Vancouver has seen massive protests in the past over expanded gaming. This time, the opposition has been strangely slow to muster. I looked at why, in brief. One thing I noted, but didn’t have spaceto go into, is the lack of political leadership. Every party has a mixed record on this. Although the NPA led [...]

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We heard the anti-bike lane case from Rob Macdonald last week. In fairness, here’s the counter-argument from Peter Ladner. This column appeared in Business in Vancouver. “What do you think of the new bike lanes on Hornby Street?” asked my Aunt Glo over dinner a few weeks ago. She’s in her 80s and uses a [...]

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This is the latest from Justason Market Intelligence, which has gone in for a series of polls on civic issues this year. (Usually, we have no idea what people are thinking in this town til close to election day.) Interesting numbers on Vision Vancouver, the mayor, casinos, bike lanes and more. Barb Justason notes that, [...]

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Going through the 112-page report from the Olympic village receivers in detail makes it clear that getting the village into an upward spiral is not going to be easy. I itemize a few of the interlocked problems here. The receivers don’t mention it, but part of the problem is that the village has become a [...]

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People have been waiting for four months, ever since the Olympic village went into receivership, to see what the strategy was going to be. Rumours of bulk buyers (someone who would take the whole project off the city’s hands at garage-sale prices) abounded. Plus there was a lot of sideline advice about what to do [...]

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Rob Macdonald is well-known in the development world (best-known holdings or developments include the St. Regis Hotel at Dunsmuir and Seymour and the Hudson/Shore Club building next door that he announced as his first celebratory project when the NDP were defeated in 2001). But he’s been stepping out into the media world more lately, with [...]

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We love the Canada Line, but not because of its stations — concrete boxes that are as utilitarian as you can get (with not enough stair or escalator space already). Not like here.

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Someone has been emailing this doc to bloggers here, there and everywhere. Due to a technical glitch, I can’t put up the PDF I got, but it’s the same thing as here on the Citycaucus blog. This is in response to city manager Penny Ballem’s recent memo, which detailed the rate of staff turnover to show [...]

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I feel obliged to note for the record that the blog Civicscene seems to be in a coma. No posts, no tweets since Jan. 6. The blog, written by ommunications guy, sometime Liberal campaign organizer Jonathan Ross, made a few headlines last fall with news reports that he seemed to be getting paid for the [...]

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Mayor Dianne Watts has been on a mission to remake Surrey in image and in reality since she was elected in 2005, from burb to big city in all ways. The business mission to India in the latest of a series of public events designed to bolster Surrey as a business centre. But no one [...]

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