Chapter 43. BTW, I hear that the park board and associations have selected a mediator and were starting talks yesterday.
Entries from January 2016
The latest twitch in the community centre-Adriane Carr-Penny Ballem-whatever schmozzle: Mayor tries to calm things down
February 19th, 2013 · 76 Comments
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Wall Centre tower developer gets city permission to put reflective glass on building, 13 years after council said no
February 18th, 2013 · 23 Comments
I’m so sorry all. I thought I had posted this weeks ago, but apparently not. This is too good a story to go uncommented. Here’s the story. I can’t do any better than I did here, except to say kudos to whoever raised the question about the glass changing originally on my blog a few […]
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Hotels being repurposed for high-end apartments, social housing and more, giving renters more options
February 18th, 2013 · 9 Comments
I started out doing a quick, simple story about the trend I’ve noticed locally of smaller hotels being converted to either higher-end rental apartments or social housing. As it turns out, it’s a national trend, according to the CBRE report that was issued while I was in the middle of researching this story. But an […]
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What happens when cities put their own money on the line for development
February 18th, 2013 · 3 Comments
Big cities like Vancouver and Toronto have embarked on their own development projects over the years. But now we’re starting to see places like Surrey and New Westminster put cash on the line to try to make money from the real estate they hold or invest in development to spur more private-sector interest. My story […]
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Ingels tower/project next to Granville Bridge gets a strong second review from design panel: public realm at street level improved, “a marvellously promising venture”
February 15th, 2013 · 47 Comments
The Beach + Howe tower, developed by Ian Gillespie and designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, went to urban design panel for a second review earlier this week. Some information in my story here. Couldn’t capture everything that happened at the meeting, though. An interesting point that several panel members made, worth noting: They admired […]
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The legal opinion provided to Adriane Carr
February 13th, 2013 · 125 Comments
Any municipal lawyer types want to weigh in on this opinion? I have the utmost respect for Jonathan Baker, whom I have called frequently in my reporting career, but he has quite a Vision hate-on thing going in his Twitter stream and lawyers are known to have different interpretations. So far, one of my background […]
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What did the park board actually approve at the end of the nine-hour meeting? More negotiation, not a final plan
February 11th, 2013 · 22 Comments
A lot of stories I’m hearing seem to be misreporting that the board voted to take all the revenue. That is certainly what was originally proposed and it may be the end result of the negotiation, but here is what the board actually voted on. That the Park Board endorse in principle the key elements […]
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Killarney CCA president: Additional info on many points, and “we are hoping the park board will enter into genuine, transparent negotiations”
February 9th, 2013 · 14 Comments
Ainslie Kwan, president of the Killarney CCA, sent me this letter to help clarify some points I had raised in an earlier post. Thought it would be helpful for everyone to see this, as it does provide helpful new information. Hi Frances, Thanks for continuing to cover the story about community centre associations. I appreciate […]
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Message from park board chair Sarah Blyth: No final changes approved, we want a model that “maintains independence of associations”
February 9th, 2013 · 15 Comments
This was posted as a comment on another post. I’ve pulled it up to make sure everyone gets a chance to see it. Some of you who posted comments in response may want to cut and paste those also into here. I know many of you are concerned about future changes of the Joint Operating […]
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Mayors turn to previously neglected revenue as potential source for TransLink funding: a .5 per cent sales tax
February 6th, 2013 · 45 Comments
As mayors continue to press the provincial government to come up with some kind of solution for funding that will allow TransLink to expand services, the chair of the mayors’ council sent out an open letter yesterday with suggestions for short-term and long-term funding solutions. Short-term: – 0.5 per cent sales tax, which would pull […]
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