Why should only the paid media pundits get to do this? I’m sure this group has thoughts. So do I, actually, but my brain is far too goose-and-turkey-logged to formulate them into anything coherent. But I can tell from the sporadic comments even over Christmas that many of you are still firing on all cylinders. […]
What were the top stories of 2014? What were the important but uncovered ones? And what are the stories to watch in 2015?
December 28th, 2014 · 3 Comments
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Next experiment in shipping-container social housing: seven storeys
December 27th, 2014 · 8 Comments
The housing non-profit Atira built a three-storey building out of shipping containers a couple of years ago. Now Atira is launching an even more ambitious effort, a seven-storey building composed out of 80 to 90 shipping containers. My Globe story is here, with a render. You can also look at the rezoning proposal on the […]
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Is the sales tax the best way to pay for transit? No, but it’s politically sellable, says LA
December 17th, 2014 · 30 Comments
For those who don’t follow me on Twitter (are there any?), I was in Los Angeles recently. Yes, one of my favourite cities, which I’ll explain another time. But while I was there, observing the anguish of house monsterization (a real word, it appears), the worry about gentrification brought on by bike lanes (a real […]
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Mayors appear headed for .5 per cent sales tax to fund 10 years of transit improvements
December 11th, 2014 · 83 Comments
We’ll be hearing any hour now what the final wording and funding choice is for the regional mayors, as they head into the referendum. But all indications I’ve had the past two weeks is that it’s the sales tax only, as I wrote in my Globe story. Fuel tax is seen as a losing proposition […]
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The 2015 Lower Mainland transit referendum: hang on for the ride
December 2nd, 2014 · 23 Comments
Okay, go ahead and comment. What more can we say? The new mayors’ council is about to see this Friday the proposed preamble and question that will go to the province for approval. By next Friday, they have to sent their tweaked version on to the province and cabinet. Everyone is gearing up to take […]
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Mayor promised to do things differently. Now what about everyone else?
December 2nd, 2014 · 16 Comments
We are all on pins and needles, awaiting word any day now from the mayor’s office about the radical changes in communication, accessibility, and general user-friendliness about to take place as a result of the mayor’s pre-election apology and post-election promise to do better. I ran into an old city-hall fellow traveller recently, who reminded […]
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Does Vancouver really have a new pollution problem as cars idle because of the bleeping bike lanes?
November 26th, 2014 · 56 Comments
There was a little one-liner that kept surfacing during the recent Vancouver election, one that I’ve heard from more than one letter writer, which is that Vancouver is actually becoming less environmentally friendly by putting in bike lanes. That’s because the complicated lanes and lights and subsequent congestion are forcing drivers to idle longer as […]
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Election poll: Somehow Green vote collapsed slightly, while votes for Vision councillor and NPA went up slightly over predictions
November 19th, 2014 · 137 Comments
For those who didn’t see it, Barb Justason released the results of the poll she’d done in days just before the election at 8:45, once everyone had voted. Interesting to see how the three Green Party candidates both saw their actual votes down compared to the poll estimates. That meant Adriane got 41 per cent […]
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Vision Vancouver was facing “a shipwreck” as they went into final week of election
November 17th, 2014 · 12 Comments
When the Vision Vancouver team got into the elevator at the Wall Centre to travel down to the basement level where the victory party was going on, things looked pretty good. They were in charge of the school board, they had three people apparently in line for seats on the park board, and the councillor […]
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Vision wins council, loses school and parks as voters back them one more time, with some reservations
November 16th, 2014 · 41 Comments
Assuming everyone reading this blog has now memorized these election results, so you can cite them down to the last digit for the most obscure party in all political conversations of the next decade. I’ll have more to say in the next couple of days about what Vision and the opposition can learn from these […]