An interesting post from Kennedy Stewart analyzing which kind of person makes a better city bureaucrat, someone who rises through the ranks or someone brought in from outside. He comes down in favour of the former, saying people like Judy Rogers and Ken Dobell ultimately do a better job of carrying out council programs than [...]

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I’m not going to post every story on the city’s new enviro deputy city manager, Sadhu Johnston, but the alternative paper Chicago Reader does solid reporting and covers municipal issues seriously, so here’s their take on his time in Chicago.

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Just to service my Burrard Bridge crowd, here’s the latest update from the city. Don’t say I never did anything for you.
Burrard Bridge traffic to increase Tuesday;
Motorists encouraged to consider alternative options
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is encouraging motorists to consider alternate routes and transit options in the face of heavier downtown traffic expected after Labour [...]

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Like many a Vancouver wanderer, I’ve always admired the house styles of other cities, particularly the brownstones in New York or the Plateau houses in Montreal, which create house fronts and steps right on the street.
Vancouver’s townhouses are an effort to replicate the idea behind those styles. Recently, I came across an interesting piece of [...]

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I got a chance to talk to Vancouver’s new deputy city manager, Sadhu Johnston, in Chicago earlier today. Here’s my Globe story about Johnston, who will be arriving here Nov. 2. He’s a very personable sounding young man (sorry if I sound like an old fart, but I am), who mostly avoided talking ecojargon with [...]

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City hall is buzzing this morning about the official announcement that a young guy from Mayor Richard Daley’s office in Chicago has been hired as the new deputy city manager. Sadhu Johnston has gotten lots of glowing press in the States for his leadership in giving Chicago the reputation as a leading green city.
I’ll have [...]

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When I was doing research earlier this year into the death of Paul Haden, I ended up finding out more about the push in some circles to have entheogens (psychoactive drugs that are used to produce spiritual experiences) given some credit for their traditional uses in religious practices and as treatments for medical or psychiatric [...]

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A current story that is generating lots of huffing and puffing from commentators (here, here and here) is the fact that park-board commissioner Constance Barnes apparently received a $3,000 loan from the board to help with the cost of the $18,000 rehab program she enrolled in after crashing her car into a house and being [...]

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As a few blogs around town are reporting  (Alex Waterhouse-Hayward and city caucus) and I’ve been hearing from others, Abraham Rogatnick died Friday. Bruce Grierson did a piece for Vancouver magazine last year that described the deep impact this professor, historian and urbanist has had on the city, which you can read here.
Better than anything [...]

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There’s been a lively discussion going on for a while related to the series of stories in The Tyee about Portland’s alleged superiority to Vancouver, which I’m sure many of you have looked at. Here’s a Seattleite weighing in on the comparison, pointing out at least one interesting fact. Yes, Portland has less homelessness. It [...]

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