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West Van mayor says pilot housing projects will go through

July 14th, 2010 · 3 Comments

West Vancouver Mayor Pam Goldsmith-Jones posted this comment today on an earlier string, but I’m re-posting here to make sure everyone sees it. History: West Van has been trying to experiment with some different housing forms than giant single-family, which I wrote about in an earlier Globe story. Subsequent to that, the couple featured in […]

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Vision wants “NPA hacks” to join committee — and they’re not so sure

July 13th, 2010 · 43 Comments

The latest in this summer storm

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The stories behind the mayor’s F bomb

July 12th, 2010 · 65 Comments

Because I clearly have no life, I took the trouble to listen to the whole hour and 40 minutes of the Thursday night meeting about the West End housing controversy that led to the mayor’s much-reported remarks today. It’s worth a listen, in order to puncture some of the little spin bubbles going on.

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Mayor’s blunder helps West End group score a victory

July 12th, 2010 · 12 Comments

The story of the mayor’s use of the F word while referring to West End residents has been a rolling story all day. Here’s the latest version with stuff I gathered over the past few hours.

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West End activists catch the mayor speaking frankly

July 12th, 2010 · 36 Comments

The West End Neighbours group, which has managed to eclipse the longstanding West End Residents Association when it comes to militant activisim, has shown remarkable tenacity and willingness to use guerilla tactics in their fight to block the Vision council’s rental towers from coming to their area. I don’t always agree with their interpretations of […]

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Food-cart testing to begin

July 9th, 2010 · 30 Comments

The city announced the 17 winners of the food-cart lottery today. The list is below. I expect all the dedicated posters here to go out and test each one of these carts (they’re supposed to be in action as of July 31) and then write up reviews.

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Firing of Vancouver Athletic Commission chair no surprise

July 9th, 2010 · 3 Comments

I’ve been expecting the news that the chair of the Vancouver Athletic Commission was going to be fired for the last month and it finally happened yesterday. As I noted in my Globe story a month ago, chair Mirko Mladenovic engaged in some fairly unusual behaviour at the commission, the likes of which I’ve never […]

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Tags: City Hall Talk

Evergreen Line might really be coming by 2014, signals say

July 8th, 2010 · 33 Comments

This region has been talking about building the Evergreen Line for so long — and not doing it — that it’s hard to believe that it might really be on the way. But it appears that it is, as the province moved this week into the first phase of the bid process, which is asking […]

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Tell your government we need Statistics Canada information

July 8th, 2010 · 28 Comments

As my faithful readers know, I’m a reasonable person who’s always willing to consider all sides of an issue, sometimes to a fault, and I rarely get foot-stomping angry over anything. But if there’s one thing that does raise my blood pressure, it’s governments who make it difficult to get information. Usually that’s confined to […]

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The decision on ranking new community centres (and outdoor pools) starts tomorrow

July 7th, 2010 · 25 Comments

Community centres are among the most popular social centres in the city. They’re all packed to the rafters and the park board/city can’t seem to build them fast enough. Every three years, the park board gets the unlovely job of deciding which one or two centres will be replaced in the next three-year capital plan. […]

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