The Toronto-based developers like to describe it in terms of origami for its so-called “folded planes”. But just about everybody I know calls it The Ice Pick for its cold indifference to its surroundings, and how it stabs at the heart of our city’s most iconic district. We all thought the dreaded Ice Pick project…
Category: Vancouver
Hats off to council — for getting behind $1 billion for housing!
Last week, I tipped my hat to Mayor Stewart Kennedy for his $30-million proposal to address homelessness. This initiative was a welcome and significant step forward in addressing our current emergency homelessness crisis due to COVID-19. It was also a major first — never before has a Vancouver mayor proposed spending such an amount of…
Turning over a beautiful new leaf with homelessness
I read in the news recently of a very exciting study called the New Leaf Project that was done by Foundations for Social Change, a Vancouver-based charitable organization, and UBC. Starting in 2018, a number of homeless individuals were each given $7500. Their spending was then tracked over a year and compared to a control…
$30 million for housing is welcome. But how far will it go?
Recently, Mayor Kennedy Stewart proposed that the city spend $30 million addressing the homelessness emergency crisis arising from the pandemic. The funds are for buying or leasing hotels, apartment buildings and single-room occupancy hotels to provide housing for those on the streets or squeezed out of shelters with COVID-19 distancing requirements. I’m so pleased to…
“Pinnacle” landmark to a failed political party isn’t what Vancouver needs
City council will decide Wednesday Sept. 30, whether or not to approve Pinnacle International’s rezoning application for a proposed 55-storey luxury high-rise at the north end of Granville Bridge. (Over the years, the project has crept up from 52 to 54 and, now, 55 storeys.) By the time you read this blog, city council may…
Sharing the gold gleaned from real estate development
Last week, Mayor Kennedy Stewart called a special city council meeting regarding a motion he was introducing to address Vancouver’s homelessness crisis, especially the 300 or so unsheltered people now living in Strathcona Park. I’m pleased to see that at this Monday’s council meeting, councillors directed staff to look into and report back on the…
The NPA’s Christopher Wilson should be run out of town for his hate speech
Even in a democratic society, there are limits to freedom of speech. We have laws that prohibit libel and slander for good reason. Libel is when you write an untruth — something demonstrably false — about someone else. If you say Danni is dishonest, when they’re not, that’s libellous. Slander is the same thing, but…