Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple
It's the unfortunate reality. It is no one's right to get to live in the city centre of the third largest city in province, as so many housing advocates seem to believe. You want to live in the city centre with all the amenities, shops, parks, restaurants and bars, then you have to pay a premium for that. It's market driven. The going rate for rent is directly decided by the market demand. If someone is willing to pay 2000 dollars per month for a one bedroom downtown, then that is what a one bedroom downtown is worth.
I also don't think less fortunate people getting pushed out is necessarily a bad thing either. They will move to places where rent is more affordable for them, and in a way revitalize that area too.
The fact is this city is seeing massive changes, and a massive influx of new residents to the core. This is an amazing thing that hasn't happened here in literally decades.
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I think people should have a right to live where they can be mobile and live an enjoyable life. A big issue in North America is that those lower income résidents get pushed to places where they are less mobile. See senior citizens who end up living in retirement residents and such on the periphery if the city. Gentrification is not a bad word necessarily if that gentrification is used properly, but simply arguing it's great because it pushes the people that make a society difficult out is a little bit sociopathic. Nobody wants those on the fringes living next to them, but these are human beings and they deserve respect. Saying "well you're poor, so go live a 75 minute commute from you retail job" is a terrible reality of North American individualism; "fuck yours, got mine".
It's easy to say "just move somewhere else" but not everyone does that as easily as you might. In addition there's limited other cities in Canada to move to. It's not like Europe where a small town of 35,000 is a walking and cycling dream. 35,000 person towns are farmland with kilomètres between houses.
Many good European cities incorporate affordable housing, social housing and market housing into most developments to ensure there is housing stock for majority of people in an area. See:
https://youtu.be/-sA2LeHTIUI