A big report on the city’s homelessness efforts is on the agenda for next week. Most of it states a lot of what we’ve heard throughout the last few months in terms of the state of affairs here in Vancouver re homelessness and where the city would like to go. A new squib that was […]
Vancouver wants homeless shelters open to April 2010
April 30th, 2009 · 3 Comments
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Cultural planning director moves out temporarily
April 29th, 2009 · No Comments
There had been many rumours that the head of Vancouver’s cultural planning department, Sue Harvey, might be ousted by the new council when it came in. Those rumours went to sleep for a while, leading many to wonder what was happening. Latest news in is that Sue is decamping from cultural planning — but only […]
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A visit with the two brothers building the Olympic village
March 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Here’s my latest column in Vancouver magazine, where I got to spend some time with Peter and Shahram Malek of Millennium Developments — the developers at ground zero in the current financial/housing/Olympics twister. Everyone in town has been playing backseat driver to these two and speculation continues to be rampant about the end cost of […]
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A portrait of Fortress, the hedge fund of the 2010 Olympics
March 27th, 2009 · 1 Comment
This month’s Vanity Fair takes a look at the guys who run hedge funds, with those at Fortress featured in this story. As you’ll recall, Fortress is no longer involved in the Olympic village, after having agreed to have their $750-million loan bought out by the city. But the fund still owns the Whistler ski […]
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Pouf! A new general manager for Olympics preparations appears
March 25th, 2009 · 2 Comments
The second-in-command at engineering, Peter Judd, has been tapped, it appears, to replace Dave Rudberg as general manager for Olympics preparation. The news came as a surprise to him. There was no posting or even internal application. He was simply asked by city manager Penny Ballem to do it. Peter, engineering’s very energetic and relatively […]
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Vancouver: The view from London
March 22nd, 2009 · 3 Comments
Get used to it. Everyone is going to be writing about us ad nauseam for the next year. Here’s just one sample of how we look to the outside world, from today’s Financial Times: homelessness, drug addiction, gang violence all chipping away at our beautiful image.
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Vancouver to spend $1.5 million for its own Olympics city showcase
March 20th, 2009 · 3 Comments
My story a couple of days ago referred to the other site Vancouver would be running as part of the Olympics, in addition to the two “live sites” on Georgia and at David Lam Park. Here’s the city report on the details of what’s going to be at that site, which will be “a venue […]
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You get your say on Olympics transportation — well, a part of it
March 18th, 2009 · 4 Comments
I was so excited when I saw the following public announcement from the city, thinking this was going to be the public’s chance to remake the Olympics transportation plan, even though it’s already been announced. But when i called to get more information, it was clarified to me that the forum and public consultation will […]
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Brace for Olympics 24-hour party zone
March 18th, 2009 · 7 Comments
I’m (belatedly) posting my story in the Globe this week about the competition to get and rent party sites downtown for the many, many groups that want to have a presence at the Olympics. What really hit home to me for the first time, as I was researching this story, was just what a carnival […]
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City’s general manager of Olympics preparations “retires”
March 13th, 2009 · 21 Comments
Dave Rudberg, the former head of engineering and, the the last few years, manager of the city’s preparations for the Olympics, has sent city manager Penny Ballem a letter saying that he is retiring. The retirement will be effective this spring. Not a shock to city hall insiders, who are aware that many senior staff […]
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