The city of Vancouver has called a “technical briefing” for media on the Olympic village for 2 p.m., followed by a statement from Mayor Gregor Robertson at 3:30 p.m. This hastily organized conference is apparently in response to Miro Cernetig’s anonymously sourced story in The Vancouver Sun today, where the key piece of new information […]
News on Olympic village coming imminently
January 9th, 2009 · 2 Comments
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Olympic village history and state of construction
January 8th, 2009 · 7 Comments
I got a chance this week to go around the Olympic village site under construction — quite a hike, by the way. It’s hard to understand how big a project this is until you actually walk around it. You can read my Globe story on that tour here. It also has a very interesting feel […]
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Judy Rogers-Penny Ballem 3
December 14th, 2008 · 2 Comments
The party talk this weekend is all about the Visionista’s move to replace Judy Rogers with former deputy health minister Penny Ballem, a highly unusual move at a local government level. It’s not unusual to get rid of a city manager. It is unusual to put in someone with zero experience in city issues. Typically, […]
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The debate over solving homelessness
December 10th, 2008 · No Comments
For those of you who don’t scrutinize the comments section on this blog, there’s an interesting discussion going on about homelessness and solutions under one of my posts (which, oddly, had nothing to do about homelessness — the one about the Olympic village and finding the perfect mayor from a couple of days ago). It’s […]
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Protester welcoming committee all set at city hall
December 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment
It’s inauguration day for the new council and everyone’s preparing for it, including a couple of protesters outside city hall. One man has a sign proclaiming “I’m still looking for the leak … but all I see is a total lack of respect for the citizens of Vancouver.” Between the time I passed at 9, […]
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New council starts to take control with appointments
December 5th, 2008 · 4 Comments
The agenda for Monday’s meeting is up and the new council has put out its recommendations for who will sit on which boards and committees, which you can go through here if you’re that kind of detail-obsessed person. Interesting things of note: Gregor and the most senior members of the Vision team are going en […]
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City moves into new Crossroads space as Lululemon doesn’t
December 5th, 2008 · 3 Comments
The gorgeous new Peter Busby-designed building at Broadway and Cambie is nearing completion, with London Drugs already in one portion of the street-level space and Whole Foods due to move in first (thereby guaranteeing that the last of our disposable income will disappear in short order). Lululemon was supposed to be moving its headquarters into […]
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An Olympic village lawsuit
December 2nd, 2008 · No Comments
One of my alert readers noticed this little story up on the Vancouver Sun website this afternoon, about the city suing an engineering firm connected with the Olympic village construction. I should point out that the lawsuit is over a part of the project that is the city’s responsibility, nothing to do with Millennium. The […]
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Vancouver lends $100 million to keep Olympic village going
November 6th, 2008 · 48 Comments
That’s the story from my Globe colleague Gary Mason this morning, plus more little bombshells, like the apparent news that finance director Estelle Lo has tendered her resignation.
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The latest on Fortress, Millennium and the Olympic village
October 23rd, 2008 · 2 Comments
Not a lot to report except that, like everyone else, the city is watching the news closely to see what happens with Fortress, the lender that is financing Millennium Developments for its construction of the Olympic athletes village. Here’s my story in Thursday’s Globe.
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