This got issued earlier today, but got a bit lost in the flurry today over Rich Coleman’s proposed new homelessness law. I haven’t had a chance to call Pivot, so don’t know what their side of the story is. But I thought this news release would be of interest to readers here, given the passionate […]

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Housing Minister Rich Coleman mused aloud last January about coming up with a law that would give authorities the power to force homeless people into shelters during cold/wet-weather snaps, if they persist in sleeping outside in spite of efforts to get them in. Now it appears his ministry is going ahead with that plan, according […]

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Rumours in the halls at 12th and Cambie say the city’s massive, Penny Ballem-initiated shared-services review is done, being reviewed by CMT (corporate management team to outsiders), and will be presented to the boards of various affiliated institutions, unions and managers around Sept. 28/29. That’s the result of several months work undertaken by a group […]

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Here’s a link to the report from Vancouver city finance guy Ken Bayne about the implications of the provincial budget for the city of Vancouver. Some of Bayne’s analysis could just as easily apply to Surrey or Coquitlam — the impact of all-day kindergarten on community centres, which may get more demand for after-school care; […]

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Replacing the city’s two high-profile planning directors — Larry Beasley and Ann McAfee — in 2006 was a major hiring decision of former mayor Sam Sullivan’s administration. The man who was chosen to succeed them was Brent Toderian, a high-energy planner from Calgary who had big ideas about urbanism. It’s been three years since Toderian […]

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I notice that people are starting to comment more and more on the neon sign atop a Chinatown building, visible from the Georgia viaduct, that says “Everything is going to be alright.” To my amusement, it is generating all kinds of speculation and commentary, not all of it based in what we might call fact. […]

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Every year, the mayors, councillors and administrators of B.C.’s 170-odd cities and towns gather to talk about municipal issues, a convention that provinicial politicians pay close attention to. It’s like getting a poll on what people all over the province are worried about. (It’s also heavily covered by media, since the provincial government just LOVES […]

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This resignation/retirement has been expected for so long that I actually started to think that Susan was going to hang around. But apparently not, as today’s news release makes apparent. newsrele And here’s everyone weighing in on same: Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight Citycaucus Civicscene Do you feel like you know enough now about […]

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An interesting story here in the Sun by Kelly Sinoski, highlighting the previously unknown fact — this in spite of two years of discussions about laneway houses — that it could cost up to $20,000 to run an electrical hook-up to them.

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Two more, this time from the legal department. The count is now: “Replaced”: 1; Retirements: 4; Quitting to Go Somewhere Else: 4 for the first nine months of the new Vision Vancouver administration. I am wondering if these two will be replaced under the current hiring freeze and given what I had always heard about […]

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