Frances Bula header image 4

Debate over contract for Vancouver’s new financial officer

April 19th, 2009 · 28 Comments

The City Caucus blog posted the details of the contract for Vancouver’s new CFO, Patrice Impey, yesterday. CTV followed up by getting a response from Mayor Gregor Robertson here, which City Caucus then fulminated over in a second post here. I’m interested in your thoughts on this. Is this a reasonable price to pay for […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

What Gregor has to say about Gordon Campbell now

April 16th, 2009 · 14 Comments

I notice that other media keep reporting on what people around Gregor have to say about the mayor’s enthusiastic introduction of Gordon Campbell a couple of weeks ago (previous story here). You know, the introduction that would have gone unnoticed if the province weren’t on the brink of an election and if people weren’t looking […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

This ought to get your goat

April 1st, 2009 · 12 Comments

This ground-breaking (literally) story in the Courier about Gregor Robertson’s latest wacky green plan ought to spark a lot of outrage. And, as we like to say in our household, happy poisson d’avril

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Does Vancouver have the money for an integrity commissioner?

March 25th, 2009 · Comments Off on Does Vancouver have the money for an integrity commissioner?

Vancouver has spent we don’t know how much money to get lawyer Richard Peck to come up with recommendations for how the city can avoid future leaks of embarrassing documents. One of his main recommendations was that Vancouver hire a full- or part-time integrity commissioner. But it didn’t sound to me yesterday as though Vision […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

The $5-million civic election comes to Vancouver

March 13th, 2009 · 8 Comments

Not all the financial disclosures are in yet — still waiting for many of the Non-Partisan Association candidates — but there’s now enough in to show that the spending reached unbelievable new levels. Vision Vancouver spent almost $2 million, as I report in the Globe this morning. (The documents will be filed with the city […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Mayor Gregor promises something for developers too

March 12th, 2009 · 12 Comments

Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson got to deliver HIS speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade today, right after Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts’ speech to her board yesterday. Like Dianne, he promised lots of things to stimulate developers and construction: speeded up processes, some vague stuff on fee concessions that I couldn’t get a tight […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Surrey mayor outlines dramatic changes to spur city economy

March 12th, 2009 · 7 Comments

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 →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Shelters to stay open with new funding

March 9th, 2009 · 10 Comments

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 →]

Tags: Uncategorized

City hall lawn gets dug up for community garden

March 4th, 2009 · 15 Comments

Just when we were almost finished with the chicken jokes (related to the city plan to allow people to keep chickens for personal use in their yards), now comes this announcement from city hall that they’re digging up part of the lawn for a community garden. Here is the news release below. City to create […]

[Read more →]

Tags: City Hall Talk

The new new new journalism: David Byrne blogs on Mayor Gregor

March 3rd, 2009 · 11 Comments

Check out what the former Talking Heads member and now independent musician had to say about Vancouver’s mayor in his blog here. I thought he might mention Gregor’s stellar performance in the audience, where he waved his lit-up Blackberry, instead of a match or lighter, to show his enthusiasm during Byrne’s recent concert here in […]

[Read more →]

Tags: City Hall Talk