The little house, the little apartment — they’re all I’m hearing about these days. Laneway houses continue to be popular. At last count, there were 600 that had been processed at city hall. Micro-suites have come to Surrey. Coquitlam is letting people build multiple-units on single-family lots. Some of this is welcomed, I think. We’ve [...]

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Like Surrey, Prince George and Toronto, Vancouver is about to start a small rent bank, kicking in $150,000 of the total cost, with $350,000 coming from Streetohome, the private-sector group working on homelessness, and others. The bank is aimed at helping prevent homelessness by providing small loans to people to help them get or retain [...]

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The announcement by Coma Food Truck operator Jay Cho that he is winding up operations tomorrow provoked an outpouring of eating and grief this week by his many fans. Cho is giving up because he didn’t get selected for a permanent spot for the second year in a row. Although he seems to be successful [...]

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As promised, the first of my two stories in the Globe Saturday. This a comparison of the rapid-transit lines in Seattle and Vancouver, both celebrating a one-year anniversary this summer but with very different histories and outcomes. I know this has already generated some comments elsewhere but for those who missed them …

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As some of you may know already from following my twitter posts, I was in Seattle for the last few days. (Thanks to all the enthusiasts for keeping the blog lively while I was playing hooky.) Besides paying no tax on anything I bought there, as a result of the state’s controversial (and now court-challenged) [...]

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Today’s the day that Vancouver holds its special council meeting to hear from various parties about the issue of oil tankers in Burrard Inlet. I had a story in Saturday’s Globe looking at how this ties in with efforts that environmental groups have been making to get public attention around oil tankers in general, along [...]

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A small brief in the local media last January caught my eye: a 27-year-old had been hit in a pedestrian crosswalk near my house, but he had no identification and police were trying to figure out who he was. The next blurb said he had died in hospital. Police never released his name. But the [...]

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Well, this had to happen at some point and now it has. Here’s the story, which the CBC got first.

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The laneway houses have started to go up — 89 permits issued so far, despite some road bumps along the way — and a few of them are raising eyebrows with their size and ornate look.  (My story on this here.) I know some people have been opposed to them from day one and so [...]

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Ever wanted to run a shrimp-dumpling, bahn mi, or fish-taco cart? Here’s your chance. The city of Vancouver is issuing a call for street-food vendors with “diverse and healthy” offerings as part of its effort to help Vancouver break out of the hog-dog gulag it’s been in for the last several decades. Info on how [...]

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