Hard to mourn the American Hotel and its bar that died in 2006, unless you were into super-cheap blocks of stolen cheese, cocaine, motorcycle gangs, grunge or all of the above. Its replacement — a cleaned-up hotel with a new izakaya-themed bar below, the Electric Owl — is definitely a step up without going all […]

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The NPA is undoubtedly going to get some new people onto Vancouver city council this November, as Vancouver voters swing away from the big Vision sweep of 2008. But which ones? While some voters will likely vote a straight NPA ticket, others I know will be looking for a mix of councillors who they judge […]

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Since the basic numbers of the homeless count came out yesterday, homelessness workers have been ecstatic about the progress made in the last three years. But various critics and observers have focused on the fact that the homeless numbers are almost the same as three years ago. Their conclusion: No progress. Some of this is […]

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Trying to get people to take a closer look at conventional wisdom is one of the hardest jobs around. One of the unshakeable beliefs Vancouverites have these days is that housing prices here are more disconnected from local incomes than almost any other city. I have to say, I’m prone to that thinking myself. That’s […]

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As the counting of homeless people ends, the politicking begins. I see that the province and the city and homeless advocates are trumpeting the lower homeless numbers, while the Non-Partisan Association has sent out a news release saying that homeless numbers are actually up in Vancouver. For those who’d prefer just to go to the […]

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Still waiting the full numbers from Metro Vancouver, but in the meantime, I’m hearing that regional homeless count showed the number of homeless people was down by one per cent from 2008 to 2011 — an accomplishment considering the region adds 40,000 new people every year — and down six per cent in Vancouver. In […]

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Kind of a shocker when the NPA list of candidates was released yesterday. Unless I’m really missing something, they’ve essentially handed control of the school board to Vision/COPE for the next election, since they’re only running four candidates for the nine-member board. At park board, they’re field four candidates for seven positions. And at council, […]

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That’s the main news I saw from the latest receiver’s report issued yesterday. The news about the sales we’ve heard before. Apparently some new numbers will be out at Bob Rennie’s speech to the UDI today. Other fun highlights I noticed: – All of the subsidized units of social housing have been rented out – 148 […]

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It’s tough to unseat an incumbent mayor unless that mayor’s party is splitting behind him, but Suzanne Anton is going to try anyway. And she’s finally got some team support — something she’s struggled without until now — with Norman Stowe (last seen at the Kevin Falcon leadership campaign) heading up her campaign. That should […]

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The news release just went out that NPA Coun. Anton is going to hold a news conference tomorrow to make an “important announcement about city politics.” This can only be the announcement that she’s running for mayor, which I’ve been hearing about via various sources for the last two days. Some say she’s been arm-twisted […]

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