[Burnaby] City of Lougheed | Phase 1 Completed

[Klazu]

Lots of going up/down escalators to get to places, but otherwise looks very nice! I realize this is 10 years away, but what a great vision for another town center. Burnaby is going crazy with several town centers under development!

[Shift]

Is SkyTrain being upgraded to regional-scale commuter trains like in that rendering? Wishful dreaming.

[xd_1771]

Originally Posted by Shift

Is SkyTrain being upgraded to regional-scale commuter trains like in that rendering? Wishful dreaming.

Developers hardly ever bother to portray our SkyTrain properly in conceptual renderings. Our guideways have seen everything from street-level trams to Toronto subway cars

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by Shift

Is SkyTrain being upgraded to regional-scale commuter trains like in that rendering? Wishful dreaming.

That one is a giveaway that the project is being marketed to the Mainland Chinese crowd. They're CRH Chinese High Speed Rail cars...

[Metro-One]

But wait, the idea that mainland Chinese speculation is one of the key factors in our current housing affordability crisis is just a racist myth, therefore such a marketing scheme seems so bizarre.......

I mean, why didn't they edit in the average rail car used in Sweden, Japan, France, India, South Africa.... hmm...

In all honestly, can things get any more blatantly bizarre to outright edit in a Chinese train into the picture?

Seriously, — this —.

The odds of me moving back to coastal BC one day are getting slimmer and slimmer (still dream of moving into the southern Interior).

I live in Japan, and my rent now (10th floor, 800 meters to two different train stations) is around 600 Canadian a month. And this is a two bedroom, full kitchen, full balcony apartment It is amazing that in contract to Vancouver, Japan is becoming cheap. The king of land restraints. Even if Japan only had half the population of its current, Vancouver and area would still be nowhere near the land restraints.

[Alex Mackinnon]

The city is going bonkers. I know a lot of yuppie types being an engineer, and were pretty much all financially stressed and looking a taking off.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I live in Japan, and my rent now (10th floor, 800 meters to two different train stations) is around 600 Canadian a month. And this is a two bedroom, full kitchen, full balcony apartment It is amazing that in contract to Vancouver, Japan is becoming cheap. The king of land restraints. Even if Japan only had half the population of its current, Vancouver and area would still be nowhere near the land restraints.

Is that so surprising given the fact that Japan's population is in decline?

[Metro-One]

I knew someone would bite that, while that is a factor, the sheer density and land restraints in Japan dwarf anything metro Van / the South Coast of BC can put forward. Also, the major Japanese cities are still huge global players economically and have populations up to 15 times that of metro-Vancouver.

So no, the land restrain argument is starting to become bull — for the current prices relative to wages / the local economy in Vancouver, and especially places surrounding Vancouver, including Victoria.

I am a huge Vancouver defender, and while I think it is personally reasonable for the city to be more expensive than cities such as Montreal or Edmonton, this last year especially has gone insanely goofy.

And how important the mainland Chinese influx of money into the Vancouver market is in fueling this rage is becoming increasingly obvious and transparent.

This goofy as — render is just another obvious brick in an ever increasing wall of inaccessibility in Vancouver for the working class OF ANY — RACE / NATIONALITY.

And yes, I have many realtor friends (including even those who have heritage from Hong Kong / can speak Cantonese) who are increasingly saying how rigged the market is becoming and how impossible it is becoming to be hired without speaking Mandarin.

While the number is ever decreasing, there are still a few hard-cores on this forum who are still unwilling to admit the obvious to this problem. I suspect that those few are a mixture of a couple — SJWs who call everything racist, and a couple obvious children of super rich mainland Chinese families who have financial interests attached to this entire house of cards.

I have Mainland Chinese friends who are not part of the super rich crowd that are equally pissed and disenfranchised by this current situation. and it is refreshing hearing them admit the problem instead of denying it like some on here...

[ryanmaccdn]

This is crazy.... I remember dumpy Lougheed Mall back in the day with the movies ect.... God this marketing is selling such a fake story.

Speaking of Bonkers. Has anyone seen the price increases for houses in New Westminster, specifically the west end. Jesus. My parents are sitting on a gold mine.

They bought it 1981 .... for like 89,000.They are getting offers without the damn house even being on the market for like 1.4 million.

I've just recently moved to Melbourne this year.... but holy cow things have gone wonky even just in 5 months.

[Metro-One]

Exactly how I feel. I left 2 and a half years ago, and the change in housing prices in that short time is astronomical and do not correlate in any way to a gigantic spike in economic activity and wage increases or to a massive population influx that would be needed to even begin to legitimize these current prices.

[Pinion]

My parents' "downsized" ground floor wood frame condo is now worth more than what they got for their oceanfront Deep Cove house in 2005. Over a million bucks for a mediocre condo in a "meh" area.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I live in Japan, and my rent now (10th floor, 800 meters to two different train stations) is around 600 Canadian a month. And this is a two bedroom, full kitchen, full balcony apartment

Not taking anything away from your point, but I recall you living in some small city in rural Japan? I am sure Tokyo and Osaka can be just as expensive as Vancouver, not to mention the apartments there are tiny (just like here). What's the sqft for an average Japanese 2 bedroom apartment? Just curious.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Pinion

My parents' "downsized" ground floor wood frame condo is now worth more than what they got for their oceanfront Deep Cove house in 2005. Over a million bucks for a mediocre condo in a "meh" area.

We sold our home in Shaughnessy back in 2006, I don't even want to know how much it's "worth" now.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Not taking anything away from your point, but I recall you living in some small city in rural Japan? I am sure Tokyo and Osaka can be just as expensive as Vancouver, not to mention the apartments there are tiny (just like here). What's the sqft for an average Japanese 2 bedroom apartment? Just curious.

Sorry for my super slow reply, my activity on SSP has been becoming much less recently.

Everything is relative, the "small" city I live in has the population of metro-Kelowna itself and I am in a built up area of about 750 000 people.

My apartment I would not consider tiny, it is 743 square feet, plus a large balcony.

A pretty nice deal for 500 bucks a month! Plus I have 2 train stations, over 10 restaurants, 2 bars, a super market, a movie theatre, and many other services all within walking distance.

I do not expect Vancouver to be this cheap since it is a bigger city, but for people to start to need to compare Vancouver to cities such as Tokyo for prices! Seriously, we have a problem. Tokyo is 15 times Vancouver's population, is an Alpha+ city, has an endless list of entertainment venues and attractions, is one of a few major cultural and economic centres in the world, etc... Even then, a very large portion of regular middle class employees actually have their rents paid for by their employers!

Vancouver has a problem, and the render shown with the Chinese train in the rendering is almost a comical satire pointing out one of the major sources of the problem.

[Klazu]

Here's a view we have never seen before: Lougheed town center from top of Metrotown. Currently Lougheed skyline is not much to behold, but let's see in couple of years... At least I will have a superb view of it from our apartment.

[BobLoblawsLawBlog]

When I was a kid I had no idea what or where Lougheed was, but I could see it from my house. I thought it was like this magical second downtown thing in the mountains.



But then reality has to ruin imagination.

[officedweller]

You must be young - that would have been Woolco when I was a kid.

[Klazu]

Extra points to anyone guessing where the antenna in my photos is located.

[Xrayal]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Extra points to anyone guessing where the antenna in my photos is located.

Atop one of the high tension power lines along the freeway trial in Burnaby lake park?

[Klazu]

Nah, those are much lower in elevation than this. This is an antenna.