Condos are too tall, too empty, too many, too expensive, and we don't let homeless people sleep in them. I just wish that it was an online article so that Aastra could tear it apart.
Oh yeah it is the largest boom the city has EVAR seen.
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Posted 25 January 2008 - 07:19 PM
Posted 25 January 2008 - 08:38 PM
Posted 25 January 2008 - 08:40 PM
This article is just wrong on so many angles that I had to post it. While the author has his heart in the right place at moments it is just momentous. Wondering if this is Russ Francis under a new name though I would say more likel a Malcolm Curtis article really.
Condos are too tall, too empty, too many, too expensive, and we don't let homeless people sleep in them. I just wish that it was an online article so that Aastra could tear it apart.
Oh yeah it is the largest boom the city has EVAR seen.
Posted 25 January 2008 - 08:53 PM
Posted 25 January 2008 - 10:10 PM
... However, it is a failure of the city and thus a failure of urban planning not to consider everybody. ...
Posted 25 January 2008 - 10:33 PM
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
Posted 25 January 2008 - 10:55 PM
Sid has shed some light on all that darkness. It isn't just Vancouver building vertical savings bonds with stainless appliances and granite countertops any more. But the city is legitimizing suites. Even Oak Bay is striking a little committee about suites to find a way to save people from being burned at the stake if they mention that evil word. Maybe the urban core is not the place for single moms, drug addicts, and mental patients.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 06:58 AM
As far as I'm concerned, window gazing used as a tool to gauge occupancy is as ridiculous as counting passengers on transit buses from atop a pedestrian overpass.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 07:03 AM
If you walk down a street in Oak Bay Fairfield or Broadmead at the same time at night, how many have their lights off.
And he even points out the Metropolitan is 60 % dark well that building has been around for 15 years already and hardly part of the current market.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 09:46 AM
Posted 26 January 2008 - 10:12 AM
Posted 26 January 2008 - 10:55 AM
Posted 26 January 2008 - 12:36 PM
Great article by Mr. Tafler.
Although I did find his reference to non-existent towers on the Songhees to be a bit confounding.
A couple of thoughts:
1) Is it just me or does he fall flat on his face in the first paragraph? Condominiums are "turning this city into an enclave of absentee haves and homeless have-nots"? What possible relevance could the redevelopment of parking lots have on the issue of homelessness? Where did everyone get this idea that Victoria's surface parking lots were housing people? If parking lots are indeed so valuable in this regard then what are we waiting for? There are plenty of them left! Let's get serious, let's march to Ogden Point, and let's start putting up tents and PortaPotties. Hillside, Tillicum, Mayfair, the legislature's lots...what an opportunity!
2) "Hermetically sealed concrete suite"? Good gravy, is this guy 200 years old or something?* I'd welcome him to the 20th century but I think I should probably welcome him to the 1950s first. (I really don't understand what he's taking a shot at with that one. I presume he's making a negative assessment of contemporary architectural esthetics, but if so, the criticism hardly holds any water since his targets are so varied (Shutters, Astoria & Belvedere, old Songhees stuff, the Metropolitan...).
3) He mourns the eviction of the Songhees band. Indeed, it was a sad state of affairs. I just hope he knows they weren't evicted for condominiums. I also hope he knows the eviction of the band has no relevance to vacation rentals in Shutters. The Songhees property was an industrial site for a lifetime before anybody ever thought of living there again.
4) The Metropolitan?? What is it, 15 years old now? Does he even know that? (I see G-Man has already made this point)
5) Why does 860 View of all places earn a compliment ("handsome")?**
6) He's way off on the floor counts of Astoria and Belvedere. I'm just so tired of these negative accounts from people who can't see and have no memory.***
7) "...irreplaceable land in the heart of this one unique city on the far edge of Canada."
And all this time I thought Victoria was located on the NEAR edge of Canada! Silly me. But then I'm FROM Victoria, so I suppose my perspective wouldn't be nearly as clear on this matter as would Mr. Tafler's.
--
edit looking back in 2019: some people still want to claim that the parking lots, empty lots, car dealership lots etc. were/are housing people, and that building apartments on them would somehow translate into a housing deficit.
*if so, that would make him older than the average VV forumer
**I like 860 View, but it seems odd how he singled it out
***as I've noted countless times, the forces of eternal opposition never give much heed to particulars. Don't trouble me with specifics... I'm opposed.
Edited by aastra, 22 November 2019 - 01:09 PM.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 12:43 PM
Posted 26 January 2008 - 12:56 PM
Really good article.
Although, if "irreplaceable land" was being used to PARK CARS or otherwise sitting empty, is it really such a "tragedy of urban planning failure" that the land is now being used for vacation rentals? What exactly is it that can't be replaced? The surface parking?
A few more thoughts:
1) He's a good griper but what's his alternative? I suppose we should be building gigantic homeless shelters on the Y-lot? Or maybe single family homes? Sell them for $10 million each? Would either of those situations be preferable to condominium communities in which some of the units are used as vacation rentals?*
2) "...often without a word of wisdom about the kind of city we're building, who we're building it for and why."
This bit really bugged me. For whom was Victoria built in the old days? Who were all of the great homes and downtown buildings built for? For the poor and disadvantaged? Was the Empress Hotel built for the homeless? Were the mansions of Rockland a community project? Were all of the fine commercial buildings in the old town designed by committee, by the city?
One of the key elements that makes Victoria an attractive place, a distinctive place, is the fact that there was and still is wealth here. If you don't have that foundation then you don't have a beautiful city. Every fine old edifice in Victoria represents wealth in one way or another. What on earth is so wrong with that?
Why isn't Nanaimo a big tourist draw like Victoria? It's the same island, right? Same ocean? Because it doesn't have the wealth, the opulence, the detail...all of that. It's not something to be ashamed of. It's what sets a city like Victoria apart from a city like Saskatoon. The rich folk and the trappings of wealth belong just as much as the poor folk and the trappings of poverty (as do everyone and everything in between).
3) "...the biggest boom cycle in living memory..."
I give him credit for almost getting that one right. It's actually the second biggest boom in his living memory and mine as well, and maybe the third or fourth biggest in the city's history (depending on how you measure it, of course...I measure it in terms of population growth, the total number of new SFDs, and the total number of new large/significant buildings).
--
edit looking back in 2019: do many Victorians resent the city's variety and complexity? It's almost as if they expect (or would prefer) the city to be more exclusively stratified and much less of a flavourful mix than it is. I think the "hidden gems" thing comes out of this. Why does a relatively small city like Victoria have such a long list of supposedly hidden gems? Because many people self-impose a peculiar exclusivity upon certain attractions, neighbourhoods, experiences, etc.
*key point being "some of the units"
Edited by aastra, 22 November 2019 - 01:30 PM.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 01:01 PM
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 01:14 PM
If you walk down a street in Oak Bay Fairfield or Broadmead at the same time at night, how many have their lights off.
Perhaps in a few years, once these units have been flipped, you'll see more of them actually being used.
It's really a shame that around the time new units should have been built to come down the pipe and come down in cost in time for ME to afford them, we weren't building much anything downtown at all.
Why focus this attention on the buildings downtown...
Posted 26 January 2008 - 02:48 PM
If you want utilitarian housing projects (or industry, or surface parking), the last place you should put it is on the waterfront in the tourist areas or in high-profile areas downtown.
Posted 26 January 2008 - 04:53 PM
Posted 26 January 2008 - 07:58 PM
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