Happy birthday, Urbanized! Daily Hive's real estate channel turns 5 years old

Happy birthday, Urbanized! Daily Hive marks 5th anniversary of real estate, urban development, and transportation issues coverage

"Urbanized Turns 5" on November 15, 2022. (@knoxandmaephotography)

Real estate, urban development, transportation and urban issues are ingrained into the DNA of Daily Hive, but for the longest time it was scattered without a proper home for the content being churned out.

For that reason, five years ago this month, we launched the Daily Hive Urbanized channel.

And it was six years ago that we came up with a blanket, publication-wide strategy of grouping our content under big umbrellas — more than merely categories or sections, but channels.

These channels would carry an exceptionally strong brand identity, and each channel would also have a unique voice and style for its storytelling.

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First, we created Dished as the new home for food content, which also marked its fifth anniversary earlier in 2022.

Then we created Urbanized in November 2017, and over the subsequent months and years, this was followed by a handful of other channels, such as Listed for events and Offside for sports.

There was so much to celebrate during the “Urbanized Turns 5” party held last week, attended by over 200 community and business leaders.

Urbanized has become a leading and influential source in Metro Vancouver for all-things urban development, and urban and civic issues.

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Urbanized informs readers of the latest on building development projects, starting right from the proposal stage. Broadly speaking, Urbanized is about how we interact with the physical realm around us and how we can achieve betterment.

We cover the politics behind both the path forward and obstacles to city building and housing affordability, with a magnifying glass on both private and public sector solutions.

We track the activities and decisions made in the civic political theatre — by mayors, city halls, city councils, TransLink, and other municipal bodies.

We make complex and mundane issues interesting and digestible for our readers to want to know about and understand. We point out nuances. We are particularly allergic to “planner speak.”

“Urbanized Turns 5” on November 15, 2022. (@knoxandmaephotography)

But we also have a unique lens for our storytelling. We unapologetically value business issues and economic lenses for understanding how cities work.

The Metro Vancouver media market as a whole already has other issues, lenses, and narratives covered, which are certainly important to cover. But it is a very incomplete picture — and for the longest time, there was a gaping hole.

But Urbanized and the massive reach of Daily Hive as a whole has single-handedly filled this incomplete picture, and the results show.

Business and economic issues are ultimately also about social justice if we are to care about the well-being and livelihoods of residents and communities — their ability to not just merely survive by being able to afford shelter and food but to thrive.

Ignoring these realities — how the world and modern economy works — will only be a detriment to this place we call home.

Focusing on issues and lenses that do not accurately align with reality is akin to a tiny dam built by beavers to hold back a tsunami. One way or another, reality always bites back.

And the reality is the idea of Vancouver as a liveable city needs to be about economic opportunity. A city with world-class housing costs should also be offering world-class employment opportunities, world-class culture, world-class fun, and world-class perks. We report the news, but we also strive to inspire building a more prosperous and thriving city where people are enabled to make better and healthier lifestyle choices for themselves, self-reliant on their own terms.

“Urbanized Turns 5” on November 15, 2022. (@knoxandmaephotography)

Five years in, the Urbanized model of covering its various topical areas and issues has been fine-tuned — and we are so proud of our storytelling style and what we choose to cover. We also take pride in having a highly diverse team of storytellers from different backgrounds and life experiences.

Urbanized in Daily Hive’s home market of Metro Vancouver alone now averages 2.8 million page views per month and from nearly 1.4 million unique readers. It is also the second most-read channel on our publication.

Daily Hive’s mission has always been to connect people with their cities in every aspect of its storytelling, and we could not have done it without you, our readers. On behalf of our entire team at Daily Hive, we thank you for your support.

Here’s to five more years! 🏘🏢🏗🏙🌉🛣🚝🚆🚇🚍✈️⛴🏰

A small portion of Daily Hive staff taking a group photo at “Urbanized Turns 5” on November 15, 2022. (@knoxandmaephotography)

“Urbanized Turns 5” on November 15, 2022. (@knoxandmaephotography)

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