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Entries from January 2016

Vancouver looks to Washington, Colorado as it becomes first to regulate marijuana stores

April 22nd, 2015 · 6 Comments

Gotta say, I still don’t understand what just happened. There were increasing complaints from the public every month since federal law on medical marijuana changed last April and marijuana dispensaries suddenly bloomed like a thousand flowers in Vancouver. City types kept saying there was nothing they could do because the federal law had created a […]

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Judge: It’s completely acceptable for politicians to promise to do things in exchange for campaign donations or votes

April 21st, 2015 · 42 Comments

On the off chance that this savvy crowd missed this on Friday: Supreme Court Justice Elliott Myers dismissed the petition from Randy Helten and others to have the mayor and councillor Geoff Meggs removed from office for conflict of interest or accepting gifts (those were the two provisions of the Vancouver Charter the case relied […]

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New police chief is current deputy chief, Adam Palmer

April 16th, 2015 · 4 Comments

This just out Vancouver – The Vancouver Police Board announced today that they had chosen a new chief constable to lead the Vancouver Police Department. He is 28-year veteran VPD Deputy Chief Adam Palmer. “The Police Board was very pleased that we had two outstanding internal candidates as finalists. Just before the final interviews were […]

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Head of engineering, manager community services retire at Vancouver city hall

April 15th, 2015 · 12 Comments

This memo from city manager Penny Ballem just in from the troops. I’d heard about Peter Judd from hallway gossip this week, but the rest is news to me and I’m not totally sure what it all means. Dear Colleagues, Since the start of the new Council term, I have been working with various members […]

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Second round starts tonight for the Yaletown-Jubilee House-Brenhill developments

April 14th, 2015 · 4 Comments

People wanting to jolt themselves out of a state of contentment may want to watch the angst-ridden proceedings tonight aka the public hearing for 508 Helmcken, the current site of Jubilee House social housing and the future site of a 36-storey tower. I did a story in the Globe today summarizing the surge of pros […]

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The man fighting to bring a new model of mental-health services to B.C.’s young people

April 13th, 2015 · No Comments

I’ve been hearing about psychiatrist Steve Mathias for years, his efforts to bring mental-health services to street kids in the West End and the Downtown Eastside. I finally got to spend some time with him and hear about his big idea for how to get better psychiatric services to more kids in B.C. His storefront […]

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Vancouver’s Compass Card, still in tests after two years. Typical for transit smart cards or no?

April 13th, 2015 · 19 Comments

Transit smart cards are the in thing these days, I’ve discovered. Everyone wants them, in order to keep tabs on how transit is getting used and to give customers all the options they want for paying things these days. Even systems that installed earlier versions, like Washington and Chicago, are upgrading their systems so they […]

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BulaBlog Beer Bash: Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m., Rogue Waterfront. Be there or be square

April 2nd, 2015 · 15 Comments

So Kirk and Jenables thought it was about time to get together and hash out all current issues in person, for those times when calling someone names from the privacy of your home laptop just isn’t enough. Kidding, folks! In actual fact, the two get-togethers we’ve had so far have been remarkable for their civility […]

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Soliciting donations, promising stuff to donors – the Supreme Court asked to figure out if that’s conflict

April 2nd, 2015 · 6 Comments

I realize the keeners in class already know that the Supreme Court heard the case this week involving five Vancouver residents — including one of Vision Vancouver’s most persistent critics, Randy Helten — versus Mayor Gregor Robertson and Councillor Geoff Meggs. The residents are trying to get them thrown out of office for having, they […]

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