VANCOUVER 2010: 'EVERYTHING WENT WRONG WITH THIS PROJECT'. Hey remember when all of us negative, leftist, partisan, anti-Olympic, APC loving, partisan hacks were going on about the rising cost of construction costs, peak oil, and the housing bubble? And remember when we said that taxpayers were going to be on the hook for these ridiculous winter games? Remember that? Oh and remember when we said that it will lead to evictions just like in 86? FUNNY HUH? PS How are those unofficial mascots going? (CAN THIS BE THE NEW RICK ROLL PLZ?)

But its OK because Chip Wilson is going to save the day! Hey Urban Dweller, you should rent out that space between your ears. Fuck maybe Chip could move in and you guys could have all night Landmark sessions and hot oil rubdowns together.

Or maybe you can sit around jerking off to your version of internet porn.

The Next Station will Not be Built: "The result of consultation with the public by Translink is not later hours for SkyTrain, the dropping of suburban zones, or a bus down First Avenue already. No, they made an iPhone app".

Overnight Vigil for housing in front of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. office, which is where most politicians will end up if they don't restore the national social housing program.

On Friday, during my daily morning "warm-up-for-work-by-surfing-the-web" routine, I saw a headline that I've been anticipating for a very long time. Most Vancouverites probably never expected to see this in their happy-go-lucky lifetime. But it's now true: Vancouver benchmark house prices are lower than this time last year.

Some key stats released last week:
* The benchmark price for September 2008 was 1.6% lower than September 2007 and now stands at $726,331.
* Prices for the detached-house benchmark are currently 5.8% lower than May 2008.
* There are 43% fewer sales in Metro Vancouver than this time last year.

This was never a surprise to me, given my absolute addiction to every sort of local real estate blog in this city. (I seriously need an intervention.) Surfing around the popular online local real estate community, you can quickly become a bad-news bear. Bloggers like mohican, VHB, freako, solipsist, the pope, and Paul Boesnich have prophesized the coming of the drop way before even the first US markets started to falter. Years ago, there was plenty of opposition from bulls that still believed that this city's fundamentals would drive us into perpetual prosperity. Now the discussions have all turned into debates about how severe the downturn will be, and when the bottom will occur.

A New Sun is Rising, as the Vancouver Sun ups its print-exclusive content, making it that much more difficult to sift for real news. Funny, all I could focus on was the fucking giant HP ad repeatedly rising over half the damn article. Kind of reminds me of those new advertising flaps that cover half the front page of that spiffy print edition. Well, it all does reek of something. *ahem* NOT legitimate solutions.

We still get the real nuggets online though: Bob Ransford offers his defense of condos and DTES gentrification. I'm pretty sure he has no real argument, but there was a Thinsations popup covering those middle paragraphs. It's not a "real neighbourhood" 'til I can properly shop around for 100-calorie packs, right?

While plastic bags may soon be banned in BC, some are still having water bottled rage over at UBC. I gotta agree, and they're certainly not helping the situation when the only personal water bottles available on campus are $26 at the bookstore or $23 at Starbucks. Also, water needs more caffeine.

North Delta Candidate faces four sex charges. The guy lists himself as a Greyhound bus driver and a "video executive"- what more do you need?

The new batch of VIFF ads, now online.

The season has officially arrived - here's the greatest umbrella ever.

So a little secret something is in the works for November 15th, which just happens to be municipal election day, as a result of your generous votes, dear reader, on the Vancouver Election Blog Awards. We'll announce that part later, lets just say Women will have their voices heard. So today I got a chance to sit down with Mark Latham of VoterMedia.org, and came to understand that this contest is part of a much larger plan for democratically funded new media. To me, this is bolder than anything that Adbusters has come up with in the last 5 years. His idea is a socially funded model that might just permanently alter the information landscape. Imagine if every blogger could focus on content rather than whoring themselves out to advertisers. Its like a living wage for freelance journalists. We're sick of the Rupert Murdochs, Conrad Blacks, and Izzy Aspers of the world and we'd much rather get our news from a local blogger who isn't in the pocket of big corporations.

I received this surprising email yesterday from Ellie O'Day, VIFF Media Director, showing just how construction is wreaking absolute havoc in this city.

11:26 AM, Thursday, October 2
The management of Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is doing everything in its power to avert a serious disruption of our event by construction work just now beginning outside the Empire Granville 7 Cinemas at 855 Granville Street. The noise generated from this work could well mean the cancellation of many of the 200 screenings remaining at this venue. We received assurances from street engineers that consideration would be made of the fact that the Film Festival attracts 100,000 attendees to this block between September 25 and October 10. That consideration appears to be inconvenient now. We have received sympathetic counsel from everyone we spoken to at City Hall and at B.C. Hydro, but nothing has so far averted this extremely serious blow to the Festival. Since no explanation has been forthcoming as it why this work absolutely needed to coincide with our brief event, it is time to warn our public. Hopefully a more public airing of our concern will encourage reasonable action to be taken in time.

In light of the current economic and political climate, ChangeEverything asks, "What's on your mind"? Me? I just hope I'll still be able to eat charcuteries everyday.

Prudent Canada won't experience a U.S.-style housing collapse. Oh awsumm! Should we just ignore the next headline?

Vancouver house prices fall with more listings and less sales.

Six Ways Harper Is Wrecking the Economy. He never should have bet it all on Papa's Mustache in the 4th*.