We’re coming to the end of our little marathon here in Europe, where we’ve managed to do what seems like one of everything (Paris, check; chateau in the country, check; little village in Languedoc, check; wonderful beach resort in Cinque Terre, Italy, check; street life in Bologna, check). For the last three days, we’ve been […]

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There’s nothing more tempting when travelling around Europe to look at some beautiful aspect of city life or another and think, “Why can’t Vancouver be more like this?” I had that thought frequently in Bologna, where I recently spent part of a week. It was my first time in Italy and my partner and I […]

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Some of you think that I’m too busy stuffing my face with pasta to pay any attention to what is going on in Vancouver, but that’s simply not true. There is actually a small amount of time between pasta feedings to keep on top of Terminal City news and so I am indeed aware that […]

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All of you will be thrilled to know that an out-of-the-way Italian restaurant in a manufacturing town near Bologna was the scene today of a sentimental rendition of O Canada by 20 Canadians who are here studying co-operatives and economics. (And one of us is studying the studiers.) After a hearty meal of mortadella, cheese, […]

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This just in from the PR company working with Millennium Developments. Millennium Water Construction Quality Vancouver, BC – The Millennium Water consultant group and the general contractors are in the process of evaluating the current commentary regarding the quality of construction on the Olympic and Paralympic Village Project which has to-date been, in the consultant […]

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The murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry last April touched so many people in this city. I was one of them. Even though I’ve written about her brother, Peter, for years in his role in civic politics, I never met Wendy. But I felt compelled to try to tell her story in a little more depth, which […]

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Vancouver’s mayor and Housing Minister Rich Coleman did some tough negotiating over the weekend to come up with something they could agree on with respect to the emergency homeless shelters and a future housing plan. You can read my story about it here.

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The Olympic village just can’t catch a break. The project that everyone thought would be a showpiece for the has turned into the construction project that everyone loves to report bad news on. The latest is this story in the Province, with complaints about the building practices going on. It’s not unheard of on major […]

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I posted earlier that my travels through France had reminded me what an agricultural country it is still. One of my regular blog commenters responded that I was perhaps romanticizing French farm life, given how much it is being eroded by global agro-business and the younger generation’s disinterest in the hard labour entailed. It’s true […]

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This comment got appended recently to the long string from last month on view corridors. I doubt many people will have continued looking at that post and it’s an interesting comment, so I’m re-posting it here as a separate entry. (And for those wondering if there will be an end to the view-corridor debate, the […]

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