800 Granville Street | 137.5m | 42, 38 fl | Proposed

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by gaviscon

Any updates from the meeting?

It just got referred to public hearing on Jan 20th. The decision will happen on February 10th

https://council.vancouver.ca/20260210/phea20260210ag.htm

The Amacon Block revision/Cohen Block are also on that day.

[gaviscon]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It just got referred to public hearing on Jan 20th. The decision will happen on February 10th

https://council.vancouver.ca/20260210/phea20260210ag.htm

The Amacon Block revision/Cohen Block are also on that day.

Great, thanks

[madog222]

Rezoning approved by council at this evening's public hearing.

[Glow Fun City]

Originally Posted by madog222

Rezoning approved by council at this evening's public hearing.

Excellent! Great start to revamp Granville Street

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by madog222

Rezoning approved by council at this evening's public hearing.

Great news. Thanks for the heads up.

[logan5]

What's holding Granville Street back is the concentration of supportive housing between Drake and Smithe. You cannot have a functional neighbourhood with that high a concentration of dysfunctional people disrupting businesses and the public realm in general. People do not want to be around that kind of environment. I'm sorry, but that's a fact. Until that supportive housing is moved, Granville Street is going to continue to be a no go zone for people and businesses.

[csbvan]

Which is why the province is shutting down the 2 largest supportive housing complexes on Granville...

[logan5]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Which is why the province is shutting down the 2 largest supportive housing complexes on Granville...

I didn't know that. Which ones?

[griswold]

The fact that the city put those people on Granville in the first place is insane. It's supposed to be the entertainment district and Vancouver is sorely lacking that category. It's like putting a homeless shelter or safe drug use facility in the middle of Times Square or Disney World. Let's put struggling and mentally ill people there. Brilliant. Did one of those drug addicts somehow join city council? You'd have to be smoking crack to think that was ever a good idea.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by griswold

The fact that the city put those people on Granville in the first place is insane. It's supposed to be the entertainment district and Vancouver is sorely lacking that category. It's like putting a homeless shelter or safe drug use facility in the middle of Times Square or Disney World. Let's put struggling and mentally ill people there. Brilliant. Did one of those drug addicts somehow join city council? You'd have to be smoking crack to think that was ever a good idea.

I don't think it was a great idea overall, but it was the cheapest solution at the time to acquire housing for homeless population, that was increasing throughout Canada as a result of the pandemic, by buying up the hotels that were under water from the pandemic. Was it short sighted? Absolutely, but that's how we operate as a society. Nevermind any long term plans for keeping Granville's nightlife going, that was also pretty much dead at the time. Nevermind the fact we had already signed up to host the world cup, which with narrow foresight we pretty much concluded it might be cancelled and we effectively forgot about preparing for it until a couple years ahead of time.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by logan5

I didn't know that. Which ones?

Sorry, it's three of them: Luugat (110 rooms), Granville Villa (77 rooms) and the St. Helens (93 rooms). This is nearly half of all SRO rooms on the strip: https://globalnews.ca/news/11238128/bc-g...-housing-out-granville-street-vancouver/

Luugat, the former Howard Johnson is closing by summer and is the most problematic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...ville-strip-luugat-sro-closing-9.6976930

[kikin]

Originally Posted by logan5

What's holding Granville Street back is the concentration of supportive housing between Drake and Smithe. You cannot have a functional neighbourhood with that high a concentration of dysfunctional people disrupting businesses and the public realm in general. People do not want to be around that kind of environment. I'm sorry, but that's a fact. Until that supportive housing is moved, Granville Street is going to continue to be a no go zone for people and businesses.

Agree completely, these need to be moved out and not allow any back in the future

[gaviscon]

Originally Posted by griswold

The fact that the city put those people on Granville in the first place is insane. It's supposed to be the entertainment district and Vancouver is sorely lacking that category. It's like putting a homeless shelter or safe drug use facility in the middle of Times Square or Disney World. Let's put struggling and mentally ill people there. Brilliant. Did one of those drug addicts somehow join city council? You'd have to be smoking crack to think that was ever a good idea.

Not that I disagree, but part of the reason is cause downtown has become mediocre throughout.
The image of "Downtown" to most Vancouverites is an area full of expensive condos with some retail.
English Bay? That's an area full of expensive condos and a beach. Yaletown? That's a condo town with oyster bars.
Hence what's the problem with sprinkling some homeless shelters all throughout the penninsula?
There was no grand vision to concentrate resources for urban design and appropriate retail to make a "Times Square-esque" entertainment district until very recently.
I see the same problem with Yaletown actually. It could be so much more iconic of a place and yet we choose to keep it mediocre.
"Meh, I'm satisfied with the city looking nicer than Toronto, but no need for more" mentality

I remember in 2015 I was called out for being "energy inefficient" for suggesting that Granville should accentuate its neon signages and add flashy displays.

We're finally beginning to escape the mentality that has kept us so mediocre

[officedweller]

The City was opportunistic in buying up practically every failing low to mid end hotel during and after Covid for social housing.
That created a void in the number of hotel rooms and problems with the social housing tenants.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The City was opportunistic in buying up practically every failing low to mid end hotel during and after Covid for social housing.
That created a void in the number of hotel rooms and problems with the social housing tenants.

I don't think the City bought any hotels on Granville. The province, through BC Housing acquired 9 hotels in 2020 and 2021 (five in Vancouver and four in Victoria) to provide 810 shelter bed spaces. It was when they closed tent encampments at Vancouver's Oppenheimer park and Victoria's Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue to prevent the spread of COVID-19. BC Housing also bought some privately owned SRO buildings, and the Salvation Army Harbour Light hostel in Vancouver.

The City bought the Days Inn and Best Western hotels on Kingsway with federal funds to house the homeless, in 2021, and they bought the Regent and Balmoral on E Hastings, (but one of those has been demolished and the other is vacant for now).

The Howard Johnson and Hi Hostel were bought by BC Housing in the 2020/21 acquisitions. The St Helen's was bought in 2007. One of the more problematic SROs on Granville, the Regal, is still owned by the Sahota family.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The City was opportunistic in buying up practically every failing low to mid end hotel during and after Covid for social housing. That created a void in the number of hotel rooms and problems with the social housing tenants.

Mayor Nowhere-to-be-found and his Council of Looneys was the worst council in the city's history. Downtown and Vancouver deteriorated so much because of their policies.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Changing City

I don't think the City bought any hotels on Granville. The province, through BC Housing acquired 9 hotels in 2020 and 2021 (five in Vancouver and four in Victoria) to provide 810 shelter bed spaces. It was when they closed tent encampments at Vancouver's Oppenheimer park and Victoria's Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue to prevent the spread of COVID-19. BC Housing also bought some privately owned SRO buildings, and the Salvation Army Harbour Light hostel in Vancouver.

The City bought the Days Inn and Best Western hotels on Kingsway with federal funds to house the homeless, in 2021, and they bought the Regent and Balmoral on E Hastings, (but one of those has been demolished and the other is vacant for now).

The Howard Johnson and Hi Hostel were bought by BC Housing in the 2020/21 acquisitions. The St Helen's was bought in 2007. One of the more problematic SROs on Granville, the Regal, is still owned by the Sahota family.

Thanks.

I guess I was generalizing as to who bought what.

[kikin]

Originally Posted by gaviscon

...
We're finally beginning to escape the mentality that has kept us so mediocre

until the reddit hoards convince everyone to vote in another Stewart because they hate Sim or anyone else to the right of Lenin

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Mayor Nowhere-to-be-found and his Council of Looneys was the worst council in the city's history. Downtown and Vancouver deteriorated so much because of their policies.

To be fair most of that council was re-elected. In terms of the worst council in the city's history, I would say that title still is held by the TEAM era of the 1970s. Downtown and Vancouver deteriorating was literally their platform by banning towers and pushing sprawl onto the suburbs.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by kikin

until the reddit hoards convince everyone to vote in another Stewart because they hate Sim or anyone else to the right of Lenin

As opposed to hating Stewart or anybody to the left of Maple MAGA?

The worst thing about unsupported hyperbole is how easy it is to just flip it around.