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Entries from January 2016

Mixing offices and condos in downtown business districts

January 26th, 2010 · 7 Comments

Vancouver has been tussling with the issue of condos in its downtown business district for a while. There’s still a debate going on between the planning department, which is trying to preserve a strong core of office-only space and a substantial inventory of office space throughout the downtown peninsula, and developers, who have developed a […]

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The micro-condo comes to Vancouver

January 26th, 2010 · 47 Comments

A big splash yesterday as Gastown developer Jon Stovell and ITC Construction announced the arrival of micro-lofts to the city, at 270 square feet and renting for an average of $725. My story in the Globe is here, though it’s only the beginning of the saga. I’m curious to know whether this could happen with […]

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No evidence of good or bad economic impact from Olympics: UBC economist

January 25th, 2010 · 19 Comments

In the ongoing debate on whether the Olympics is going to wreck or save our province, I offer this latest news release: MEDIA RELEASE |  JANUARY 25, 2010 No evidence of a post-Olympics boom or bust for host city real estate prices: UBC study Cities that win Olympic bids experience neither boom nor bust in […]

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Termination notices go out to 44 staff at city; Bloedel layoffs on hold for now

January 22nd, 2010 · 37 Comments

Yikes. The email that can really wreck your day or life went out yesterday at city hall. I’m just digesting this, but will post it for now. Welcome your comments. I do note here that it appears that the city has managed to avoid about half of the planned layoffs. From:    COV Broadcast Server    Sent:           […]

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Debate over social-housing tower comes to Mount Pleasant

January 21st, 2010 · 69 Comments

There’s been a lot of concern in my neighbourhood over the planned social-housing project at the corner of Broadway and Fraser, just the latest of what seems like an ongoing series of neighbourhood unhappiness over density, towers, or social housing. Cheryl Rossi at the Courier has done a story here on what the active neighbourhood […]

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How will TransLink save itself after the Olympics?

January 21st, 2010 · 13 Comments

The TransLink story the last year has been a regular soap opera (ok, municipal version): mayors band together to pressure provincial government for more sources of funding, complete with news conferences and various other tactics; province makes many snarky remarks about operations of TransLink spending and orders a review; CEO, freshly recruited from New York, […]

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City hall services cut more than some people expected

January 20th, 2010 · No Comments

Another day, another Olympic surprise. Although many people knew there’d be an impact on city services because of the Olympics, some are being caught unawares by how extensive they are. My story on this here.

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Aha. The new city clerk is, in fact, the former acting city clerk

January 19th, 2010 · 7 Comments

A few months ago, the city announced it was posting for someone to head the city clerk’s department. I expressed some surprise that Marg Coulson, who’s been the acting head since Syd Baxter went off to retirement as a consultant, wasn’t just automatically being named. At the time, a few people told me, “Oh no, […]

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City hall lights up like a disco ball

January 18th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Over the last week, a faithful reader from Yaletown has been emailing me to say that lights have been flashing from city hall. To quote Paul exactly: “City Hall has a whole new flashy external light system . . .  a whole series of white horizontal lights that they can flash like a disco. They […]

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Librarians encourage people to make lots of noise

January 17th, 2010 · 26 Comments

Okay, I don’t put up every news release but this one really startled me. The library wants you to make noise. With cowbells. Okay, not in the library. It’s for the Olympics — a cute gimmick. But still. What happened to shushing? Red Cowbells To Honour Skiing Crazy Canucks & Encourage Canadian Athletes (Vancouver, British […]

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