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Just got back to Victoria and the comments section of the local paper is chock full of complaints about the dictatorial NDP and their dastardly plan to increase housing “at all costs.” The lead letter to the editor today was from the former mayor of North Saanich complaining that we don’t have the water infrastructure or food security(!) to support densification in the Victoria area.
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Dec 16, 2023 20:28
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 22:57 |
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No one is brave enough to state the truth: such a concentration of people will produce a noxious miasma that will bring the plague upon us all. It is unnatural for so many people to live in one place. End this madness!!!!
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Dec 16, 2023 20:35
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MeinPanzer posted:No one is brave enough to state the truth: such a concentration of people will produce a noxious miasma that will bring the plague upon us all. It is unnatural for so many people to live in one place. End this madness!!!! You seem to be suffering from Victoria Derangement Syndrome. The only cure is to move to Saturna or one of the smaller Gulf Islands.
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Dec 16, 2023 20:38
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McGavin posted:You seem to be suffering from Victoria Derangement Syndrome. The only cure is to move to Saturna or one of the smaller Gulf Islands. Then he can start posting vaccination conspiracies.
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Dec 16, 2023 20:40
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is that new fault line and elevated tsunami risk for Vancouver Island going to bring property values down???!??
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Dec 16, 2023 20:40
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McGavin posted:You seem to be suffering from Victoria Derangement Syndrome. The only cure is to move to Saturna or one of the smaller Gulf Islands. Coincidentally, the Gulf Islands are exempt from the small-scale, multi-unit housing upzoning legislation ...
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Dec 16, 2023 20:43
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Also it isn't so much a cure as it is isolation so that it doesn't spread. Like we did to the Chinese lepers that one time on D'Arcy Island.
McGavin fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Dec 16, 2023 |
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Dec 16, 2023 21:15
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McGavin posted:Also it isn't so much a cure as it is isolation so that it doesn't spread. Like we did to the Chinese lepers that one time on D'Arcy Island. Diseased discrimination is a poplar British Columbian pastime. Here's an example from the Lower Mainland.
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Dec 16, 2023 21:21
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qhat posted:there are some smooth brained execs who after 50 years of these offshoring experiments still don’t get it Hey, at least some of them have switched to moving everything to ThE cLoUd so that they don't have to spend money on hardware anymore except as an operational cost, every month, forever.
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Dec 16, 2023 21:24
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tagesschau posted:Hey, at least some of them have switched to moving everything to ThE cLoUd so that they don't have to spend money on hardware anymore except as an operational cost, every month, forever. when you buy hardware you also have operational cost, as it happens. at enough scale it makes sense to operate your own DCs, but you have to be pretty big for it to make sense to do it if you need global presence and multi-region failover I think we’ll see margin pressure there, though
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Dec 16, 2023 21:29
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Yeah for a small company AWS 100% makes sense because you can get a lot of really great useful stuff without needing to have a whole org of infra and IT engineers. I winced though when I heard that Lyft’s opex on AWS was around $200m, at that point it definitely might be time to think about rolling your own.
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Dec 16, 2023 23:03
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Femtosecond posted:Yeah offshoring way out of time zone off to India and such seems like a terrible idea to me. I briefly had a role where we experimented handing off some work to a sister studio in China and it didn't work well. I mean the quality wasn't great but more than that the time zone difference meant the back and forth on review took days. We don't use India anymore for these reasons, for quite a while now. Like we have plenty of entire teams in India, being global, but there are no Indian contractors on otherwise 'north american' teams. As far as I know the only off-shoring outside of US/Canada is contractors from Brazil or a few other South American places.
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Dec 17, 2023 14:56
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MeinPanzer posted:Just got back to Victoria and the comments section of the local paper is chock full of complaints about the dictatorial NDP and their dastardly plan to increase housing “at all costs.” The lead letter to the editor today was from the former mayor of North Saanich complaining that we don’t have the water infrastructure or food security(!) to support densification in the Victoria area. lmao food security. Inevitably boomers will fall back on insane 1970s era "population bomb" fears as cause for being anti-everything.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:18
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Big American companies are still definitely offshoring entire departments. Costa Rica is big for HR and payroll, India is still big for practically everything. We have a lot of clients who are big American companies operating in Canada, and waiting a few days after sending an email for time zones to roll over isn’t abnormal. I know of a few people at different companies whose managers aren’t even in the same country or time zone.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:18
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Subjunctive posted:when you buy hardware you also have operational cost, as it happens There are still workloads and applications for which the cloud very obviously does not make sense, but there's no shortage of executives that are convinced, or will let themselves be convinced, that moving everything to the cloud is automatically cheaper, even though it can become much more expensive once you look past the next year if you haven't bothered to think it through. Same with offshoring.
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Dec 18, 2023 20:29
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Femtosecond posted:lmao food security. Inevitably boomers will fall back on insane 1970s era "population bomb" fears as cause for being anti-everything. It's especially rich coming from the former mayor of North Saanich, since her municipality on paper has more agricultural land than almost any other in the Victoria area, but it's all used for boutique cideries or "barns" that are actually rustic AirBnBs. If she's so concerned about food security, maybe she should have started addressing the issue back when she had some power!
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Dec 18, 2023 20:41
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The last time Vancouver Island was truly locally food secure was prior to the 20th century. They're really trying everything in their power to stop development, aren't they? 
Hubbert fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 21:34
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I mean, if they're suggesting going full Mao on boomer NIMBYs and LLCs trickfucking the system until the agricultural output can support whoever remains, I'm willing to hear them out.
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Dec 18, 2023 21:57
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I actually agree with a lot of nimby's (or at least their public facing arguments that they're making in bad faith) that we really do need to keep rural areas rural and not really focus more housing and density to the suburban hinterlands. We should be focusing housing where it's the most sustainable, where people can most easily live car-lite or even car-free lifestyles. This means really focusing on our traditional core neighbourhoods and not pushing all the 5 over 1's out to some nasty stroad. Like I'm fine with North Saanich and Metchosin staying rural, those are not places people can live sustainably right now when you factor in transport costs. Towers downtown yes, but also actual midrise density in all adjacent neighbourhoods. And alos accept that "missing middle" includes a huge range of housing denser than a 4-plex. We need to get away from this new definition that it mostly only means duplexes and 4-plexes and nothing bigger. There's a massive spectrum between a single family house and a condo tower and we need it all.
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Dec 18, 2023 22:15
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I mean, the new laws coming in allow for a ton of big stuff around transit. But yeah, would be good to allow eg low-rise apartment buildings everywhere. (They're kinda just not feasible in terms of land costs right now.) But also yeah about not building tons of housing in the middle of nowhere. We were visiting friends yesterday who lived in a six-storey building on the far side of Langley, and it is astonishing how much density is being built out there, with basically zero transit. Gigantic towers and everything.
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Dec 18, 2023 22:26
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introducing NIMBY 2: not in my barnyard!
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Dec 18, 2023 22:29
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Food security probably just means  loss prevention now.
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Dec 19, 2023 01:08
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I think we can all agree that whether there is food security or not, that a study is in order to find out.
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Dec 19, 2023 01:17
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Baronjutter posted:I actually agree with a lot of nimby's (or at least their public facing arguments that they're making in bad faith) that we really do need to keep rural areas rural and not really focus more housing and density to the suburban hinterlands. We should be focusing housing where it's the most sustainable, where people can most easily live car-lite or even car-free lifestyles. This means really focusing on our traditional core neighbourhoods and not pushing all the 5 over 1's out to some nasty stroad. Like I'm fine with North Saanich and Metchosin staying rural, those are not places people can live sustainably right now when you factor in transport costs. Towers downtown yes, but also actual midrise density in all adjacent neighbourhoods. And alos accept that "missing middle" includes a huge range of housing denser than a 4-plex. We need to get away from this new definition that it mostly only means duplexes and 4-plexes and nothing bigger. There's a massive spectrum between a single family house and a condo tower and we need it all. I have no idea what the Greater Victoria area is like, but at least here, there've been certain "outlying areas" that have been intransigent assholes on densification, and others that have leaned into it, and it might not surprise you to know that the greatest consequence from the latter is people saying "oh holy poo poo gently caress me, we need to work out transit, because this poo poo actually worked." Further, there's actually seemingly more density in these bedroom communities, than the new developments within the city limits proper in a lot of cases.
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Dec 19, 2023 06:03
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From a BC POV, the whole "Food security" thing should not be a possible argument at all considering that all that agricultural land is protected anyway. I mean yeah folks are constantly trying to erode it, but it's for industrial development and huge amazon warehouses, not fourplexes. The bad faith arguments I'm starting to see pushing back against the BC government's transit oriented density measures are hand wringing concerns around the lack of amenities, schools, hospitals etc. We can't build housing because then people would need a school. (and we can't build a school because ??) Mayor of suburbs Coquitlam and Langley Township have been trying on this messaging for size. I mean sure it would be bad if we had a huge shortage of school class rooms (uh which is actually the status quo) but the "concerns" ignore the fact that there's an easy solution here, to simply build more schools. The fact that the notion that "we can just build the amenities we need" seems to be a challenge for people to grasp could be because they badly want to latch onto any sort of anti-housing argument, though the public's willingness to latch onto the idea could also speak to the structural challenges Canada has in creating infrastructure. Better Things Just Aren't Possible. Ultimately though "concerns" around lack of infrastructure get into the same 70s era anti-person population bomb stuff. If we build amenities and housing we'll "attract" people which is bad. "gently caress off we're full." Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Dec 19, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2023 18:13
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Spotted on reddit the other day https://www.reddit.com/r/nanaimo/comments/18lip5j/wow_very_welcoming/
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Dec 19, 2023 18:14
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Every time I hear mayors/councils whining about how they can't possible add housing because of infrastructure, my immediate thought is: yes, building that and raising the money to do so is your job. It's literally what you signed up for when you ran for office. Do your job. Oh wait you mean you might have to *gasp* raise taxes *gasp* or find other ways to raise money to pay for things? Too bad, do your job. It might make you unpopular and you might not get re-elected? Too bad, do your job. Metro Vancouver is starting to reap the consequences of having eternally low property tax rates. We are in the middle of a giant "we tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" messaging wave from the municipalities and the province is 100% correct in telling all them to kick rocks and figure it out. I swear we used to actually be able to do poo poo but politicians have been riding the gravy train for so long that they don't know how to actually do things anymore except act like children. A good example is the Surrey policing fiasco. The province said "this is happening, grow up and deal with it" and the Surrey council continues to stamp their feet and whine incessantly. Good on the BC NDP for being the adults in the room and saying "yeah, people might hate this, it's what has to be done to make things better, we're doing it, too bad" with the housing policies. What they're doing is definitely not perfect, but it's a huge step towards what needs to be done and they can iterate on it now to make more progress. It's mostly a huge warning shot to the munis that they need to get on with things or the province will simply make them do it via legislation. You need housing and will build it. Need schools? Build them. Need roads? Build them. Need money? Raise it. Figure it out or we will figure it out for you and you probably won't like it.
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Dec 19, 2023 20:00
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One of the least densely populated islands that people actually live on: gently caress off we're full.
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Dec 19, 2023 20:25
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Hm I wonder what will happen when some provinces' housing costs become nauseatingly expensive and people still want to live out their Single Family House Canadian Dream™ fantasies at all costs. Ahh yes I see everyone moves to Alberta. quote:Alberta gains another 17,000 people from other provinces in 3 months, ends 'Alberta is Calling' ad campaign Now we're at the point where vacancy has decreased, prices have increased, and SFH prices start to normalize with the prices in BC/Ontario and the inflows start to slow. Seems like it's already happened in the Atlantic Provinces. Probably a little while yet of "cheap" housing in Calgary but I expect it'll be where Vancouver is at very soon.
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Dec 19, 2023 20:35
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Femtosecond posted:Hm I wonder what will happen when some provinces' housing costs become nauseatingly expensive and people still want to live out their Single Family House Canadian Dream™ fantasies at all costs. The thing about Calgary is that there are no geographical constraints to deal with, like, at all. In one direction you have the mountains, and in the other three there's still tons and tons and tons of fairly empty land. There's still gaps between the city proper and Okotoks, Airdrie, Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Chestermere and so forth. And once those are gone, there's still land further out. Only when cars no longer cost less in Wetaskiwin, will Alberta have to worry.
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Dec 19, 2023 21:31
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Yeah the infrastructure argument breaks down as soon as you consider that people are coming, whether you like it or not. The question is just whether they live eight to a runny basement suite or can have rooms and apartments of their own. But either way, they will be pooping and showering and sending their kids to school, and you're gonna need to build the infrastructure to handle them.
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Dec 19, 2023 22:03
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Femtosecond posted:[...] Who says the government can't create jobs? Alberta just produced a whole lot of critically needed "landlord."
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Dec 19, 2023 23:23
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alberta is the worst for renters. my rent doubled one time in calgary. 
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Dec 19, 2023 23:32
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Femtosecond posted:From a BC POV, the whole "Food security" thing should not be a possible argument at all considering that all that agricultural land is protected anyway. I mean yeah folks are constantly trying to erode it, but it's for industrial development and huge amazon warehouses, not fourplexes. When people in BC suburbs a pseudo-rural areas talk about "food security" it comes from either a deluded or disingenuous assertion that people need to be able to grow food on their own property for when society collapses and we can't depend on imported food. We'll all just convert our lawns to organic produce gardens and live off the land. Can't do that in a condo!!! Can't even do that in a townhouse, the yard isn't big enough. I was at a public hearing for a modest apartment building in the urban core and had some loving nimby hippies saying the shadows cast by the building onto neighbouring land will hurt our local food supply because it makes their property less agriculturally productive.
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Dec 19, 2023 23:43
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 Last time i checked you need at least a few acres to scrape out enough food to live off of for a single person and that's in optimal growing conditions keeping you just above starvation. It gets worse the more arid the environment, unproductive the soil is, or short the growing season is.
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Dec 20, 2023 00:03
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Cold on a Cob posted:
How hard could subsistence farming really be??? I imagine it would be fun and only take up a little bit of my free time.
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Dec 20, 2023 00:12
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Baronjutter posted:When people in BC suburbs a pseudo-rural areas talk about "food security" it comes from either a deluded or disingenuous assertion that people need to be able to grow food on their own property for when society collapses and we can't depend on imported food. We'll all just convert our lawns to organic produce gardens and live off the land. Can't do that in a condo!!! Can't even do that in a townhouse, the yard isn't big enough. I was at a public hearing for a modest apartment building in the urban core and had some loving nimby hippies saying the shadows cast by the building onto neighbouring land will hurt our local food supply because it makes their property less agriculturally productive. Don’t you need like 2+ acres to feed a family? e: fb
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Dec 20, 2023 00:18
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MickeyFinn posted:Don’t you need like 2+ acres to feed a family? Yeah i've heard of small families pulling it off with a few acres and blogging/vlogging it but I'm not convinced they aren't sneaking in some flour on the side.
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Dec 20, 2023 00:37
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The colonial population of Vancouver Island hasn't been agriculturally self-sustaining basically ever. The history of the earliest colonial settlements is one of constant issues with Europeans trying to farm on land that wasn't well suited to their crops and running into food shortfalls; as the island's population grew, more and more food was simply imported from the mainland and further abroad.
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Dec 20, 2023 07:52
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 22:57 |
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Baronjutter posted:How hard could subsistence farming really be??? I imagine it would be fun and only take up a little bit of my free time. I don't have any experience with farming but probably like 30 minutes per day, tops.
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Dec 20, 2023 15:14
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