One of the things I find many people are forgetting (or were never aware of) in the current hoopla over the Olympic village is that Vancouver has a decades-old tradition of being a real-estate developer. It’s one of the biggest land-owners in the city and its real-estate department, under the leadership of people like Bruce […]

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My learned friend Geoff Meggs commented today in the Globe and Mail that the city’s credit rating has never been downgraded before due to council actions. Actually, I was reminded by someone with a better memory than mine that that’s not true. The credit rating was downgraded in 2003, when Geoff was then assistant to […]

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I haven’t bothered posting the last couple of days on the Olympic village because there is now such a raging torrent of media coverage that I decided to stand on the riverbank letting it flow by, while I think about what’s going on. I’m sure many of you are in the same state, as we’ve […]

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I’ll be off-site and on the phone and doing other things, so I’d welcome guest posts from anyone who attends the witch trial, oops, special council meeting this afternoon on the Olympic village.

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I have to say, it sounds nuts over at city hall today. There’s an in-camera meeting on right now and apparently Mayor Gregor is going to make a statement/announcement right after that. It could be just my imagination, but every time I talk to someone over there, they sound exactly like those CNN reporters covering […]

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Should be lots of fun today, with a public council meeting scheduled for 2 at city hall on the Olympic village. I’m sure Suzanne Anton is practicing her punches right now, with coaches on all sides. If I’m not mistaken, it will be available to watch on the city’s website, so all of you who […]

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Got this note from a reader, “Andrew,” with some interesting observations on the financing side of the Olympic village. More info to ponder. After reading different articles over the past couple of days I phoned a friend of mine in who works at an executive level in Canadian Real Estate finance to ask him a […]

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As people post their comments, it reminds to add other little bits and pieces of information that I know. 1. Michael Geller wondered how much the city’s standards for environmental design added to the project. General manager Hank Jasper told me, when I had my tour of this site this week, that his estimate was […]

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After all the sturm and drang of Friday’s Olympic village doom announcement, it was rather a relief yesterday to go to the opening of the new Kensington library branch at Kingsway and Knight yesterday. For those of you who don’t remember the history (playing my Grandma “now gather round, children, and I’ll tell you a […]

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Oh, I couldn’t resist. A few more bits and pieces. 1.The story travelling around city hall currently is that the memo from city manager Judy Rogers that laid out the original plan to provide guarantees ($193-million loan guarantee and completion guarantee) for Millennium’s Fortress loan started off with the line: “This is a good-news story.” […]

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