|
Seriously is every city in BC that isn't Vancouver or a hellish resource outpost banking their entire economy and long range growth forecasts on "Rich people will want to retire here" ? At least Victoria is desperately trying to get away from that... to an extent.
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 15:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:54 |
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:What? All those houses that got washed away in that flood were supposedly million dollar houses. The ones along the river were multimillion. The surrounding area is a mish-mash of 300k condos, character homes that have ballooned in value, and college kids renting. Source: still homeless due to flood.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 15:31
|
|
|
When I worked in high tech in Kelowna over 10 years ago they explained their poo poo salaries for IT workers as "the sunshine tax". Ho Ho Ho what a wonderful city.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 17:14
|
|
|
Squibbles posted:When I worked in high tech in Kelowna over 10 years ago they explained their poo poo salaries for IT workers as "the sunshine tax". Ho Ho Ho what a wonderful city. Similar phenomenon in Vancouver. Apparently mountains [visible only 25% of the year] are edible.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 17:19
|
|
|
And in Victoria we have the "Island tax" to explain our poo poo salaries and higher costs for basic things. Well I guess it's sort of a real thing since everything has to be transported by ferry.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 17:54
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:The overarching theme is that most of these places would actually be pretty nice if property prices were in line with most other first country rural backwaters with no jobs, but with current price levels they are all terrible. So Canada is basically composed of 2 markets, "place with tolerable weather but no jobs and priced like only hedge fund managers live there" and "Winnipeg". I actually got in a small-scale fight with a friend about this last night - basically me being fed up with Vancouver and him asking wtf is wrong with Vancouver other than the house prices and people bitching about Vancouver. I went into my usual "gently caress Vancouver" diatribe about how it barely has anything going for it and his point was basically "ok so what other cities that aren't actual honest-to-god top 10 world class urban centers with even higher prices for everything do it better?" And that kinda shut me up because yeah I mean we're not going to be New York or London, and that's perfectly fine really, it really is just the matter of housing prices not at all being consistent with the sort of city Vancouver actually is. That really is the only significant problem. Everything else? I mean, we got rich douchebags, but what city you'd actually want to live in doesn't? Even the socialist paradise cities like Stockholm or Vienna are going through turbo-bubbles of their own right now, plus my german is only getting worse and I hear swedish ain't easy to learn. I'd probably move to Amsterdam though. Prices look... less insane and dutch seems like a weird fusion of german and english, I hear it's not too bad to pick up. The missus would miss her family though. So yeah, Vancouver is nice, Kelowna is nice, this bubble is ruining both though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 19:55
|
|
|
Eej posted:Rich people don't even live in Kelowna, they live in mansion nestled in the hills overlooking the lane in one of the small towns in between Kelowna and Penticton. Nicola Valley is loving gorgeous and you can get fresh as in died-that-day grassfed beef not to mention dairy from the actual farm, if I were rich I'd probably spend a lot of time being rich that aways.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 19:56
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:I'd probably move to Amsterdam though. Prices look... less insane and dutch seems like a weird fusion of german and english, I hear it's not too bad to pick up. The missus would miss her family though. I just came from there and it'd be a cool place to move to. It's so heavily English already that you would have plenty of time to learn Dutch instead of being thrown to the wolves and it's a great city. Small city though, and it's wet, though a wet city wouldn't matter as much if you're coming from Vancouver.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:00
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:I actually got in a small-scale fight with a friend about this last night - basically me being fed up with Vancouver and him asking wtf is wrong with Vancouver other than the house prices and people bitching about Vancouver. I went into my usual "gently caress Vancouver" diatribe about how it barely has anything going for it and his point was basically "ok so what other cities that aren't actual honest-to-god top 10 world class urban centers with even higher prices for everything do it better?" And that kinda shut me up because yeah I mean we're not going to be New York or London, and that's perfectly fine really, it really is just the matter of housing prices not at all being consistent with the sort of city Vancouver actually is. That really is the only significant problem. Everything else? I mean, we got rich douchebags, but what city you'd actually want to live in doesn't? Even the socialist paradise cities like Stockholm or Vienna are going through turbo-bubbles of their own right now, plus my german is only getting worse and I hear swedish ain't easy to learn. You would be front-running the bursting of the bubble.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:03
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:swedish ain't easy to learn.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:03
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:So yeah, Vancouver is nice, Kelowna is nice, this bubble is ruining both though. Canada definitely lacks middle-ground cities. We have 'nice' cities like Vancouver and Toronto which have on-the-surface attractive attributes except you need to be a hedge-fund director to own property, and 'poo poo' cities like Edmonton and Winnipeg which are at least [semi] affordable but have significant downsides. We don't really have Seattle/Denver/Austin equivalents. No, London, Ontario et al don't count. The downside of such a small population I guess.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
I have a relation living in Kelowna that bought his land on disputed Aboriginal territory. It's not worth a hill of beans, so to pad out his portfolio he went and bought some land in Costa Rica that he might not have title to, and that is cut off from any and all development equipment. He's...not great with money.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:08
|
|
|
Lobok posted:I just came from there and it'd be a cool place to move to. It's so heavily English already that you would have plenty of time to learn Dutch instead of being thrown to the wolves and it's a great city. Small city though, and it's wet, though a wet city wouldn't matter as much if you're coming from Vancouver. I don't deal with heat well. Before Vancouver I lived in Brasov which was Romania's "rains 8 days a week" city. I can deal with rain. Rain and I? We cool. As for smallness, the interesting commercial districts are like orders of magnitude bigger than Vancouver's from what I saw. Transit is top-notch too, like you could actually realistically live way out in the outskirts and commute by train if you really wanted to. Throatwarbler posted:You would be front-running the bursting of the bubble. I saw apartments listed at 150K euro in the middle of the city. They know nothing of bubbles, nothing!
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:Canada definitely lacks middle-ground cities. We have 'nice' cities like Vancouver and Toronto which have on-the-surface attractive attributes except you need to be a hedge-fund director to own property, and 'poo poo' cities like Edmonton and Winnipeg which are at least [semi] affordable but have significant downsides. Seattle be bubblin' already. Pretty much any city on the coast has gone up severely. That whole QE thing really is making this a global phenomenon from what I can tell. This is going to turn very very nasty if nobody is going to bother controlling for its effect on mortgages.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:11
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:Seattle be bubblin' already. Pretty much any city on the coast has gone up severely. That whole QE thing really is making this a global phenomenon from what I can tell. This is going to turn very very nasty if nobody is going to bother controlling for its effect on mortgages. Interesting. I did not know that. Still, their average SFH price must be a mere fraction of Vancouver's? And it has, you know, a real economy to support expensive houses of course. The Puget Sound region is an economic powerhouse.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:16
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:Interesting. I did not know that. When my partner feels like making herself depressed, she takes a look at houses for sale in Portland. She then emails them to me to depress me. And like Seattle, Portland has some commerce and industries unrelated to condo tower construction.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:21
|
|
|
For all of you who are under 30 and haven't left Canada to work overseas for a few years, why the gently caress not? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city Move to an Alpha++ city and work there for a few years then come back. You will take the local talent pool to loving town in competition for jobs. At least with respect to the IT industry, there's a good loving reason why companies like Lululemon and Telus have workforces that are significantly foreign.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:35
|
|
|
Seattle's ports really make me feel all defensive and insecure about Tsawwassen terminal, to say nothing about our adorable little Centerm terminal. You also see the occasional CVBG in the harbor for servicing. And it's all next to their actual industrial district which could fit all of GVRD's industrial output in maybe 3 blocks. There I go again with the hatin'...
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:38
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:For all of you who are under 30 and haven't left Canada to work overseas for a few years, why the gently caress not? I did this straight out of UBC and it was probably the best decision of my life.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:39
|
|
StoicRomance posted:I have a relation living in Kelowna that bought his land on disputed Aboriginal territory. [...] He can open a pet cemetery to make some cash.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:44
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:For all of you who are under 30 and haven't left Canada to work overseas for a few years, why the gently caress not? ... I don't think I've ever worked with anyone from either London or New York. At least with respect to IT companies the brightest bulbs I've ran into are usually evenly distributed from all over the place in terms of education or city of origin or background. But that could easily just be because I value well-rounded people that can apply common sense to not-entirely-technical problems and know how to get along with actual IRL people on a day to day basis and have the ability to explain and discuss their decisions over some whizkid that will solve some low-priority problem by writing a custom (undocumented, buggy, unusable) kernel over the weekend without discussing it with anyone.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:47
|
|
|
Seattle is doing super well, it's expensive not out of speculation but because it's being flooded with people making very high salaries plus I think it's a lot nicer than Vancouver in a lot of ways, specially the downtown. It feels like a real living breathing city with a booming economy rather than some real-estate Potemkin village with AMAZING MOUNTAIN VIEWS. Their waterfront is a loving disaster though but they're fixing it. Growth funded by actual jobs? Apparently that's actually a thing some cities do!
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:50
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:I actually got in a small-scale fight with a friend about this last night - basically me being fed up with Vancouver and him asking wtf is wrong with Vancouver other than the house prices and people bitching about Vancouver. I went into my usual "gently caress Vancouver" diatribe about how it barely has anything going for it and his point was basically "ok so what other cities that aren't actual honest-to-god top 10 world class urban centers with even higher prices for everything do it better?" And that kinda shut me up because yeah I mean we're not going to be New York or London, and that's perfectly fine really, it really is just the matter of housing prices not at all being consistent with the sort of city Vancouver actually is. That really is the only significant problem. Everything else? I mean, we got rich douchebags, but what city you'd actually want to live in doesn't? Even the socialist paradise cities like Stockholm or Vienna are going through turbo-bubbles of their own right now, plus my german is only getting worse and I hear swedish ain't easy to learn. A friend of mine currently lives in Munich and he's paying 2000 EUR for a 2 bed flat in the middle of Munich. That is not insignificant but if you were to move to an outlying village your rent would be significantly lower. Not only that, the transportation links between your pastoral village and anywhere of any economic significance would probably be of a sane and humane duration. This is the result of societies with mindsets where producing value for the shareholder isn't the most important goal in life. Regarding Amsterdam; I've spent about of month living there on work related business and it is hands down my favorite place on the continent, and not for the usual white trash tourist reasons. I spent quite a bit of time exploring the 'suburbs' and villages surrounding Amsterdam and they are amazing places to live. Aside, the Netherlands is currently experiencing a precipitous decline in property prices, due to austerity measures imposed in 2012.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:54
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:Seattle is doing super well, it's expensive not out of speculation but because it's being flooded with people making very high salaries plus I think it's a lot nicer than Vancouver in a lot of ways, specially the downtown. It feels like a real living breathing city with a booming economy rather than some real-estate Potemkin village with AMAZING MOUNTAIN VIEWS. Their waterfront is a loving disaster though but they're fixing it. It's not a nice city. It's highway hell. Not as bad as L.A. but not a lot better either. You can't really "opt out" either - a lot of the best jobs are out in the boonies (I hear there's this one company Richmond...) and all those little boroughs are such poo poo. San Fran has very similar problems even though the inner city is gorgeous and only has a handful of highways. Economically, yes, much better, but in general ~livability~ it's not very good...
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:55
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:But that could easily just be because I value well-rounded people that can apply common sense to not-entirely-technical problems and know how to get along with actual IRL people on a day to day basis and have the ability to explain and discuss their decisions over some whizkid that will solve some low-priority problem by writing a custom (undocumented, buggy, unusable) kernel over the weekend without discussing it with anyone. This is an oddly-defensive, reductive, and possibly-revealing sentence.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:56
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:... I don't think I've ever worked with anyone from either London or New York. At least with respect to IT companies the brightest bulbs I've ran into are usually evenly distributed from all over the place in terms of education or city of origin or background. But that could easily just be because I value well-rounded people that can apply common sense to not-entirely-technical problems and know how to get along with actual IRL people on a day to day basis and have the ability to explain and discuss their decisions over some whizkid that will solve some low-priority problem by writing a custom (undocumented, buggy, unusable) kernel over the weekend without discussing it with anyone. No one any good at their job in London is actually from there. If you were to deport all the Australians and South Africans from London the city would grind to a loving halt.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 20:56
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:deport all the Australians from London Yeah, that worked out super well last time. Now there's a whole continent chock-full of the bastards! 
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:00
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:02
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:It's not a nice city. It's highway hell. Not as bad as L.A. but not a lot better either. You can't really "opt out" either - a lot of the best jobs are out in the boonies (I hear there's this one company Richmond...) and all those little boroughs are such poo poo. San Fran has very similar problems even though the inner city is gorgeous and only has a handful of highways. Eh after growing up in Vancouver and living here for coming up on 10 years I have to disagree. Sure the boroughs suck, but so does living in Langley. Just compare these prices too. I even cross the lake each day and my commute is 25 minutes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:06
|
|
|
Mr. Wynand posted:It's not a nice city. It's highway hell. Not as bad as L.A. but not a lot better either. I haven't spent too much time in Vancouver but doesn't it only have a bare skeleton of a public transit system?
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:06
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:I haven't spent too much time in Vancouver but doesn't it only have a bare skeleton of a public transit system? Vancouver is like, the only city in north america with an LRT linking the airport to the downtown core.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:08
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:I haven't spent too much time in Vancouver but doesn't it only have a bare skeleton of a public transit system? Some Vancouverites like to claim it's the Jesus of transit systems, but I curse everything about it any time I'm in Vancouver, either when I visit now or back when I lived there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:09
|
|
|
Cultural Imperial posted:Vancouver is like, the only city in north america with an LRT linking the airport to the downtown core. Most cities have heavy rail to the airports. Also San Jose has that. Edit: Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix. Maybe Dallas. Bip Roberts fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Oct 31, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:10
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:I haven't spent too much time in Vancouver but doesn't it only have a bare skeleton of a public transit system? Skytrain is pretty ok and the buses are tolerable in the core but anywhere outside of that is hosed because everything outside of a very tiny area is the worst sort of sprawl. Also over-crowding on said decent buses and metros can be pretty bad but who has money for increased services or longer trains when suburbanites who built their houses on the other side of an already crowded bridge suddenly want a bigger bridge.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:13
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:Most cities have heavy rail to the airports. Also San Jose has that. Denver is off the list, even though right now has some light rail expansions are under construction as part of a $22 billion dollar mass transit plan including a direct line to the airport.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:16
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:Most cities have heavy rail to the airports. Also San Jose has that. I'll be damned. I had no idea Seatac was linked to the downtown.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:17
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:I haven't spent too much time in Vancouver but doesn't it only have a bare skeleton of a public transit system? Yes, and it seems to get barer and barer every year. In ten years, transit service to my neighbourhood has been cut twice and is now half (less since it is now minibuses on the weekend as well) what it was when I moved in. It is going to push me back into the city proper eventually. I have no idea how the people living in the actual burbs deal with it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:22
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:Some Vancouverites like to claim it's the Jesus of transit systems, but I curse everything about it any time I'm in Vancouver, either when I visit now or back when I lived there. I'm probably going to regret getting into this discussion, but why exactly? I've been using the transit system to get into Vancouver since grade 8 from loving Tsawwassen and it's always gotten me wherever I needed to go. Were you commuting from Langley or something?
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:28
|
|
|
LANGLEYCHAT https://www.langleyadvance.com/opinion/letters/fort-langley-zombies-dumped-into-garbage-1.675689 quote:Dear Editor, Go die in a fire Robert and Deborah MacDonald
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:54 |
|
|
As bad as that letter is the Abbotsford/Mission paper blows letters like that out of the water.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 21:38
|
|
