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Some of my conservative friends supported ABC because of their tough on addicts position in the DTES. I don't think they've made any progress in that area either. So far their biggest impact has been to use active transport funding to remove active transport in Stanley park and to give a retroactive windfall to developers.
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Jun 6, 2023 01:12
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https://vancouversun.com/news/local...be7c430522/amp/ Hmmm Weird headline considering on my first read it's the landlord being lovely
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Jun 6, 2023 03:41
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Alctel posted:https://vancouversun.com/news/local...be7c430522/amp/ How do you figure? It looks like there's some sort of disagreement as to whether the tenants are actually living there, or the property is vacant, unless I missed something.
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Jun 6, 2023 04:10
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The Vancouver Sun is a lovely masturbatory tabloid for landlords. They're just trying to establish a narrative of "vacancy tax harms renters" by contriving a story where the landlord doesn't properly apply for the exemption as causing a nice young family to lose their home.
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Jun 6, 2023 04:14
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Mantle posted:The Vancouver Sun is a lovely masturbatory tabloid for landlords. They're just trying to establish a narrative of "vacancy tax harms renters" by contriving a story where the landlord doesn't properly apply for the exemption as causing a nice young family to lose their home. Sounds right. A way around this might be: if you (an owner) get hit with the tax, then your tenant is entitled to a full refund of all rent paid to you, since obviously they weren't "living there." Might motivate landlords to get their poo poo together.
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Jun 6, 2023 04:50
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Something in that speculation tax story doesn't add up. It's really challenging to believe that the government bureaucracy is being that obstinate in like ignoring the evidence they're being given or there's something funny about this property and someone telling this sob story is lying.
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Jun 6, 2023 04:50
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I find it very easy to believe that a government bureaucracy is being obstinate and stupid, actually. I've had to work with Transport Canada on a number of issues, and the number of times inspectors disagree with other inspectors as to how to interpret their own written regulations (oftentimes in absolute contradiction to those written regulations, both in my favour and otherwise) is truly impressive. Frustrating, but impressive! Writing laws and regulations is actually really loving difficult, for exactly this reason. PT6A fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 04:51
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Mantle posted:The Vancouver Sun is a lovely masturbatory tabloid for landlords. They're just trying to establish a narrative of "vacancy tax harms renters" by contriving a story where the landlord doesn't properly apply for the exemption as causing a nice young family to lose their home. Yeah the headline is 'vacancy tax forcing out this poor family' then it turns out that the landlord for some reason either is doing something shady or is too dumb to supply the correct paperwork Or is just using that as excuse to sell
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Jun 6, 2023 04:54
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Jun 6, 2023 05:43
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Oh god oh god oh god, the CBC did a thing where they put two renters and two airbnb hosts at a table and made them talk, and then there was an economist listening in the background. I'm so inherently angry at what I assume this is going to be that I can't bring myself to press play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFKKyc7wJk edit: okay, part is really painful, but the economist is basically "your business model is garbage and suicide for the economy and we need to regulate it out of existance." Not worth watching, but could have been much worse. T.C. fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 05:57
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T.C. posted:Oh god oh god oh god, the CBC did a thing where they put two renters and two airbnb hosts at a table and made them talk, and then there was an economist listening in the background. I'm so inherently angry at what I assume this is going to be that I can't bring myself to press play. Watched at double speed and found it interesting enough. The air bnb couple are doing what they can because they can. Gotta change the laws.
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Jun 6, 2023 07:53
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That's the thing, people can be rightfully upset at AirBnb hosts and anyone else that profiteers in a similar manner but the buck stops at the government making the regulations. Most people will use whatever assets they have or can acquire to increase their wealth, it is a reasonable thing to do in our society. I can't really expect them to turn down a low-effort venture out of the goodness of their hearts. Some people do of course, but it's not exactly a policy to depend on. Landlords will increase the rent to the maximum allowed because they can, they will renovict people because they can, they will Airbnb homes because they can. Regulate this crap and we'll be much improved.
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Jun 6, 2023 13:37
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Alctel posted:Yeah the headline is 'vacancy tax forcing out this poor family' then it turns out that the landlord for some reason either is doing something shady or is too dumb to supply the correct paperwork Doesn't want to declare rental income
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Jun 6, 2023 15:00
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Femtosecond posted:Something in that speculation tax story doesn't add up. It's really challenging to believe that the government bureaucracy is being that obstinate in like ignoring the evidence they're being given or there's something funny about this property and someone telling this sob story is lying. I'm having flashbacks to the Totem Co-op again, I which vital pieces of information weren't being adequately represented or reported. It's a complete hunch, but I suspect that the landlord might have something to do with it. quote:Bates’s landlord didn’t want to speak to Postmedia News as he has hired a lawyer to help with his case. Court documents show the home was inherited by his wife, who is the administrator of her father’s estate, and a pending lien for $96,000 was filed May 1 by the province under the speculation and vacancy tax act for failure to pay. also this COPE 27 posted:Doesn't want to declare rental income Hubbert fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 15:36
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Fidelitious posted:That's the thing, people can be rightfully upset at AirBnb hosts and anyone else that profiteers in a similar manner but the buck stops at the government making the regulations. This is the thing that can't be denied: The Airbnb hosts are supplying a service that is actually in very large demand! If we had a ton of hotels everywhere no one would want to rent someone's house and bother with chores and cleaning up the place, but we have a shortage of hotels! If we had a ton of apartments to pick from landlords would be laughed at if they tried to put up their lovely 1960s walkup apartment for $2000+, but we have a shortage of apartments! Well government do you think you could maybe address some of these problems and destroy the demand for Airbnb and apartments? Could you maybe allow more hotels and more apartments to be built? No of course not we know that that is apparently impossible. The government forced scarcity enriches those who already have assets that can be exploited. Everyone without assets gets hosed.
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Jun 7, 2023 05:14
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Femtosecond posted:This is the thing that can't be denied: The Airbnb hosts are supplying a service that is actually in very large demand! I think you're broadly right but one of the issues with AirBnB is that it revealed that actually a lot of people on vacation don't want to stay in hotels. One of the big appeals of renting someone's apartment, say, is that it has all the amenities of a home, so you can cook, lounge in a living room, cozy up beside a fireplace, chill on a patio in privacy, etc., all for the price you'd probably pay for an average hotel room that doesn't allow you to do any of those things. Plus you don't actually really have to do chores or clean up most of the time any more than you would in a hotel (or at least not unless you make a really big mess). Of course, people actually on vacation only make up a percentage of all AirBnB business in a place like Vancouver, since oftentimes people looking for permanent housing are forced to rent AirBnBs for months on end before they can actually find a place to live...
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Jun 7, 2023 07:32
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MeinPanzer posted:I think you're broadly right but one of the issues with AirBnB is that it revealed that actually a lot of people on vacation don't want to stay in hotels. One of the big appeals of renting someone's apartment, say, is that it has all the amenities of a home, so you can cook, lounge in a living room, cozy up beside a fireplace, chill on a patio in privacy, etc., all for the price you'd probably pay for an average hotel room that doesn't allow you to do any of those things. Plus you don't actually really have to do chores or clean up most of the time any more than you would in a hotel (or at least not unless you make a really big mess). Yep, people (partially) go to AirBnbs to find the non-hotel vibe and unique aesthetics. I would suggest that hotels are only obliquely a competitor to private rentals and it's really small-scale motel-type places with unique rooms that are really trying to take that market. I've seen more of these kind of places appear where you're picking a particular room and not just any of 18 generic double-queen rooms or whatever. They do tend to be at a premium price of course.
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Jun 7, 2023 13:08
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I'm wondering what longer term effect the interest rates will have on car purchases. I know a few people who have put off buying or leasing a new car because their payments were almost double compared to their current car which was about the same price. I also noticed that when pricing out leases, the manufacturers are now quoting 5 year leases instead of 4 to keep the monthly payment down.
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Jun 7, 2023 16:06
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MeinPanzer posted:I think you're broadly right but one of the issues with AirBnB is that it revealed that actually a lot of people on vacation don't want to stay in hotels. One of the big appeals of renting someone's apartment, say, is that it has all the amenities of a home, so you can cook, lounge in a living room, cozy up beside a fireplace, chill on a patio in privacy, etc., all for the price you'd probably pay for an average hotel room that doesn't allow you to do any of those things. Plus you don't actually really have to do chores or clean up most of the time any more than you would in a hotel (or at least not unless you make a really big mess). I use the past tense because since the pandemic AirBNB prices have come up quite a bit to the point where it's comparable. And some countries have been better at building more apart-hotels. But finding places in, say, Toronto is ridiculous in either case. I'm staying there for a week in the summer and couldn't find a single AirBNB for a family that met my price needs. To get a one bedroom suite in a hotel under $300 my choices were basically "in Vaughn by the Ikea" or "literally Jane and Finch".
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Jun 7, 2023 16:51
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Yeah I vastly prefer staying in just a short term apartment instead of a hotel, really hate dealing with hotels and the whole vibe of them. I just wish housing of all types was fully legal and we had more than enough to go around for all types of demand. Until we do though, temporary bans for things like airbnb make sense as you need to do triage for your artificially restricted housing supply. But at the end of the day I want things like airbnb to be legal and fine because there's simply no shortage of homes. A popular place tourists like to visit and people also like to live? Cool, simply allow enough housing to meet demand. Oh that means gradually converting a waterfront neighbourhood of single family houses into a dense forest of apartment buildings? Good, cities grow and change. Dallas road in victoria should be wall to wall mid-rise to high rise apartments. Fairfield should look more like James Bay or the West End of Vancouver. We live in a democracy with freedom of movement, incumbent homeowners should not have veto power on where people can live or travel.
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Jun 7, 2023 17:52
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Rates increased again
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Jun 7, 2023 19:16
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sleep with the vicious posted:Rates increased again Get ready for another cycle of stories of landlords and people with "second homes" being unable to make payments again.
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Jun 7, 2023 19:26
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Lain Iwakura posted:Get ready for another cycle of stories of landlords and people with "second homes" being unable to make payments again. Those scumbaglg tenants really need to step up and pay more.
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Jun 7, 2023 20:33
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"Name one law that says I can't use my sword to threaten you and take your goods."
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Jun 7, 2023 21:00
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An exciting roundup of housing news: Why Toronto’s rapid homebuilding program has yet to build a single home. tl;dr because John Tory, all kinds of stupid planning bullshit, and these quotes caught my eye: quote:Other problems seemed to contribute to the delays, says Tridel vice-president of planning Mike Mestyan. Frequent turnover in the city’s planning department meant they were continually having to bring new staff up to speed. The city has acknowledged difficulty with retention in its planning department, which it links to issues such as uncompetitive salaries amid skyrocketing cost of living. It's amazing. Just time after time shooting yourself in the foot. Ostensibly pro-development politicians starve the beast so much it doesn't even have the capacity to plan for the infrastructure to actually build anything. I mean that's not entirely true, there is significant redevelopment and remediation going on in Toronto's port lands, for example (where Google Sidewalk Labs had that failed bid for Panopticon Village), but it's all very slow because funding and streamlining city planning is anathema to even the conservatives whose donors would benefit most from it. Where there's already enough infrastructure, we'll get new landmarks courtesy of luminaries like Frank Gehry: quote:Born and raised in Toronto, Gehry was back in town Wednesday for the groundbreaking of the east tower of Forma, his project that’s been almost 10 years in the making. It will consist of two towers, one at 73 storeys and the other at 84, at 266 and 276 King St. W., and more than 2,000 condo units. lol that's like somebody in the 1950s saying they still hate how the Eiffel Tower ruined Paris' skyline. Anyway, here are the shiny baubles that will either blind pedestrians or set them on fire, and replace the hideous CN Tower in Toronto's collective consciousness:   I've seen some of Gehry's apartments elsewhere (e.g. Dusseldorf harbor below) and opinions will vary on their aesthetic appeal but they're typically as impractical as they look and had to cut corners (ha ha, get it) in build quality given the unusual geometry - something you can easily notice walking around them at street level. I guess the TO towers were pared back to slightly misaligned blocks and more conservative bling because he got his hand slapped for the original design from a decade ago that would have been completely impossible to build and probably generated a massive wind tunnel and falling glass panes. 
Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 05:03
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... and ok, one more article about renting out your backyard as a private dog park for possibly illegal pets:quote:Nala is a misunderstood girl, says her mom. Bonnie Pritchard says her velvety grey American bully dog isn’t always welcome in public leash-free parks. Although Nala isn’t afraid or aggressive, other people and dogs sometimes react to her appearance. Swimply and Sniffspot, motherfucker
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Jun 8, 2023 05:14
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eXXon posted:... and ok, one more article about renting out your backyard as a private dog park for possibly illegal pets: One of the other weird side-effects of the cost of living crisis I’ve witnessed among friends and family in BC is the emergence of an entire gig-based sub-economy related to dogs: dogsitting, walking, grooming, and now I guess whatever this is. I know four(!) different couples who subsidize their housing costs by engaging in some combination of these activities in addition to their full-time jobs.
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Jun 8, 2023 07:29
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Calgary Council got a surprise shock that people are actually paying attention to their bad votes. quote:Bell: After backlash, Calgary city council backs down — just a little I think what is remarkable here is that Federal Conservative MPs, both local and not local weighed in here big time, whereas in contrast I've never seen anything but disinterest in local municipal housing issues by the Liberals and NDP. The local NDP MPs show up rarely in Vancouver municipal discourse but I've only seen them oppose housing projects.
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Jun 8, 2023 18:27
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Four words: Backyard dog park timeshares.
melon cat fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Jan 29, 2024 |
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Jun 9, 2023 00:21
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MeinPanzer posted:One of the other weird side-effects of the cost of living crisis I’ve witnessed among friends and family in BC is the emergence of an entire gig-based sub-economy related to dogs: dogsitting, walking, grooming, and now I guess whatever this is. I know four(!) different couples who subsidize their housing costs by engaging in some combination of these activities in addition to their full-time jobs. I'm actually doing this. For me it's a great boon as I get to play with dogs while I wfh. Fortunately I don't have to do it for the money so I can pick and choose nice dogs.
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Jun 9, 2023 01:48
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Mantle posted:I'm actually doing this. For me it's a great boon as I get to play with dogs while I wfh. Fortunately I don't have to do it for the money so I can pick and choose nice dogs. Yeah it makes sense if you like dogs, have a yard, and work from home and/or are a stay-at-home parent—one of the rare seemingly mostly positive elements of the gig economy. It’s just funny how very BC it is (unless it’s common also elsewhere?).
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Jun 9, 2023 08:51
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Also that pet ownership is becoming a luxury of the homeowner class near exclusively.
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Jun 9, 2023 09:02
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Love being able to use poor people's property as a dog toilet.
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Jun 9, 2023 13:02
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McGavin posted:Love being able to use poor people's property as a dog toilet. If I could I’d use everyone’s property as a toilet
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Jun 9, 2023 15:30
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Also that pet ownership is becoming a luxury of the homeowner class near exclusively. 100% It's really really hard to find rentals that allow pets and they normally cost even more than usual
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Jun 9, 2023 16:32
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welppp turns out you should have bought [then] and were priced out foreverquote:Canadian housing affordability ‘likely past the point of no return’: RBC analyst I'm seeing an increased amount of finance/bankers/economist ppl point at international students as being a problem. I wonder if this is something the Feds might be pushed to scale back on even as they continue to add immigrants in general. Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jun 10, 2023 |
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Jun 10, 2023 05:24
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I think they're trying to make the point that because housing is so scarce, every additional person is a problem, and that unlike immigrants, international students don't have to stick around and contribute to Canada’s economy so every space spent housing an international student is wasted. Pretty sure this is how economists think.
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Jun 10, 2023 07:48
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What does it mean for housing affordability to be past the point of no return. Like, we're in a collapsing black hole of affordability beyond the event horizon. It's a nonsense statement
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Jun 10, 2023 08:13
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It makes sense to neoliberal brain where there is absolutely nothing material that government can do about it, and private interests are the ineffable law of the universe.
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Jun 10, 2023 08:44
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If Canada scales back on international students there will be huge issues with Ontario universities. Right now they've basically had their income frozen for the past decade, because Ford froze tuitions, but also froze funding. I believe Wynne also froze the number of funded places (which of course Ford continued). The universities use international students, along with expensive grad programs such as business and law or medical schools, to make up the funding gaps. They are already having trouble attracting qualified workers, as they can't match US or other international salaries. If you recall, Laurentian went bankrupt a little while ago, and others will follow suit if these conditions continue (probably Brock first). (Laurentian went bankrupt deliberately though because they tried to pull the classic business rear end in a top hat move of weaseling out of their debts). There have been rumblings of going private among high-level administrators. These are not serious at this point, but eventually will be. So say hello to your new US style education system in 10 years time  .
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Jun 10, 2023 10:24
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