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Entries from January 2016

As the year draws to a close, opinions and debates flourish

December 31st, 2008 · 14 Comments

Don’t ask me why, but I’m spending my leisure time these days reading Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone,” (yes, I know, several years late) a thoughtful and heavily documented analysis of the decline of civic engagement in American society since the 1950s. As we’ve become a more individualistic society, Putnam argues, our participation in political parties […]

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Three wishes for the next three years

December 30th, 2008 · 2 Comments

In my end-of-year, end-of-election-season post for my CTV blog, I look at the challenges all these new councils face and my fondest hopes for what they will and won’t do as they tackle those challenges. Also, links to a couple of previous posts here and here that you may have missed.

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Sam’s forces win the NPA board battle

December 30th, 2008 · 22 Comments

It’s one of the cliches of politics that it’s the left, with its petty sectarian battles inside any party or movement, that self-destructs. But you have to wonder about that, watching what’s going on with the Non-Partisan Association. The NPA had its annual general meeting today, which mainly consisted of electing 11 new board members […]

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The NPA starts its rebuilding today

December 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments

The city’s septuagenarian political party, the Non-Partisan Association, will be meeting today to choose a new board of directors — one that will have the difficult task of figuring out where the party, which suffered its second disastrous defeat in six years, will go. Charlie Smith has some perceptive analysis of the NPA’s potential winning […]

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Vancouver’s long-time planning voice silenced

December 29th, 2008 · 4 Comments

Several people have sent messages last night and this morning about the death on Saturday of Peter Oberlander, who founded the planning school at the University of B.C., became Canada’s first deputy minister for a new ministry of state for urban affairs in the 1970s, and was involved in planning both of the major housing […]

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Rental housing to make a comeback?

December 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment

That’s what developers are saying in my Globe story, which was published Dec. 24. Economy has builders eyeing a return to rental apartments Frances Bula. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Dec 24, 2008. With the British Columbia condo market in a deep freeze, developers are looking at constructing a form of housing that hasn’t […]

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Christmas present: “Vancouver Matters”

December 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Sorry for the three-day absence but my partner shamed me into not blogging on Christmas Day or Boxing Day by suggesting that, and I quote, “people will think something is wrong with you.” Then I got embroiled in buying post-Christmas presents for myself and going to movies. But here I am back again, to report […]

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Thank goodness, the night before Christmas

December 25th, 2008 · 9 Comments

I know some of you will sneak away to the computer sometime to get a little relief from an overdose of family togetherness, so here’s my Christmas card to you all. How lovely to finally be at home after almost 12 straight hours of slogging through town (some of us didn’t have any groceries for […]

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New culture hires on hold at Vancouver city hall

December 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments

A sharp-eyed reader has pointed out that the Job Postings section on the Vancouver website recently saw a startling change. Seven job competitions for the cultural planning department that were listed (almost half of the total 15 listings of open jobs) have now been cancelled. Here’s a sample. Notice is hereby given that Competition Number […]

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Tags: City Hall Talk

We’re going back to the Depression – NOT

December 23rd, 2008 · 19 Comments

Okay, this is a late-night, non-urban-politics personal rant, but I’m going to gag if I see many more media stories saying that the current economic crisis is having such a profound impact on people that they’re rediscovering their Depression-era values, scrimping and saving like it was the ’30s again. Oh, puh-leez. This MUST be written […]

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