Tag Archives: BC

Road Load Limits

The BC Ministry of Transportation has recently started a blog, following in the footsteps of others, like, "The Fastlane”, the blog of the US Secretary for Transportation, Ray laHood. One of my favourite recent posts shows the importance of following spring road limits, with these two photos (click on the photos for a link to […]

Shutting Down Urban Farming in Lantzville

The trouble with attempting to be progressive is that there are often rules against it, whether written or unwritten. It may be the neighbours who don’t like the fact that you tore out your front lawn and replaced it with potatoes and squash plants, or in Dirk Becker’s case, it is the District of Lantzville’s […]

The False Hope of Linearity

Humans have the remarkable ability to ignore almost every sign pointing to anything but the most favourable outcome. For somethings, (think global warming), it is the status quo that is most appealing, and as a society, we will do almost anything to convince ourselves that any other option is so far removed from the realms […]

The Kootenay Cone of Silence

Aside from what you read on the internet, life in the Kootenays just keeps on rollin’ on. Who would know that a whole ecosystem was being destroyed in what could be described as a technogenic catastrophe down in Louisiana right now, a nasty byproduct of the lifestyle we’ve pursued as a society. The various bailouts, […]

On the Fly Update May 2010

As the City Engineer, and being on the senior management team of a small municipality, my role and areas of influence and responsibility are quite wide. This week it has been climate change adaptation and carbon neutral policies. Lots of meetings and talking, particularly about water, infrastructure and municipal operations – all areas that I am well […]

High Paying Government Jobs

I work for a small municipality in rural BC and on reading articles like this, I understand the outrage of many Americans toward the bloat and excess of their government structure, particularly when the private sector and individual households are struggling. Only one city employee had a base salary topping $300,000. Nathaniel Ford, executive director […]

Shape Vancouver – Is It All Hot Air?

The video on the front page of ShapeVancouver.com suggests that by increasing the City’s density there would be significant environmental benefits. However, a recent article on Planetizen from Dr. Tony Recsei suggests that these claimed facts may not have empirical support…