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North Van council rejects affordable-housing project: “non-profit model is untested”; “not enough to address climate change”

November 21st, 2018 · No Comments

Lots of concern and outrage across the region this week, after the surprise decision by the new District of North Vancouver council to reject the rezoning for a non-profit, affordable-housing project that included a seniors’ respite centre. Stories here and here. The decision was striking to many for the grasping-at-straws reasoning used by some councillors, […]

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My intersectional, diverse, covering-all-bases voters’ guide to Vancouver council

October 19th, 2018 · No Comments

Okay, deep breath here as I try to provide some insight into candidates in one of the most complex civic elections in Vancouver’s history. A word about the limits I’m working under, first. Usually when I do my little voting guide in the election, I can assess the performance of many of the candidates because […]

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NDP has some things to fix with civic-election campaign law when this is all over

October 15th, 2018 · No Comments

One of the big issues in this campaign season has been the discovery of holes and glitches in the province’s new campaign-finance law for local elections. It turns out third parties can spend whatever they want up until 30 days before the election, independent candidates who are a team but don’t register as an official […]

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Municipal-election drama kicks into high gear as campaigns really get going

September 12th, 2018 · No Comments

So, as everyone in Vancouver who cares anything about local politics knows, Vision Vancouver’s campaign turned into chaos this week after the surprise announcement that mayoral candidate Ian Campbell was withdrawing from the race. As I’ve said multiple times, it’s not because the polls were showing him trailing and he was going to lose anyway. […]

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The farewell note: A senior city-hall employee goes to work for a major developer

July 20th, 2018 · No Comments

Lots of praise for Bill Aujla, the head of real-estate services who is going off to be vice-president of real estate with the Aquilini Group. This move, though, is raising questions for some. From: Johnston, Sadhu Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 3:31 PM To: All Staff (COV) – DL Subject: Staffing Changes in City Manager’s […]

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Line in the sand for next election: Support new kinds of housing in single-family neighbourhoods. Or don’t.

July 10th, 2018 · No Comments

As I’ve remarked a couple of times, I’ve seen a revolution unfold in Vancouver the last couple of years — something I thought I’d never see. That revolution is powered by a new generation of people who’ve gotten interested in housing and who have made it a mission to lobby for new development as a […]

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A quiet landlord dedicated to providing low-cost housing will be remembered through house left to city

July 10th, 2018 · No Comments

I stumbled across this touching story just by prowling through Vancouver’s open bids, where I saw a call for someone to manage a house in Kitsilano to provide affordable housing. I found out the story behind the story by talking to neighbours and reading the will of a man called Eric Pierce, who left his […]

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Vancouver’s centre-right party settles on a (surprise) winner, left agrees on council-slate numbers for parties

June 5th, 2018 · No Comments

Well, it was another exciting week in Vancouver civic politics, as the Non-Partisan Association, after weeks of roller-coaster drama, chose its mayoral candidate: the soft-spoken and unassuming-seeming Ken Sim. That came as a surprise to everyone, including Sim himself, it seemed, on Sunday night. All the spin and whispers up to then had indicated that, […]

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Going to spend $80,000 on rent while your kid is at university? Maybe just buy a condo, some parents decide

May 31st, 2018 · No Comments

Here in Vancouver, we’ve all heard about international parents buying property for their children while said children go to university locally. So we know that’s a thing. But I heard more than one story over the past few years about Canadian parents doing the same. In fact, one friend of a friend from Alberta bought […]

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Vancouver civic election shows that much is up for grabs in an unstable climate

May 14th, 2018 · No Comments

Catching up here after many weeks, where I’ve been slowed down by a combo of too much election news and killer colds and coughs. But here we are, in what is surely one of the stranger municipal election cycles of the last 50 years. (Counting out Nanaimo here, whose problems seem to go far beyond […]

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