Vancouver ILXors

hey I have a question Vancouverites/anyone in the general vicinity. i feel like going out of town for a couple of nights sometime soon. probably would want to go on bus or train. don't want to travel more than 5 hours, don't want to go to Whistler, Seattle, or Victoria. Basically just looking for somewhere that isn't a dump and is interesting/pleasant to walk around and spend a short time in. any ideas would be v much appreciated.

Went to Tofino for a couple of days at the end of January. That was really nice. Stayed on Chesterman Beach.

yeah tofino sounds good, haven't really made it very far up the island yet. might have to relax my idea of how far I want to travel/add an extra night to the trip.

define dump.

there are the gulf islands, e.g., galiano, etc. not a big fan of those, but some seem to find it pleasant enough.

tofino is nice but will probably take you a good 5 hours to get there, especially without a car. speaking of which, i wouldn't recommend doing tofino without a car, because there are lots of nature sightseeing in and around and its long distances and transit is not that great.

there's harrison hot springs east of vancouver and there's always the okanagan

The main hotel in Harrison is ok but the rest of it's kinda dumpy. The area around Sechelt is nice. Not sure if there's much to do in the Okanagan this time of year if you're not skiing. Whidbey Island is nice but getting there by bus might be tough.

thanks for the ideas. im thinking maybe a gulf island.

Bellingham!

You could also check out the Sunshine Coast, which is close - there's a ferry from the north van terminal to Langdale and then public transit to Gibsons and Sechelt from there.

I've done the bus/ferry/bus from Vancouver to Tofino several times (because I have family there) and it's a long ride but once you're there you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. I'd definitely stay for longer than a weekend because of that. It depends on where you want to stay too - as i recall, the bigger hotels/resorts on the beach have shuttle buses that will take you into town and pick you up if you're coming by bus or want to go to a restaurant, etc. There's a taxi too. And surf schools that can take you to the beaches if you want to suit up and surf!

bowen island is pretty convenient to get to (by BC ferry standards) and has some nice walks

san juans?

i ended up just going to Victoria for a few days as usual but it was good, thanks again for all the advice.

this weather eh? i got the slightest tinge of sunburn yesterday.

did you make it out to butchart gardens or hatley park

no but ive been to both within the last year. butchart gardens is pricey iirc but pretty awesome, the japanese garden espesh.

ya i love butchart gardens

probably time to post some housing related news

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-14/vancouver-tax-on-empty-homes-to-target-near-zero-rental-supply

will be intriguing to see the results. this step by the city makes a lot more sense to me than the provincial liberals (aka tories) foreign buyers' tax.

altho as the article points out determining vacant homes isn't all that easy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-vacant-home-tax-1.3761496

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

[...]

If audited, owners will have to prove that the home was a principal residence for the owner, a tenant or a licensee.

Proof of primary residency could include a B.C. driver's licence or BCID, a completed Home Owner Grant, a tenancy agreement or similar documentation.

If the owner is unable to prove the home was a principal residence for a minimum number of days in the previous year (to be determined by staff through consultation this fall), the tax will apply.

If a declaration is not made, legislation allows for owners to automatically be charged the empty homes tax.

i can fathom some ways around that already but it's a start

i tend to keep it quiet in my leftist social circles but i think gregor is a pretty dece mayor

i think so

Robertson said if the tax is collected on just five per cent of known empty homes, it would generate an estimated $2 million, which would go toward cost recovery and affordable housing.

This seems to be completely missing the point, which is that the vacancy rate is so abysmally low that something needs to be done to encourage people to actually rent their suites. Instead of just leave them empty until their value escalates to a point where they can cash in on their investment. Robertson makes this seem like it's just about collecting (a rather small) amount of money that will just be added to the budget of the Vancouver Housing Authority which itself has done practically nothing to deal with homelessness and the absence of housing for people with lower incomes.

Other cities have imposed a mandatory tax/charge on ALL homeowners which you then get back as an exemption when you file your property tax. I don't see them doing anything like that. Of course there's no real details yet. I'm not impressed.

if it is a 2% tax then i think it should have some effect on people leaving suites empty.

when thinking about the issues that matter to me, such as housing, it's really deflating to think that the bc libs are probably going to win again next year :/ john horgan was at my place of work today and i and a couple of colleagues walked past him in a corridor, i was the only one who recognized him, lol

We don't know what the % will be. We don't know how they are going to collect it, other than it is to be self-reported. Don't know how it's going to be administered or how much that will cost. The mayor apparently sees benefits even if 95% of vacant home-owners ignore it completely.

They don't seem to have done much work around this.

they don't expect 95% to ignore it though:

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

my main criticism would be that this should've been done a long time ago

His calculation of $2,000,000 doesn't make sense if it's 2% anyway. They say there's approx 10,000 vacant (it's actually way higher but let's forget that for now). Say 500 empty condo owners confess and the average value of a condo is $500,000. Then for the city to make $2million the tax would be 0.8% - $4,000/year. That's not particularly prohibitive when the condo is increasing in value by 10% a year.

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

This doesn't mean anything. All rental units in the city are not the homeowners principal residence. The city does not keep a registry of renters, or of rental properties. So what is this supposed to achieve?

Sorry, I see on the CBC article I was reading is says "if audited" you basically have to produce docs proving someone lives there. Again, I have no faith in them actually having the power to enforce this. The Airbnb situation demonstrates they are unable to enforce city bylaws, even when investigated or audited. A neighbouring property here has had three notices telling it to immediately cease short-term rentals but still they continue. This was the result of dozens of neighbour calls and the fire dept declaring it unsafe. To date the city has never busted anyone for Airbnb, yet the easiest way they could return thousands of former-rental suites to the market would be to do a few high-profile busts, set up a snitch-line and have the mayor go to the media to remind everyone it's against city bylaws. They do it for a hosepipe ban, why not for short-term rentals?

just reading kathy tomlinson's ama and i think we're on the right path (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/52y9iv/i_am_kathy_tomlinson_the_globe_and_mail_reporter/)

it's a slow process (sounding like gillis right now) on account of our own politicians but one that everyone needs to be vocal about until the end goal is met

i think a lot of this is symbolic and signalling to foreign homebuyers that vancouverites will not accept this, and it seems to be working, but i agree that more regulation is required and better options exist

Average rent for one bedroom is now $2090 in Vancouver.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3609431/new-record-2090-a-month-is-average-cost-of-one-bedroom-rental-in-vancouver/

I imagine this will result in many people jumping ship to Kelowna, Kamloops or other places where rent is less insane. I'm lucky to live in a place that isn't expensive (been here six years) but no way in hell is Van worth that much per month.

yeah my wife and i pay $1215 in mount pleasant for a one-bedroom with parking space and feel lucky. i was walking by a neighboring, more rundown, apartment building yesterday, and they had a smaller suite than ours available for $1500.

if we ever get renovicted we're out of here. probably to at least as expensive toronto, but i will begrudge the expense a little less to live in more of a metropolis tbh

Ah yeah that's a good arrangement, Jim. Do you know or does anyone know what kinds of political action or movements have been set up to counter renovictions, etc.?

there seems to be an incipient group! i have been thinking of joining/getting involved with but haven't looked into it yet

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/launch-vancouver-tenants-union-1.4092386

this demand of theirs seems key to me:

"The union's goals include advocating for rental control that is tied to units, meaning rents wouldn't increase when people leave."

Thanks for the link Jim, definitely interested in that movement.

That part is key and rarely followed - I know for a fact that other people in my building pay far more rent than me and as soon as I leave, my rent will be higher than theirs.

the apartment building we lived in before the one we live in now is directly next door. it is a real dump. anyway we were paying $975 or something when we moved there 4 and a bit years ago. since we left I've noticed that our old suite (which is in the front of the building) has been vacated since by the tenants that came after us.

i checked craigslist both then, and also when we were moving out to see how much they were going to charge.

the rent went like this: us - $1000 (when we left), next tenants $1200, next tenants $1500. the place had black mould and mice.

I have been to a few Tenants Union meetings and know a few of the principles, who are mostly DTES activists. That is a good and bad thing about it. Good, because they are very passionate and know their stuff but bad because they focus on DTES problems which are different from elsewhere. Anyway, it's a new thing so not sure how it will go. Made a lot of progress in the three months it's been going for. They got invited to city hall like 2 weeks after the first big public meeting (which they declined lol).

Best thing right now would be to write to the new housing minister Selina Robinson and your local NDP MLA telling them to change the Residential Tenancy Act to restore security of tenure as per Declaration of Human Rights imo. ie. no no-fault evictions - renovictions, short-term leases, saying your daughter needs the suite and so on. It's the ease of displacing people that is a big part of this.

thanks for the info, everything. i think i will get involved/contact ndp pols

BTW Selina Robinson is a wonderful person who I briefly worked with at a big non-profit right before she was elected first time. She is a total dynamo and basically puts everyone else to shame with her energy and intelligence. I could list of the stuff i know about her but to summarize, there's probably no-one else in the province who I'd rather to see in that job. I only hope she can get stuff done and isn't hindered by something political.

https://www.straight.com/news/948346/anti-racism-rally-planned-vancouver-protest-opponents-muslims-and-immigration

come get punched by sons of odin with me this saturday

i am down

ok i've only lived here a week and granted it is mid-August but, this city is real nice imo... at least second best city in canada

welcome flopson :)

thx Ross :)

hello flopson :)

hi jim :)

went to nine dishes (new location in richmond near bridgeport skytrain station). they've put the price of tsingtao up to $3.50 from $2 and the premises is a completely different vibe to the old hole in the wall on kingsway - kind of looks like a cross between an earls and a nightclub, with a huge chandelier dangling from the ceiling - but it's still great.

also have been getting outdoors more lately (yesterday was amazing weather), going to the north shore and exploring creeks and going to whytecliff park and seeing some seals. trying my best to stave off hating vancouver as the winter descends upon us.

fwiw i'm still lovin' vancouver

have u been to Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle in aberdeen centre? the only place i've eaten in richmond so far but it's soooo good