I love cities, how they work and the people who shape them -- so that's what my blog is about. To me, writing about the city means everything from the impact your local convenience store has on how the neighbourhood runs to who the mayor likes to hang around with. I've been writing about cities and the things that go on in them for almost two decades, starting officially with the year I went to live and work in Montreal, 1991. That's where I got to describe what it's like to adapt to a whole new city and its unique customs. Vancouver is a fascinating place to write about because it's got such a quirky personality. It's new and always changing and kind of unsure of its place in the world and proud of all the good parts of the city and ashamed of the terrible problems and filled with both tremendous energy and a host of interesting sub-cultures. I always like to tell people that I have the ideal background for a journalist: a degree in French literature and half a dozen years working in the commercial fishing industry. That means I see city life as a long, extended novel about the way human society works. I also understand the primary industries that have underpinned B.C.'s economy forever, the people and region that made Vancouver.