Brian - I read and forward all of your City Conversations to a group of over 150 friends and neighbours. I encourage them to write to Council and to speak at this weeks meeting on July 6th.
I signed up last night to speak and today received the hugely disappointing notice that I'm #10 on the list. #10! I'm afraid that those who haven't gone away for summer holidays are just too burned out by the Broadway Plan and now this is too overwhelming. We're done for - no doubt about it.
Thank you for your passion for this beautiful city we have called home for many years. It's days are doomed.
This council is in power and will use it to promote their agenda. This behaviour is to be expected but not rewarded.
The people who didn’t vote last time won’t vote this time. The more freebies and handouts offered the more votes “they” will receive!
We bought a house in a major road and now I hear people complaining that if social housing or low income (% of), goes in that “we” will be abusing the poor and low income people by housing them in a new building on a street where we have lived over 20 years. Not once has the city or any person ever considered the impact on “us” (home buyers) who paid fair market value to live here in spite of road noise!
I don’t like what is being done by the council I voted against and don’t believe their plan will work when 1/2 a duplex cost more than the original property sold for in most cases.
The plan will pass! The lowest common denominator will prevail and we will be told to be happy!
In no way was proper consultation done over this plan but did anyone expect it would be done? And now a SkyTrain will come in front of our home and although we carried the mortgage and risked potentially higher interest rates the whole time, the city believes we shouldn’t (developers should not) reap financial gains from having bought the place and developers who will do the work and carry more financial burden and risk!
The average person is none too bright and we are now not just pandering to the average we are catering to those who have contributed the least (exceptions granted for those with real problems who deserve our help and good faith), and we will not recover! It is the “tragedy of the commons” for our time!
Young people don’t know history and can’t even define what a “woman” is! I agree with Mark Twain on two points.
Land is the one thing they aren’t making any more of…,
We are all in the gutter of life, it’s just that some of us are looking up at the stars!
As I have said before, the Broadway Plan and now the Vancouver Plan are not “plans”, they are development proposals and would not be acceptable as community plans by the BC Municipal Act. A plan without equal weight to public amenity, facilities, and services is not a plan. I took pride in doing plans that included these things for Vancouver. Sadly, that is not the case recently.
I read all of your City conversations. Thank you for your clear and needed views.
This is failure of democracy. City council has not included citizens in this decision. They are pushing through an agenda that most people in the city don't really understand. The mayor and council say they are building for the future, for affordability and density.
We know there are other ways to do this and each neighbourhood has ideas. I don't understand the mayor? What is he getting from this? The developers seem to be running the council.
It makes me uncomfortable. It feels like the USA Republican Party pushing Supreme Court nominations just before elections ... and look where that has got them.
We need to work hard to get a new Mayor and council October.
Thanks for all this analysis--one does go cross eyed combing through this 'Developers Guide to Building and Owning the Towered Housing Solution=The Vancouver Plan....for selling off the ground we all stand on.
Our current batch of planner and most of Council, as well as the Provincial and Federal gov. are all about the easiest real estate transfer and fee collection formulas--and Towers--the taller the better...are their answer of choice. Developers agree and insist there is no better an economic--or even 'other' possible solutions...but that they build and own them--sell and rent them...and pay as little as possible for the human scaled community amenities like the ones that make Vancouver so desirable--community centers, libraries, parks, and more that retain the distinct community history and character across Vancouver. Too hard to reboot the Co-op movement. Too hard to build much of anything affordable for the 30 % of service sector workers they still need to work in the Safeways, clean the towers of power and those mountain view suites, provide care for the children of the best paid tech workers and upper management class.
Wise to remember what happened to Vision Vancouver when that Council forgot to honor a City Plan so many citizens voluntarily committed hours and years to. Trust just gets thinner and thinner.
Every single community plan wants affordable, human scale, low to mid rise housing built that at least that Safeway clerk with two kids can afford to live in. All want social housing that leaves no one camping in the streets or fearing they will be on the streets any day now. All want mixed housing solutions that see us all dancing together in our parks--and on required green roof tops--
on Canada days to come.
Who lives in these towers we have already? Who lives in them only a month or two a year? Who owns units in them? What are their incomes? How many think of the empty homes tax as chump change? How may units have 3 or 4 people living in a one bedroom? Who are those folks? How many children live in any of them? Who can afford to live in the new ones?
Interesting to know. Good board game data. Maybe a project for the GVRD research crew and UBC urban planning department... Include some of those eager high school students in Social Justice classes. This is the future housing being 'planned' for them too.
Well if being ignored ..must find 'possible' allies like ___<_ who advocate for the working poor and might be harder to ignore?
Even MetroVancouver has a lot of research material/ data on housing issues across Metro.
as do other municipal
planning departments...all are simmering in the same pot.
Municipalities having only limited taxing authority..Developers take advantage of that of course.
Trying to address an affordability crisis through suppy side economics has not worked in the past and will not now. Housing is not a commodity..it is a basic human need.
Brian - I read and forward all of your City Conversations to a group of over 150 friends and neighbours. I encourage them to write to Council and to speak at this weeks meeting on July 6th.
I signed up last night to speak and today received the hugely disappointing notice that I'm #10 on the list. #10! I'm afraid that those who haven't gone away for summer holidays are just too burned out by the Broadway Plan and now this is too overwhelming. We're done for - no doubt about it.
Thank you for your passion for this beautiful city we have called home for many years. It's days are doomed.
Thank you. This needs to be reviewed by a new council not this one.
This council is in power and will use it to promote their agenda. This behaviour is to be expected but not rewarded.
The people who didn’t vote last time won’t vote this time. The more freebies and handouts offered the more votes “they” will receive!
We bought a house in a major road and now I hear people complaining that if social housing or low income (% of), goes in that “we” will be abusing the poor and low income people by housing them in a new building on a street where we have lived over 20 years. Not once has the city or any person ever considered the impact on “us” (home buyers) who paid fair market value to live here in spite of road noise!
I don’t like what is being done by the council I voted against and don’t believe their plan will work when 1/2 a duplex cost more than the original property sold for in most cases.
The plan will pass! The lowest common denominator will prevail and we will be told to be happy!
In no way was proper consultation done over this plan but did anyone expect it would be done? And now a SkyTrain will come in front of our home and although we carried the mortgage and risked potentially higher interest rates the whole time, the city believes we shouldn’t (developers should not) reap financial gains from having bought the place and developers who will do the work and carry more financial burden and risk!
The average person is none too bright and we are now not just pandering to the average we are catering to those who have contributed the least (exceptions granted for those with real problems who deserve our help and good faith), and we will not recover! It is the “tragedy of the commons” for our time!
Young people don’t know history and can’t even define what a “woman” is! I agree with Mark Twain on two points.
Land is the one thing they aren’t making any more of…,
We are all in the gutter of life, it’s just that some of us are looking up at the stars!
As I have said before, the Broadway Plan and now the Vancouver Plan are not “plans”, they are development proposals and would not be acceptable as community plans by the BC Municipal Act. A plan without equal weight to public amenity, facilities, and services is not a plan. I took pride in doing plans that included these things for Vancouver. Sadly, that is not the case recently.
I read all of your City conversations. Thank you for your clear and needed views.
This is failure of democracy. City council has not included citizens in this decision. They are pushing through an agenda that most people in the city don't really understand. The mayor and council say they are building for the future, for affordability and density.
We know there are other ways to do this and each neighbourhood has ideas. I don't understand the mayor? What is he getting from this? The developers seem to be running the council.
It makes me uncomfortable. It feels like the USA Republican Party pushing Supreme Court nominations just before elections ... and look where that has got them.
We need to work hard to get a new Mayor and council October.
Thanks for all this analysis--one does go cross eyed combing through this 'Developers Guide to Building and Owning the Towered Housing Solution=The Vancouver Plan....for selling off the ground we all stand on.
Our current batch of planner and most of Council, as well as the Provincial and Federal gov. are all about the easiest real estate transfer and fee collection formulas--and Towers--the taller the better...are their answer of choice. Developers agree and insist there is no better an economic--or even 'other' possible solutions...but that they build and own them--sell and rent them...and pay as little as possible for the human scaled community amenities like the ones that make Vancouver so desirable--community centers, libraries, parks, and more that retain the distinct community history and character across Vancouver. Too hard to reboot the Co-op movement. Too hard to build much of anything affordable for the 30 % of service sector workers they still need to work in the Safeways, clean the towers of power and those mountain view suites, provide care for the children of the best paid tech workers and upper management class.
Wise to remember what happened to Vision Vancouver when that Council forgot to honor a City Plan so many citizens voluntarily committed hours and years to. Trust just gets thinner and thinner.
Every single community plan wants affordable, human scale, low to mid rise housing built that at least that Safeway clerk with two kids can afford to live in. All want social housing that leaves no one camping in the streets or fearing they will be on the streets any day now. All want mixed housing solutions that see us all dancing together in our parks--and on required green roof tops--
on Canada days to come.
Who lives in these towers we have already? Who lives in them only a month or two a year? Who owns units in them? What are their incomes? How many think of the empty homes tax as chump change? How may units have 3 or 4 people living in a one bedroom? Who are those folks? How many children live in any of them? Who can afford to live in the new ones?
Interesting to know. Good board game data. Maybe a project for the GVRD research crew and UBC urban planning department... Include some of those eager high school students in Social Justice classes. This is the future housing being 'planned' for them too.
David Ebby could consult.
Some may think this is just a rant.
Other know better.
Schula
Well if being ignored ..must find 'possible' allies like ___<_ who advocate for the working poor and might be harder to ignore?
Even MetroVancouver has a lot of research material/ data on housing issues across Metro.
as do other municipal
planning departments...all are simmering in the same pot.
Municipalities having only limited taxing authority..Developers take advantage of that of course.
Trying to address an affordability crisis through suppy side economics has not worked in the past and will not now. Housing is not a commodity..it is a basic human need.
Schula Leonard