Category: Economic Development and Prosperity
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Thank you Victoria, and Looking Ahead
For those of you who followed me as mayor and would like to continue to follow my blog, thank you. To those of you who no longer wish to hear from me now that I’m no longer mayor, thanks for reading over the years; please unsubscribe if you wish. It’s been an enormous privilege to…
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Victoria’s Big Housing Moves – Building the Future We Need
This piece was originally printed in the Times Colonist. Not everyone wants to raise a family in a downtown condo. And, with the cost of single-family dwellings hitting an all-time high, too many families in Victoria can’t afford a $1.4 million starter home. The “missing middle” fills the gap between these two scenarios. Missing middle…
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Cautious Optimism for Victoria’s Economic Recovery: Building Back Victoria, by the Numbers
This past week, we turned a corner on COVID-19 as a province. As Dr. Henry laid out our new freedoms in Step 2 of the re-opening plan, she said we may need to go slow moving forward. But she also said – that with more than three-quarters of B.C.’s adult population vaccinated with one dose…
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“Community Making” Requires Housing of All Sorts – Three Big Ideas
Last Thursday, at a public hearing for a proposed new condo building on Rockland Ave near Cook Street, a neighbour spoke to Council in favour of the new housing. He listed all the types of housing in the area: he lives in a townhouse; this new condo building is proposed on the lot next door;…
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Victoria Council’s Recent Decisions: A Glimpse Of Post-Pandemic Life In Cities
I’ve spent the past eight months writing blog posts in response to emails, primarily about homelessness. Each week we’ve received an average of 100 to 150 emails on this topic, many from the same people who write regularly. Of course I love to hear from the public, and to be responsive. But this past week,…
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2021: Here’s to Hope … and Hard Work
As we awoke on January 1 2020, COVID-19 was a world away. Our economy was one of the strongest in the country; our downtown was thriving. Few of us could have anticipated the toll the pandemic would take on our seniors, health care workers, small businesses, people without homes, governments, on each and every one…
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Zero Waste Victoria: A City Where Nothing Is Wasted
This piece was originally published in the Times Colonist here. Discussions about garbage have taken up a lot of space in the Times Colonist Comments section in the past months. Trevor Hancock and Jon O’Riordan outlined the importance of reducing consumption and taking a zero-waste approach. CRD General Manager of Environmental Services, Larisa Hutchinson, laid…
