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Entries from January 2016

Open inquiry into the housing market begins. Oh, in London. Not here.

November 27th, 2015 · 3 Comments

I get a lot of junk mail from clueless publicists. But, every so often, something good. This just landed. Perhaps we should all tune in. 27 November 2015 ECONOMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OPEN INQUIRY INTO THE HOUSING MARKET WITH EVIDENCE FROM DAME KATE BARKER The Economic Affairs Committee will next week open its new inquiry into […]

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The hard bargaining the city needs to do so all residents benefit from the viaducts

November 27th, 2015 · 6 Comments

There’s a lot of suspicion about whether Vancouver will really benefit from the viaducts or whether removing them will result in another new neighbourhood that seems to exist mostly for the benefit of investors and visitors (Coal Harbour anyone?). Two people who were intimately involved in extracting public benefits for the city when the first […]

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A new private-investment fund puts money into Canadian subsidized housing projects

November 17th, 2015 · 4 Comments

It’s been a struggle in Canada to create affordable housing since the federal government bailed out of supports for social housing under the Liberals in 1994. Their withdrawal prompted many provinces to cut back or eliminate their programs. That’s left cities, with a limited tax base, and non-profits to struggle with this on their own. […]

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Two views of the Vancouver real-estate scene: two worlds colliding

November 17th, 2015 · 9 Comments

I can’t imagine what it’s like for average residents in Vancouver to try to square these two perspectives, which drifted across my screen last week. Peter O’Neil’s story in the Vancouver Sun, titled “Canada a friendly home for illicit cash, corrupt real-estate buys, report says” And this series in New Canadian Media, with a very […]

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Many cities around Vancouver region pondering impact of “dark houses/condos” and foreign or investor capital

November 12th, 2015 · 5 Comments

An interesting debate broke out at Metro Vancouver’s planning committee meeting last Friday, which I followed up on this week. It started with a report on affordable housing or, rather, the startling lack of it in the region. There are lots and lots of apartments being built, theoretically enough to house all the newcomers who […]

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What data is it really that we’re looking for in Vancouver’s housing market?

November 4th, 2015 · 30 Comments

It’s been a remarkable couple of days this week, for those who are interested in the hot topic of Vancouver housing and how much foreign money is flowing into it. A study by UBC adjunct prof and planner Andy Yan was the latest to set off the fireworks, with his stats on 172 sales in […]

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And now for something completely different: A restaurant tour in the Mission district, San Francisco

November 3rd, 2015 · 6 Comments

A nice break of an assignment for me. An editor at Western Living asked me to do five restaurants in San Francisco. But I said our vow was to eat only at restaurants we could walk to in the Mission. So he let me narrow the scope. The trick was picking only five. There were […]

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Part 2: Why just looking at info on “Chinese” and “income” in a few areas is no way to understand anything

November 2nd, 2015 · 15 Comments

(Continuing from last week’s post …) We all jump to conclusions quickly. Journalists are the most famous for it — three of anything within a week is a trend. But, in fact, we all do it, journalist or not, in an attempt to understand the world’s complexity. So it’s normal to look at a few […]

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