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Entries from July 2015

ThinkCity says: Sell social housing at Olympic village

December 9th, 2009 · 16 Comments

As council awaits a staff report on what to do about the 250 units of social housing at the Olympic village, whose construction costs ending up soaring far beyond what a normal social-housing unit would cost, ThinkCity is weighing in with an opinion on this issue that echoes what others, many of them of a […]

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Personal memories of Woodward’s

December 9th, 2009 · 73 Comments

I zipped down to the new Nester’s store at Woodward’s yesterday, where there was a major PR-assisted nostalgia initiative going on to link to the old Woodward’s Food Floor. In spite of that, it was fun, seeing all these people flooding in to what has been a dead block for a decade and a half. […]

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Four new buildings for Vancouver’s skyline

December 8th, 2009 · 46 Comments

After a few months spent on a view-corridor study, Vancouver’s planning director, Brent Toderian, is expecting to go to council with a report in January recommending that four new sites be allowed to go higher than usual limits and intrude into existing view cones. (For conspiracy theorists thinking this is a giveaway to developers, the […]

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Who will Kevin Falcon become?

December 6th, 2009 · 24 Comments

That’s the question I was left with in my head after spending a few weeks pondering and researching the new health minister. What do you think? Here’s my story on him in BCBusiness this month.

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Olympics impacts report: Environment, bad; business, good; housing, undecided

December 4th, 2009 · 4 Comments

The UBC researchers who have been doing the most thorough analysis of Olympics impacts released their report today. Here’s the new release. Pre-Games impact study for 2010 Olympic Winter Games finds modest benefits Early results from a comprehensive study that measures the impact of the Olympic Games during the first four years of the organizing […]

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How we got the Olympics: The little city that could

December 3rd, 2009 · 3 Comments

While everyone is fulminating over Vancouver’s budget, I thought this would be an excellent time to remember to link to my most recent column in Vancouver magazine, a history of how this city managed, after many tries, to land the Olympics.

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Burrard billboard goes up

December 3rd, 2009 · 52 Comments

In case anyone missed the heavy coverage of it, the billboard near the Burrard Bridge is up. (I was first alerted to this by Councillor Suzanne Anton yesterday, who gasped in dismay or surprise or something on the phone while talking with me when she first saw it.) Link to one of the many stories […]

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And park board chair defends decisions

December 3rd, 2009 · 18 Comments

Not sure I’m going to be able to keep up endlessly with all the back and forth here, as various people and groups move into high gear on budget debates. But here is a message just out from park-board chair Raj Hundal. Last Wednesday night, Vancouver Park Board voted to pass the 2010 Operating Budget. […]

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Community centre presidents rally against cuts

December 3rd, 2009 · 8 Comments

There’s been a lot written about the conservatory and petting zoo closures as part of the park-board budget, less so about the impacts at community centres. I wasn’t sure what all they were, but community centre presidents are sending out the message that they are not trivial. Here’s their news release from this morning. City’s […]

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Vancouver’s budget continues to raises questions, protest

December 3rd, 2009 · 6 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in past blog p0sts, Vancouver’s budget process this year has been an exceptionally difficult one, not just because of the amount of money that is being trimmed, but because it seems to go far beyond what other municipalities are having to do as they also cope with the recession. My story in […]

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