General Vancouver Development Updates II

[BaddieB]

Originally Posted by logan5

I’d be surprised if it’s mostly docile seniors, but fair is fair. Each neighbourhood needs to take in their fare share social housing.

I disagree, spreading out DTES across the city just makes everything worse. DTES should be contained to DTES while efforts are make to bring back something like Riverview in a remote place. I don't blame people who don't want more drug addicts in their neighborhood. I'm fine with social housing for the poor but not for social housing for people who need treatment.

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

I disagree, spreading out DTES across the city just makes everything worse. DTES should be contained to DTES while efforts are make to bring back something like Riverview in a remote place. I don't blame people who don't want more drug addicts in their neighborhood. I'm fine with social housing for the poor but not for social housing for people who need treatment.

Spreading DTES is idiotic. I lived in Edmonton for 5+ years. The entire DT is a no-go zone for most Edmontonians, because there is no "East Hastings" type area to contain the stupidity.

tbh though, I kind of want DT to go down the tubes to accelerate the population growth shift to the East of the metro area. Doing something like this would definitely accelerate what we're seeing.

[BaddieB]

Why on earth do you want a population shift to the east? The strength of our Downtown is the strength of our metro region.

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

Why on earth do you want a population shift to the east? The strength of our Downtown is the strength of our metro region.

It's not wishful thinking, it's obvious to me that it's happening. 24 years ago when we immigrated to Canada, the Fraser Valley, Coquitlam, most of Burnaby etc... were wastelands. Look at them now. And it mostly began over the past 10-15 years.

Vancouver is tired and old. We need new ideas. A new economy. Less focus on Vancouver's problems and needs and more focus on what the rest of the city cares about.

We need industry and manufacturing. Burnaby and Fraser Valley can provide that (more land, growing populations, cheaper rents etc.). Public transport funds need to mostly go where the future is.

Vancouver's left wing politics are a drag on the rest of the Metro. The whole region suffers the consequences. Politicians bend to Vancouver's demands b/c DT is still king.

etc...

The more the population shifts East the less power Vancouver will have.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

Spreading DTES is idiotic. I lived in Edmonton for 5+ years. The entire DT is a no-go zone for most Edmontonians, because there is no "East Hastings" type area to contain the stupidity.

tbh though, I kind of want DT to go down the tubes to accelerate the population growth shift to the East of the metro area. Doing something like this would definitely accelerate what we're seeing.

Did you live in Edmonton when the old Greyhound station was still downtown where the arena now is?

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Did you live in Edmonton when the old Greyhound station was still downtown where the arena now is?

So I moved there from Vancouver in 2013. Before they built the stadium. I was living on Whyte. I do remember the Greyhound station but I'm fuzzy. I think I even used it once lol.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

It's not wishful thinking, it's obvious to me that it's happening. 24 years ago when we immigrated to Canada, the Fraser Valley, Coquitlam, most of Burnaby etc... were wastelands. Look at them now. And it mostly began over the past 10-15 years.

Vancouver is tired and old. We need new ideas. A new economy. Less focus on Vancouver's problems and needs and more focus on what the rest of the city cares about.

We need industry and manufacturing. Burnaby and Fraser Valley can provide that (more land, growing populations, cheaper rents etc.). Public transport funds need to mostly go where the future is.

Vancouver's left wing politics are a drag on the rest of the Metro. The whole region suffers the consequences. Politicians bend to Vancouver's demands b/c DT is still king.

etc...

The more the population shifts East the less power Vancouver will have.

Downtown Vancouver has one of the highest concentrations of infrastructure, jobs, and population. That's a big order to request businesses and people to just move to Burnaby or Abbotsford.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

So I moved there from Vancouver in 2013. Before they built the stadium. I was living on Whyte. I do remember the Greyhound station but I'm fuzzy. I think I even used it once lol.

Makes sense you saw a bad side of Edmonton from 2014-2019. The economy took quite the hit after 2013 with the price of oil.

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Downtown Vancouver has one of the highest concentrations of infrastructure, jobs, and population. That's a big order to request businesses and people to just move to Burnaby or Abbotsford.

But people already are. This happens all the time. Wasn't New West the "Vancouver" of the old? What happened?

Over time it's bound to happen, because Vancouver Metro already has many "downtowns". Metro Vancouver is growing differently than many other cities. Look at the master planned communities around the Metro. You have 50+ towers going up in Burquitlam of all places ffs. 260+ meter towers. Metrotown is mini DT at this point. Surrey will be a juggernaut.

Meanwhile DT Van is building 80 meter towers once every 5 years

Families aren't moving into shitboxes downtown. They are buying condos in Brent, Burquitlam, Lougheed, Surrey, Metro etc...

[WarrenC12]

Classic "Nobody goes to Vancouver anymore, it's too busy."

[GenWhy?]

Yes there will be (as there is to a degree today) multiple downtowns. I just can't see Surrey, for example, besting Vancouver with its stadiums, hotels, oceanfront, cruise ship terminal, shipyard, offices, conference centres, and other cultural facilities and amenities.

I was in Brentwood and Metrotown last week and it felt very urban and tied together. Very similar to Cambie-Broadway or Granville-Broadway.

In 25 years I imagine most folks will see the current "Metro Core" of Vancouver to be all of "downtown", rather than just the peninsula.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

It's not wishful thinking, it's obvious to me that it's happening. 24 years ago when we immigrated to Canada, the Fraser Valley, Coquitlam, most of Burnaby etc... were wastelands. Look at them now. And it mostly began over the past 10-15 years.

Vancouver is tired and old. We need new ideas. A new economy. Less focus on Vancouver's problems and needs and more focus on what the rest of the city cares about.

We need industry and manufacturing. Burnaby and Fraser Valley can provide that (more land, growing populations, cheaper rents etc.). Public transport funds need to mostly go where the future is.

Vancouver's left wing politics are a drag on the rest of the Metro. The whole region suffers the consequences. Politicians bend to Vancouver's demands b/c DT is still king.

etc...

The more the population shifts East the less power Vancouver will have.

You are absolutely right. Sadly most Vancouverites can't really see that. There is still hope though, but those in power need to wake up.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by logan5

Each neighbourhood needs to take in their fare share social housing.

no it doesnt. keep it in one area, the DTES. more housing can be built on the cheaper land. its where the services are the people need. win-win for everyone.

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

Dump then in DTES and wash our hands of it?

build these thins on the DTES. no one is "dumping" them there. but keep the DTES in the DTES.

Originally Posted by BaddieB

I disagree, spreading out DTES across the city just makes everything worse. DTES should be contained to DTES while efforts are make to bring back something like Riverview in a remote place. I don't blame people who don't want more drug addicts in their neighborhood. I'm fine with social housing for the poor but not for social housing for people who need treatment.

most people areent against REAL low income housing. i.e. supporting regular people, who happen to be poor. the problem is that they market these projects as "helping the poor" when what theyre really doing is moving drug addled vagrant criminals into formerly nice neighbourhoods. and they gaslight people with their vague terms, and accusing people of not having "compassion." yeah, sorry, my compassion left when i got tired of finding feces, needles in my doorway or having my windows smashed over and over and over.

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

Spreading DTES is idiotic.

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by Vin

You are absolutely right. Sadly most Vancouverites can't really see that. There is still hope though, but those in power need to wake up.

There is no need for them to see anything. I used to own a condo in DT Vancouver. That was sold in 2017. Now I'm in Burquitlam (hence my username). While I sold out of necessity back then and thought I'd be back, today I cannot even imagine doing that. I shudder at the idea.

My office is technically in DT, but the entire branch works remotely. We have a bs mandatory one day a week in office rule that will be gone soon. Most DT Vancouver office jobs can be done remotely. There is zero need to keep a lot of these offices. When it comes to manufacturing and industrial jobs (something the metro has never cared about and is super short of, the only place to do anything would be Surrey and Burnaby).

Now that all these master planned communities are springing up in the Metro like weed, it's inevitable that the future is Eastward expansion. Nobody in their right mind is buying old one-bedrooms without balconies and addicts living under them when they can get brand new state of the art product, with giant balconies in Burnaby and Coquitlam! Every day I see more families in my area. Literally. Not even exaggerating. With every new building there is hundreds of new folks with solid incomes moving into the area.

New offices, industry etc... will follow. We are already unrecognizable compared to 15 years ago and it can't be stopped.

Infrastructure money will come too. Vancouver is a relic of the past. It's tired and out of ideas.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

... Over time it's bound to happen, because Vancouver Metro already has many "downtowns". Metro Vancouver is growing differently than many other cities. Look at the master planned communities around the Metro. You have 50+ towers going up in Burquitlam of all places ffs. 260+ meter towers. Metrotown is mini DT at this point. Surrey will be a juggernaut.

Meanwhile DT Van is building 80 meter towers once every 5 years

Families aren't moving into shitboxes downtown. They are buying condos in Brent, Burquitlam, Lougheed, Surrey, Metro etc...

Good thing Vancouver has Broadway, Cambie, Oakridge, Rupert, Senakw and Jericho to pick up the slack. The fact of the matter is that both planners and enthusiasts already expect the CoV and Surrey/Langley to do the heavy lifting; Burnaby and the Tri-Cities are rounding errors.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

Out of curiosity, what do you think ought to be done with the people who would otherwise be housed in these kinds of social and supportive housing?

Dump then in DTES and wash our hands of it?

And if you're a business who sees a threat to your viability as a business or your existence from the influx of marauding pillaging hordes of,... (**checks notes**)......" low-income seniors, Indigenous people, women and other equity-denied groups."......then might I suggest you're probably not running that great a business to begin with.

You were saying....

Vancouver emergency services strained by SRO and supportive housing calls: statistics
Kenneth Chan
Oct 16 2024, 2:11 pm

Between 2019 and 2023, a five-year span, five affordable housing properties within downtown Vancouver, classified as single-room occupancy (SRO) or supportive housing, collectively generated an astounding 30,904 calls for policing services....

....For the highly controversial Howard Johnston property, the data shows a 118% jump in the total number of calls for service over the five-year period, growing from 733 in 2019 to 1,596 in 2023.

There was a 525% surge in weapons calls at the Howard Johnston over five years, rising from one such call about every 46 days in 2019 (eight per year) to one per seven days in 2023 (50 per year). During the intervening years, the number of weapons calls per year reached 25 in 2020, 41 in 2021, and 34 in 2022. Based on the most recent data for the current year, there have already been 24 weapons calls over the first eight months of 2024....

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-emergency-services-sro-supportive-housing-statistics

[Migrant_Coconut]

At any rate, many of social housing's tenants are low-income workers and seniors. BC Housing can and should do a better job of screening problem cases - that way they can separate genuine concerns from "ew, poor people."

[Burquitlaman]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Good thing Vancouver has Broadway, Cambie, Oakridge, Rupert, Senakw and Jericho to pick up the slack. The fact of the matter is that both planners and enthusiasts already expect the CoV and Surrey/Langley to do the heavy lifting; Burnaby and the Tri-Cities are rounding errors.

Nobody expects POCO and random bum part of Burnaby near the Vancouver border with a sea of SFHs (CoV style!) to be the next DT. I'm talking about the population centers that will form the core of the next big things in the metro. Senakw is basically SFU type leaseholds. Do they even have more homes in that project compared to what's already at the top of SFU?

Oakridge is no Brentwood or Lougheed or Burquitlam.

Broadway is decent.

The UK didn't stop being powerful in 1940. It dragged on for a while. Vancouver is the same. It'll drag on for a while. But the trend is Eastward.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

- snip -

Likewise, Brentwood is no downtown yet; only time will tell if it can be more than just another suburban hub.

The centre of gravity is shifting slightly southeastward... and it looks like it's stopping at Mount Pleasant. It might make it all the way to Commercial depending on how much Surrey gets serious about urbanizing, but for now, the "town centres" are still bedroom communities.

[Feathered Friend]

64 Strata Homes, 15.477 Sq. Ft. Of Office Space, & 8 Retail Spaces
Photos Taken - Sep 27, 2024

Rezoning Application Submitted – October, 2017
Building Permit Issued – March 2022

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBNHt4Kyk-s/