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 […]

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I got to do a fun story in BCBusiness on why we’re hard-wired to believe the Olympics will save us or ruin us, as the new science of behavioural economics has helped us understand. My research also helped me understand why now is the moment when we’re all in the worst possible mood we’re likely […]

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Vancouver’s defining neighbourhood has been in the limelight this past month, with two media outlets (the Province and the Globe and Mail) running extensive series on how to fix the neighbourhood, while police chief Jim Chu put out his own report on what to do. The unspoken message behind all of this is, “Yikes, the […]

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Former journalist, now councillor, Geoff Meggs has put his blog back in motion recently. For those of you who just can’t read enough about city hijinks and deep policy thoughts, the link is here. It was impressive that in a recent post, he took the time to publish a lengthy comment from someone critical of […]

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Looking at the way Olympics cities all watch each other and share news, I sometimes feel like Vancouver has joined an exclusive little support group. Kind of like a Moms of Troubled Teens or Cancer Survivor group, but on a slightly larger scale. I was reminded of that yet again as this story from Chicago […]

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I got a chance this week to go around the Olympic village site under construction — quite a hike, by the way. It’s hard to understand how big a project this is until you actually walk around it. You can read my Globe story on that tour here. It also has a very interesting feel […]

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City staff hadn’t even finished counting the votes when I heard people wondering whether the Coalition of Progressive Electors, that longstanding traditional left party that Vision split away from, was now going to become the official opposition at city hall. That’s because Vision has enough councillors to carry any vote at city hall, so COPE […]

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Not a lot to report except that, like everyone else, the city is watching the news closely to see what happens with Fortress, the lender that is financing Millennium Developments for its construction of the Olympic athletes village. Here’s my story in Thursday’s Globe.

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Hey, we’re not the only ones. While people here are wringing their hands over Vancouver’s problems with the Olympic village construction (developer Millennium Developments is facing significant cost overruns and the city, which is legally required to make sure the village is ready on time, is facing some pressure to provide a guarantee for the […]

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Those of you passionately interested in this story may have found it already in print or online, but for those of you who didn’t, here’s my follow-up story on the Southeast False Creek/Millennium/Olympic village story that was in the Globe and Mail.

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