Well, we always wanted to be a world-class city. And now we are, as you can see from this article in the Guardian, documenting London’s troubles in financing its Olympic athletes’ village. And what’s the deal with Whistler? Why aren’t they having the same troubles? They seem to be doing just fine, as Bruce Constantineau’s […]

[Read more →]

You can read news stories with complete paragraphs in other media if you want. (My pal Rod Mickleburgh was covering for the Globe today, and pretty much everyone else was there in force.) Here’s my take on what was new and interesting, beyond the basic news that the city is gearing up to go and […]

[Read more →]

As expected by faithful readers of this blog, Mayor Gregor Robertson announced today that he is forming an advisory committee from the development industry to help the city during the completion phase of the Olympic village. They’ll be looking at possibilities for trimming costs over the next nine months. Yes, nine months until this baby […]

[Read more →]

Just back from the early-morning gathering at the Rio Theatre on Broadway, where an eclectic crowd of us  watched Obama’s inauguration, with lots of young kids cheering and then oldies like us sniffling and tearing up.  People were in such a feel-good mood that they didn’t even boo when George Bush appeared at various points on […]

[Read more →]

Okay, now we have Penny Ballem locked in a room with Fortress trying to come to a deal on the financing. Next, the mayor and Penny have to figure out who is going to take Jody’s place. As I wrote for the Globe, the deputy city manager’s role in dealing with development projects is critical. […]

[Read more →]

So I think I speak for all of us when I say: Enough. We get it. The Olympic village is a mess. Somebody is to blame, though we’re not completely sure who yet. We’ve now all read more in-camera city-hall minutes than any of us would have ever believed possible, minutes that have way less […]

[Read more →]

My pal Jeff Lee over at the Sun had an interesting story in Friday’s Vancouver Sun with details about the in-camera meeting back in June 2007 where the Non-Partisan Association majority voted in favour of the $193-million loan guarantee and completion guarantee for Fortress, so that Millennium could get its financing for the Olympic village. […]

[Read more →]

I’m continuing to hear from inside city hall how bad people feel about the resignation of Jody Andrews, who quit yesterday after apparently weeks of feeling that he was being effectively pushed out of his job as the manager of the Olympic village. For obvious reasons, they’re not going to be talking publicly. But there […]

[Read more →]

Sources in city hall tell me that Olympic project manager Jody Andrews tendered his resignation today, effective immediately, after several weeks of being stripped of responsibilities and pretty much ordered not to talk to the public/media about the village. The relatively young 40-something Andrews, who has worked at the city for 18 years, was put […]

[Read more →]

City councillors have just received a message from city manager Penny Ballem that Jody Andrews, the young deputy city manager in charge of Southeast False Creek development, has resigned. There has been rumbling for the last couple of days that he would be fired so it’s very unclear how voluntary this resignation is. A bit […]

[Read more →]