Sad news for us urbanists who love travelling between these two cities.

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What is it with municipal councillors these days? At least Mayor Gregor Robertson had the decency to wait until everyone was gone and he thought the mikes had been turned off before he referred to speakers/audience members at a public meeting as “f***ing NPA hacks.” (For the irony-challenged, please spare me your posts about how […]

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My one-time buddy and sparring partner at the Vancouver Sun, Pete McMartin, has written a timely column on the problem of the missing renters in public debate. Housing manager Don Littleford at Metro Vancouver has helped initiate a site for them at www.RentersSpeakUp.org to prove that they’re out there. As he said in a recent […]

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For those of you who’ve missed it on the Urban Wonks Events calendar here, the Non-Partisan Association is reviving one of its old techniques for developing some public profile. It will be holding a community forum on Vision’s controversial STIR (Short Term Incentives for Rental) program tonight, presumably to capitalize on the dissatisfaction that has […]

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Local mayors kicked up a sh*tstorm last year with the province by campaigning aggressively to get new mechanisms to pay for transit than they have now. (What they have now: property tax, fuel tax, fares, so-far-unused vehicle tax) When the province wouldn’t entertain using the carbon tax or allowing new road-pricing schemes, the mayors voted […]

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The Marine Gateway proponents have released a survey on what the Marpole community thinks of the proposal for the large complex being planned for Marine and Cambie, which currently includes a very tall residential tower, a smaller office tower, a plaza surrounded by retail, a daycare, and a cineplex. The proposal has been generating significant […]

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Here’s my more official recap of the week’s events in the Globe when it comes to the story of FD Element, the company hired to build the mayor’s website, also funding a political blog that attacks Vision critics. I should note that the anonymous former contractor who went on Global did not specifically say that […]

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Just in case you’d forgotten this, the city is moving ahead with the plan to look at removing, replacing, reconfiguring or something the 1970s era viaducts that bring commuters into the downtown across the filled-in False Creek basin. If you want your say, you could try bidding on this but I think you have to […]

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For those who missed it, Jonathan Ross and Civicscene.ca — currently in the middle of a very bad smell — is back and posting.

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For those of you who missed this link posted last night by a commenter, here is Global’s very damaging story on the ongoing issue of whether the company Mayor Gregor Robertson’s staff hired to do his city website (with city money) paid for a pro-Vision blogg.

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