay at your party / I don't wanna talk with your friends / I don't wanna vote for your president / I just wanna be your tugboat captain" - Galaxie 500.
January 26, 2025 at 2:08 AM
ejmccann.bsky.social
#academicsky
A revised, more accurate list of what "the average professor is afraid of" (or am just revealing too much about myself?) The list is: Canvas That one student Reimbursement paperwork Being invited to the ‘in-crowd’ parties/workshops The incessant march of time
January 15, 2025 at 12:00 AM