GRIDS Vancouver

"I heard from pro-housing advocates who said this will reduce costs, and I appreciate that, and I heard from renters, who said it will have the opposite effect. So I'm very torn on this, um, yeah, and I just wish I had a little more information to make the right decision on this one"

my peak housing activism days were ~10 years ago, so I'm ancient compared to a lot of the people doing housing stuff today. and I remember how he would constantly say terrible things about housing online and in his locally popular column, but a lot of people don't have that context

oh man you have no fucking idea how bad www.reillywood.com/articles/sea...

I think the pro-housing people who told others to vote for Orr were a little too trusting and well, there are worse things to be.

The ones who *still* defend him are pretty dumb though

This got approved today! Only Sean Orr declined to vote yes.

They have to do all kinds of weird shit to pretend that they're a wholesaler because Vancouver's planning department decided that this *one building* was appropriate for a bajillion different uses but not retail (unless you're selling cars). And god forbid an accountant or travel agency open up here

Chatting with a lovely pet shop owner that moved to near Cambie and Broadway, and she mentions "Ignore the shelves, we had to divide the space up because we're only allowed to have retail on 40% of the floor area."

Turns out it's an insane CD zone from 1995 cd1-bylaws.vancouver.ca/cd-1(330).pdf

my theory is that it's because it looks cool on the outside: bsky.app/profile/grid...

curves look good on a building's exterior but it seems like they always make the inside worse

Jameson House is up there for worst layouts in a $$$ Vancouver building. Imagine paying $1.75M for a huge 1700 sqft 2BR and then you only get natural light from these dinky angled+round windows on one side of the unit www.realtor.ca/real-estate/...

I went to both last year and enjoyed them both equally. Different vibes

I think it's pretty good these days! Avoided it for a long time after a few unpleasant experiences early on, but I thoroughly enjoyed it last year

I see you’re both wrong *and* facetious, very cool

I spoke in favour of a new building that blocked the mountain view from my patio! I submitted comments in favour of new buildings just across the street!

Grabbing drinks at 5PM today near Commercial-Broadway, DM if you would like to join!

love me some overgrown Tokyo buildings www.tokyotimes.org/recently-fou...

Gregor Robertson addressing BC cities at their annual conference, lol:

but I like that they fly my Magic cards from Ontario+Quebec over for pennies

Book cover titled "The Story of Cement: The Magic Powder" by Earl J. Hadley. The illustration shows a large, stylized figure bending over and pouring white powder from their hands, which streams down into a cityscape with tall buildings and a bridge.

We could fill an encyclopedia with Fry's bad housing takes. I don't even think he's a NIMBY, I think he's just operating with received wisdom about housing politics+policy from 20+ years ago and can't/won't get with the times

From the vancouver community on Reddit: Pete Fry considering a run for mayor of Vancouver — and he could be the candidate to unite the left Explore this post and more from the vancouver community

I like that the r/vancouver consensus on Pete Fry is that he’s a nice guy who is not very good on housing (correct!) www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/...

I've put together a wider scale map covering the inner suburbs.

One of the things immediately evident is the weakness of the Millennium Line compared to the other lines, with its route on a wide suburban boulevard and paralleling a major freeway as well as the forced transfer travel time impact

Strange that this is townhouses only and doesn’t allow houses as well. Not sure I like that precedent

The fact that BC planners feel the need to invent a new word to indicate that a zoning change is government-initiated is very telling.

So this is the Vancouver transit to work mode share map

As you can see - the skytrain works. Otherwise, people living in South and East Van are more likely to ride the bus or skytrain to work, as well as other areas.

see Census Mapper: censusmapper.ca/maps/3719#11...

I mean 1.4%! Canada Life is awful

such a small fraction of a big number, it must be a good deal

Setting up some RRSP matching stuff, and boy I would love to be in a business where I can charge 1.4% to manage an S&P 500 index fund

Not so bad if you paint over the symbol