Our favourite time of the year — budget estimates — is here again, with the traditional three acts: 1. The discovery that the projected tax increase to maintain the existing budget is not as high as everyone said the previous fall. 2. The wrangling over what gets cut or added, during lengthy public meetings 3. […]

[Read more →]

I feel bad that I’m not on an advisory committee to the mayor. Everyone else in town seems to be. First, there was the homelessness action team, a high-powered group that meets Sunday afternoons to figure out how to get 1,500 people out of shelters and off the streets ASAP. Then, there was the developers’ […]

[Read more →]

Here we go, the debate begins. The city is holding a public session this Saturday on the bridge cycling lanes, as per this notice I just got sent. If you can’t make it on Saturday (though why you wouldn’t want to spend a sunny Saturday locked in a community centre, arguing about who gets which […]

[Read more →]

Monte Paulsen asked a good question about my recent story on the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health & Addictions, which is a 100-bed facility out near BCIT that is pioneering an incredibly comprehensive and high level of care for those people whose problems with combos of mental illness, addiction, and physical disabilities are so severe […]

[Read more →]

I see my former Sun buddy Jeff Lee was the first to get this story in print about Jim Green being hired by Millennium Developments to help out with the Olympic village and possibly other projects of theirs. Of course, the sub-text is that this must be about Jim, who helped started the Vision Vancouver […]

[Read more →]

I’m on the Bill Good show this morning with Daniel Fontaine, blogger and former Sam Sullivan chief of staff, talking about all things civic civilly. I think.

[Read more →]

I got a chance recently to go out to the new Burnaby Centre for Mental Health & Addictions, the centre that was announced last February by Premier Gordon Campbell as part of a new push to treat the mentally ill + addicted + often homeless and physically sick. It’s been open since June and taking […]

[Read more →]

Sorry to disappoint those of you who thought I’d gone dark because I was in the midst of a deep investigation. Instead, all I’ve done is escape to Seattle for a couple of days — always a great way to get a new take on cities, people, art and the economy. It’s been great to eavesdrop […]

[Read more →]

I see that my learned friends over at Citycaucus noted that I recently got a list of the expenses related to the inauguration of the new Vision Vancouver city council in December. While they seemed pleased to get the information, they weren’t happy that I got it before them when they had asked for the […]

[Read more →]

Well, we always wanted to be a world-class city. And now we are, as you can see from this article in the Guardian, documenting London’s troubles in financing its Olympic athletes’ village. And what’s the deal with Whistler? Why aren’t they having the same troubles? They seem to be doing just fine, as Bruce Constantineau’s […]

[Read more →]