The province’s task force on civic electoral reform is slowly generating more interest these days, with the realization that maybe something really is going to change. I did my brief summary on the issues in the Globe here, but there’s a lot more material around and information to be had. The big items are 1. […]

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I heard earlier this week that there was a housing bomb coming down the pipe from province. Here it is, the province taking over the once-venerable Downtown Eastside Residents Association after an audit that they say shows provincial money was being used improperly.

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The city had its day in the media sun Tuesday, with a homeless count that seemed to be proving that having more shelters is keeping people off the street. The housing minister got his day today, with his Colemanesque gentle ultimatum that, if Vancouver wants to open more shelters than the province currently funds, it […]

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Toronto is celebrating six months of 311 service and bragging about their low wait times and popularity. Vancouver’s 311 appears to be equally popular in its early stages — it gets half as many calls as Toronto does in a city that is population-wise 1/5 the size, but average wait times are considerably longer, as […]

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If you didn’t catch it in other media, the city is going to release all documents related to the firing, laying off, termination, shared-services review downsizing of chief electrical officer Ark Tsisserev, which has been stirring up dustclouds of speculation in recent weeks. Presumably not his personal file from the human-resources department, but things that […]

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The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.

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When I started working the city-hall beat in 1994, I was plunged into furious debates about casinos. The Mike Harcourt NDP government was entertaining a proposal to have a big, destination casino on the waterfront behind Gastown. The NPA city council of the day took the public opposition to that and ran furiously with it, […]

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This just out from city hall today. Strikes me as a motion created to give the media something to gnaw on on a quiet Sunday besides endless blog circling around the Tsisserev mystery story. Looks like it promotes transparency, without giving away too much. Councillors’ expenses are, for the most part, completely boring and uninteresting. […]

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No, I’m not in Bologna or Surrey, as some speculated earlier. I’m in Los Angeles as I write, a city I have grown to be fascinated with because of the way it works and doesn’t in various ways. Lots of things to write about, but I’ll start with my visit to the Museum of Contemporary […]

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In case anyone missed it, the region’s politicians are buzzing with anxiety about what the province has in mind in terms of paying for the Evergreen Line. It’s difficult to imagine what is getting cooked up in Victoria, given how many options the province has already rejected, so people have taken to guessing and worrying. […]

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