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Entries from January 2016

Olympic village developers to review construction

June 29th, 2009 · 25 Comments

This just in from the PR company working with Millennium Developments. Millennium Water Construction Quality Vancouver, BC – The Millennium Water consultant group and the general contractors are in the process of evaluating the current commentary regarding the quality of construction on the Olympic and Paralympic Village Project which has to-date been, in the consultant […]

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The life and death of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry

June 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments

The murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry last April touched so many people in this city. I was one of them. Even though I’ve written about her brother, Peter, for years in his role in civic politics, I never met Wendy. But I felt compelled to try to tell her story in a little more depth, which […]

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City, Coleman come to agreement on housing plan; one shelter closes

June 29th, 2009 · 6 Comments

Vancouver’s mayor and Housing Minister Rich Coleman did some tough negotiating over the weekend to come up with something they could agree on with respect to the emergency homeless shelters and a future housing plan. You can read my story about it here.

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Olympic village hit with another negative wave

June 28th, 2009 · 32 Comments

The Olympic village just can’t catch a break. The project that everyone thought would be a showpiece for the has turned into the construction project that everyone loves to report bad news on. The latest is this story in the Province, with complaints about the building practices going on. It’s not unheard of on major […]

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One French farm: a unique time-travelling experience

June 26th, 2009 · 6 Comments

I posted earlier that my travels through France had reminded me what an agricultural country it is still. One of my regular blog commenters responded that I was perhaps romanticizing French farm life, given how much it is being eroded by global agro-business and the younger generation’s disinterest in the hard labour entailed. It’s true […]

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View-corridor debate: Round 2

June 26th, 2009 · 19 Comments

This comment got appended recently to the long string from last month on view corridors. I doubt many people will have continued looking at that post and it’s an interesting comment, so I’m re-posting it here as a separate entry. (And for those wondering if there will be an end to the view-corridor debate, the […]

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BBC on top of the “Michael Jackson is dead” story

June 25th, 2009 · 14 Comments

In case you’re missing it back in North America, BBC is ALL OVER the story about Michael Jackson’s reported death, with current non-stop coverage and many uses of “we haven’t confirmed this but it’s been on the TMZ website.”

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Mayor Robertson’s statement on the shelters controversy

June 25th, 2009 · 5 Comments

The residents around the two homeless shelters under the Granville Bridge started complaining a month ago about the activities in the shelters and their uncertain future. At first, they didn’t get a lot of attention, but the story exploded in the last couple of weeks and has turned into one of city hall’s major unchecked […]

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Vancouver’s car-free days admired from afar

June 25th, 2009 · 4 Comments

This story from the Toronto Star, praising Vancouver’s car-free days and Toronto’s lack of same, popped up on my screen today. It’s ironic given the debate that keeps raging in this city about changing the current proportions of the car-bike-walker sharing system. It reminds me forcibly of the way it’s so easy to praise from […]

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Trams and bikes in “car-free” Montpellier

June 23rd, 2009 · 31 Comments

Montpellier is considered a hot number among cities, I’ve discovered since I’ve been here. It’s not only got a beautiful historic centre, but the city’s mayor, Georges Freche, has dedicated his last 30 years to taking it into the 21st century. He’s built business parks around the core, which have attracted the likes of IBM […]

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