3493 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

...many people are still going to extreme lengths to deny the obvious. If options are limited and if people are willing to pay then the options will inevitably be pricey...

This.

[Nparker]

How many more old homes will be lost when the London Drugs complex is redeveloped...

To be fair, there will be a few homes lost - temporarily - for the Harris Green redevelopment,

but this is the exception that proves the rule.

[aastra]

 

...to those developers who have moved on from condo developments to create pricey and profitable rentals.

 

I guess the days of blaming developers for not building new rentals are over now? Now we're blaming them for building the wrong kind of new rentals? Who could have predicted that?*

 

*we all predicted it

 

No matter what measures the authorities implement (or don't implement) to aggravate the housing situation, Joe Public will always want to point the finger elsewhere.

[Nparker]

Now we're blaming them for building the wrong kind of new rentals?

It's pure greed that makes developers build brand new rentals in 2020 and not lease them out at 1970s prices. Don't they know that avarice is a deadly sin?

[aastra]

 

but this is the exception that proves the rule.

 

I'm not sure I'd equate an apartment block built in ~1999-2000 with "old homes". The three of us (you, me, the writer of that comment) may be talking about different things. If we're worried about losing a small modern building like that then we shouldn't be worried at all, because the LD block which currently has a handful of residential units on it will eventually have many hundreds of residential units on it. Heck, to be consistent we should be complaining about that building as well. It replaced an empty lot, and parking lots and empty lots seem to be our major concern.

 

I read him as meaning the city's appeal was being diminished because fine old homes (pre-1945 SFDs) were being replaced with highrise condo buildings. In Victoria's history has that ever actually happened even one time? Maybe it has, but since I'm struggling to think of an example I'm going to say it tends to be a very rare occurrence.

[aastra]

This place on Dallas Road was built as a condo building back in the 1970s (rather than built as a rental and then converted to strata later). But at 9 stories it's hardly a highrise. The Savoy on Blanshard, too (also in the mid-1970s), and also hardly a highrise.

 

edit: I suppose Clarence House in James Bay (also mid-1970s) would qualify.

Edited by aastra, 06 February 2020 - 11:22 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

apartment buildings on wark and dowler and queens and cook etc. replaced very old homes.  not ones in very good shape though.

 

i imagine some james bay apartment buildings and condos were built where houses had sat.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 February 2020 - 11:11 AM.

[Nparker]

I'm not sure I'd equate an apartment block built in ~1999-2000 with "old homes"...

With the exception of the Harris Green proposal, the examples you named of recent condo developments (HBC parkade, Coronet parking lot & the Songhees/Dockside Green industrial brownfields) did not involve existing residential units. I was simply pointing out that in the case of HG some homes will be replaced. I do not equate the existing HG apartments with "old homes" or the "destruction" of established residential neighbourhoods, such as Fairfield, which is probably the sort of misinformed hysteria the original letter writer was implying.

[aastra]

Just to clarify, houses by the hundreds were indeed replaced with apartment buildings (and parking lots, and hotels, and office buildings, and other things) back in the 1950s/1960s/1970s. But the writer said replacing old homes with high-density highrise condo buildings won't make things cheaper (in other words, doing that today won't make things cheaper going forward from today). Thus, I'm assuming he was thinking of recent developments and developments going forward, rather than developments from many decades ago. Obviously Victorians would be in a huge mess today if those apartment/condo developments from many decades ago had never happened.

[aastra]

And even back in the day I'm thinking not many old homes were replaced with condo highrises (legitimate highrises).

[BobsUncle]

Anyone see this article?

https://www.vicnews....-about-honesty/

 

Zora Hlevnjak, a 76-year-old Sidney woman, who has been collecting empty cans for years to supplement her pension, faces eviction from Wakefield Manor because of failure to pay $1,087 for three month’s worth of rent following a rent increase. Beacon Community Services, the organization that operates the facility, raised Hlevnjak’s rent to 30 per cent of her income after she deposited money raised from collecting empty cans and donations. Subsidized housing rules require to submit financial statements as part of an annual review.

 

Hlevnjak has so far refused to pay the outstanding rent, claiming among other points, that the money received from cans and the donations, does not qualify as income. She argues that Beacon Community Services does not deserve the money, in part because she worked hard for it. She also argues that she does not benefit from the money, that she sends to her family in Croatia. According to her, she has formally challenged the rent increase.

 

 

Interesting to note that bottle collection is considered income. I haven't returned bottles in decades but does anybody claim it as income? Also "donations" are as well. Does that mean panhandling is income?

[Mike K.]

For sure. If you're returning your bottles and cans, you're getting back what you already paid. If you're collecting bottles and cans, and getting money in exchange for them, that's income. Panhandling is also income.

[Awaiting Juno]

Kids come with lots of government funding these days, I wonder if they took that into consideration...

 

Unless your family happen to earns above a certain amount, in which case your kids are likely subsidy free.  Choose to send them to private school?  Your kid gets even less government funding while you contribute even more in taxes.  

[DustMagnet]

So she's arguing that the money she received from the bottles and cans is not income because she worked hard for it?  So I could avoid taxes if I put a little more effort into my job?  Good to know.

 

And it doesn't matter where she sends the money, unless she can claim a tax refund for a charitable donation to a registered charity - in Croatia.

 

Still it seems kind of a dick move.

[Love the rock]

So she's arguing that the money she received from the bottles and cans is not income because she worked hard for it?  So I could avoid taxes if I put a little more effort into my job?  Good to know.

 

And it doesn't matter where she sends the money, unless she can claim a tax refund for a charitable donation to a registered charity - in Croatia.

 

Still it seems kind of a dick move.

Am I reading it right that she hasn’t paid any rent at all for three months ? Not knowing the legal system would it have been an error to pay her rent in full and fight the increase retroactive . If she lost  or was unhappy with the decision then give notice ,move .My calculations  including  the increase  brings her monthly rent to be 362.33 .
 

[Nparker]

"Beautiful" new modular housing is now taking shape in Victoria's cutting edge architectural Hillside & Blanshard District (aka HiBDi).

 

[RFS]

"Temporary" *taps nose with finger*

[Victoria Watcher]

and sane folks wonder why we have a "housing crisis".

 

 

 

[RFS]

“Welcomed”

[Matt R.]

I'm good for two of those, don't worry we supply them housing.

 

They are also good for my economy, we are running Indian menu items on Fridays and it's packed in here!

 

Matt.