I wrote a couple of months ago about the unusual dilemma the city is facing, trying to save a heritage tree in the city — a 107-year-old tulip tree . They’re willing to give the landowner six extra floors of condo space for a proposed tower next to the tree and equally old house in […]

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For those who haven’t spotted them yet, the orange neon grizzlies emerging from the concrete wall by the Canada Line Langara/49th station are a must-see. Apparently they have generated at least one call to the city from a realtor ranting that they are lowering property values in the neighbourhood. Well, they’ll be gone soon. I […]

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For several years, there was an unprecedented ceasefire between developers and residents in this city. After a huge brawl in the early 1990s with the public over the development of the Arbutus lands where the old brewery had been, city planners worked to find another way to talk with the public and that seemed to […]

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The journey of the Marine Gateway project through city hall is one worth following. This, for those who haven’t read it before, is the largest development ever considered for rezoning outside the downtown. It will also, I believe, set a certain level of expectation for the kind of density that might be considered for other […]

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I wrote in today’s Globe about the impending review of the giant Marine Gateway project at the foot of Cambie, accompanied by some neighbourhood unease about the size of this project, which you can read here. Since that appeared this morning, the urban design panel has reviewed this project and voted 5-4 not to support […]

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The hunt is one for two plum positions at the city, as I see by reading the career ads in the Globe and Mail this morning: General Manager, Engineering Services and Director, Corporate Communications. For those not in the know, those positions are vacant because 1. Tom Timm retired as head of engineering recently. He […]

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The Sun has been covering the B.C. human-rights tribunal hearing this week on allegations of discrimination by Vancouver’s downtown ambassadors. There’s been a lot of commentary on this blog about ambassadors and security guards (sometimes erroneously seen as one and the same), so I thought you’d be interested in this if you haven’t already seen […]

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As I discovered yesterday, when I made my Sunday morning run to the YWCA, the new Dunsmuir bike lane is going to do more than just turn over a lane of road space to bikes. It is also being accompanied by new traffic regulations. So far, there are new signs at both Seymour and Hornby […]

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Thought-provoking article from the folks in Seattle analyzing why Vancouver buses get more riders per bus and, more important, why increasing bus frequency typically does not automatically mean more bus riders. (You can bet TransLink planners are looking at this kind of research while they figure out which bus routes they’re going to scale back […]

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This is not news to any parent with children under school age, but the childcare situation in the city (province/country) continues to be the equivalent of an unseen Hurricane Katrina, an ongoing disaster that never seems to get fixed. My son is 27 now so I’m well past the childcare stage, but I’ll never forget […]

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