More than 2,000 condos sitting empty in Metro Vancouver amid housing crisis - BC | Globalnews.ca
More than 2,000 condos sitting empty in Metro Vancouver amid housing crisis - BC | Globalnews.ca
Housing crisis? There ain't no stinkn' housing crisis.
There is, however, an 'overabundance of stupid' crisis.
Just allocating these for unhoused people would make Vancouver have no unhoused people. https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/homeless-count.aspx#%3A%7E%3Atext=Results%3A%2C605+unsheltered fuck for profit housing.
I'm just picturing a couple families in a Coal Harbour building meeting their new neighbours, including that guy I watched punch a brick wall while yelling about the "shit Panic fucks" before I had to nope the fuck out of there (I'm dark enough that I get tagged with almost non Caucasian ethnicity.)
Kind of ironic that as a Coal Harbour resident, the scariest person of the neighbourhood is a bald white dude that harasses any visibly vulnerable that passes by, also random people at times but he's a bully so he prefers harassing the homeless, delivery drivers and random minorities. He lives at the building right in front of mine and I'd trade him for getting as new neighbours 10 currently unhoused citizens undergoing treatment, because this bald fuck surely isn't treating whatever he has going on. Fucking "concerned citizens", much worse than whoever makes them clutch pearls.
I can imagine that being scary. But I'd also say that wellness checks should be made to struggling families for them to succeed.
Captalist democracy is not real democracy
Can you really have 'true democracy' in a species that has such a strong herd mentality as humans do? True democracy depends on 'free will', 'independent thought', and 'knowledge'. When the population in general can be so easily swayed to go along with one person's dogma or another, willfully ignorant and politically unintelligent, what is the meaning of 'democracy' except that it is about 'best at intimidating, charming, or marketing'? In a herd species, the 'election' is all about 'who do you want to be the dictator?'
We have the technology to switch from representative democracy to direct democracy. There would also need to be major changes to educate everyone on the topics being voted on. That would be a huge improvement if we can keep that education less corrupted by monied interests.
Same problem in Montréal, thousands of empty condos, they are small and expensive. And condo fee kill the deal compared to owning a house...
We have a similar problem in some downtown places here - Investors / rich-folk buy them up for reasons, and then when they are done (or 'disused') they sit empty for ever, driving prices up.
I believe I saw a motion (but no action) to tax empty condos at a higher rate than fully-occupied ones.
Our neighbour unit is sitting empty since we moved last july. It is a 3 bedroom unit.
Carney was actually just asked about the housing crisis, here it is at 20:30 into the video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q_C9a5BWiTE&pp=ygUQY2FybmV5IHF1ZXN0aW9ucw%3D%3D&start=1227
Carney must be the first PM that I can remember, who actually fleshes out answers, rather than avoiding them. Impressive, to say the least, as it shows a clear understanding of the subjects he's being asked about.
Condos are stupid. The worst of both worlds between apartment renting and home mortgage.
All I know about condos are that condo fees are quite high. It's like $800 / month for the ones I've seen in Toronto. A lot of people see that as reasonable but it feels like a lot to me.
Fees vary here in Vancouver Metro area. Some at $300, ours went up to $500. Part of the problem is your fees are supposed to build a contingency fund this cover prescribed maintenance, and emergency repairs, however you vote yearly to approve the budgets. Most owners don't want higher fees so vote to keep the fee low. This means the operating budget suffers and preventative work may be delayed or skipped. This turns into higher emergency repairs, or higher cost as delayed projects deal with vendor inflation. So at some point fees sky rocket to catch up.
The condo insurance premiums are going into the strata-sphere as well.
As a former homeowner and former renter, now living in a condo, its also the best of those. We are building equity rather than losing rent money monthly, and when things break somebody else fixes it.
I think a lot of them also have HOAs, too. At least in the USA, dunno about CA.
And at least with a house mortgage you usually get a lawn...
Bit different. The condo is a legal company ,collects fees
To operate the building maintenance and repair, insurance, snow removal, etc.
All owners vote yearly on changes to bylaws, or projects to be done.
I.e.hypothetically there could be laws about no blue patio furniture, however if majority of owners vote for allowing blue, then it gets changed.
Its an owner run corporation.
you usually get a lawn…
Fish don't need bicycles, and we don't need to hoard greenspace when it can be consolidated very well into something useful by so many more people.
At larger scale, consolidating greenspace surrounding clusters of effective dense mixed-use residential cuts land-use tremendously, re-wilds a lot of other space or returns it to agriculture, and achieves the density required for better transit and savings on infrastructure costs. The housing has to be effective, and I think the new "mixed-use consolidated over a transit stop" configuration is a definite winner ... as long as it's not wood (aka Fire's Favourite Food).