Lessons from Hamburg

This week, Trevor Boddy begins a month-long tour of European and Japanese cities to explore new ideas shaping urban planning and architecture.Ranked at the top of the pile on livability indexes from The Economist magazine and international executive relocation firms, Vancouver has lots of reasons to feel good about itself. We live in ''The best place on earth,'' or so we are told by those high rotation commercials paid for by our provincial government. When the sun shines on the mountains, it is easy to believe all this hype.

Vancouver eateries told to issue shellfish warnings

Vancouver restaurants that serve raw oysters are being told to tell customers about the dangers of eating uncooked shellfish.Vancouver Coastal Health is asking restaurants to display cards warning consumers about the risk of illness associated with eating raw oysters and to include an advisory or label in their menus.

Clerk robbed twice in one night by same person

A convenience store clerk in Vancouver was robbed not once, but twice during the same night shift - by the same person.A woman was working at the 7-Eleven in the 2000 block of East Hastings Street on Wednesday, when a man came in and asked for cigarettes. He left, then returned brandishing a knife and demanded money.

Family seeks information on missing Vancouver man

The girlfriend and sister of Ronald Carlow made a tearful plea yesterday for any information about the Vancouver man who vanished from his upscale neighbourhood two weeks ago.The last images of the 38-year-old man were caught by surveillance cameras on June 20 at 4:30 p.m., as he was leaving his apartment in Yaletown.

Log removal to begin in battered Stanley Park

The cleanup of Vancouver's storm-battered Stanley Park has moved into high gear with the arrival of some heavy equipment to remove thousands of downed trees.The park was ravaged by a series of winter storms that blew down more than 10,000 trees and caused mudslides that forced the closing of the park's famed seawall.

Counterfeit drugs caused woman's death, coroner concludes

Shoddy pills from a bogus online pharmacy are to blame for the death of a 58-year-old woman from Vancouver Island, a coroner's report says.Yesterday's conclusion makes Marcia Bergeron the first clear-cut case of a death stemming from counterfeit drugs bought on the Internet, but it likely won't be the last, said Rose Stanton, regional coroner for Vancouver Island.

NOW PLAYING: LIVE MUSIC

For the past couple of weeks, Vancouver jazz fans were treated to music that spanned myriad styles and many decades. This week, the rockers take the reins.Get Into Bedouin You'll have to wait until Aug. 21 for Bedouin Soundclash's much-anticipated sophomore album, Street Gospels, but a lucky few can catch the group - made up of Queen's University buddies - at this tiny show tonight. July 5, 8 p.m. $25. The Media Club, 695 Cambie St. Sold Out.

Coquitlam considers slamming the door on travelling salespeople

The welcome mat could soon be rolled up for door-to-door salespeople in suburban Coquitlam if a proposed ban, with fines to punish violators, is instituted.City council in the community of 114,000 unanimously asked staff this week to draft two bylaws - one to ban door-to-door sales of natural gas, and a second to ban all commercial door-to-door sales. They will decide whether to pass them in September, after the summer break.

Native band objects to treaty settlement

Just three weeks before the Tsawwassen First Nation is set to vote on B.C.'s first Lower Mainland treaty, another native group is asking a court to stop the deal.

Four arrested in immigrant's slaying

Antonio Serdoncillo had barely taken his first steps toward a new life in Canada when four strangers attacked him at home and left him for dead.Just 20 days earlier, the 45-year-old had emigrated from the Philippines to Richmond, B.C. His noble but simple goal, police said, was to lay a foundation so that his wife and children overseas could join him later. But he succumbed to his injuries before that was possible.

Lost Paradise, Vancouver's Waldorf, July 21

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Boring site note: which feed do you want?

I put together a feeds page which describes the content of the 2 main feeds I have available*. Feedburner (which I recently re-fell in love with after re-tuning this site and adding the Drupal Feedburner module) tells me that about 450 ...

7/6/2007: British Columbia: Vancouver-area seafood eateries ...

Seafood restaurants that serve raw oysters in the Vancouver Coastal Health region will now have to post warnings that customers run the risk of food poisoning by eating them. Raw oysters are a staple at many restaurants, but Dr. ...

7/6/2007: The Capital And Vancouver Island: Schools must refund ...

School districts across the province have not been complying with the law by charging fees for summer courses that high school students need to graduate, BC?s minister of education said yesterday. Thousands of students taking summer ...

7/6/2007: The Capital And Vancouver Island: But will the guest of ...

The big question for organizers of the Springer reunion is whether the guest of honour will show for her own party. Plans are underway in the US and Canada for a weekend of celebration for the seven-year-old killer whale in Telegraph ...

7/6/2007: Business: Vancouver gets Microsoft centre

VANCOUVER ? Greater Vancouver will be home to Microsoft?s first software development centre in Canada, the company announced Thursday. The facility, to open in the fall of 2007 with about 200 employee, will draw on software developers ...

7/6/2007: The Capital And Vancouver Island: Orcas show up ...

They?re late, but all three pods of endangered southern-resident killer whales have finally arrived off the coast of Vancouver Island. Whale watchers were becoming nervous when K and L pods failed to show up at the usual time in June, ...

Metroblogging Islamabad: they're not blogging about Kwik-E-Marts

Jeffery Simpson:. militants outside a radical mosque - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Originally uploaded by Krpasevananda K~S~A. If you want to see the real realization of the Metroblogging dream I suggest going to Metroblogging Islamabad now ...

Vancouver Island in the dusk.....

Vancouver Island at dusk, July 6, 2007.

Chinese have hesitation about entry into oilsands, expert says

CP - An expert in Chinese-Canadian relations says Canada should be trying to develop a strategy to persuade Chinese investment in projects like refineries to get better value out of oilsands crude, rather than shipping it to the United ...