Sometimes an obvious solution to part of the housing crisis hits us in the face. Such is the case today, with the Vancouver City Council unanimously approving laneway housing. You can read more about it at cbc.ca and straight.com. But what is laneway housing? Essentially, it is housing built in people’s backyards, facing the rear [...]
Posts under ‘2008 Election Campaign’
Council meeting Monday, new apartments approved on Haultain
I went to the council meeting on Monday night and was pleased to see that some new apartments are coming to an existing apartment building at 2181 Haultain. The owner is going to divide a 5000 sq ft space into two apartments, renovating up some dead space that apparently had been used as commercial office. [...]
All candidates meeting scheduled
Somebody finally stepped up to the plate and there is now an all candidates meeting organized. Mark your calendar: Date: Friday, November 7, 2008 Place: Monterey Centre – Garry Oak Room Time: 7-? PM Moderator: Gerald Smeltzer
Cycling in New York up 35% after millions in new bike infrastructure
Streetsblog, a New York blog dedicated to the Livable Streets movement, is reporting that bicycling is up 35% over 2007. Given a Portland State University researcher just showed how a lot of bicyclists will go out of their way to ride on bike lanes and bike boulevards and New York City has spent millions building [...]
Bashing broom, interviews and more
Invasive species in our parks is a big deal, but thankfully some local citizens are here to deal with it. This weekend Margaret Lidkea led her annual broom bash in Uplands Park with local Girl Guides and other concerned residents and today I went to go lend a hand. Saanich News covered her work a [...]
Urban agriculture
Like most urban areas, Greater Victoria imports a great deal of its food. Given our climate and large amounts of greenspace in the yards of nearly every house, it doesn’t have to be that way. Oak Bay has been taking some positive steps in the past, including allowing small plot intensive agriculture (something even the [...]
Final candidate list up
The nomination period has finished and the final candidate list is up (PDF). Unexpectedly, we have a race for the mayors chair, with incumbent Chris Causton running against Ronald Telfer, for which I can find no information about. For the six seat council, five incumbents have decided to running again: Hazel Braithwaite, Allan Cassidy, Pam [...]
Bear Mountain, Oak Bay and growth in Greater Victoria
http://treesit.blogspot.com/2008/05/crown-drops-all-charges-against-tree.html On the face of it, what happens in the Highlands doesn’t affect Oak Bay taxpayers. So why is Highlands Mayor Mark Cardinal annoyed that Oak Bay is protesting a change to the Regional Growth Strategy? Seems he thinks that because Oak Bay built out decades ago, it shouldn’t be objecting to the growth in [...]
Oak Bay News article now online
For those who haven’t been able to get a paper copy, the OakBay News article about my candidacy is now live: Green Party candidate hopes to bring new vision to table
Where is the all candidates debate?
With 7 declared candidates, as Michelle says, this is officially a race. But where are the debates? To the best of my knowledge, there are no all candidates debates scheduled here in Oak Bay. We need one. These debates are often the only place that voters get to interact with a large number of candidates [...]
