Downtown Vancouver Updates

[androo3]

I think the hotel looks very nice, and am glad to see it. However, $300 grand to build the damn thing?! That is not the cost to buy it, that is the cost to build it. Can you imagine the cost to buy one of those room. Like Jlousa said you can buy better bach suite for that price. So I think that is where the problem lies, and thus makes for a good arguement that we build cheaper suites else where. Also I believe that by "community" they mean crack dealer. I also agree that it is a catch 22 having all the services being located where they get their drugs. But in the end it is better to have this hotel/sro than to not have it.

[LeftCoaster]

It's not where these units are being built that is causing the astronomical construction prices, it is purely the ineptitude of BC Housing. Not only do they not have a clue what they are doing, but they have designed the buildings with high end materials throughout and inefficent designs and then they are baffled when the price comes in miles over $300/sf.

Morons.

[raggedy13]

The sign looks great. Hopefully I'll have a chance to check it out in person soon. I'd love to see a neon renaissance in Vancouver.


by AntonTeterine at flickr.com


by laniwurm at flickr.com

Here's an old pic showing the original sign:

http://carrall.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/pennsylvania-hotel/

And here is an interesting old postcard showing the hotel in its former glory days:

provided by glenalan54 at flickr.com

[DKaz]

Ok ok points taken... but the hotel does still look cool and I think DTES could once again become a good, vibrant community. With Hotel Pennsylvania along with Woodwards District, this could very well happen. Save the high price, I think there is a social transformation going on in the DTES, an experiment more or less yes but let's see how it turns out in the next few years. It's too bad the economy will stifle any future development in the area but it's a good start.

[giallo]

The new Hotel Pennsylvania sign looks awesome. The great thing about these colouful neon signs is that they add more lighting to the area, and not your typical white florescent lighting. They are a great addition for night photography too.

[Skook]

Hate to keep flogging that old DTES horse, but I live just around the corner from the Pennsylvania Hotel, so it's my 'hood (and this probably makes me a Nimby!)

I've been maintaining for some time, to anyone who would listen, that we don't have a homelessness problem here... we have addiction and mental illness problems. You could build nice little houses for the entire community scattered throughout the valley and still face a signficant problem: many of these people simply aren't interested in going there. This is because housing is NOT their top priority. It is easily trumped by easy access to a ready drug supply, a supportive community of drug users and generous support services. These supports, while necessary, are also clearly functioning as enablers. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

At any rate, we have to deal with the drugs and the mental illness first. The homelessness is the symptom, not the cause. Housing for unreformed drug addicts will be skid row housing again in no time anyway.

[Metro-One]

That is pretty much what my last post addresses.

Exactly, these rooms should come with a price, and the price is rehab. All homeless should be given a warm place to sleep, but while at that place they have to partake in rehab programs. Not just for drugs, but also to teach them proper hygene and room up keep. No more free rides. Yes i also agree that the mentally ill should have hospitals. I would be very happy to see my tax dollars going to mental health facilities. If one is not mentally ill (addiction not counted as a mental illness) or does not want to take on the responsibility of cleaning their own room and going to rehab, then they should be forced into enclosed rehab facilities. Where they would also be put into community services.

Sid note - While it is easy to blame the government for closing the hospitals, we should also blame the ultra liberals who demanded the hospitals be shut down because they felt it was cruel and against human rights to keep these mentally ill individuals in the hospitals. So they were all let go. Now i am no expert on human rights but what i see happening on the downtown east side (where most of these individuals ended up) is not humane. Now they are dirty, addicted to drugs and dying. I think the hospitals (managed properly) are a much safer and humane alternative than allowing them to kill themselves and rot on the streets.

Bottom line is you have both the ultra conservatives and ultra liberals to blame for the problem.

[nickinacan]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Bottom line is you have both the ultra conservatives and ultra liberals to blame for the problem.

You, sir, get a gold star.

The whole problem with the DTES is multi-layered. You have anti-drug government/municipal policy, police policy that seems to favour containing the issue in one particular area and the fact that drug sales are still a lucrative revenue option.

I say legalize all drugs and regulate it's production, just like tobacco. This will take the crime element out of it and actually provide real jobs, more income tax revenue and a substantial savings on police funding. Tax the production and sale of drugs and funnel the money into addiction and rehabilitation services. Don't concentrate on just the DTES, spread it into other cities as well. There are drug issues in other neighbourhoods as well, just not to the same concentration as the DTES.

I use tobacco as an example simply because the rate of people who smoke are constantly declining because of government policy. It is so much easier for kids to buy drugs than cigarettes.

But, alas, I know this scenario will never happen...

[eduardo88]

Originally Posted by nickinacan

I say legalize all drugs and regulate it's production, just like tobacco. This will take the crime element out of it and actually provide real jobs, more income tax revenue and a substantial savings on police funding. Tax the production and sale of drugs and funnel the money into addiction and rehabilitation services. Don't concentrate on just the DTES, spread it into other cities as well. There

thats ridiculous...you can't compare meth or crack with tobacco...you can't seriously advocate the legalization and regulated sale of them

[jlousa]

Look at the yellow canopy next door in one of the above pics, it's probably only a year old and it's completely damaged, I can almost guarntee it's from people throwing cig butts out thier window. Hopefully the new sign lasts longer then that.

[Spork]

Drugs are like any business. If the market price is high enough, people will manufacture and sell it underground. The reason that tobacco is so "well controlled" is because nobody in their right mind could set up an efficient underground operation to produce 20 cigarettes for $6.50 and still make a profit. Once/if taxes on cigarettes get high enough, believe me, people will start producing them underground.

[thenorthofvan]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Look at the yellow canopy next door in one of the above pics, it's probably only a year old and it's completely damaged, I can almost guarntee it's from people throwing cig butts out thier window. Hopefully the new sign lasts longer then that.

actually it wouldnt suprise me if its been cut like that so that nobody can loiter under it during the 6 months of the year where it rains

[eduardo88]

Originally Posted by Spork

Drugs are like any business. If the market price is high enough, people will manufacture and sell it underground. The reason that tobacco is so "well controlled" is because nobody in their right mind could set up an efficient underground operation to produce 20 cigarettes for $6.50 and still make a profit. Once/if taxes on cigarettes get high enough, believe me, people will start producing them underground.

then again its much easier to have a meth lab in your basement than be growing tobacco crops in your back yard...the profit margin from producing your own cigarettes isnt worth it, unless you're producing an extraordinary amount

[nickinacan]

Originally Posted by eduardo88

thats ridiculous...you can't compare meth or crack with tobacco...you can't seriously advocate the legalization and regulated sale of them

Haha. Well from the way I see it, the more it is controlled and out of the hands of criminals, the better. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that everyone will start shooting heroin. It's up to the person to decide. Just like tobacco. You have a choice to smoke it, some people do, some people don't.

[officedweller]

Not sure if this has been posted before - came across this retail allocation for Alto @ Davie & Howe on the Athem Properties website:

[SpongeG]

another starbucks

there is a tim hortons going in acorss the street from them - in the old video store location on davie @ howe

[WhipperSnapper]

Google was friutless. In need of an construction update on Camera and Kindred Place. Thanks.

[djh]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

another starbucks

there is a tim hortons going in acorss the street from them - in the old video store location on davie @ howe

Yeah, but a Nando's! Yay! There are none downtown, and only 1 in all of Vancouver AFAIK - in kits. There's 1 in Metrotown, and I don't know of any others. So good to see some diversity in the chains coming to Vancouver.

[johnjimbc]

Yay on the Nando's from me as well.

As much as I love the one in Kits - my favorite fast (but delicious) food in the city, and a really cool little restaurant interior as well - I will love being able to walk to one in the downtown.

[sacrifice333]

Here's some of the most recent Camera pics from Intracorp's website:

From December:



From November:


More pics here.