Vision finally made its decision on how the nomination process is going to work for all its candidates. It’s a race for everyone except the mayor, who gets a performance review. (Hope it’s as much fun as mine always were.) Get ready, get set, go. Actually, some candidates have already. Geoff Meggs launched his campaign [...]

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Of all the departures from city hall since Vision Vancouver took charge, Carlene Robbins’ abrupt exit on Monday is the most puzzling. A lot of reporters knew Carlene. She and her boss, Barb Windsor, rode herd on some of the city’s hardest and least glory-accruing problems. They pushed the landlords of slummy hotels and rooming [...]

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More tales from the Land of Municipal Oversight of Human Behaviour.

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To follow up on the events from last week, I called people in Chinatown about their thoughts on council’s strange little manouevre last week, which entailed delaying a decision on allowing taller buildings in the Downtown Eastside but moving ahead to a public hearing on the same topic in Chinatown — all of which pre-empted [...]

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Every year, all of us (heavily mortgaged) landowners get that property assessment notice in the mail and think generally one of two things: 1. Aha, I’m worth way more than I was last year. But wait a minute — does this mean I have to pay more taxes or 2. Ha ha, my assessment didn’t [...]

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Getting more confusing. The DTES/Chinatown height report was scheduled to be discussed at the 2 p.m. meeting, with 80 speakers scheduled. But now Councillor Raymond Louie has already introduced a motion in the last hour that sends Chinatown to public hearing and DTES off for a social-impact review.(Georgia Straight blog post here.) WTF? Can’t keep up.

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What a surprise. (Not, when I think about it for 10 seconds.) After a last-minute, intense lobby against a proposed city policy to allow taller buildings on a select group of sites near Chinatown — a lobby that included the city’s two former directors of planning and former mayor Mike Harcourt — Mayor Gregor Robertson [...]

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Never seen anything like this before. A large group of profs, many with in-depth knowledge of gentrification and housing dynamics, have mobilized to oppose allowing taller new buildings in the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown. Dear Mayor Robertson and Councillors: Re: January 20, 2011 Council Meeting on the Historic Area Height Review Update. We, the undersigned, [...]

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There’s a community-sponsored forum on the casino being planned for Feb. 7, as a post from Sean Bickerton has informed us. I’m reposting his info here for those rare people who don’t read all the comments. Here’s his full set of comments. I am assuming this will be in addition to the public meeting that [...]

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I’m not surprised Burrard has crashes, as this interesting story from Mike Howell in the Courier details. I rode the suicide lane on that street once back in the old days (buses on one side, a steady stream of cars and trucks on the other) and decided that I wanted to live until at least [...]

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