I’ve heard any number of bureaucrats and politicians express alarm at the state of public dialogue these days, as citizen groups start social-media campaigns at the drop of a hat to oppose casinos, funeral parlours, traffic going by their front windows, and more. As a result, many are looking for new ways to talk. Surrey [...]

[Read more →]

This was a deliberately provocative article, so I’m expecting lots of challenges. Yes, there are many other futures that can be detailed (built $23 billion in transit and had no money left for anything else, is one I’m sure will turn up here). I found out a lot more about some of the details as [...]

[Read more →]

And …. more fallout. As some councillors noted, casino decisions really strain a marriage. Here’s what they had to say. Story also attached below

[Read more →]

Okay, I officially give up trying to understand what is going on between TransLink and the province or among TransLink’s mayors. They signed a memorandum of understanding just weeks ago that seemed to pave the way for an agreement between Victoria and TL on how to fund future transit projects. And now they’re back this [...]

[Read more →]

Members of Vancouver’s oldest civic political party get to vote June 29 on whether they want to change their name from the Non-Partisan Association (or Civic Non-Partisan Association legally) to Vancouver First. (Full wording of the motion here.) This is the follow-up to a membership meeting a couple of months ago where there was extended [...]

[Read more →]

I remember an editor of mine long ago saying there had to be some kind of kickbacks or fraud going on in a city with so many construction cranes on its skyline. My response was that I had never heard a whisper of that because developers were too preoccupied with the city’s form of institutionalized [...]

[Read more →]

This little story just keeps going on. Latest info here.

[Read more →]

Cities all over the Lower Mainland are falling over themselves these days to attract businesses, but Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts is the champ at delivering her message the loudest and clearest that the door is open in her city — complete with property tax holidays and fee breaks. Yet again, she gets lots of attention [...]

[Read more →]

The vehicle levy, now known as the transportation improvement levy, is back on the table, for those who didn’t know. Metro mayors, who have to decide by October whether to approve a substantially improved new transit system — on that Premier Gordon Campbell said they were going to build — are struggling to figure out [...]

[Read more →]

You have to look at this survey out in Maclean’s this morning, looking at the best and worst run cities in Canada. Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver are in the top four — with Vancouver down from the usual number-one spot it enjoys in other lists because of inefficiency in “recreation and culture.” ???? I haven’t [...]

[Read more →]