Rampant conspiracy theorist speculation go!

There’s a great (hilarious) theory piece on the potential implications of the move in the Courier…

http://blogs.canada.com/2013/07/11/mayor-gregor-robertsons-four-stages-of-kitsilano-bro-ness/

@ Everyman #4

Yeah, it’s Vision’s fault if they approve development and/or if they don’t approve development. Whatever.

Did someone say the Mayor bought on Cornwall for C$1.5M? Wow! He’ll need double, double windows to keep out the traffic and park noise!

I bought on Kits Point, Whyte Street, in 1970 for C$80K! The view was stupendous: the street peacefully so! I sold ten years later for a cool C$100K profit and all I did was sip coffee and enjoy the view!

The seventies decade belonged to Vancouver: a thriving port, manufacturing, lumber and fishing. But then I could tell by my practice something went wrong.

I arrived, 1951, to one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

Now, I’ve seen abandoned resource jetties in Central America that could presage the future. I left in 1997: I just didn’t have the stomach for bleak, formulaic gray concrete and running to be paid!

There is something out of whack big time about the current prices and it isn’t the Chinese: more like the Rothschild’s.

So the question would be, since he sold very fast at asking price, did he leave money on the table?

Have sf detached prices bottomed out, and are now back, albeit slowly, on the upswing?

So much for the bubble?

@Bill Lee #10:

Robertson’s house on Cambie was owned by a corporation – Ohana Partners (or something to that tune).

I’d be curious to know if his new digs on/around York Street will also be owned by the company.

Waltyss, I believe it is on York, so totally relevant.. also, I couldn’t help but notice that of all these community plans being foisted on the public, only one councillor Tim Stevenson lives in the west end, the rest are in areas where they won’t suffer any of the impact of these bad decisions. Convenient that their own, plenty of space and low density neighbourhoods are being left alone… yes, dump more people into areas with no capacity, and tear down actually affordable buildings to make less affordable housing. Sooo smart. Nitby…not in their backyard

jenables, if the mayor walked on water, you would find he was foisting his religion on people.
I don’t kow where on York his new home is, assuming you are correct. I still fail to see the relevance as York is two blocks off Cornwall or Point Grey Road except where it runs into Point Grey Road just before Macdonald. In any event, he appears to be with you on this, although I note you are not exactly giving him credit for recusing himself.
And Foghorn, so you have bragged about how much your house is worth. You are of course free to do so. Still doesn’t make it anyone else’s business. No-one else including my or my wife’s parents paid for any of our house which we purchased in 1989 and extensively remodelled in 1998 after paying off our first mortgage. I have nothing to hide but nor am I obligated to gloat together with you about how much the value of my house has increased.

@Jenables-13-you’re absolutely right. It’s not enough for the mayor and his apologists to bleat about him recusing his vote-he’s spent months plumping this plan. It may have even originated with him. How do we know he didn’t have the move planned at the same time?

“a story of momentous proportions”; an interesting turn of phrase usually reserved for cataclysmic events. “in Kits near the beach”; is it on floats?

brilliant not, there is not much I like about you but one thing that I do like is that you do not shy away from setting out innuendo without a shred of evidence in support of whatever you choose to “bleat”.. Why do I like it? Because it so aptly and succinctly demonstrates the idiocy of the proponent.

Walt@15 and Roger K@16 +1 each. Giveth the man a break is right.

brilliant not, what I did not miss is that you do not have a smudgen of evidence that the mayor planned bike lanes before he bought and the two are intertwined. It is unlikely but in your fertile imagination, who knows.
It is true that many are opposed and at least an equal number are in favour and city council has to make a decision. Personally, I think the Mayor has chickened out with this purported conflict which the city solicitor quite rightly says is not a conflict.
I drive west on Point Grey Road everyday and it is dangerous, particularly for cyclists many of whom are idiots and would deserve to be run over. However, this is not the way we go about things. I actually think that making Point Grey Road one way going west after Macdonald is a decent compromise if they go that way.
But of course you will continue to believe in conspiracy theories and PUff the Magic Dragon and similar nonsense. But, guess what, brilliant not, I fully support you right to believe whatever you want and to spout whatever nonsense you want, this side of defamation.

Truthiness is a quality characterizing a “truth” that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively “from the gut” or because it “feels right” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.
Boohoo, our dearly beloved brilliant not is a master practitioner of the craft of truthiness that would make Stephen Colbert smile.
But we all know that, so why don’t we just let him spout his truthiness.

@Waltsyss-I’ll enjoy thinking of you stuck commuting on the parking lot that West Fourth will become.l

Waltyss, I believe he is foisting (word of the day!) his religion on people, his toxic plastic bottled eco-green-sustainable hypocrisy. Just let me carefully sort my garbage while”certain people”can dump perfectly good HOMES into the landfill by the truckload..so they are as smashed and unusable as possible…guess that is what happens when you pay per load and not by weight. 55%WOOD, 1% household garbage in our landfill and I’m supposed to believe I’m the problem? But I digress…

Geez, jenables, it’s becoming like whack a mole. You knock one down and one of their co-religionists pops up.
Whether hypocritical or not, more people in this city agree with the Mayor than agree with you. I’m stuck with Stephen Harper, you are stuck with Gregor Robertson and we are all stuck with Christy Clark. Ain’t life grand.

Boohoo, the criticism that you dole out on a regular basis to other commenters is inherent in your handle itself, and your attitude comes off to me as contemptous. Maybe it’s hyperbole that sets you off just as your sardonic comments in response to people’s concerns set me off. Don’t take it too personally if I lose sight of what you do stand for amidst that, and please don’t entertain any crazy ideas about my “obsession”with you. Thanks buddy.

jenables, I guess you have facts to show that Councillor Reimer is wrong about demolitions. Or is it just truthiness at work.
When I said “most people”, I was referring to those who vote. While Mr. Remmy considers that anyone who doesn’t vote supports his position, the truth (not the truthiness) is that the demographics of people who don’t vote tend to be younger people and renters. If you asked their opinions, I suggest they would be more likely to support Vision policies, than yours or those of the NPA. Just sayin’

jenables, as Christy Clark astutely poiinted out, in between elections, you are compared to perfection. After an election, you are only compared to the other guy. In other works, while you and others may not like Vision, the next election will be decided on the basis of whether someone runs who people like more.
The other thing is that you can always find opponnents to something. You have provided a list. Who knows whether they present a majority view or whether come election time, they will make a global assessment or decide on the basis of one issue.
You mention Dunbar where I live. God knows what Dunbar has to bitch about. It’s usually some nimbyite thing. However, notwithstanding that they have nothing to bitch about, they don’t vote Vision anyway.
Are you rushing around blindly? Well, yes. You are blinded by your antipathy to Vision to make any kind of a rational assessment. YOur list is one of those matters, some large some small that float your boat. That some bike lanes downtown were ploughed seems to have you and some others in a knot. Most people don’t care and if they do, they likely didn’t vote for Vision anyway.
My point is this, jenables. Your thought that this group of people will rise up to vote against Vision in 2014 may be accurate but i suspect it is wishful thinking. What will determine the outcome of the next election will depend on who runs and in an at large system can get themselves heard above the noise and has a message that resonates.
You may not support the NPA but at the moment Vision and the NPA are the two games in town and in an at large system, most everyone else who does not have an independent profile is run over.

Waltyss… I find it hilarious when people who don’t have to deal with the effects of a questionable decision call others nimbies. I see it as nitby..not in their backyard (their being those who are deciding on the proposal) my issue is not really with the downtown lanes, but I do take issue with rerouting traffic to areas with more pedestrians or school children in the name of safety for cyclists… it’s a hard pill to swallow when so many refuse to act in their best interest, maybe because they are lazy, maybe because they are broke (no lights on your bike at night?), but more dangerously maybe because they feel their safety is the responsibility of others. Please don’t take that as a blanket statement. There are many who are paying attention, obeying the rules that keep us all safe and making themselves visible. I absolutely don’t have a problem with those people and regardless of their behavior I am very cautious and aware of bikes on the road. I really irks me to see drivers not shoulder checking for bikes, or driving dangerously around them but I truly don’t see that very often AT ALL. I don’t think you are addressing my points. As for the election, it’s truly unfortunate that vision and the npa have so much developer cash to campaign with. I really don’t think the things vision are doing make a whit of difference when it comes to the environment. I see an ever increasing sea of concrete with little trees stuck in it. I see big fat houses replacing perfectly fine small houses with yards with mature trees. I feel that campaigning on openness and transparency and then making information harder to access ,(ie scanning in documents instead of uploading them so the text cannot be searched) is a slap in the face and unacceptable. I think huge, ugly towers are out of place neighborhoods other than downtown, for the most part. Oh wait, didn’t they cleverly just try to extend the downtown area? I keep hearing about building affordable housing yet they displace people who have actual affordable housing to build something unsuitable for those displaced. We have a glut of empty houses, our landfill is unnecessarily full of demolished, high quality character homes and the environmental impact of construction as well as the ridiculous energy inefficiency of towers is NEVER mentioned. Thewoman who had a hand in turning healthcare into a joke is the city manager, is grossly overpaid, steps way outfof bounds, and expenses her gasoline for weekend spenttat her whistler cabin. Worst of all, they’ve come up with these community plans which they told us at that meeting actually had no budget for amenities… the city no longer uses your tax dollars for that, not on this side of town. And they must think we are seriously stupid if they honestly thought we wouldn’t notice how the gw plan will clean the low income people out nicely. Waltyss, Andrew pask the head planner did admit to me that the people who would be displaced probably wouldn’t be able to afford to live in what they would build. You can’t build affordable housing, and therefore destroying existing affordable housing that is inhabited to build market housing for people who might want to move here has zero benefit to those who call this neighborhood home already. Dumping density into areas that are already dense. Waltyss, you don’t realize it right now but you WILL have other options in 2014, team, cope, nsv, cedar, independents. Don’t write them off. Vote for someone who doesn’t have favors to repay. Well, vote for who you want. Just try to understand that a lot of people don’t have a lot of money. The more expensive things get, the harder it is for them to get by. Since you make no excuses as to why you drive, why does everyone else? Who does it benefit when wages are low, parking is high and it rains half the year? Our overloaded transit system? I hope you can see that I have legitimate concerns and stop trying to lump me into this npa war on bikes bs because I don’t like how city hall is operating.