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One small-house experiment in West Van goes in the dumpster

July 6th, 2010 · 17 Comments

A few weeks ago, I wrote about West Van’s efforts to slooowly bring in a few more housing types to the community and I highlighted efforts to start some pilot projects for small secondary houses on large lots, along with a duplex and a four-plex. I especially focused on a plan by one set of […]

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Beautiful Seattle transit line gets one-fifth the ridership of Canada Line

July 5th, 2010 · 32 Comments

As some of you may know already from following my twitter posts, I was in Seattle for the last few days. (Thanks to all the enthusiasts for keeping the blog lively while I was playing hooky.) Besides paying no tax on anything I bought there, as a result of the state’s controversial (and now court-challenged) […]

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Oil-tanker forum gives the issues — and the mayor — high profile

July 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Today’s the day that Vancouver holds its special council meeting to hear from various parties about the issue of oil tankers in Burrard Inlet. I had a story in Saturday’s Globe looking at how this ties in with efforts that environmental groups have been making to get public attention around oil tankers in general, along […]

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Details on the NPA’s no-name-change vote

June 30th, 2010 · 8 Comments

If the Non-Partisan Association was hoping that a debate over changing its name would draw attention and crowds, that strategy didn’t totally work. A grand total of 42 people appeared at the Vancouver Museum last night to vote on whether to change the name to Vancouver First. (I don’t think attracting crowds was the strategy, […]

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Marpole residents start to mobilize against towers

June 29th, 2010 · 77 Comments

Another day, another neighbourhood group that gathers steam to oppose development in their neighbourhood. Marpole residents had a first community meeting last night, the first that has brought them together to exchange information and gear themselves up to have more input into development in their neighbourhood. This was, of course, provoked by the plans for […]

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No name change for the NPA: 36-6

June 29th, 2010 · Comments Off on No name change for the NPA: 36-6

It was a short sweet meeting, as Bill McCreery tried to persuade the small crowd to vote for rebranding but the mainly loyal NPA stalwarts resisted. The meeting was over in less than an hour. I’ll post more in the morning.

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Vancouver: Worst city in Canada for pedestrian deaths

June 29th, 2010 · 48 Comments

A small brief in the local media last January caught my eye: a 27-year-old had been hit in a pedestrian crosswalk near my house, but he had no identification and police were trying to figure out who he was. The next blurb said he had died in hospital. Police never released his name. But the […]

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That was scary

June 29th, 2010 · 7 Comments

Thanks to everyone for sticking through the weird blog issues of the last two days. My domain name had lapsed and I didn’t get a notification from my hoster. So it got parked in an advertising site, available for anyone to grab. Fortunately for me, pirates did not make off with it before I realized […]

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Dianne Watts on the list for world’s best mayor

June 24th, 2010 · 16 Comments

Surrey’s mayor has made it to the 25-person shortlist by an organization called World Mayor (which I never hear from except when someone from Canada gets onto this list). If you want to vote to support Dianne Watts, instead of Newark’s Cory Booker (seen by some as the next Obama), Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier (boo […]

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Olympic village condo buyers want out

June 24th, 2010 · 17 Comments

Well, this had to happen at some point and now it has. Here’s the story, which the CBC got first.

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