Vancouver Magazine
Now Open: The Sourdough Savants at Tall Shadow Have an East Van Bakery Now
The Best Thing I Ate All Week: Beaucoup Bakery’s Pistachio Raspberry Cake
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Succession Is Over: Now It’s Time To Watch the Greatest Show About Wine Ever Made
Our 2023 Sommelier of the Year Franco Michienzi of Elisa Steakhouse Shares His Top Wine Picks
We’ve Scored a Major Discount for VanMag Readers at the Best Wine Festival in Town
Meet OneSpace, the East Vancouver Co-working Space That Offers On-site Childcare
What You Missed at the VMO 2022/23 Season Finale Concert
Protected: Visit the Joint Replacement Center of Scottsdale
Wellness in Whistler-Your Ultimate Early Summer Retreat
Local Summer Getaway: 3 Beautiful Okanagan Farm Tours
Local Summer Getaway: Golfing at Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass
Review: Vancouver-Based Denim Brand Duer Is Making Wide-Legged Jeans You Can Hem Yourself
The Latest in Cutting-Edge Kitchen Appliances
7 Spring-y Shopping Picks, From a Lightweight Jacket to a Fresh Face Cleanser
It’s been a year of notoriety for Canada’s cities. The world continues to be obsessed with the antics of Toronto’s Rob Ford: what he put in his pipe, whose posterior he grabbed, whether he dines in or out. And the rotating cast of characters in Montreal’s mayoral chair, one after another being dragged down by corruption charges, makes American Hustle look like community theatre.
In Vancouver, meanwhile, the focus of everyone from Fox News to London’s Daily Mail was doorknobs: not our elected officials, but those antiquated devices we use to get from one room to the next. As of this month, the knob is banned from all future construction projects, the result of building code changes passed by Vancouver city council last September.
The driver is accessibility. According to the City, over 15 percent of Vancouver residents have some sort of disability or mobility restriction, and lever-operated door handles can easily be used with one hand. A traditional doorknob cannot-or often requires more “tight grasping or wrist twisting.”While the change affects only new construction, Vancouver is the only city in Canada with its own building code, and shifts here are often seen as a harbinger of standards to come in the industry. The death knell for the doorknob (already vanishing from City Hall) is nigh.