The big push to sell the remaining 500 Olympic village condos starts this Saturday. As I noted previously, the city’s financial statement for last year says the city is hoping to see $200 million in deposits come in from these condo sales. In the meantime, CBC has a story about one disgruntled condo buyer there […]

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I wasn’t at the day cruise/TransLink AGM (see previous post) but others were. Here are the reports from two pretty dedicated TransLink watchers, Frank Luba at the Province and Vancouver city councillor Geoff Meggs.

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Here I am surrounded by all the usual problems. The city is strapped for money and is proposing that all city employees take unpaid vacation one day out of every two weeks. The schools are also struggling and have been scheduling unpaid days off as well for teachers. Affordable housing is desperately needed but a […]

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My colleague (and, I note, fellow why-don’t-we-read-lists-of-corporate-donations-in-our-free-time type person) Sean Holman put up this thoughtful post today, thinking aloud about the ways that corporations and unions will be able to get around any new limits on political donations. I do tend to agree with one of his posters, that it’s very unlikely that a company […]

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The social season seems to be in full swing. These two notices here today.  MEETING NUMBER ONE: VPD PUBLIC FORUM   The Vancouver Police Department is inviting the public and the media  to an open community forum to explain and discuss the VPD’s planned move this fall  to the Vanoc building at 3585 Graveley.   […]

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Some days, the advertisements in your daily newspaper are just as fascinating as the stories. Today was one of those days. The Review section was a ringer with a ginormous double-page ad (not sure how much it costs, but believe it might be more than I earn in a year) advertising: A Vancouver masterpiece: A […]

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My infrequent but carefully selected events listing service is taking note of the following: Exploring the implications of demographic shifts. Who’s Coming to the Party? Join Glenn Miller, David Allison and Alan Boniface in this thought-provoking dialogue that will inspire and direct us to make changes in how we build and develop, in order to […]

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We’ve been seeing a lot of action at city hall lately when it comes to bike lanes in a few areas. But there’s a much bigger, more comprehensive re-think coming in the fall, when the city will start talking about an update to its 1997 Transportation Plan. One topic for sure that is going to […]

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I have to mark the passing at city hall of two women who went beyond the call of duty in serving the city. One is Ronda Howard, until recently the assistant director of citywide and regional planning. Although former head city planner Larry Beasley is synonymous with Vancouver, he did his job with people like […]

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One of the stranger news items that popped up earlier this year was the report that Arthur Erickson’s brother and executor had filed suit against the woman who was Arthur’s steadfast promoter and champion in his later years. The lawsuit was just the latest chapter in all kinds of messy tussling that had preceded his […]

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