Frances Bula header image 4

City loses lawsuit to Chinese owners wanting to demolish Shaughnessy house

November 27th, 2017 · 2 Comments

I’m surprised more media didn’t report on this Supreme Court decision that found the city at fault for delaying so long on a decision about a Shaughnessy house (whether to allow demolition or designate it as heritage). Perhaps it didn’t take off because there were no easy heroes to cheer for. It pitted some offshore […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vancouver city manager severance debate 2.0

September 23rd, 2015 · 11 Comments

Okay, throwing this out there for debate in the escalating frenzy. A senior lawyer with experience in labour law wrote me the following. You’ll have to take my word for it that this is a senior lawyer and not, say, Mike Magee. But I swear on my book of UBCM resolutions that it is. Based […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vancouver’s new poet laureate

May 4th, 2009 · 4 Comments

Brad Cran has been named as Vancouver’s new poet laureate and will be official inducted tomorrow at council. You can read his official bio on the city website, but here’s a brief literary pause to read one of his actual poems which has, you’ll be pleased to note, a kind of urban development theme. On […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

City goes after Marc Emery business licences

April 2nd, 2009 · 10 Comments

Oh, here we go again. There’s a show-cause hearing scheduled next week to look at where the following businesses should be allowed to retain their city business licence. As you all know, the city doesn’t schedule these hearings unless the answer is pretty well: No f’ing way. Avalon Sunsplash Ltd. dba 420 Convenience Store at […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vancouver prelim budget out: You pay $128 more in taxes on an average house

January 29th, 2009 · 9 Comments

Our favourite time of the year — budget estimates — is here again, with the traditional three acts: 1. The discovery that the projected tax increase to maintain the existing budget is not as high as everyone said the previous fall. 2. The wrangling over what gets cut or added, during lengthy public meetings 3. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: City Hall Talk

Olympic project manager felt sidelined, hobbled

January 16th, 2009 · 7 Comments

Sources in city hall tell me that Olympic project manager Jody Andrews tendered his resignation today, effective immediately, after several weeks of being stripped of responsibilities and pretty much ordered not to talk to the public/media about the village. The relatively young 40-something Andrews, who has worked at the city for 18 years, was put […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Another Vancouver real-estate venture

January 14th, 2009 · 23 Comments

One of the things I find many people are forgetting (or were never aware of) in the current hoopla over the Olympic village is that Vancouver has a decades-old tradition of being a real-estate developer. It’s one of the biggest land-owners in the city and its real-estate department, under the leadership of people like Bruce […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Actually, the city’s credit rating has been downgraded before

January 14th, 2009 · 10 Comments

My learned friend Geoff Meggs commented today in the Globe and Mail that the city’s credit rating has never been downgraded before due to council actions. Actually, I was reminded by someone with a better memory than mine that that’s not true. The credit rating was downgraded in 2003, when Geoff was then assistant to […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

More Olympic village earthquakes today

January 12th, 2009 · 28 Comments

I have to say, it sounds nuts over at city hall today. There’s an in-camera meeting on right now and apparently Mayor Gregor is going to make a statement/announcement right after that. It could be just my imagination, but every time I talk to someone over there, they sound exactly like those CNN reporters covering […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

One taxpayer’s suggestion for the Olympic village

January 12th, 2009 · 15 Comments

Should be lots of fun today, with a public council meeting scheduled for 2 at city hall on the Olympic village. I’m sure Suzanne Anton is practicing her punches right now, with coaches on all sides. If I’m not mistaken, it will be available to watch on the city’s website, so all of you who […]

[Read more →]

Tags: City Hall Talk