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Entries from January 2016

InSite supervised injection site here to stay; other cities may now open their own

September 30th, 2011 · 26 Comments

Just had to mark this important day, when the Supreme Court ruled that Vancouver’s supervised-injection site will stay open and the federal government should be prepared to issue permits in other cities. (Stories here, here and here, from across the land.) What a long road it’s been for those fighting for this. (And those fighting […]

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UBCM will work with province on auditor-general but their members don’t like it

September 29th, 2011 · 19 Comments

A Gordon Campbell lovefest — that’s what the annual convention of civic politicians often was. The former premier had been a councillor, a mayor, the head of Metro Vancouver, and the president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, so people knew he understood what the job was like. Thankless, gruelling hours, by and large crummy […]

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NPA makes strange promises on fiscal accountability

September 27th, 2011 · 39 Comments

Latest announcement from the NPA didn’t get much media play Tuesday because media were running around dealing with BC Ferries CEO resignation, shooting near a school, and the Municipal Convention That Ate Vancouver (UBCM). So I’ve attached the news release in full, plus my thoughts here, which are: Sigh. I don’t like being the wet […]

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Uproar at UBCM as Bond says feds threatening to pull 5,000 RCMP as talks break down

September 27th, 2011 · 9 Comments

The news exploded late Tuesday afternoon as AG Shirley Bond announced to a crowd of civic politicians at the Union of BC Municipalities that contract talks have stalled and that the feds are saying, “Sign the deal as is or we pull officers out.” (Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts was probably first with the news. She […]

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Other cities experience too-big crop of farmers markets but Vancouver works to prevent glut

September 27th, 2011 · 5 Comments

So many things happening in the farmers market world these days as they go beyond just trying to convince people to do their grocery shopping in parking lots and move on to the next phase of growth. They’re booming everywhere, but that’s produced a new set of problems. I’ve been reading for a while that […]

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New office towers attract companies looking for new and set off downtown reshuffle

September 27th, 2011 · No Comments

New towers don’t fill up with new clients. They fill up with existing big players who are looking to move up a notch. That’s why all these new towers are competing to be green, to be beautiful, to be close to what downtown has to offer. Here’s my appendix story about all of this, to […]

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Europeans enter another tower into Vancouver office surge downtown

September 25th, 2011 · 47 Comments

Much buzz among the commercial-building crowd about the entry of Credit Suisse/Swissreal Investments into Vancouver’s downtown office scene with a proposal for the 800 West Pender block. (My Globe story here.) The proposal gets its public launch tomorrow. With three towers already approaching construction (University Club site on Hastings by Oxford, 745 Thurlow at Thurlow […]

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NPA fundraising chair letter rips into mayor and Vision while asking for donations

September 22nd, 2011 · 81 Comments

Not quite as visceral as the letters asking you for money to prevent wild animals from getting caught in leghold traps, but almost. This is the pitch to the faithful from NPA fundraising chair Rob Macdonald for the party’s planned $2.4-million campaign. RE:          Gregor’s Teflon Coating and Strange Leadership Style is Wearing Very Thin I […]

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Streetcars to the left, housing projects to the right in Van civic election

September 22nd, 2011 · 24 Comments

It’s that time again, when political parties tell us about great new projects that are on the way that will make the city great but won’t cost taxpayers anything. Wednesday, the NPA’s Suzanne Anton announced that it would push ahead to get a downtown streetcar, which would not require a city investment. Or maybe. I […]

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NPA aiming to raise $2 million for Vancouver civic election

September 20th, 2011 · 95 Comments

There was so much buzz the last couple of weeks about the amount of money that Non-Partisan Association chair Peter Armstrong and fundraising chair Rob Macdonald were raising that I had to pursue this story. Interesting that they are talking like this so early in the campaign. Party fundraisers usually don’t like to say they […]

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