A month ago, I did a story about cities thinking about ways to entice developers into building again. At that point, there were a lot of rumblings coming out of Vancouver about bold new possibilities for luring developers into building, especially building affordable housing, while Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts was still pondering. Yesterday, Dianne came […]

[Read more →]

I did not talk to a huge number of happy people yesterday in getting a response to the Olympics transportation plan. Although business owners in general are supportive of the Olympics and think it will benefit the city overall, they are not thrilled about the impact the Games may have on them individually. Some I […]

[Read more →]

As a public service, I am providing information about the impending move of the engineering department to the Crossroads building. I understand from various parties that there’s a certain amount of uncertainty about whether the move is going to happen, perhaps due to cost-cutting. I asked Jerry Dobrovolny (while I had him on the phone […]

[Read more →]

That most exciting point in the three-year cycle of any civic reporter approaches, as the deadline for disclosing campaign finance donations for all candidates and parties in the last fall’s election draws nigh. I know that the folks at Beyond Robson will mock me again for beating them repeatedly with long lists of numbers, but […]

[Read more →]

Word is about to come down that the city and province will put money in to keeping the new, as they’re called, “Gregor shelters” open for a few more months, while more permanent housing is brought on board. That’s the result of intensive meetings Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Mayor Gregor Robertson, Housing Minister Rich […]

[Read more →]

There has been a spate of stories in recent days from journalists in the MSM (mainstream media, just in case there’s one among you out there not familiar with that term) wringing their hands over the death of media and therefore democracy, as newspapers shut down, television stations lay off swathes of staff, and radio […]

[Read more →]

Just stumbled across this poetic essay from a Toronto writer, meditating on the places in that city that evoke the ghostly presence of deaths past, which struck a chord. I worked, many decades ago, typing court transcripts from tapes, which used to take me into a different world, via my headphones, where I felt vividly […]

[Read more →]

This illuminating email exchange went is making the rounds today in the city, with two very different approaches to finding solutions to homelessness. Hello Michael, Would you publically, along with HEAT, Streets to Home, BCS, Gregory Henriquez and Housing Providers, have a press conference and say to the province and feds that we need them […]

[Read more →]

Okay, all you people who love to trash Vancouver. “It’s not so world class,” you say. Every time I (or anyone else) ever writes a story suggesting there’s anything admirable about Vancouver, the naysayers come out in force to say we’re deluded and that the whole city is just a bad condo marketers’ power point. […]

[Read more →]

B.C.’s auditor-general issued a definite C- report card today on how the provincial government is dealing with homelessness, saying not only does it not have a clear plan for reducing it but it doesn’t even have good information on what the homelessness problem is. You can read the whole report here.

[Read more →]