I did not talk to a huge number of happy people yesterday in getting a response to the Olympics transportation plan. Although business owners in general are supportive of the Olympics and think it will benefit the city overall, they are not thrilled about the impact the Games may have on them individually. Some I […]

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The judgment came down in the lawsuit between Downtown Eastside Residents Association guy Kim Kerr and former councillor Peter Ladner over Peter’s claim that Kim had made a threatening remark about Elizabeth Ball. I won’t repeat all the details — they’re here in the lawsuit, which you can read here.

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This news release just out from the city on the new CFO who has been hired. Some were thinking that Vision, grateful to Estelle Lo for her emails to Judy Rogers highlighting concerns about the Olympic village that were then leaked by someone to the media, might hire her back. Apparently not. Here’s the new […]

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As a public service, I am providing information about the impending move of the engineering department to the Crossroads building. I understand from various parties that there’s a certain amount of uncertainty about whether the move is going to happen, perhaps due to cost-cutting. I asked Jerry Dobrovolny (while I had him on the phone […]

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That most exciting point in the three-year cycle of any civic reporter approaches, as the deadline for disclosing campaign finance donations for all candidates and parties in the last fall’s election draws nigh. I know that the folks at Beyond Robson will mock me again for beating them repeatedly with long lists of numbers, but […]

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Word is about to come down that the city and province will put money in to keeping the new, as they’re called, “Gregor shelters” open for a few more months, while more permanent housing is brought on board. That’s the result of intensive meetings Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Mayor Gregor Robertson, Housing Minister Rich […]

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There has been a spate of stories in recent days from journalists in the MSM (mainstream media, just in case there’s one among you out there not familiar with that term) wringing their hands over the death of media and therefore democracy, as newspapers shut down, television stations lay off swathes of staff, and radio […]

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The city’s deputy city manager, James Ridge, got named the chief information officer or some such thing recently, according to city internal emails. That ought to allay the rumours, at least in that corner, that Ridge, who came to Vancouver from North Van a couple of years ago, was going to be one of those […]

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Just stumbled across this poetic essay from a Toronto writer, meditating on the places in that city that evoke the ghostly presence of deaths past, which struck a chord. I worked, many decades ago, typing court transcripts from tapes, which used to take me into a different world, via my headphones, where I felt vividly […]

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This illuminating email exchange went is making the rounds today in the city, with two very different approaches to finding solutions to homelessness. Hello Michael, Would you publically, along with HEAT, Streets to Home, BCS, Gregory Henriquez and Housing Providers, have a press conference and say to the province and feds that we need them […]

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