Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson seemed to acknowledge on CBC Radio this morning (September 2) that there is a real estate bubble in Vancouver.

In an interview with Gregor Craigie, guest host of The Early Edition, Robertson was asked about a recent housing report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Gregor Craigie: "It must not be very nice to hear the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives talk about a bubble in this market. There is a big real-estate bubble."

Gregor Robertson: "There is. You know, Vancouver is a popular place. A lot of people want to be here. We have incredible properties like the Olympic Village, which are world class, but we're not immune to the global recession and the impact that has on real estate. We hopefully don't suffer the same depth of challenge and hopefully we get through it smoother."

Craigie also asked Robertson about the relatively poor sales at the Olympic Village since the relaunch of a marketing campaign in May. According to CBC, only 26 units were sold, with 483 still on the market from the original batch of 737.

"I think we all remain concerned that the project stays on track," Robertson replied. "The taxpayers are at risk on this. We are backing up the project as we found out when I took office. There is still a substantial risk there related to the project. We had great exposure, but the sales have not been as brisk as expected due to the real estate market."

The mayor added: "Taxpayers are basically on the line for the whole project. It's hundreds of millions of dollars that we have exposure on. Hopefully the real estate market bounces back over these next couple of years and the sales pick up and we recoup that investment. But the market is challenged right now and we got to hope...it turns around."

Whenever Robertson has some bad news to deliver, his media outlet of choice is usually CBC Radio's morning program.

Why is that? The regular host, Rick Cluff, almost never grills him. In addition, the interviews are short enough that a well-briefed politician can talk out the clock without having to take calls from listeners.

Here's another reason for choosing the morning show. The host of the afternoon program, Stephen Quinn, is a former municipal-affairs reporter who sometimes asks politicians tough questions.

CBC Radio also has a large urban audience, whereas CKNW's listeners are more apt to live in the suburbs. It makes sense for the mayor to choose a media outlet that will reach Vancouver listeners.

(As an aside, the mayor was lucky that national reporter Laura Lynch wasn't in the chair. Any politician who heard her brilliant cross-examination of an Enbridge spokesperson on last night's As It Happens show will be sure to do their homework before walking into her studio.)

So what else did the mayor say? Here are some of his comments

"I think there is a range of opinions about the morale and conditions at City Hall. We've made a lot of changes in two years. I was elected with my Vision Vancouver colleagues on a platform of change, and really modernizing City Hall, making it more productive, and opening it up, making it more transparent and accountable. And that's been tough for some staff. It's been, I think, welcomed by a lot of staff as well."

"Coming through some tough budgets, people have varying opinions about how things are going....We are in the middle of conducting the first comprehensive employee survey that has ever been done at City Hall, so we are cognizant that there are challenges. This is a challenging tmie for every government, every organization, so we've got to address the concerns. And also, we've got to forge ahead with the changes that we're making."

"I am less than two years into being mayor here in Vancouver. I have certainly, if I've erred, it's been on the side of being ambitious and wanting to get stuff done. I think a lot of people were frustrated with the pace of change, the way that City Hall was addressing homelessness, climate and green issues, economy when we have a recession thrust upon us. We have to get proactive. I'm sure I've upset some people and pushed things too fast at times. But I think that's in response really to the needs of this time."

"We want to really redo how the city engages with communities on development. That's been a clunky process for many, many years. I don't think it makes anyone happy in that process because it's quite adversarial. The community doesn't get a whole lot of time to engage in the process of change and how development should be done in their neighbourhoods, so we want to revisit that."

"The West End does not have a comprehensive plan right now. As proposals come forward, as developers are entitled to do as they buy land and seek to make change on it, we uhm, we don't have a master plan for the West End. We don't have that for about a half-dozen other neighbourhoods. We need to accelerate that process, get communities in the mix in a meaningful way, and figure out how we do get rental housing and affordable housing built. They are really urgent issues here in Vancouver. So we've got to balance that out, get good feedback and get the rental and affordable housing built."

"We're going to the World Expo in Shanghai. I'm speaking at World Economic Forum. We're really looking to make deals happen on the ground with companies and with government in China who do the majority of purchasing there. I want to see deals happen for local companies, particularly in technology, whether it's digital media or green technology. Green buildings, we're a great powerhouse globally. We need to get deals in China where the greatest opportunities are."

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.