Coun. Suzanne Anton’s Casino Expansion Vote Confusing For Many

Okay, I admit that I’m still a bit confused over Coun. Suzanne Anton’s rationale for voting for Mayor Gregor Robertson’s amended Edgewater Casino plan and moratorium on gambling expansion even though she says she supports an expansion of the casino.

And I’m not the only one. Virtually everyone I talked to is scratching their heads trying to figure out what Anton was doing when she joined a unanimous vote that, in its true effect, solidly killed Paragon Gaming’s $500 million casino and hotel plans for BC Place.

The motion was clear: the city would allow hotel and commercial use on the property and allow Paragon to move the existing 600-slot Edgewater there. But it also said “no dice” to the big honkin’ casino Paragon and B.C. Lottery Corp wanted, and just to make that exceptionally clear put in a moratorium until BCLC comes back with solutions to a laundry list of problems. The media wrote that this was a unanimous decision rejecting the expansion. As in 11-0. As in no dissenters.

bit.ly/2Aj2TF7 via @VancouverSun

The Birth Of A City - Vancouver, BC

In 1862, John Morton, Samuel Brighouse and William Hailstone were mocked for spending $555 on a big chunk of land squeezed between Burrard Inlet, English Bay and a pair of government reserves.

New Westminster was the main town on the B.C. mainland; only “three greenhorn Englishmen” would lay claim to 550 acres of swampy forest in the middle of nowhere.

But the Three Greenhorns had the last laugh — although it took awhile. In 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway decided to locate its terminus at the head of Burrard Inlet, where the provincial government had quietly given the company 6,000 acres of land.

On April 6, 1886, the City of Vancouver was incorporated. And the Three Greenhorns’ great folly became the West End.

bit.ly/2SjiZ8L via @VancouverSun