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The move to liberate government records was welcomed by the provincial organization that monitors the state of information more closely than any other, the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

"There is more and more information available in computer files, but the trend, unfortunately, so far has been that increasingly that information is restricted," said Richard Rosenberg, a computer-science professor who is the association's president. He started working with computers in the 1960s, and there was hope the technology would be a great tool for democracy.

Instead, governments have become more wary about releasing information, especially in B.C.

"There's this underlying feeling from bureaucrats and politicians that releasing information would come back to haunt them."

A plan to house Vancouver's homeless is taking shape on the drawing board of a local architect. It calls for the rapid erection of temporary villages assembled from the same type of modular units that mining companies provide for remote workers.

"Stop Gap Housing" is what architect Gregory Henriquez calls it.

Henriquez, whose Woodward's includes 200 units of social housing built to last hundreds of years, stressed that Stop Gap Housing would never replace permanent homes.

"It's portable dwellings. It's not meant to be a permanent fixture on the landscape. But it could serve for several years until we complete the construction of permanent housing," he said. "I think it's better than leaving people homeless."

the crux of Vancouver's exploding homelessness problem is as follows: social and economic dislocation is rendering British Columbians homeless much faster than BC Housing can build homes for them.

"The big issue has to do with permitting," Henriquez said. "For a normal social housing building, you might need rezoning, then you need a development permit, then a building permit. That takes years."

But Stop Gap Homes would rest on wooden blocking, not permanent foundations.

"These can all be done through temporary permitting," Henriquez said. "It's a 12-month permit that can be renewed."

Kwantlen and the Richmond food security task force have joined forces to launch the ground-breaking program in 2009 as a way to allow young farmers to get into the industry and to meet the growing demand for locally produced food.

"The potential for this kind of agriculture to develop into a substantial component of the local and regional economy cannot be understated," Mullinix said.

he program would require about two hectares of land to start, and could partner with the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project, which already has a presence at the proposed city sites and is growing food for local food banks.

Mullinix said the program would be flexible for students who want part-time and short-term instruction as well as those seeking a full-time four-year baccalaureate program, with an emphasis on teaching in the field rather than the traditional classroom setting.

The goal is to start the program in early 2009 with perhaps a dozen students and build from there.

VANCOUVER I The city's gloomy skyline is about to receive a shot of colour as hundreds of dazzling artworks are strung up for the 50th annual street banners display.

"I decided I had to do something very colourful, because the city is so rainy, so cloudy," said Vancouver artist Bratsa Bonifacho, at the unveiling of his works at city hall Tuesday.

And he has: the six works -- which will be hung in various combinations this summer along the Burrard and Cambie street bridges, Georgia and Burrard streets and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts -- are bursting with neon pinks, electric blues and brilliant oranges.

The intricate banners, composed of grids of stylized letters and symbols, come from a series entitled Habitat Pixel, which is inspired by a virus that invaded Bonifacho's computer.

Rather than frustration, Bonifacho was seized with fascination when "the whole screen jammed with numbers and pixels."

The final works look cryptic, and they are: Bonifacho said the banners are encoded with secret messages.

"But I'm never going to reveal it," he said with a laugh.

"It could be Latin, it could be French. It could be Chinese."

At Tuesday's unveiling, Mayor Sam Sullivan presented Bonifacho with a $1,500 honorarium and thanked him for creating "a visual feast for the pure enjoyment of the public."

The tradition of Vancouver street banners dates back to the B.C. Centenary in 1958, when a team spruced up the city by flying banners as well as stringing strands of dogwood blossoms over Granville and Hastings streets and floated a dragon on Lost Lagoon.

Jack Shadbolt, Tony Onley, Gordon Smith and Bill Reid are among the artists whose works have been displayed on the banners over the years.

Downtown corporate office towers will be rebranded on Friday and Saturday night when a group of graffiti artists paint their 10-metre tall designs on the sides of buildings with light.

The non-destructive art form uses new open-source software called laser tagging. It allows artists to create real-time designs with light instead of Jiffy markers and spray cans.

Called NeoGraf, the digital graffiti performances will be taking place as part of Midforms and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

On both nights, the digital graffiti starts and ends at Open Studios, 252 East First Ave. On Friday, artists Rhek and Virus will be doing laser tagging and over the course of several hours and they'll be moving to several locations in the downtown core including the east wall of the Holiday Inn on Howe and Helmcken. For location details check http://2007.newformsfestival.com/neograf.

On Saturday, artists Neal Nolan and Adam Dodd will be creating more detailed and complex murals. The software allows artists to create different looks, ranging from standard, hard-edge graffiti to more painterly images.

NeoGraf is being brought to Vancouver by NomIg, a Montreal-based duo that investigates the relationships between audio and video.

Ed Jordan from NomIg said people are invited to drop by, watch, and participate on Friday.

"You'll see on Friday a crowd of people and some spontaneous drawing on walls. It'll look large and bright. You'll probably see someone drawing a stick man to people who will be doing some skilled patterns and drawing," Jordan said from Montreal.

"We'll probably have some music playing. These aren't already created images just being projected on a wall. This is about watching the creative process unfold."

Jordan said he came up with the Neografik Project as a way of reclaiming public space by filling it with art instead of corporate logos. The software for laser tagging was developed by new media artist Agent Watson in Amsterdam and the Graffiti Research Lab in Brooklyn, N.Y.

NeoGraf is the most visible portion of Midforms, an annual multidisciplinary festival celebrating new technology and music. Midforms also includes Dubforms, which explores dub and electronic music, on Friday, and TechForms, an electronic and ambient music event, on Saturday. Both are ticketed events that take place at 10 p.m. each night at Open Studios.

These are the factors that are starting to drive businesses, employees and infrastructure to places such as Richmond, Surrey, Langley and Abbotsford. In the recent economic boom, jobs in Vancouver are growing at less than 2 per cent, compared with 10 per cent for Metro Vancouver's 21 municipalities. Combine all this with downturns in the export industry from the rising dollar, and it spells trouble for this growing city.

In the VEDC report, business and community leaders speak about a hollowing out, the prospect that Vancouver could be a bedroom community enjoyed by the wealthy, owned by absentee condo owners who prefer to do business elsewhere.

How will Vancouver keep businesses from voting with their feet, and taking their jobs and tax payments - and thus quality of life - with them?