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Entries from January 2016

Fall transit crisis season upon us. First up: What will happen with unfunded Highway 1 rapid bus when the new Port Mann bridge opens

August 29th, 2012 · 112 Comments

Part of the fall ritual is announcements about improved bus service here and there in the region, as TransLink determines where the transit-rider bulges are. This year, service is going up for a number of heavy commuter routes south of the Fraser, but other, less-used routes are being reduced, some to once an hour. Yikes, […]

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Vancouver selling off market-rental condos en bloc at Olympic Village, as high expenses erode brisk condo sales profits

August 21st, 2012 · 26 Comments

The Village, as it’s now called, is full of life these days, with more people and shops around all the time. London Drugs is due to open any day, from what I understand. But, although things look better than they did 18 months ago, the numbers still don’t add up to anything near like a […]

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Exploring San Francisco for a few days. The blog is your forum, to bring up the issues you want

August 18th, 2012 · 55 Comments

The food truck festival is happening in the Mission district today. The sun is briefly shining. The Cindy Sherman exhibit is here for the moment. We’re off to explore. As always, this is your opportunity to bring up city issues that are burning. I’ll be posting a couple of things next week but, in the […]

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Are business trade missions by city mayors worth the cost? The debate continues

August 18th, 2012 · 27 Comments

There’s already a back and forth going on about the business mission Mayor Gregor led to London recently, but here’s the story I wrote, belatedly. These kinds of missions are becoming more popular among the mayoral set, it seems to me. This is Gregor’s second. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts led one to India not too […]

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Debate about to begin on development charges that pay for community facilities

August 13th, 2012 · 42 Comments

There have been rumblings about making changes to Vancouver’s unique system of negotiating with developers on the money they will hand over, per project, to cover some of the costs of catering to the new residents that will be housed in their projects. That money isn’t just used for the obvious things like community centres […]

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Once again, litter and shaggy grass becomes civic topic number one — a perennial favourite

August 9th, 2012 · 95 Comments

It must be summer when not-so-young men’s fancy turns to talking about litter and city maintenance. I hate to sound like an old codger here, but do you know how many rounds of complaints bout this I have heard in my almost two decades of covering the city. With stunning regularity, there are uprisings of […]

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And here it is, folks: vancouver.ca

August 8th, 2012 · 69 Comments

How do you feel about living in your newly named neighbourhood? What’s new and welcome? What’s missing. Some of you have already commented under the previous post, especially about meeting minutes being missed for the Development Permit Board and the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process. www.vancouver.ca  

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What makes a Vancouverite?

August 7th, 2012 · 92 Comments

Inspired by the recently celebrated B.C. Day, which came with attendant essays on what makes this province unique and worth bragging about, I’ve decided we need a Vancouver Day, with guidelines on how you can tell a true Vancouverite (whether here for five days or five generations) from a mere visitor. Plus, we all need […]

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New City of Vancouver website to launch tomorrow

August 7th, 2012 · 6 Comments

Here’s the bumph from the City. Tell me what you think when it comes out. The City of Vancouver will unveil its new website Wednesday, August 8. More than a website refresh, this is a completely new website—built from the ground up with modern tools and methodologies to create a new, user-centred City and Park […]

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The secret connection between Metro Vancouver and London Olympics 2012

August 7th, 2012 · 1 Comment

Little-known fact for the amusement of council-meeting-starved urban wonks: The mother of Michael Mason, who is competing in the high jump in London, is the just-hired chief administrative officer for Metro Vancouver, Carol Mason. She’ll be starting her new job shortly after the Games are over.  

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