Your city hall just approved a short-term rental.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the biggest week at City Hall, but there was one item that really sticks out if you’ve been paying attention to the housing conversation here in Vancouver. On April 21, the Special Council approved Business Licence Application No. AL0188353 for a short-term rental at 1801-1788 Columbia Street.

It passed unanimously, with Councillors B. Montague, L. Zhou, and S. Orr all voting in favour. Councillor R. Bligh was absent for this one, as they were for the Public Hearing on the Canada Place text amendment a week prior. It's interesting, isn't it? We talk a lot about the housing crunch, the constant pressure on supply, and then we see this.

I'm thinking about those Vancouver Specials quietly disappearing, replaced by… well, by other things. This approval feels a bit like a small ripple in a much larger tide.

Beautiful out here. Complicated in here. That's the coast.

Kenji Nakashima (@westcoastweird_yvr)

The MiTL morning crew digs into these stories every day. Tune in live at mornings.live.