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#53 Sorry but hiding behind the tired rant of ‘fascist’ calling doesn’t make a braindead opinion any more correct. You name calling morons-deniers just don’t get the big picture. The deniers contingents remind me of the forest monkey’s who beat their chests, throw grass, twigs and dirt in the air when they get frustrated. You won’t win an argument with me through misdirection. These are some pretty weany comebacks, actually serving to prove my point. Boo Hoo.

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#50, the official number is 800 Million ++, look it up straggler. If the truth hurts you, too bad. trying to justify living in ‘Shitside’ by avoiding the facts is just plain stupid. If you are that concerned about your property value you should be screaming at the ‘Shitty Council’, not me. Living in ignorance is not the answer.

#51, If the truth hurts, too bad.
Can’t hide from the facts chumbo.

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Only person polluting Vancouver is you. You are certainly full of more shit than any of the waters around vancouver.

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a billion eh?

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#48 , I’m glad to have brought the ravers, hiders and deniers out of the closet on the cop issue. The Socratic method is meant to be abrasive and thought provoking. It continues to surprise me ( not) that everyone doesn’t realise that everything that happens in our society relates back to real estate. it’s called ‘The Big Picture’

If we regress into a dictatorship of baton wielding nazi’s free-wheeling through the streets killing citizens at random as in some other countries then what does that do to the sanctity of real estate prices in the long term? You have to think a little bigger picture dude. If our communities are no longer safe from EVERYONE including the police force then we have nothing!!!!!

We have to understand that all of these ‘values’ we hold dear have been hard fought for and we must fight to hold on to them. Freedom isn’t free.

Today we see the ultimate betrayal of our civic rights perpetrated by the civic government.It is on Canada day that we have seen our right not to submit to illegal search and seizure suspended by the TRANSIT BOARD? Are you effing kidding me?

Ironic that the day we give our shout out to the freedoms we enjoy in this country is the very day our rights and freedoms are suspended on the pretext of ‘civic pride’. It’s a slippery slope when your rights are suspended ‘just for one day’. Thanks, my family members fought and died for your freedom, I’m not going to overlook an encroachement on those freedoms by any party.

So dude, rememeber me when your freedoms are suspended because you didn’t decide to defend them. Every right to freedom is precious. None are frivolous or trivial.

Think Big, Think Free.

Happy Canada Day.

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Everybody in Yaletown that just took a shit or flushed their infected needles down the toilet just flushed it straight into False Creek. And this is your ‘upscale’ neighborhood? Shitside?

You’re right on one thing, only an idiot would choose to live there. What kind of delerium do you have to be in to not pay attention to ONE BILLION LITERS PER DAY OF RAW HUMAN EXCREMENT IN YOUR PLAYPEN?

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False Creek North has the suppliers whereas gastown has the end users.

Even $1700 seems high for having to step over crack pipes and needles to get into your building and you wouldn’t want your girlfriend walking around after 5pm

Time will tell I think Woodwawrds is going to define the condo bust in Vancouver

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....1295.story

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I currently live in one of those waterfront False Creek North condos and I just find the neighbourhood too cheesy for my liking. A LOT of wannabes.

As per Bayshore Drive, I guess it is ok but nothing to do around there really. Plus A LOT of empty condos doesn’t help the neighbourhood feeling.

In gastown there are some decent restaurants (Boneta, Salt, etc…)now and a feeling of a city starting. But you are right – bordering on the edge of scarytown. Worth $1700/month in my opinion. 2 bedroom that is…

Just my 2 cents.

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Who would pay $2,500 to live in the DTES when $2,500 gets you a nice suite in False Creek North or Bayshore Drive?

Seriously you’d have to be on crack (and have a reasonable income) to choose the poorest postal code in Canada over the nicest waterfront areas in Vancouver.

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Dave, I fell revealed that you are not running this city. Its bad now, but man, you would bring totally new levels here..

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Dave, is that your professional opinion on close inspection of the picture?

Or you just play smart-ass after reading the text – its clearly spelled how this happened.

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#34 Seriously Dude, Every bodies smoking dope on the worksites. It’s the union guys with the steady work who are growing the dope in their basements to sell to the casuals.

Meanwhile the bad news can’t be hidden. The economy continues to shink for the 9th straight month. More unemployment coming in waves as the lay off settlements and EI run out.

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Yes it is paying off debt, that’s what “amortized” means. And what do you think “long term” means?

And the CoV’s most valuable assets are not the properties it owns outright but all the real estate within its limits. The CoV can tax at any rate it wants which makes it in effect the ultimate owner of all property in the city. And the CoV’s tax rates are lower than many other metro Vancouver judisditions, never mind many other Canadian cities. And let’s not hear any nonsense about people abandoning houses if tax rates up – property taxes are vastly lower than ownership costs and rental value and would still be so even if taxes doubled. Higher taxes would simply push down the market price of the property so that ownership costs net of taxes would be the same as before.

Also the CoV’s fiscal stability is much better than senior governments – both its revenue and expense sides are more stable, because they are far less subject to cyclical variation.

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I guess it depends on who’s doing the work of wrapping those pipes (or not doing the work as the case may be). Is it the architect? the engineer? or the mechanical insulators? And of course it depends on how thorough the inspectors are. We’re renovating our office right now, and I can tell you that city inspectors are a thorn in the side on some issues, but completely overlook others. They’re only human.

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Sure there are exceptions, deal with it, but please don’t slag all ‘unions’ and attribute drug use to the construction industry in general.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servle.....lumbiaHome

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http://vancouvercondo.info/200.....toned.html

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The City of Van has a LOT of assets. They own a lot of land and can either sell or better utilize it to generate shortfalls in revenue, if needed.

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Sure, but that’s not paying off any debt and as their position deteriorates the rates will go up. They are facing large shortfalls now, while collecting $300M/year in developer fees? See page 10 & 11 of:
http://vancouver.ca/fs/budgetS.....FI2008.pdf

You are correct that this is not a disaster *now*, however to me it looks like a disaster waiting to happen. If new development stalls they will have a gaping hole in the budget. Their credit has already been downgraded. If that happens again or interest rates go up, double whammy. Given how this has already unfolded, I don’t think the city will sort out a mouldy condo mess in any kind of cost effective way. $450M could be considered a minimum.

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