It was the official opening of the new bike lane in downtown Vancouver yesterday, which gave all us media types a chance to gather on the street at Granville and Dunsmuir and observe an array of unusual driving techniques while we waited for the news conference to begin. My story here. As I and others […]

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I didn’t get too involved in the back and forth in the ongoing drama of the UFC negotiations the last few months, but they were certainly rocky, with any number of media reports that the event was going to be cancelled at various points. Vancouver did seem to have a harder time than other cities […]

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Okay, I know many of you urban-planning types don’t really care about whether you can do criminal-record checks until the federal or provincial government introduces new laws regulating crimes against good taste. But I just had to spread the word about this, because it’s such a useful tool for checking on the records of people […]

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In spite of a valiant effort by a whole group of people hoping to save the 120-foot tulip tree in the West End, it was a no. Architects Bing Thom and Michael Heeney, the former head of real-estate services for the city, Bruce Maitland, an arborist and a landscape architect were not enough to convince […]

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Dear Ms Bula Your article “A heritage proposal that tiptoes around the tulip tree”  explains very clearly the perplexing situation facing the city councillors and threatening the immediate neighbours of Bing Thom Architects’ proposed development at 1245 Harwood.  However, I am surprised by your statement  “So far the proposal has generated little commentary pro or […]

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Following my story on the tulip tree (see previous post), I’m getting emails from some people who live in the neighbourhood. Here’s one:

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Now let’s see that guide here. I know that I have been successful a couple of times in getting tickets cancelled, but by proving I had misentered the parking-meter number on my cellphone or some such dreary evidence that I had actually paid. I never thought of claiming I was at a religious service.

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I wrote a couple of months ago about the unusual dilemma the city is facing, trying to save a heritage tree in the city — a 107-year-old tulip tree . They’re willing to give the landowner six extra floors of condo space for a proposed tower next to the tree and equally old house in […]

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For those who haven’t spotted them yet, the orange neon grizzlies emerging from the concrete wall by the Canada Line Langara/49th station are a must-see. Apparently they have generated at least one call to the city from a realtor ranting that they are lowering property values in the neighbourhood. Well, they’ll be gone soon. I […]

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For several years, there was an unprecedented ceasefire between developers and residents in this city. After a huge brawl in the early 1990s with the public over the development of the Arbutus lands where the old brewery had been, city planners worked to find another way to talk with the public and that seemed to […]

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