Right now I'm fighting with the council that is trying to rezone residential neighborhoods for duplexes and triplexes, there's already a massive problem with traffic and homes with insufficient parking
It is not going to work. Public transport density has been slashed massively. Netherlands as an example: Between the early 1900's to 1950's there where lots of tram lines and every village had a railway station. Nowadays a lot of places don't even have a bus stop. You can choose to live next to a transport 'hub' but there is nowhere to go from there nowadays.
Covid took a massive toll on the public transportation here. Suddenly getting onto a bus with packed with 80 random strangers didn't seem like such a good idea and ridership plummeted. That resulted in a lot of route cancellations which has made the bus much less practical and it has not recovered. I think it will take a decade or more for people to be as comfortable packing onto a bus or train as they used to be.
I don't know what my views on population have to do with politics. It is mathematically provable that a system supplied by finite resources in a finite space cannot sustain infinite growth. I don't care whether someone is trying to come here from Mexico or Sweden or Texas, I hold nothing personal against anyone from any particular region, there's simply no more room here! At some point somebody will have to leave if somebody else wants a place. Even right now we rely heavily on fossil fuels to produce enough food to feed the existing population, scientific consensus according to what I can find is that the practical sustainable human population on earth is somewhere between 2 billion and 6 billion people. We are well beyond that already and it is a train wreck waiting to happen. Nature is going to make a correction if we don't, Covid was just a warning shot.
I fully 100% support this type of zoning, it isn't bonkers at all, it makes perfect sense. People that want to live in detached houses in the suburbs don't want to be packed in with big apartment complexes and tall buildings.
Already here they keep tearing down strip malls and everything else and putting in this great huge condo/apartment towers with retail shops below. It is exactly Sodo Sopah from the show Southpark. Affordable shops are gone, replaced by trendy restaurants where you can get a $25 hamburger with a $18 glass of wine and you can live in the building if you can afford $4,000 a month rent.
Zoning exists for a reason, it separates things so people who don't want to live in a city can live in relative peace. I want to live in a neighborhood that only allows single family detached houses, I bought a house in that kind of neighborhood because that's specifically the environment I wanted to live in, and I don't want it being changed into something else.
Same here! I used to travel with the train a couple of times per week but I'm still taking the bike. I think I have been on a train once the last 2.5 years and I don't see that changing. Public transport use was going up year after year but Covid has set it back like 2 decades. With working from home as the new standard for many people, I doubt public transport use will ever reach pre-Covid levels. This also circles back to living in densely populated areas; if you don't have to go to the office so many times per week, you can choose to live further away.
Be glad you don't live in BC. Our new dictator is removing the ability to limit density from every city in the province. He plans to allow developers to put triplex on any single family lot regardless of what the neighbors or city council wants. He is also banning stratas from having rental restrictions.
This same dictator also forces free homes with supervised injection sites for junkies into cities who already have too many 'wet houses' and don't want any more.
Same here! I used to travel with the train a couple of times per week but I'm still taking the bike. I think I have been on a train once the last 2.5 years and I don't see that changing. Public transport use was going up year after year but Covid has set it back like 2 decades. With working from home as the new standard for many people, I doubt public transport use will ever reach pre-Covid levels. This also circles back to living in densely populated areas; if you don't have to go to the office so many times per week, you can choose to live further away.
IMHO remote work is far more beneficial to the environment than public transportation anyway. Whether in private cars or on buses or trains it just seems like such a waste to move millions of people from home to an office and then back again in the evening when their work involves sitting at a computer that can be located anywhere. Obviously not all jobs can be done remotely, but for those that can there should be significant incentives to encourage companies to offer that option.
Right now I'm fighting with the council that is trying to rezone residential neighborhoods for duplexes and triplexes, there's already a massive problem with traffic and homes with insufficient parkingBe glad you don't live in BC. Our new dictator is removing the ability to limit density from every city in the province. He plans to allow developers to put triplex on any single family lot regardless of what the neighbors or city council wants. He is also banning stratas from having rental restrictions.
This same dictator also forces free homes with supervised injection sites for junkies into cities who already have too many 'wet houses' and don't want any more.
IMHO remote work is far more beneficial to the environment than public transportation anyway. Whether in private cars or on buses or trains it just seems like such a waste to move millions of people from home to an office and then back again in the evening when their work involves sitting at a computer that can be located anywhere. Obviously not all jobs can be done remotely, but for those that can there should be significant incentives to encourage companies to offer that option.
WTF?
At what level is this decision made?
Here it's at the local council level. They have full control over land and building planing and zoning. Subject to the occasional big state and federal infrastructure.
If someone is making construction renovations to their house, then all the neighbors automatically get letter outlining the plans, and time to object. And I get constantly notified of all new nearby construction in Norwest business park and invite residends in to inspec the plans and lodge complaints etc. It's all taken very seriously here.
Be glad you don't live in BC. Our new dictator is removing the ability to limit density from every city in the province. He plans to allow developers to put triplex on any single family lot regardless of what the neighbors or city council wants. He is also banning stratas from having rental restrictions.
This same dictator also forces free homes with supervised injection sites for junkies into cities who already have too many 'wet houses' and don't want any more.
That sounds absolutely horrible. I have friends in Kamloops and I used to visit Vancouver occasionally when some of them lived there. Hopefully people come to their senses at some point and oust whoever that is but I'm not optimistic.
I'd be strongly in favour of giving companies a tax discount for every remote worker
Right now I'm fighting with the council that is trying to rezone residential neighborhoods for duplexes and triplexes, there's already a massive problem with traffic and homes with insufficient parkingBe glad you don't live in BC. Our new dictator is removing the ability to limit density from every city in the province. He plans to allow developers to put triplex on any single family lot regardless of what the neighbors or city council wants. He is also banning stratas from having rental restrictions.
This same dictator also forces free homes with supervised injection sites for junkies into cities who already have too many 'wet houses' and don't want any more.
WTF?
At what level is this decision made?
Here it's at the local council level. They have full control over land and building planing and zoning. Subject to the occasional big state and federal infrastructure.
If someone is making construction renovations to their house, then all the neighbors automatically get letter outlining the plans, and time to object. And I get constantly notified of all new nearby construction in Norwest business park and invite residends in to inspec the plans and lodge complaints etc. It's all taken very seriously here.
QuoteI'd be strongly in favour of giving companies a tax discount for every remote worker
not a chance when our lovely goverbent is forcing cival servants to return to the office.
Unfortunately, in many areas, it's literally illegal to build this type of mixed-use area, because commercial properties (of any kind) can't be zoned in the same area as residential, even if those commercial properties are servicing the residents. And it's illegal to mix single family homes with higher density flats, despite the two being absolutely compatible. It's absolutely bonkers city planning.
I fully 100% support this type of zoning, it isn't bonkers at all, it makes perfect sense. People that want to live in detached houses in the suburbs don't want to be packed in with big apartment complexes and tall buildings. Already here they keep tearing down strip malls and everything else and putting in this great huge condo/apartment towers with retail shops below. It is exactly Sodo Sopah from the show Southpark. Affordable shops are gone, replaced by trendy restaurants where you can get a $25 hamburger with a $18 glass of wine and you can live in the building if you can afford $4,000 a month rent. Zoning exists for a reason, it separates things so people who don't want to live in a city can live in relative peace. I want to live in a neighborhood that only allows single family detached houses, I bought a house in that kind of neighborhood because that's specifically the environment I wanted to live in, and I don't want it being changed into something else.
That's why I never got legally married in the first place. It's a huge financial risk, for very little reward. It serves very little purpose in modern society.I thought Fran being single is part of the problem? That the banks aren't willing to lend to an older single woman?
Fran’s situation reminded me of the attached saying……
Be glad you don't live in BC. Our new dictator is removing the ability to limit density from every city in the province. He plans to allow developers to put triplex on any single family lot regardless of what the neighbors or city council wants. He is also banning stratas from having rental restrictions.
Fran’s situation reminded me of the attached saying……
Instead, they refuse to change, they blame landlords and call home owners NIMBYs (not in my backyard). They demand the government changes zoning: force changes on the people who are much more commited to the area.
When people purchase properties, zoning impacts the decision and the cost. Changing that zoning is similar to breaching a contract. Breaching a contract that relates to someone's home and life savings is an awful thing to do.
I'm a NIMBY, I feel perfectly entitled to be one and have absolutely no shame for it. As you say, when I purchased my property I took the zoning into consideration, I bought a single family home on a dead end street in a quiet suburban neighborhood because that's exactly the environment I desired to live in, if the zoning had allowed multifamily units or apartment towers I would not have considered this neighborhood.