Here’s a link to the report from Vancouver city finance guy Ken Bayne about the implications of the provincial budget for the city of Vancouver. Some of Bayne’s analysis could just as easily apply to Surrey or Coquitlam — the impact of all-day kindergarten on community centres, which may get more demand for after-school care; […]

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Replacing the city’s two high-profile planning directors — Larry Beasley and Ann McAfee — in 2006 was a major hiring decision of former mayor Sam Sullivan’s administration. The man who was chosen to succeed them was Brent Toderian, a high-energy planner from Calgary who had big ideas about urbanism. It’s been three years since Toderian […]

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I notice that people are starting to comment more and more on the neon sign atop a Chinatown building, visible from the Georgia viaduct, that says “Everything is going to be alright.” To my amusement, it is generating all kinds of speculation and commentary, not all of it based in what we might call fact. […]

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Every year, the mayors, councillors and administrators of B.C.’s 170-odd cities and towns gather to talk about municipal issues, a convention that provinicial politicians pay close attention to. It’s like getting a poll on what people all over the province are worried about. (It’s also heavily covered by media, since the provincial government just LOVES […]

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This resignation/retirement has been expected for so long that I actually started to think that Susan was going to hang around. But apparently not, as today’s news release makes apparent. newsrele And here’s everyone weighing in on same: Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight Citycaucus Civicscene Do you feel like you know enough now about […]

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An interesting story here in the Sun by Kelly Sinoski, highlighting the previously unknown fact — this in spite of two years of discussions about laneway houses — that it could cost up to $20,000 to run an electrical hook-up to them.

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Two more, this time from the legal department. The count is now: “Replaced”: 1; Retirements: 4; Quitting to Go Somewhere Else: 4 for the first nine months of the new Vision Vancouver administration. I am wondering if these two will be replaced under the current hiring freeze and given what I had always heard about […]

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I don’t post too much in the way of upcoming events, but this talk seems especially useful as we head into the Olympics frenzy for the next six months. I won’t be able to go due to a previous commitment, but anyone who does and wants to post comments afterwards would be most welcome. I’d […]

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Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts continues to get glowing coverage from the B.C. media and favourable reviews from the public. Earlier this week, an Angus Reid poll — the one that said three-quarters of people thought Gordon Campbell should step down after this term — had Dianne Watts at the top of the list by a […]

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I’m very tardy in noticing this, but I have finally stumbled across the new Vancouver civic politics blog just started up by Jonathan Ross at www.civicscene.ca. For those who don’t recall from previous exchanges on this blog, Jonathan is a political consultant who has managed campaigns at various levels, most recently in Vancouver for Kashmir […]

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