Oh brother, here we go, the bike debates. But can’t avoid it, as that seems to be the week’s news. Here’s my story on the city report re agreement with Alta Bicycle Share on the new public-bike share system. Still some news to come on this, as we don’t know who the sponsors will be. […]
Vancouver bike-news day: Bike-share contract reached; plan for Point Grey Road laid out
July 18th, 2013 · 169 Comments
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Retired from city hall but not gone: The woman who made all us of see the homeless as people
May 31st, 2013 · 12 Comments
Vancouver’s official advocate for the homeless had her last day at city hall Thursday, along with her birthday. My story about her in the Globe is here but I wanted to add a few words. I started covering city hall for the Vancouver Sun in the fall of 1994 (when I was a toddler, of […]
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Vancouver continues to “solve” its affordability problem by going littler and littler
January 4th, 2013 · 67 Comments
The little house, the little apartment — they’re all I’m hearing about these days. Laneway houses continue to be popular. At last count, there were 600 that had been processed at city hall. Micro-suites have come to Surrey. Coquitlam is letting people build multiple-units on single-family lots. Some of this is welcomed, I think. We’ve […]
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Vancouver about to kick off a rent bank to reduce homelessness
March 21st, 2012 · 8 Comments
Like Surrey, Prince George and Toronto, Vancouver is about to start a small rent bank, kicking in $150,000 of the total cost, with $350,000 coming from Streetohome, the private-sector group working on homelessness, and others. The bank is aimed at helping prevent homelessness by providing small loans to people to help them get or retain […]
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The death of a Vancouver food-truck operation a cause for grieving in this foodie city
March 9th, 2012 · 28 Comments
The announcement by Coma Food Truck operator Jay Cho that he is winding up operations tomorrow provoked an outpouring of eating and grief this week by his many fans. Cho is giving up because he didn’t get selected for a permanent spot for the second year in a row. Although he seems to be successful […]
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Two cities, two rapid-transit lines, a world of differences
August 15th, 2010 · 12 Comments
As promised, the first of my two stories in the Globe Saturday. This a comparison of the rapid-transit lines in Seattle and Vancouver, both celebrating a one-year anniversary this summer but with very different histories and outcomes. I know this has already generated some comments elsewhere but for those who missed them …
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Beautiful Seattle transit line gets one-fifth the ridership of Canada Line
July 5th, 2010 · 32 Comments
As some of you may know already from following my twitter posts, I was in Seattle for the last few days. (Thanks to all the enthusiasts for keeping the blog lively while I was playing hooky.) Besides paying no tax on anything I bought there, as a result of the state’s controversial (and now court-challenged) […]
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Oil-tanker forum gives the issues — and the mayor — high profile
July 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Today’s the day that Vancouver holds its special council meeting to hear from various parties about the issue of oil tankers in Burrard Inlet. I had a story in Saturday’s Globe looking at how this ties in with efforts that environmental groups have been making to get public attention around oil tankers in general, along […]
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Vancouver: Worst city in Canada for pedestrian deaths
June 29th, 2010 · 48 Comments
A small brief in the local media last January caught my eye: a 27-year-old had been hit in a pedestrian crosswalk near my house, but he had no identification and police were trying to figure out who he was. The next blurb said he had died in hospital. Police never released his name. But the […]
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Olympic village condo buyers want out
June 24th, 2010 · 17 Comments
Well, this had to happen at some point and now it has. Here’s the story, which the CBC got first.
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