I moved into my Yaletown apartment with the girlfriend in September of last year. As much of a social pastiche as I've found the community to be, one demographic that continues to elude my ceaseless people-watching is the family. The owners of my own suite, a multiracial gay couple with two young boys, found themselves forced to move away from the area upon the arrival of their second son... seeking out more space at a better price.

From trustafarian UBC students to middle-aged bachelor brokers and "part-time artist" ex-wives, everyone here has a personal electronic device and two dogs, but wouldn't ever dream of rearing a human child. The staple of natural socialization; the family unit (in any of its modern configurations), has all but vanished in the area, traded in for a condo with a view. I've certainly seen a small handful of luxury strollers cruising waterside, but the more time I spend in Yaletown the more obvious it becomes that families are absent from this part of Vancouver's downtown core.

My own experience has proven that rising real estate prices have an important effect on how, when, and where people choose to raise children. As I reach the age where the prospect of starting a family becomes more and more real, I'm also met with the existence of an increasingly crowded city. That's why I'm so intrigued by the free lecture being put on by the UBC Sociology department at Robson Square. As part of Arts UBC's series of free public speakers, Assistant Professor Nathanael Lauster presents "Home is Where the Kids Are: The Links Between Housing and Fertility in North America". His lecture Wednesday night at 6 will tackle the relationship between surging real estate prices, declining fertilitiy rates, and suburban flight... hopefully offering some kind of answer to the question a lot of us must share: what's a family in Vancouver left to do?..

Nowhere have rising Canadian housing prices been as strongly felt as in the Greater Vancouver area. The difficulty of finding an affordable place to live in the city has become so common that to complain about it has entered the realm of cliché. Still, barely a day goes by that I don't read about Vancouver's swelling real estate market. Even Tuesday morning's Morning Brew featured another article on Vancouver's mess of a housing situation and ever increasing real estate prices.

While our cities are becoming more and more crowded, the human drive to procreate is hardly something that we want to change. Instead of fleeing to the islands or abandoning our biological urges, we all need to explore methods by which the 21st century city can provide an attractive environment conducive to the the creation of healthy and productive family units. Vancouver's future truly depends on it...

Nathanael Lauster, whose blog can be viewed here, used the dual realities of lower fertility rates and increased 'flight' to the suburbs in North American cities as a launching pad for his nationally funded study. By analyzing the census data of Seattle, Vancouver, and Stockholm, cities which have all seen huge increases in housing costs in the last 20 years, in addition to conducting extensive resident interviews, he hopes to provide some insight into the connection between real estate and fertility. More info and a conversation with Lauster can be found here.

Regardless of Vancouver's particular housing woes, it's clear that as a society in general we need to make a great deal of changes if we hope to maintain our modern civilization. The environment, global welfare and fiscal equity have finally become hot topics as the globe reaches an ecological and sociological tipping point; and for the first time in a long while, environmental issues may play a defining roll in the American presidential race. (Lets not even get near the recently reported political takeover of... ecosexuality?) Citizens are becoming increasingly aware of the need to restructure our forms of urban living, and sustainability has become quite the North American buzzword. Hopefully a share of Vancouverites will ride this recent wave of awareness over to Robson Square, as Lauster's lecture is sure to be enlightening for any potential parent or socially aware urban dweller.

Additionally, I'd love to hear from Beyond Robson's readers... I'm interested, how have housing prices affected your own familial decisions? Or alternatively, how much has your family situation dictated where you've chosen to live?

Assistant Professor Nathaniel Lauster presents his free lecture "Home is Where the Kids Are" at 6pm on Wednesday atRobson Square (on Robson between Hornby and Howe).

header photo courtesy of Matt Simpson, photo of Nathanael Lauster courtesy of Arts UBC