2019 October

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Is Vancouver exaggerating the low vacancy rate by only looking at statistics for purpose-built apartments

Question: I understand Gregor and the Vision team misusing statistics for political purposes, but now the City is parroting the same in stating that “rental vacancy rates are at an all-time low of 0.8%” A simple review of CMHC data shows there have been many other times in the last thirty years plus when the […]

Who absorbs the cost of CACs when a whole strata sells to a developer?

Question: When a strata “winds-up” and sells the property to a developer, which party generally absorbs the cost of the community amenity contribution assessed due to rezoning, the strata owners or the developer? We are currently undergoing this process and have been told by our realtors to expect 100% of our current assessment plus only […]

Does a developer going through a rezoning also have to go through the development-permit process?

Question: Do you know, if a developer is going through rezoning, do they also have to go through the entire development permit process or is it combined? Answer: Hmm, a tricky one. I checked with my Valuable City Hall Sources and they said … it depends. Some, like Rental 100 projects or laneways, are combined. […]

What is happening with the new Vancouver chief planner job?

Q: What’s going on with the City of Vancouver’s search for a new Chief Planner? Surely they’re getting close Frances. Any news? A. Good question. I had heard there was a first round of interviews in May, second round in early June. Four candidates on shortlist. Told last week by city manager that announcement was imminent. […]

Why did the value of my building go up when I made no improvements?

Q: Why did my assessed value of the building portion of my property go up by over 40% when I made no substantial improvements to the house before the July 1, 2015 date? My house was built in 1954. Don’t homes typically depreciate over time unless substantial renos (permitted) are completed? Curious to know the […]

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Entries from January 2016

In honour of the Internet’s birthday: The time I discovered the Internet in 1993

October 30th, 2019 · No Comments

Way back when, I was a social-issues reporter at The Vancouver Sun. No one really knew what that meant. It wasn’t supposed to be traditional social issues, but more like trends and social-science research. I can’t remember how I got started on this talking through computers network thing. I believe it might have been Larry […]

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Vancouver’s big suburb to the east makes plans to create a downtown

October 29th, 2019 · No Comments

Apparently Google loved my story about Burnaby, Vancouver’s beloved neighbour that has served as its bedroom community for decades, is going to create a downtown at the mega-fortress-mall of Metrotown. (Full text attached below) Burnaby did originally have a kind of town centre at Edmonds, but that sort of disappeared in the 1970s, as the […]

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Metro Vancouverites on the move: Walking more, taking more car trips to shop, car-pooling more

October 10th, 2019 · No Comments

Like many reporters, I just love census data and census-like data. So it was Christmas Day when TransLink released its big set of data from its 2017 “trip diary,” a massive study the agency does every five years to monitor how people are getting around in the region. Lots of great info to ponder. Their […]

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