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Entries from January 2016

311 in Toronto scores with low wait times; Vancouver not so much

March 25th, 2010 · 11 Comments

Toronto is celebrating six months of 311 service and bragging about their low wait times and popularity. Vancouver’s 311 appears to be equally popular in its early stages — it gets half as many calls as Toronto does in a city that is population-wise 1/5 the size, but average wait times are considerably longer, as […]

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Chief electrician update

March 24th, 2010 · 2 Comments

If you didn’t catch it in other media, the city is going to release all documents related to the firing, laying off, termination, shared-services review downsizing of chief electrical officer Ark Tsisserev, which has been stirring up dustclouds of speculation in recent weeks. Presumably not his personal file from the human-resources department, but things that […]

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Homeless count numbers will be a political tool

March 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments

The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.

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Big, fat casino downtown likely to provoke “nasty discussion” at council

March 23rd, 2010 · 22 Comments

When I started working the city-hall beat in 1994, I was plunged into furious debates about casinos. The Mike Harcourt NDP government was entertaining a proposal to have a big, destination casino on the waterfront behind Gastown. The NPA city council of the day took the public opposition to that and ran furiously with it, […]

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A transparent idea: Mayor says council expenses should be online

March 21st, 2010 · 25 Comments

This just out from city hall today. Strikes me as a motion created to give the media something to gnaw on on a quiet Sunday besides endless blog circling around the Tsisserev mystery story. Looks like it promotes transparency, without giving away too much. Councillors’ expenses are, for the most part, completely boring and uninteresting. […]

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Tags: City Hall Talk

Cultural precincts: An old idea?

March 21st, 2010 · 44 Comments

No, I’m not in Bologna or Surrey, as some speculated earlier. I’m in Los Angeles as I write, a city I have grown to be fascinated with because of the way it works and doesn’t in various ways. Lots of things to write about, but I’ll start with my visit to the Museum of Contemporary […]

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Fears of a new property tax to pay for Evergreen Line percolate

March 18th, 2010 · 55 Comments

In case anyone missed it, the region’s politicians are buzzing with anxiety about what the province has in mind in terms of paying for the Evergreen Line. It’s difficult to imagine what is getting cooked up in Victoria, given how many options the province has already rejected, so people have taken to guessing and worrying. […]

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Vision Vancouver chooses ED with federal Liberal connections over NDP

March 18th, 2010 · 17 Comments

If you want to get a sense of what Vision Vancouver is evolving into, note that the party just chose Ian Baillie as its new executive director over, I’m told, Stephen Learey. Baillie, one-time assistant to Liberal MP Sophia Leung, has worked on various federal Liberal Party campaigns and became the communications chair for the […]

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Droll and trenchant observations appearing in this space shortly

March 17th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Sorry for the skimpy posts this week, but I had some big projects on the go and was hunkered down working on them. However, I have transported myself to another city, so reports to come on that.

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BC Place casino will have to go through a rezoning

March 16th, 2010 · 8 Comments

I wasn’t quite sure what the procedure would have to be on this, so I checked and, yes, the casino being planned for BC Place, even if it’s just transferring over from Edgewater, will have to be approved by council after public hearings and a rezoning. It will be interesting to see how much public […]

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