27 posts tagged “vancouver”
The good news here is that White Rock and Delta have both managed to hold great bike races year after year, over a variety of terrain. The bad news is that the urban cobblestone run Tour de Gastown with the hairpin turns "is canceled.:http://www.vancouversun.com/Economy+forces+cancellation+Vancouver+2009+Tour+Gastown/1470969/story.html
It's a fun event that draws a huge crowd, larger than the suburban ones. Here's hoping it's back next year.
This is such a sad story. It's nice to see the VPD on top of things as usual. (Sarcastic emphasis added by me, not the Globe.)
Body of infant found in bag in East Vancouver
WENDY STUECK, April 2, 2009 at 5:29 PM EDTVANCOUVER--The body of a dead infant was found in a plastic bag between two houses in East Vancouver on Thursday morning, Vancouver Police said.
Yellow police tape cordoned off the 2500 block of Charles Street, a tidy street of Vancouver specials and older, modest homes. Investigators were going door-to-door, talking to neighbours.
The body was found between two houses on the north side of the street. Police are treating the baby's death as suspicious.
The night David Byrne played in Vancouver I was at local hero A.C. Newman's show at the Biltmore Cabaret. Loyalty and budget won out over fame.
Apparently, I should have been riding my bike around teh city because that's what David Byrne was doing.
Vancouver's had these red clad Downtown Ambassadors wandering around, seemingly aimlessly, for a few years now. I can't remember when I first started noticing them, but it was about three years ago that they started becoming more common.
I could never figure out what they were and who they were for. I sort of thought they were a summer tourist season thing, and presumably volunteer or summer students. I always thought it seemed like a decent way to create some employment at low cost.
It turns out I was wrong, and they were intended to be actual security guards, working on behalf of the business. As with any number of private security guards, the look of most of these ambassadors didn't really inspire...confidence. It also turns out that the NPA led city was funding these security guards: your tax dollars going to work to create a private police force on behalf of the businesses downtown. Not police, mind you. A private force, not accountable the way police are. (Whether police are properly accountable is another discussion.)
Not anymore. The city's cut funding in what seems like a rational, sensible move.
Of course with six shootings in Vancouver in the last six days, I hope they invest in policing.
London got snow, and the city ground to a halt. Almost the same thing happened in Vancouver in early January.
Our roads are finally clear enough to reliably cycle to work, which has been nice to be doing lately.
Storm Leaves London With a Rare Blanket of Snow and a Frozen Transit System
By SARAH LYALL and JULIA WERDIGIER
Published: February 2, 2009
LONDON--A fierce winter snowstorm crippled London's roads, subways and buses and all but shut down many parts of Britain on Monday. It was followed by a barrage of complaints as stranded travelers asked why the government seemed so ill prepared for the bad weather, when everyone had known for several days that it was coming."I think it's pathetic," said Matthew Hickley, a writer in his 30s, who was fruitlessly seeking a train home at the High Street Kensington subway station in West London.
For years the NPA and senior Vancouver officials couldn't stop raving about how well run Vancouver was, and the great credit rating the city had.
I never did like Sam Sullivan.
Vancouver's credit placed on watch due to Olympic Village project
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | 12:07 AM ET, CBC NewsAn independent credit rating agency has placed Vancouver on a credit watch and may even downgrade the city's AA+ rating as a result of potential debt coming from the beleaguered Olympic Athletes Village project.
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday issued a bulletin about the city's finances, saying the impact on the city's debt could be significant if it borrows money to fund the remaining construction of the village.
Recession or not (or, as George W. Bush would say technical recession or note) companies that lay off percentages and not people are not where you want to be.
EA to shut Vancouver's Black Box studio
...EA also announced Friday that it was upping the number of layoffs it expected to complete by the end of March from six per cent of the total workforce to 10 per cent, or about 1,000 employees.
Things may be bad, but these are people not just bodies. Regardless of how bad things are, when companies start talking in percentages its not a good thing.
Today is shortest of days, in a city with a winter of short (and often gloomy) days. To add to the challenge, the city got several centimetres of snow for the third day in a row, in a city where a single day of a couple of centimetres is considered a log.
Blurg.
I spent a good chunk of the day driving, which was kind of A Very Bad Idea™. Our reasons were noble, however, with an Aunt from Osoyoos in the hospital unexpectedly, we visited and took Uncle Brian for lunch (though he paid, so technically I suppose he took us.) The streets were bad, and we decided not to park along the side of Broadway, for fear of not getting back out. I had already got stuck, albeit benignly, earlier in the day near Vancouver General Hospital.
With daily high temperatures forecast to slowly rise above 0 over the next four days, this city is likely to become a sloppy, slushy mess until Christmas day. The sun might help melt it, but it remains to be seen. I usually like this city in the snow, and head to one of our better outdoor locations to visit but todays' weather was bad enough that I wouldn't have dared the hills and valleys of North Vancouver without snow tires (which might have to be purchased next year as it turns out...
Ok, sorry. That's about the most obvious and worst pun of a headline ever. I can't come up with much else though.
Election results give Gregor Robertson the Mayor's job in Vancouver, and every single one of his candidates was elected.
That's the good news. Andrea Reimer made council, and it's my sincere hope that she becomes mayor one of these days. Since living in Vancouver, there are few other people I've met who I've felt would be more capable of doing the job.
But what about our new Mayor, and the now unelected Peter Ladner?
Highway 97, the major connector road or the interior, opens again after being closed for more than two weeks:
"Highway 97 in Okanagan Valley reopens"http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/11/12/highway-open.html?ref=rss
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | 9:35 AM ET
CBC NewsA major highway in B.C's Okanagan Valley reopened Wednesday morning after it was closed more than two weeks ago due to an unstable rock face that threatened to collapse onto the road.
The reopening came as crews were able to stabilize the hillside along Highway 97 by blasting tonnes of rock off the top of the slope and piling it at the bottom to act as a natural doorstop.
But Highway 99 on the coast closes (at least partly) for the same reason.
Rockslide slows Highway 99 traffic
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | 11:28 AM ET
CBC NewsA small rockslide on the Sea to Sky Highway connecting Vancouver and Whistler has reduced traffic to a single lane.
The rockslide occurred one or two kilometres north of the junction with Marine Drive near the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal early Wednesday morning.
