In case anyone missed it, the NY Times Magazine had an all-Olympics issue and featured the two Canadians they know best to talk about the Olympics: Michael Ignatieff and Douglas Coupland.
Here’s the link to Ignatieff’s column, all about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Stunning picture of the village to go with it. [...]

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In defiance of VANOC rules, an Olympic volunteer has decided to set up a blog and post comments about the volunteer experience.
He’s sent me a link to his blog and his first post here, for anyone who is interested in following this kind of thing.
 
http://olympicvolunteer2010.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/on-my-training-my-drive-to-the-olympics-and-no-sleep/
On my training .. my drive to the Olympics and no [...]

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I feel as though I’m in one of those ambitious liberal-arts programs put on by progressive colleges where, for an entire term, there’s a grand theme and all of life’s questions are filtered through that. I heard about one recently, where for the entire term they studied the literature, art, political science, economics and more [...]

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It’s becoming increasingly clear that there’s going to be a battle for public opinion in the next three weeks about homelessness in Vancouver as the 2010 Olympics media descend on the city.
You would think that just telling the plain truth about homelessness in this province would be compelling enough for even the most radical housing [...]

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Apparently council today added to the existing staff recommendation by voting in favour of a plan to try out a downtown bike lane by the end of the year.
Here’s the motion that Geoff Meggs brought to council.

THAT a separated bike lane be constructed on the Dunsmuir Viaduct at a cost not exceeding $300,000; source of [...]

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Oh boy, to think there’s going to be another four weeks of this. The latest offerings from reporters here and there on our apparently tragic city.
The Guardian, written by local freelancer Lucy Hyslop
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/03/vancouver-winter-olympics-homeless-row
The New York Times, with reporter Greg Bishop, who profiled former mayor Sam Sullivan very sympathetically last week and now quotes him extensively [...]

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Anyone from the design/architecture field want to be quoted in a Globe story with their thoughts on the architectural excellence (or not) of the Canada Pavilion and/or other pavilions at the Games? (All others welcome to post their thoughts here.)
Get in touch with me ASAP: francesbula@gmail.com

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Well THIS is an interesting development, reported by Jeff Nagel.

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The big cycling news reported this week was the creation of a protected bike lane on the Dunsmuir Viaduct. But the more interesting story, I thought, was really the future plans to create protected bike lanes through the downtown and potentially elsewhere (Point Grey Road? Maybe).
My story in the Globe today looks at where the [...]

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I discovered this morning, after my story on the housing ministry’s risk-management plan for the Olympics appeared in the Globe, that Sean Holman of publiceyeonline.com was actually the original source of the documents that wound their way to me. So credit should go to Sean for doing the freedom-of-information request on this one.
On to the [...]

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