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Council decides: One lane for bikes on Burrard Bridge

May 7th, 2009 · 28 Comments

In their first step towards taking away car space for bikes, Vision councillors opted this afternoon for the compromise solution of taking away only one lane on the Burrard Bridge instead of two lanes. The bike trial, which will start in four to six weeks, will go like this: All pedestrians confined to the west […]

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Second deputy city manager resigns

April 28th, 2009 · 22 Comments

This went out at 10:11 today (while the civics panel was on at CKNW with Bill Good — how handy) and has quickly spread all over town. CKNW’s Janet Brown is reporting that Ridge is leaving because of “politicization” at city hall, though no word that Ridge is talking directly to anyone. Not a total […]

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Open meeting on how to create affordable housing

April 24th, 2009 · 21 Comments

If you’d like to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon at the cemetery listening to people talk about how to create affordable housing in Vancouver, you can. The Vision Vancouver council’s latest task force/brainstorming/collective put in place to hone in on an issue — in this case, how to create affordable and rental housing — is […]

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Campaign finance disclosures: Louie and DeGenova

April 10th, 2009 · 14 Comments

I apologize that it’s taken me so long to put this up, but here, at last, are the campaign finance disclosures that mayoral candidates Raymond Louie and Allan DeGenova filed with Vision Vancouver. (My late-night struggles with blog technology are finally paying off.) They aren’t available at the city clerk’s office because the city clerk […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

COPE election sees young slate win decisively

April 5th, 2009 · 10 Comments

Alvin Singh, the young and articulate school board candidate who didn’t quite get elected last November, is the new external co-chair for the Coalition of Progressive Electors and he’s joined by a largely 20/30-something executive. Ivan Bulic has a good blog post on this in the Georgia Straight. That’s quite a sign of renewal for […]

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Judy Rogers got $572,000 to say bye-bye to the city

March 19th, 2009 · 37 Comments

Everyone who FOI’d Judy Rogers’ severance package got their letter this morning on the amount, though not the full severance agreement. It was $571,788 — not the $700,000 that some people had been chattering about. Still a whack of money, though. You can read my web file here from the Globe and I’ll have more […]

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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 […]

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NPA spends $1.3 million or so; Vision Vancouver rumoured $1.5

March 10th, 2009 · 9 Comments

That most exciting point in the three-year cycle of any civic reporter approaches, as the deadline for disclosing campaign finance donations for all candidates and parties in the last fall’s election draws nigh. I know that the folks at Beyond Robson will mock me again for beating them repeatedly with long lists of numbers, but […]

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Vision’s first post-election fundraiser attracts developers, Liberals, George Puil

February 5th, 2009 · 10 Comments

Just back from roaming the room at the Commodore, where the newly in power Vision Vancouver held its first fundraiser since winning the election. I have to say, their fundraisers are different. No rubber chicken, no speeches, no videos about the accomplishments of the Great Leader. Instead, a great band with local jazz singer Karen […]

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Robertson creates a Green City team

January 28th, 2009 · 12 Comments

I feel bad that I’m not on an advisory committee to the mayor. Everyone else in town seems to be. First, there was the homelessness action team, a high-powered group that meets Sunday afternoons to figure out how to get 1,500 people out of shelters and off the streets ASAP. Then, there was the developers’ […]

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