For those not following me on Twitter, where I re-tweeted this, here’s the latest from the mayor’s trip to New York, which he posted at 1 a.m. NY time as far as I can tell. “toured brooklyn navy yard. leading edge industrial zone creating green jobs. false creek flats? south van? http://bit.ly/9968Gl”
Entries from January 2016
Vancouver mayor ponders green industrial zone
April 13th, 2010 · 32 Comments
Tags: Uncategorized
A new idea for affordable housing: shipping containers
April 13th, 2010 · 31 Comments
For those who haven’t spotted it, The Tyee and Monte Paulsen have an interesting series starting on affordable housing. The series looks at how shipping containers, which are ubiquitous around the world, can be used for housing. I admire them for taking on this topic. And I’ve seen shipping containers used ingeniously in a few […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Vision rental program generates backlash, raises questions about future solutions
April 13th, 2010 · 31 Comments
It was the best kind of theatre, being at council last week when West Enders showed up to voice their concerns about the Vision council’s program to create permanent rentals, the Short Term Incentives for Rental or STIR. Councillors tried to keep the bemusement out of their voices, but weren’t all that successful as they […]
Tags: Uncategorized
New Nanaimo politics blog
April 13th, 2010 · 9 Comments
Adding to the list of local politics-watchers is this new blog that Frank Murphy, who comments here occasionally, is starting up. That’s in addition to blogs in Langley, Surrey, New Westminster, Kamloops and North Vancouver that I know of. (If there are more, get in touch — happy to link.) Here’s Frank’s message about his […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Robertson off to New York
April 12th, 2010 · 19 Comments
Sam Sullivan used to love to go to Chicago and admired Mayor Richard Daley, perhaps in part because of his imperial powers, but also because of the way he had single-handedly turned Chicago from a rust belt disaster to a thriving urban innovator. But Gregor Robertson’s favourite city, at least this week, is New York. […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Sam Sullivan: Governor-General?
April 10th, 2010 · 14 Comments
My friend Peg Fong has a nice scoop in the Toronto Star today, with sources talking to her about the possibility of former mayor Sam Sullivan being considered for Governor-General. The Star’s big story last week, also based on sources, was that Rick Hansen had been approached about the post and had turned it down. […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Kash Heed resigns
April 9th, 2010 · 6 Comments
Okay, nothing at all to do with urban issues, except that Kash used to police parts of Vancouver, but this is so startling I had to put up a link
Tags: Uncategorized
Jang to Minister Coleman: It’s your job to pay the operating costs for shelters
April 9th, 2010 · 54 Comments
As a follow-up to the stats released by the city from its homelessness count, here’s my story in the Globe with Councillor Kerry Jang staking out the city’s position unequivocally: It’s the province’s job to pay for enough shelter space to get everyone off the streets. The city will give land, buildings, fix-up costs, but […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Homeless in Vancouver climb to almost 1,800 but only 400 sleep outside
April 8th, 2010 · 5 Comments
The results of the city’s homeless count are in and, as the Vision Vancouver team hoped, it shows that the numbers of people sleeping outside was reduced by almost exactly the number of beds created in the mayor’s seven emergency shelters. The memo from city manager Penny Ballem spells out the dire consequences for the […]
Tags: Uncategorized
Notes on Montreal
April 7th, 2010 · 14 Comments
Yes, I’ve been gadding about a lot and this time to Montreal — mainly to cook meals and provide a taste of home to a cluster of young adults, some of them family, some of them friends. There is a veritable ghetto of Vancouver kids in Montreal these days, so there were plenty around to […]
Tags: Uncategorized