UBC is a huge presence in Vancouver: a university, a land developer, a research centre, a generator of start-up businesses, and a hotbed of intellectual ferment. So it means a lot to the city what kind of leader is chosen. The board’s decision to pick Santa Ono, then former president at the University of Cincinatti, […]
UBC’s president a leader like Vancouver hasn’t seen before
November 7th, 2016 · No Comments
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Bing Thom: He lives on for many people in this city every day
October 25th, 2016 · 3 Comments
I was in a classroom yesterday morning where yet another person, one of a series I’ve heard in the last week, talked about how important architect Bing Thom was to Vancouver. Alden Habacon, UBC’s senior advisor on intercultural understanding, told the roomful of young people that Bing was the first person to say that Vancouver […]
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City looks at limits to density, mandatory social housing units for new Chinatown projects
October 24th, 2016 · 1 Comment
The efforts to “do something” about Vancouver’s historic Chinatown are never-ending. And it’s not just in Vancouver. Cities from Edmonton to San Francisco are also fretting about what is happening to their Chinatowns, either because they went into decline and are empty or, somewhat the reverse, they are being infiltrated by a host of non-Chinese […]
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Vancouver takes unusual step of going to court for injunction to stop Airbnb host
October 24th, 2016 · No Comments
Unbeknownst to any of us, city staff tackle Airbnb hosts behind the scenes, letting them know that their ads have been noted and their neighbours have been complaining. Usually, that’s enough, according to the city’s chief licensing inspector Andreea Toma. But that didn’t work with one particular owner, East West Investments, which owns eight units […]
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New TransLink CEO says he welcomes Uber as a complement to public transit, waves the optimism flag about the future
October 18th, 2016 · 8 Comments
TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond has been on the job a little more than six months now. Things have been going mostly well, I’d say. The volume of anti-TransLink stories has gone down — even though the agency is out doing a public consultation about a $3-a-house tax hike and five- to 10-cent fare hike to […]
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First Nations hire one of the region’s savviest development experts to steer projects on their big holdings
October 18th, 2016 · No Comments
You, the general public, may not have paid too much attention to this, but a lot of others on various inside tracks are taking note of the fact that David Negrin, who used to manage development for Aquilini and, before that, Concord Pacific, has been hired by the three local First Nations, who hold a […]
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As Vancouver’s new chief planner begins his job, architect/urbanist warns about Vancouver’s “toxic conversation”
October 4th, 2016 · 15 Comments
When Vancouver’s new planning director, Gil Kelley, made his first public appearance last Wednesday in a speech at the Vancouver Playhouse, he did so at the invite of an organization called the Urbanarium. One of the group’s key members, architect Bruce Haden, started the evening with a thought-provoking and very candid introduction about the […]
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Thoughts from someone who has pondered Airbnb: Don’t allow tenants to do it; limit the number per neighbourhood
September 30th, 2016 · 2 Comments
Got this by email from a former Nelson city employee and SFU grad student who has spent some time thinking about Airbnb. As the former City of Nelson employee responsible for preparing its upcoming short-term rental regulations (Nelson is one of the case studies that Vancouver staff reviewed) and as a tenant in Vancouver, I […]
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Short-term-rental regulations come to Vancouver, after a big lobbying effort from Airbnb
September 28th, 2016 · 10 Comments
So the city has come out with its proposed new rules for regulating short-term rentals. City report is here and my quickie hit here. This is already prompting a lot of questions on Twitter, many from people wondering how the city will stop people from declaring that their former basement suites are now part of […]
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Empty-homes tax might go even higher than original two per cent proposed, with higher penalties
September 20th, 2016 · 9 Comments
Vancouver councillors debated the proposed empty-homes tax this morning, with some unexpected results. (Well, at least to me, so perhaps I’m clueless.) The NPA councillors came out AGAINST the tax, which I thought would have been seen as very popular with their base. (See my story for their various reasons.) And then Vision councillors started […]
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