Is Vancouver a Legitimate Tech Hub?

[Migrant_Coconut]

Perhaps the term we're looking for is blue collar attitude. Which is true - even our suits prefer casual wear.

[Pinion]

Yeah we're very casual but the idea that there aren't ridiculous amounts of supercars on the roads is insane. I've never seen anything like it - I see Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Rolls-Royces, Bentleys etc every single day. This weekend was an exception due to the weather, besides the aforementioned silly person.

ICBC says 1 in 142 people in West Van owns a luxury car. It's a constant stream on Lions Gate Bridge.

[LeftCoaster]

Only place I've see a concentration of supercars greater than Vancouver is Monaco.

I was out in Van last week and during a 10 minute walk in the snow storm I saw a McLaren, Lamborghini Aventador two bentleys and a rolls royce phantom.

In a damn snow storm.

First off that's a serious amount of 250,000 cars to see in 10 minutes, period. And second off what kind of idiot drives an aventador in the snow.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

hah, yeah, i guess you have all the chinese. the real difference between having people flood in to work in high paying tech jobs and having chinese dumping their savings into vancouver real estate is the following: the high paid tech people demand different services. i don't know if your cocktails have hit $15 or your burgers have hit $20 yet, but when you have a lot of solid middle class (100-150k/year) younger people concentrated in an area, and actually living there unlike the chinese, you get commercial lease pressures and sorting that that leads to what we here call gentrification but what you'd probably call something else.

$15 cocktails? Sounds pretty mid market, even for here in Toronto. If you want a decent cocktail in Vancouver it's easily costing you $15+

Burgers are all over the map, but I wouldn't say $20 is expensive. I'd imagine the burgers at a mid range restaurant would cost between $18-$20.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Pinion

Yeah we're very casual but the idea that there aren't ridiculous amounts of supercars on the roads is insane. I've never seen anything like it - I see Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Rolls-Royces, Bentleys etc every single day. This weekend was an exception due to the weather, besides the aforementioned silly person.

ICBC says 1 in 142 people in West Van owns a luxury car. It's a constant stream on Lions Gate Bridge.

BC and Vancouver has always had a high concentration of Luxury vehicles going back decades. Is the percentage higher now than in years past? I don't know, someone would need to look at the status.

West Vancouver for decades has also had one of the highest levels of disposable income in Canada.

I thought the Honda Civic was still the top selling car in BC followed by the Mazda 3.

[Prometheus]

Vancouver has held the title of super car capital of North America (per capita) for some time now.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by casper

BC and Vancouver has always had a high concentration of Luxury vehicles going back decades. Is the percentage higher now than in years past? I don't know, someone would need to look at the status.

West Vancouver for decades has also had one of the highest levels of disposable income in Canada.

I thought the Honda Civic was still the top selling car in BC followed by the Mazda 3.

It is a phenomenon that only dates back to Hot Asian Money flooding into the city. Traditionally the Anglo-Scottish establishment would have frowned on that kind of ostentation. It is pretty funny to watch the Fuer Dai Follies in a snowstorm when some little princess takes her Ghibli out in summer tires!

[jlousa]

Really I seem to recall more then our fair share of Rolls, Bentleys and Jaguars back in the day before the "hot Asian money" I also clearly remember all the penny stock peddlers in the VSE days with their Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsches during the 80s. But heck lets pretend it's a new phenomenon, we all know those dealerships along Burrard are recent additions to the city.

[casper]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Really I seem to recall more then our fair share of Rolls, Bentleys and Jaguars back in the day before the "hot Asian money" I also clearly remember all the penny stock peddlers in the VSE days with their Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsches during the 80s. But heck lets pretend it's a new phenomenon, we all know those dealerships along Burrard are recent additions to the city.

In the 80's I don't think it restricted to the penny stock crowd. There was a sub-set of the population who were living it up on borrowed money.

[Migrant_Coconut]

As much as we dislike FOBs, let's remember that it's new money in general - not just one specific group - that feels the need to flaunt their buying power.

[a very long weekend]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

$15 cocktails? Sounds pretty mid market, even for here in Toronto. If you want a decent cocktail in Vancouver it's easily costing you $15+

Burgers are all over the map, but I wouldn't say $20 is expensive. I'd imagine the burgers at a mid range restaurant would cost between $18-$20.

yeah, i forget that you all up there pay quite a bit more for alcohol and food than we do here in california. plus the exchange rate. the $20 burger, just 5 years ago that would be very rare here, by comparison i guess it could be like saying a $30 canadian dollars burger up there.

we've also always had very reasonable prices for drinks, a function of competition i guess. i remember when the cocktails here got up to $11-13 back when the whole mixology/craft thing first hit here in a big way (2010ish) it raised eyebrows. but standard for a cocktail is now ~$15. you can pay a lot more if you want to, but ~$15 is what you'd guess without looking. i'm guessing the equivalent for that relatively (based on our traditionally low booze prices) and with the canadian dollar translation would be $20-22 in canadian dollars.

it's pretty shocking! burgers and cocktails are meant to be entry level!

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

yeah, i forget that you all up there pay quite a bit more for alcohol and food than we do here in california. plus the exchange rate. the $20 burger, just 5 years ago that would be very rare here, by comparison i guess it could be like saying a $30 canadian dollars burger up there.

we've also always had very reasonable prices for drinks, a function of competition i guess. i remember when the cocktails here got up to $11-13 back when the whole mixology/craft thing first hit here in a big way (2010ish) it raised eyebrows. but a standard cocktail is now ~$15. you can pay a lot more if you want to, but ~$15 is what you'd guess without looking. i'm guessing the equivalent for that relatively (based on our traditionally low booze prices) and with the canadian dollar translation would be $20-22 in canadian dollars.

it's pretty shocking!

Canadians don't earn US dollars (usually) so the exchange rate is irrelevant, other than the fact that it makes for a real world increase in prices for us. Our wages are the same as they were when the dollars were at par, and were always lower than American wages for the same skilled jobs, so a $15 Cdn drink here is actually less affordable than a $15 US drink to a San Franciscan. And that's not even factoring in the generally higher cost of everything else. You're not going to win this silly "we have it tougher" argument.

[LeftCoaster]

Where San Fran really does have it rougher is rents. Rents in Vancouver are downright reasonable compared to the alternative cost of owning.

[Pinion]

That is true. Mostly because rents are usually an accurate reflection of the local economy.

[a very long weekend]

^ it's not an argument about "we have it tougher," it's a point about "if you get a flood of H1Bs, make damn sure you build enough housing and commercial space, otherwise pressures will get so bad on the existing stock that prices will shoot up like they did here."

[Pinion]

Yeah and the response was "housing prices in Vancouver have already shot up as high as SF without any demand to actually live here, and people making under $200,000 per year cannot afford to buy anything but a condo at best"

Census numbers were just released and we only went up 9.3% population in the last five years. Housing prices went up 54% in my area in the last year alone.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Pinion

Canadians don't earn US dollars (usually) so the exchange rate is irrelevant, other than the fact that it makes for a real world increase in prices for us. Our wages are the same as they were when the dollars were at par, and were always lower than American wages for the same skilled jobs, so a $15 Cdn drink here is actually less affordable than a $15 US drink to a San Franciscan. And that's not even factoring in the generally higher cost of everything else. You're not going to win this silly "we have it tougher" argument.

Biggest issue is service worker in the US are paid obscene low salaries. There is an expectation that you make most of your income on tips. Canada's minimum wage is closer to a working wage.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by casper

Canada's minimum wage is closer to a working wage.

"Canada" doesn't have a minimum wage. Vancouver's minimum wage ($10.85 rising to $11.25 in September) is lower than San Francisco's ($13 US, rising to $15 in 2018).

[casper]

Originally Posted by Pinion

"Canada" doesn't have a minimum wage. Vancouver's minimum wage ($10.85 rising to $11.25 in September) is lower than San Francisco's ($13 US, rising to $15 in 2018).

I agree each province has its own, but with less variability than the US. The feds dropped the minimum wage for federally regulated works some time ago.

California (according to google has the same minimum wage for tip and non-tip works at $10 US or $10.50). https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm#California That is good.

While other states it is what $2.13 per hour for works who make tips?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Really I seem to recall more then our fair share of Rolls, Bentleys and Jaguars back in the day before the "hot Asian money" I also clearly remember all the penny stock peddlers in the VSE days with their Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsches during the 80s. But heck lets pretend it's a new phenomenon, we all know those dealerships along Burrard are recent additions to the city.

Those dealerships are recent additions: Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Audi, Lexus. I don't recall those being there 20 years ago. Bentley may have been shoed in with MCL's Jaguar business but you rarely saw one.