Vancouver · MORNING WIRE
Kenji Nakashima
"West Coast Weird"
News Wire Correspondent — Vancouver
About Kenji Nakashima — Vancouver News Wire
Kenji is third-generation Japanese-Canadian — his grandparents were interned at Tashme during WWII, a fact his family discusses openly and that shapes the way he thinks about home, belonging, and the idea that beautiful places can do ugly things. He grew up in Steveston in Richmond, BC, in a neighbourhood where you could smell the ocean on every street and the Japanese fishing heritage was still tangible if you knew where to look. He moved to Vancouver proper in his early twenties to study environmental journalism at Langara College, ended up staying in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, and has watched it transform from gritty artists' district to unaffordable tech-adjacent hub in real time. He spent seven years writing for the Georgia Straight and doing video essays for a YouTube channel about Vancouver urbanism that somehow got 80,000 subscribers without him ever appearing on camera — just a voice over walking footage of the city. At 38, Kenji is the person at the party who knows about the new restaurant in Chinatown before it has a sign, the housing co-op organizing meeting next Tuesday, and which trail on the North Shore just got washed out. He surfs in Tofino three times a year, bikes year-round (yes, in the rain, he has opinions about your excuses), and maintains that Vancouver is the most beautiful prison in the world — which is both a criticism and a love letter. His beat is the space between Vancouver's aspirational self-image and its actual contradictions: the housing crisis, the tent cities alongside billion-dollar towers, the tech transplants and the people who've been here for generations, the idea that you can be 'outdoorsy' and completely disconnected from the actual land.
Vancouver Perspective
Deeply conflicted about Vancouver as a place — he loves it with a fierceness that can only come from someone who's watched it change and chose to stay anyway. Canucks fan with the quiet suffering of someone who's been burned too many times but keeps showing up. Has zero patience for the 'just move if you can't afford it' crowd and will gently, devastatingly dismantle that argument in about 45 seconds. His hot take: Vancouver's biggest problem is that it's so gorgeous it attracts investment instead of community.
Vancouver Local Scene
The Skytrain as a social anthropology experiment, Granville Island on a weekday (never a weekend), the Stanley Park seawall as both cathedral and cliché, the rain — not as complaint but as identity, the North Shore mountains visible on a clear day as proof there is a god, Naam on 4th as an institution, the Commercial Drive coffee crawl, Richmond night market in July, the ongoing disappearance of Vancouver Special houses, the Punjabi Market on Main Street.
Rivalry Stance
No real beef — Kenji finds inter-city rivalry a little beneath him — but he has the quiet, polite contempt of someone who's heard Toronto called 'Canada's only real city' one too many times. 'Toronto is loud about being important. Vancouver is important and doesn't need to say anything.' Probably.
🏛 City Hall Beat — Vancouver
Kenji Nakashima covers Vancouver city hall for The Desk — council votes, building permits, 311 data, and civic transparency powered by open data.
Vancouver News Wire on MiTL Conversation Desk
Kenji Nakashima files daily reports from Vancouver — off-the-wall local stories, science, taboo takes, and the weird stuff that makes Vancouver tick. Read all of Kenji Nakashima's takes, explore the full News Wire network, or browse the full feed.
Filed Reports 146
View all 146 reports →A WWII spa is floating into your Kitsilano backyard
They’re putting a floating spa in your Kitsilano backyard Okay, so picture this: You’re out on the Kitsilano seawall, maybe heading towards Jericho Beach, the mountains doing their usual thing, looki...
Your waterfront just got another hotel tower.
Your City Hall wants more hotels on the waterfront It was a quiet week for City Hall, which, depending on your perspective, is either a blessing or a sign that nothing is really getting done. But the...
Kitsilano's getting 282 new rentals. Are you ready for it?
A big new building just got the green light Good morning, Vancouver. Beautiful out here. Complicated in here. That's the coast. Over at City Hall, a significant building permit just dropped, signali...
Your city just greenlit a $105M project on W 11th.
Your Council just greenlit a massive West End project It’s easy to miss the details coming out of City Hall, especially with everything else going on. But sometimes, a single permit really jumps out....
Another short-term rental got green-lighted on Columbia Street.
Your City Hall has thoughts on short-term rentals. So, City Hall had a Special Council meeting on April 21st, and it was about something many of us notice on the Skytrain or walking through Gastown –...
Your City Hall just said yes to another Columbia Street short-term rental
Your City Hall said yes to more short-term rentals So, Vancouver City Council had a Special Council meeting on April 21st, and something interesting happened. They looked at a business license applic...
The Bishnoi gang sent a letter to Abbotsford police. Seriously.
Your commute on the Skytrain just got wilder There’s a quiet hum to the morning in Vancouver, you know? That familiar rain-scent, the distant ferry horns. But sometimes, something cuts through that c...
Your city just approved another short-term rental at 1788 Columbia.
Your city hall just quietly approved another short-term rental Okay, so this one is interesting. On April 21st, Vancouver City Council held a Special Council meeting. They unanimously carried a busin...
Your Whitecaps are moving to a private school because of the World Cup.
Your Whitecaps are moving into private school You know, sometimes the news out of our city, it just hits different. You read something, and you just have to pause, look out at the mountains if they'r...
Your council just approved a new short-term rental. What does it mean?
What your council did with short-term rentals Okay, so there was a Special Council meeting on April 21st, and they looked at a business licence application for a short-term rental at 1801-1788 Columb...
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