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Mantle posted:When I crashed my car and couldn't afford to replace it I learned that commuting to and from work 2 hours on the bus is much more pleasant and productive than driving, after the advent of phones and cheap data. Oh, that I would agree with. I bought a Kobo eReader and have been borrowing books from the library...read through 31 books (easy stuff, Jack Reacher series type stuff) in the last six months or so (at least according to the stats!). It sure beats the alternative of driving and spending a pile of money on a car, fuel, and maintenance.
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Jul 11, 2019 03:29
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I wanna hear about living in Tsawwassen.
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Jul 11, 2019 03:35
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So here's a run at a White Rock effort post... So what is White Rock, anyway? It's a bit of a historical anachronism left over from days long ago that the world has grown up around. As with most of the province, indigenous peoples were out here first, and what is now the Semiahmoo First Nation was out this direction. I'm hardly an expert on this, but it's enough to say development along the coastline of White Rock and the South Surrey area frequently encounters old burial sites, camp sites, etc. Much more recently, development started out at White Rock as a function of the railroad running south to the United States. Crescent Beach and White Rock both saw development of beach cabins for the Vancouver set. White Rock was so isolated you could actually get a lot there with a magazine subscription. Yes, this is all true. I think it was like 80 cents for a subscription, but this was almost 100+ years ago. Eventually, road and bridge construction, plus the Highway 99 and Deas Island tunnel, led to a decline in interest in rail service, and that part all dropped off. With that sort of development came more building in the area. So White Rock itself isn't very big - if you look at a map it's actually a small sliver of land compared to Surrey, but back in the 1950s, the White Rock crowd decided they didn't like the direction Surrey was going and decided to separate and create their own city. And so the province got behind this and created the City of White Rock. Back then, Surrey was a municipality and was nowhere near as populated as it is today. Most of the development was in Whalley and to a lesser extent, Newton. There wasn't much in what is now South Surrey, and in fact, the bulk of the land was zoned as farmland acreage. Fast-forward a bit into the late 1980s and early 1990s...the bedroom communities in Ocean Park and South Surrey really got cranked up. Semiahmoo Town Centre (based at 16th Avenue and 152nd Street if you're in Surrey, or the corner of North Bluff Road and Johnston Road if you're in White Rock) was designated a town centre and all sorts of development sprung up around it. Peace Arch Hospital was expanded from the ancient 1950's building with a rinky-dink service to a modern 1980s/90s build with an equally rinky-dink service (seriously, get your health care somewhere else). Surrey carried on its development tack and built out from Semiahmoo, with more and more complexes built. Peninsula Village (a giant strip mall centred around a parking lot) is one of the more egregious examples. Morgan Creek was developed from farmland at 32nd Avenue and 160th Street by CanLan, a giant developer that also built, owned, and operated ice arenas across the country as a way of balancing revenue during downturns in the development business. CanLan liked to build houses around golf courses, and they did that with Morgan Creek. It worked like a drat and people paid boatloads for houses on tiny lots. Over time, the various phases of Morgan Creek have been built out, with other developers building nearby. Most recently, this has since spawned numerous townhouse developments where the 'normal people' try to live, while the empty house phenomena seen in Vancouver extends out to houses in the suburbs 40 km from the city centre. Where does this leave White Rock? Well, largely as a fiscal basket case and after-thought. By all logic, WR should have been absorbed into Surrey years ago, but they have insisted o going their own way on such things like their water treatment system (a disaster of a setup that saw them contract it out, have tons of issues, and now get a pile of federal money to rebuild their plant, IIRC, and provide water to the First Nation (which isn't happening)) and their fire department, which was all set to be taken over by City of Surrey on a contracted basis (the nearest fire department station is literally two blocks away from the border between the two cities) remains a WR service despite the fact they never respond to fires and the bulk of their calls are for medical first assists where the firefighters don't do anything anyway. This would have saved the City hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but the fire unions convinced the oldsters they'd all die without their home town heroes, so there they are, wasting money they don't have on service they don't need that has zero effect on life or property safety. Politically, you could dress up a stray dog in a suit, run him or her for whatever was the right-leaning party of the day and they'd get elected. White Rock was hardly the home of urban socialism. There have been a couple of exceptions to this - the blowout of the Social Credit Party in the early 90s post-VanderZalm, and Trudeau's rolling through most recently. I would't take too seriously the idea of White Rock South Surrey turning liberal...Gordie Hogg is a long-time politico and all-around liked guy in White Rock. He was mayor of White Rock for many years before becoming a MLA for the provincial liberals. He did run federally before and lost to Russ Hiebert, a dipstick moron best known for spending 3/4s of a million dollars flying his wife, two kids, and himself back and forth to Ottawa in business class, because he could. Eventually, this got out and he was finished in politics. Who knows where he slunk off to, but he was just as good as the previous conservative MP for the area, some know-nothing named Benno Friesen who said about three sentences in parliament every four years but still seemed to get elected despite it all. Gordie got onboard with the federal Liberals after retiring from the provincial Liberals as an MLA. He is on the record of being no fan of Christy Clark and her ilk, and paid the price for it be being on the outside of things for the duration her tenure. I've known GH for 30 years and find him to be a person of integrity, though that was tried frequently during his years as a MLA given the antics and fluid ethics of first Campbell, and later Clark. He was pulling for George Abbott to be leader...how different things might be if that had happened. Every so often, talk turns to amalgamation between Surrey and White Rock but it never gets anywhere. White Rock's infrastructure is its biggest problem - its population is comparatively small, its industrial base is zero, and its commercial base is marginal at best. This means residential property taxes are the major source of revenue for the city, and there's only so much of that the oldsters will tolerate. Many of them are starting to die off, but they've lived in the community for 30+ years but have done so on fixed incomes, so there's not much money there to deal with increased taxes. As a result of the infrastructure deficit, the City of Surrey wants nothing to do with the City of White Rock without someone footing the bill for the accrued liabilities. This is unlikely to ever happen, so we have the current situation where WR's problems get kicked down the road. The population is full of rich old boomers and poor old war vets (like my Granddad), and that will drive pretty everything going forward there. Anyway, that's enough on this I think...happy to add/correct/edit as this is largely done from memory. Mandibular Fiasco fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Jul 11, 2019 |
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Jul 11, 2019 04:16
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incontinence 100 posted:I wanna hear about living in Tsawwassen. No one wants to hear about that.
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Jul 11, 2019 04:19
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The most recent political development in White Rock has been the election of an anti-development council, which proceeded to downzone the lot of a development which had already been approved. This uhhhh never happens and I still expect that the city is going to get sued to oblivion over this. quote:White Rock council approves downzoning, height limits
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Jul 11, 2019 04:33
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incontinence 100 posted:I wanna hear about living in Tsawwassen. It sucked Bussing to SFU burnaby multiple times a week was loving awful, and tsawwassen is a boring rear end terrible town
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Jul 11, 2019 04:43
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The Butcher posted:Ah, the Canadian Dream. 
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Jul 11, 2019 04:51
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Fake news, don't see a single recreational vehicle in the driveways
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Jul 11, 2019 05:11
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So basically every vangoon grew up in South Surrey or North Van and now lives in New Westminster? Also this is normal https://twitter.com/mortimer_1/status/1149160310671958016
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Jul 11, 2019 11:00
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Mantle posted:When I crashed my car and couldn't afford to replace it I learned that commuting to and from work 2 hours on the bus is much more pleasant and productive than driving, after the advent of phones and cheap data. Time commuting should be essentially considered time working. If you have a 4h+8h work day, you are essentially working 12 hours a day for X compensation. Something to consider.
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Jul 11, 2019 15:18
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Risky Bisquick posted:Time commuting should be essentially considered time working. If you have a 4h+8h work day, you are essentially working 12 hours a day for X compensation. Something to consider. Just take a 5 hour lunch to even it up.
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Jul 11, 2019 15:24
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Postess with the Mostest posted:Just take a 5 hour lunch to even it up. Not everyone has a kush remote gig Ikantski 
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Jul 11, 2019 15:30
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When contracting in Vancouver I charge $32/hr from when I leave the house to when I arrive on site. Don't bother with the return because I rarely head straight home after work.
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Jul 11, 2019 15:30
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Rime posted:When contracting in Vancouver I charge $32/hr from when I leave the house to when I arrive on site. Don't bother with the return because I rarely head straight home after work. This is how winning is done
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Jul 11, 2019 15:35
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Risky Bisquick posted:Not everyone has a kush remote gig Ikantski I'm a pathetic daily commuter now fml
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Jul 11, 2019 15:37
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Risky Bisquick posted:Time commuting should be essentially considered time working. If you have a 4h+8h work day, you are essentially working 12 hours a day for X compensation. Something to consider. I spent the time on the bus reading dead gay forums so I didn't consider it work.
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Jul 11, 2019 15:44
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Mandibular Fiasco posted:So here's a run at a White Rock effort post... Enlightening, thank you.  Can you speak to the business tax situation? I've noticed in the last decade lots of businesses moving to the other side of 16th because the city business taxes are so high. I think the anti-development city council sprung largely out of richer residents cashing out then developers putting huge towers up blocking remaining residents ocean views. That said, the ocean view blocking game as been going on as long as I can remember. Its just now instead of a 3 story house, its a 27 story skyscraper. Mantle posted:I spent the time on the bus reading dead gay forums so I didn't consider it work. Same. 
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Jul 11, 2019 16:27
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Snuffman posted:Enlightening, thank you. You're welcome! Snuffman posted:Can you speak to the business tax situation? I've noticed in the last decade lots of businesses moving to the other side of 16th because the city business taxes are so high. I don't have any particular expertise or knowledge of the comparative tax rates, but I've always understood that tax rates for White Rock were greater than Surrey. Of course, businesses have fewer votes than residents, so it would stand to reason that the tax burden would shift disproportionately to businesses. What is ironic is that there are no businesses of any size left in White Rock...they're all small businesses run by owner-operators and running thin margins. It's not like there's any corporate presence in the place. The other feature of the business movement is parking - the place is so car dependent that parking becomes a premium. White Rock has a lot of metered parking, especially down at the beach which doesn't make it any easier for visitors who have alternatives. With Morgan Crossing, Peninsula Village, and to a lesser extent Semiahmoo Mall all available with free parking surrounded by big-box shops, I don't know why anyone would choose to locate a year-round business in White Rock. The population doesn't live in White Rock, so the better choice for business is going to be elsewhere. Snuffman posted:I think the anti-development city council sprung largely out of richer residents cashing out then developers putting huge towers up blocking remaining residents ocean views. That said, the ocean view blocking game as been going on as long as I can remember. Its just now instead of a 3 story house, its a 27 story skyscraper. Yeah, I had forgotten about the council bit. A lot of old boomers have spent massive dollars on palaces on the hill, and the view was the big thing for many of them. My grandparents place used to have a clear view of the water but it's all blocked up by giant multi-story houses now.
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Jul 11, 2019 18:16
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Risky Bisquick posted:This is how winning is done It was great, before I started living in a car and just parking beside wherever I am working.
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Jul 11, 2019 18:21
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The Butcher posted:Ah, the Canadian Dream. This is beautiful
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Jul 11, 2019 18:53
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I'm impressed they managed to fit a little greenspace into that storage complex or what ever it is. I assume it's like a self-storage place for cars? What are the little man-doors on the side for? A little utility room for each garage unit?
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Jul 11, 2019 18:57
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not nearly enough cars. you're supposed to park your three cars in your driveway and use the garage for storing your piles of poo poo
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Jul 11, 2019 19:41
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RBC posted:not nearly enough cars. you're supposed to park your three cars in your driveway and use the garage for storing your piles of poo poo Stop doxxing me
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Jul 11, 2019 20:04
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The Butcher posted:Ah, the Canadian Dream. Love the procedurally generated rooflines.
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Jul 12, 2019 01:59
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RBC posted:not nearly enough cars. you're supposed to park your three cars in ... and then complain about how your street parking is a fundamental human right.
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Jul 12, 2019 02:00
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I got a 4 car garage and 5 cars in my nearly entirely paved front yard driveway, but I'm going to be possessive as gently caress about the street parking in front of my house and leave notes and harass anyone who parks there.
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Jul 12, 2019 03:20
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Baronjutter posted:I got a 4 car garage and 5 cars in my nearly entirely paved front yard driveway, but I'm going to be possessive as gently caress about the street parking in front of my house and leave notes and harass anyone who parks there. The front yard strong and free. 
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Jul 12, 2019 03:36
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The Butcher posted:Ah, the Canadian Dream. The best part is the PT cruiser.
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Jul 12, 2019 03:57
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You can't get through a day without more Vancouver housing drama on the timeline. This time around it's because local NDP MP Don Davies shows up to a public hearing for a purpose built rental rezone in his backyard. Is he here because the development requires tearing down some low income apartment and he has petition from low income residents in hand? No sadly he's here to go full NIMBY complaining about height and site location and the usual bullshit. Of course the usual YIMBYs piled on with criticism (many of which are actually NDP supporters so it makes sense). Here Don is trying to spin his opposition: https://twitter.com/DonDavies/status/1148951202102538240 Sounds a little reasonable I guess, arguably misguided perhaps, but not terribly unobjectionable, except... Dude we can watch the tape and we know you're full of poo poo and you were spouting classic NIMBY bullshit talking points. https://twitter.com/pwaldkirch/status/1149001016995565568
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Jul 12, 2019 06:25
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Those poor millionaire homeowners who can't build decks on their own property. Won't somebody please stick up for the down trodden homeowner who just can't catch a break.
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Jul 12, 2019 07:50
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Indeed, poor Glen Clark lost his job over his deck. Decks are dangerous.
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Jul 12, 2019 14:25
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Decks are honey traps for idiot old white guy politicians
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Jul 12, 2019 19:00
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cowofwar posted:Decks are honey traps for idiot old white guy politicians We would have affordable housing if these old white guys would stop loving thinking with their decks
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Jul 12, 2019 21:34
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Hover posted:We would have affordable housing if these old white guys would stop loving thinking with their decks New thread title IMO
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Jul 13, 2019 18:52
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Hover posted:We would have affordable housing if these old white guys would stop loving thinking with their decks 
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Jul 13, 2019 20:43
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Hover posted:We would have affordable housing if these old white guys would stop loving thinking with their decks 
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Jul 14, 2019 03:01
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Hover posted:We would have affordable housing if these old white guys would stop loving thinking with their decks I endorse this post for president
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Jul 14, 2019 04:21
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sitchensis posted:New thread title IMO Unfortunately it is too long to actually fit but yeah, pretty much perfect.
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Jul 15, 2019 14:11
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Oh hey the NDP's speculation tax made a bunch of money. quote:Speculation tax generates $115 million to help fund housing affordability, province says The findings highlight previous findings, that foreign investors have focused strongly on that luxury end of the market.
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Jul 15, 2019 17:48
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Looking forward to seeing that number increasing by an order of magnitude when the beneficial ownership registry comes into force in 2020.
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Jul 15, 2019 21:16
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