Port Moody | Vancouver Secrets

At Least It Has A Garden And A View

November 6th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in All about Vancouver

Vancouver Olympic convention centre $400 million over budget

Vancouver’s new convention centre is projected to cost almost double the amount originally forecast, but B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell thinks citizens shouldn’t worry.

Campbell revealed Thursday the current budget for the convention centre is $883 million, about $400 million more than originally budgeted.

“There’s a tendency to look at one side of the equation and not both sides,” Campbell said. “The other side of the equation is that we already have $2 billion of economic activity.”

The Good news is that it has a rooftop eco-system of nearly 2.5 hectares.

There are 400,000 indigenous plants on the rooftop, more than there are flowers in all of Vancouver’s 200 parks, all serviced by 43 kilometres of irrigation pipes, “enough to stretch from Vancouver to Port Moody and back,” Campbell said while on a rooftoop garden tour.

I won’t be surprised when they need to plant potatoes. We’re only facing a loss of a billion or two from the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

In other news, looks like we’ve also been hit with a $100 million bailout for the athlete’s village.

But who’s counting…

Barney Frank Gets His _ _ _ Handed To Him

October 4th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Economy

Finally, someone accurately accuses and challenges a member of Congress over his involvement in this current financial crisis.

Barney Frank, the failed Chairman of the House Services Committee for his role in the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac, gets taken to task, finally.

One other point that isn’t made very often:

When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate in January of 2007, the Dow Jones was at an all-time high of 12,400 and gas prices around $2.15 per gallon. The Republican-led Congress of the previous 4-years had left a strong-economy in the hands of Democrats.
In two years two years, under Democrat-controlled Congress the Dow Jones hit a 5-year low of 10,485 and gas prices loomed near $4 dollars a gallon.

This Congress is the worst in history and not enough attention has been paid to this fact.

Love him or hate him, O’Reilly serves a purpose.

Coquitlam - What you need to know

July 24th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in All about Vancouver

photo credit: black_wave

Now that we’ve been in Port Moody / Coquitlam for two months now, we’ve really started to discover a lot of the areas hidden attractions.

The best part of Coquitlam is north of the mall (you can’t miss it) - everything north of the Lougheed Highway.

Here’s our list of the top 5 things to know about living in Coquitlam:

1) Finding a rental in Coquitlam isn’t easy - but there are lots. Web searches yield poor results and crappy sites. Drive the area and talk to a realtor… failing that Craigs list works well.

2) The great restaurants are a bit hidden - don’t miss Rosa’s Cucina Italiana. It’s is a small, family-owned and operated Italian restaurant in downtown Port Moody. The mom and pop-type eatery is popular for its homemade pastas and large portions and as such draws a regular crowd. Arrive early or later (open from 4-10PM - no reservations often mean there are lines at the door once the place fills up.
Address: 2301 Clarke St. Port Moody

3) Nature is everywhere. Bike paths hiking, lakes and the list goes on. There is a road at the back of Coquitlam that takes you on a nature drive that is second to none… go north on Coast Meridan Road - you’ll end up in Pinecone Lake / Burke Mountain Park (motorbike is even better).

4) It snows on the Westwood Plateau / Heritage Mountain… and the best homes are just above the snowline. The sacrifice for the view is well worth it.

5) The Coquitlam schools and Port Moody ones are overloaded.. we had to go to three to find a spot for our 13-year old. Happy, but no bus for us.

Last thing.. no Coquitlam hotels to speak of… make sure to rent a car when traveling to Vancouver.