A few months ago, the city announced it was posting for someone to head the city clerk’s department. I expressed some surprise that Marg Coulson, who’s been the acting head since Syd Baxter went off to retirement as a consultant, wasn’t just automatically being named. At the time, a few people told me, “Oh no, […]

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Over the last week, a faithful reader from Yaletown has been emailing me to say that lights have been flashing from city hall. To quote Paul exactly: “City Hall has a whole new flashy external light system . . .  a whole series of white horizontal lights that they can flash like a disco. They […]

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Okay, I don’t put up every news release but this one really startled me. The library wants you to make noise. With cowbells. Okay, not in the library. It’s for the Olympics — a cute gimmick. But still. What happened to shushing? Red Cowbells To Honour Skiing Crazy Canucks & Encourage Canadian Athletes (Vancouver, British […]

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It was a busy weekend for central-city urbanists, what with the Woodward’s party Friday night and then the Mount Pleasant Community Centre opening Saturday. Woodward’s obviously got a lot of attention. A huge crowd gathered in the plaza to ooh and ah as the new W lights were turned on — a New Year’s Eve […]

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Damn. A gorgeous afternoon. Blue, blue sky flecked with puffy cream and gray clouds, the container loaders of the port vivid orange against the green mountains with their white tops. The float plane banks in to land and the seagulls are circling over Burrard Inlet. And Vancouver the city seems beautiful in all its different […]

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I haven’t paid enough attention to this issue til now, but I finally did a piece for today’s Globe on the fight to save the Bloedel conservatory. I find it fascinating to see how a community group comes together spontaneously on occasions like this — shows people aren’t all couch potatoes, after all. This is […]

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As I zipped across the Cambie Bridge in the dark this morning (Radio Canada interview, morning swim), the pre-dawn gloom was lit up with the pinkish-orange pulsing fingers next to the bridge that are the stacks for the district heating system at Southeast False Creek. They’re ugly as heck but the light is nice, though […]

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Interesting event planned for Jan. 27, when Gord Price and SFU’s City School have arranged for us all to hear from the, not one, but two new bureaucrats we have imported from Chicago. (You didn’t know TransLink was hiring Yanks, did you?) More info here.

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For those of you who are wondering why I haven’t been posting as furiously in this post-Christmas period, I have to mention that I have, without making a formal resolution, seemed to have slipped into a slower, more gracious life for the year 2010. I am knitting, as previously mentioned, and am now on my […]

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Everyone is passing this story around, the LA Times’ take on Vancouver. It seems to be a grab bag of the standard themes, occasional small mistakes (a Safeway in with the Home Depot on Cambie? I think not), and the usual critics saying that it might look to the easily dazzled as though Vancouver did […]

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