The new Vision council promised to stop putting city money into paying for private security guards in the city’s business districts and it’s about to carry out that promise tomorrow — after hearing from speakers on the subject. If you have a strong opinion, hop on down to the 9:30 committee meeting tomorrow, although I […]

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It looked like it was going to ho-hum day at city council, with councillors Suzanne Anton and Raymond Louie continuing their energetic pillow fighting over the the budget, the Olympic village, the kinds of candies given out for free in the mayor’s office, and so on. But, instead, at the end of the budget presentation, […]

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Our favourite time of the year — budget estimates — is here again, with the traditional three acts: 1. The discovery that the projected tax increase to maintain the existing budget is not as high as everyone said the previous fall. 2. The wrangling over what gets cut or added, during lengthy public meetings 3. […]

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I see that my learned friends over at Citycaucus noted that I recently got a list of the expenses related to the inauguration of the new Vision Vancouver city council in December. While they seemed pleased to get the information, they weren’t happy that I got it before them when they had asked for the […]

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I’m continuing to hear from inside city hall how bad people feel about the resignation of Jody Andrews, who quit yesterday after apparently weeks of feeling that he was being effectively pushed out of his job as the manager of the Olympic village. For obvious reasons, they’re not going to be talking publicly. But there […]

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Should be lots of fun today, with a public council meeting scheduled for 2 at city hall on the Olympic village. I’m sure Suzanne Anton is practicing her punches right now, with coaches on all sides. If I’m not mistaken, it will be available to watch on the city’s website, so all of you who […]

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I’ve profiled Mayor Dianne Watts before, but I did something more in-depth and personal for my column this month in Vancouver magazine here on the mayor who has charmed Surrey and many in the media.

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A sharp-eyed reader has pointed out that the Job Postings section on the Vancouver website recently saw a startling change. Seven job competitions for the cultural planning department that were listed (almost half of the total 15 listings of open jobs) have now been cancelled. Here’s a sample. Notice is hereby given that Competition Number […]

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One of my blog readers reminded me that I forgot to link to this story I had in the Globe lately on the team behind our new mayor: Mike Magee, Bob Penner, Joel Solomon et al. Here you go, for your reading pleasure on a snowy day. Oops, realized after I posted this that the […]

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As I’ve written in years past, there are two big “leftie” parties in Vancouver that have a certain gravitational pull on the social scene here. The first one, usually the first weekend in December, is organized by one group and tends to bring out a few more union/standard NDP types. The other is organized by […]

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