Frances Bula header image 4

Entries from July 2015

And here are the Burrard Bridge bike lane details

June 23rd, 2009 · 26 Comments

This just out from the folks at city hall Burrard Bridge protected cycling and pedestrian pathways to open on July 13 Protected pathways for cyclists and pedestrians are scheduled to be in place on the Burrard Bridge starting Monday, July 13. This trial addresses three key issues: safety, sustainability and affordability, and involves the following […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Details on Burrard Bridge bike lane to be revealed today

June 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

I see from my handy email service that there’s going to be a not-for-attribution technical briefing at Vancouver city hall on the Burrard Bridge bike lane today at 10:30 where all will be revealed on how this will work. Stay tuned for more exciting news.

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Toronto city workers go on strike

June 21st, 2009 · 2 Comments

Vancouver had its turn two summers ago. Now it’s Toronto’s turn to have no garbage collection, daycare, building permits and so on. Only this time, their city workers are negotiating in the climate of what people here in France keep referring to as “la crise” — the economic crisis. Not a good time to be […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Letter from France: A time voyage back to the Prairies of my childhoold

June 20th, 2009 · 7 Comments

It hit me while I was listening to the radio, driving along through the endless fields, how much France is still farm country — a place that resembles, in some ways, the Saskatchewan farm country southeast of Regina that we used to drive through to visit my grandmother in the late 1950s and early 1960s. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

311 system working out the kinks veeeeery slowly

June 20th, 2009 · 3 Comments

I haven’t had a huge response to my call for expressions of customer satisfaction when it comes to the new 311 system. But there have been a few. So far it’s slow going, it sounds like. But that is to be expected from a complex new system. I remember when the city put in its […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Canada Line to appeal award to Susan Heyes for business damages

June 19th, 2009 · 16 Comments

No surprise, Canada Line is planning to appeal the recent court decision that awarded $600,000 to former Cambie business owner Susan Heyes for losses caused to her business by construction. As I said in previous stories, it was hard to imagine this decision wouldn’t be appealed, given the ramifications it has for construction projects across […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Reports on secret Olympic-village decisions now up on website

June 19th, 2009 · 5 Comments

The city has just posted four reports related to past decisions on Southeast False Creek and the Olympic village. I wasn’t able to spot much new that hasn’t already been reported at some length. Two of the reports were on Jeff Lee’s blog last fall. But I welcome comments from those who have a finer […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Paris struggles with how to connect to suburbs

June 18th, 2009 · 7 Comments

When we think of European cities, we always think of their perfect old central cities that seem like models of urbanism. What we forget is that they struggle with the same problems of sprawling suburbs and massive commuter congestion as much, or more, than North American cities do. That was brought home to me when […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Olympic village bills keep piling up for city of Vancouver

June 16th, 2009 · 33 Comments

Sorry, I’m a bit behind on posting this, but here’s the story Rod Mickleburgh and I had in the Globe today on the mounting bills for Southeast False Creek. This comes from city manager Penny Ballem’s report that came out late Monday, where she tried to round up the total costs for all the city […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

English take back France, one business and house at a time

June 16th, 2009 · 6 Comments

One of the stranger quirks of the last two days has been running into Brits who’ve decided to chuck their boring lives on the Rainy Island and become quasi-French. Last night, we had dinner at a beautiful old house in the middle of the countryside in Dordogne. The menu boasted that the restaurant had a […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized