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Entries from January 2016

Revised Marine Gateway gets approval, casino design predicted to bring new look, 60 W Cordova okayed

July 30th, 2010 · 37 Comments

Slow to post on this Wednesday urban design panel meeting — so many other things to do! But for those following these issues closely 1. A revised Marine Gateway plan did get unanimous approval from the urban design panel. Still a long way to go though — public hearings, info meetings in September and development […]

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Vision Vancouver updates campaign contributions

July 29th, 2010 · 3 Comments

For reasons not clear to me, Vision has decided to put out updated figures on its campaign contributions since the legally required financial disclosure date of March 2009. Below is the news release summarizing the figures and I’ve got a complete copy of the donors attached. I’ve given this a quick look and, yes, lots […]

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Vancouver’s new community centre waits for the neighbourhood to show up

July 28th, 2010 · 28 Comments

Here’s my story on the new $36-million community centre in the Olympic village, which is spectacular and mostly empty so far. It was always going to be facing a ramp-up period, during the 10 years for the build-out of that whole area. But the first chapters are even slower than anyone expected, because of how […]

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More fuel for the Vancouver bike debate: Dunsmuir bike traffic up; consultation on lanes coming

July 28th, 2010 · 82 Comments

I regret having to post another piece of bicycle news, but the other things I’m working on are not ready yet. So here’s the latest from Cycle Hall. City launches consultation on downtown bike lane; Ridership on Dunsmuir sets new record The City of Vancouver invites public input on the development of a separated bike […]

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Louie to Anton: “Signature building” was not what community wanted

July 27th, 2010 · 7 Comments

In an earlier post, Councillor Suzanne Anton voiced her objections to the Vision councillors’ decision to lower the height allowed for a social-housing project at Broadway and Fraser from 11 storeys to eight. Here is Councillor Raymond Louie’s response. Councillor Anton’s desire to have a ‘signature’ 11 storey building at the corner of Broadway and […]

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Gregor Robertson: Rule-breaking cyclist

July 27th, 2010 · 61 Comments

This was the Province’s front-page, full-picture story today. Not a good moment in the ongoing cyclist-car driver wars in Vancouver.

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Suzanne Anton: “Vision gets it completely wrong with Broadway social housing decision”

July 26th, 2010 · 13 Comments

I invited Suzanne Anton to write this commentary piece for my blog about the recent council decision on the social housing project at Broadway and Fraser. As previous news reports have noted, Vision councillors voted to approve this project but on the condition that the 11-storey tower be reduced to eight storeys. Since the non-profit […]

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Woodward’s developer tries new experiment in affordable housing

July 26th, 2010 · 36 Comments

Developer Ian Gillespie and architect Gregory Henriquez are partnering with Vancity and Habitat for Humanity to build a project that is affordable to people with incomes in the $26,000-$36,000 range, as I detail in my Globe story today. This is sure to set off another interesting debate about affordability (what is it, what does it […]

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Stats Canada chief resigns in growing “worthy Canadian initiative” scandal

July 21st, 2010 · 61 Comments

So the news about the head of Stats Can resigning is all over the news, in case anyone hasn’t noticed. And, although I do take this issue seriously (as I noted in a previous post), I can’t help but think: How Canadian. Other governments get embroiled in controversy over call girls, corruption, going to war, […]

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Broadway/Fraser social housing cut down three floors

July 21st, 2010 · 21 Comments

Apparently wanting to show that it is listening to the community after all, Vision councillors agreed yesterday that three floors of the 11-storey social-housing project at Broadway and Fraser should be removed. That comes after 70 speakers showed up over three nights of public hearings a few weeks ago, with many saying that the building […]

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