Some Yaletown residents won’t like this letter
Thank goodness the City of Vancouver is appealing the decision by a B.C. Supreme Court judge to overturn Brenhill Developments Ltd.’s rezoning application [“City manager Penny Ballem offers talking points to councillors if they’re asked about appeal of Brenhill ruling”, web-only]. The ever self-centred and elitist “activist” residents of Yaletown seem to stop at nothing in their quest to eliminate low- and moderate-income renters from the neighbourhood.
As was shown in the West End with the two controversial (with the neighbouring condominium owners who formed the core opposition) developments that contained rental housing, when these are finally built, not only do we not hear any further from the owning classes about them, area residents actually like the new buildings. In fact, both buildings could have easily been another 10 storeys high, creating more affordable units and saving all of the Maxine’s building, and almost nobody on the street would notice or care.
Of course, the Yaletown folks are more monied and can drag a deal like Brenhill, one that clearly benefits the city and thus the citizens, through the courts to a hopefully hollow victory of the selfish few. Wouldn’t it be ironic if land swaps occurred in the creation of New Yaletown, where those colonists that the Community Association of New Yaletown represents now live?
> Blair Petrie / Vancouver
Comments
5 Comments
Does "Blair Petrie" mean "Shill" in your language?
Mar 11, 2015 at 12:01pm
Nothing like making the Robertson and his 1% buddies who would have profited from the ridiculous and unecessary land transfer sound like class warriors. Pathetic. Vision shills are all over the city from HUB to the Chamber of Commerce: useful idiots easily purchased by those with money like Joel Solomon and other backers of Gregor.
Revisionist History Anyone?
Mar 11, 2015 at 10:32pm
It's somewhat scary to see the shallowness of this type of boosterism - the Brenhill "deal" was a shocking assult on good governance, and it is refreshing to see a group of residents take on City Hall and win. The "affordable housing" referenced in the letter - a building built by billionaire Ian Gillespie at 1051 Broughton Street - has ended up with 500 square foot one bedroom units going for $2,000 a month. The building that received waivers and bonuses up the wazoo has done nothing to assist with addressing housing affordability in the West End.
Eureka!
Mar 11, 2015 at 10:48pm
Here's the solution to this challenge: All new buildings built in Vancouver must be 100 storeys tall, regardless of the neighbourhood. Tear down a house? Build a 100 storey building. And make each floor really big, because that allows more units per floor. The bottom 5 floors need to be "affordable housing" as defined by the City of Vancouver (that doesn't mean it's really affordable, it just means it's "rental"). So there you have it! Easy peasey! The developers get everything they want, and the community gets some expensive market rental units. Hey, the streets are in perma-shade, privacy doesn't exist any longer, and every heritage resource in town has been mowed-over, but you can't have everything...
Is this really the future we want for this city?
Clueless
Mar 12, 2015 at 12:51am
All that's been shown in the West End is that blowhards like Blair Petrie exist who think they can pull a fast one in the public sphere but fall flat on their face when the details are evident. Such as the silly idea that rents would be lowered if the building owner were allowed to build a much bigger building. A market rental unit will rent out for what the market is willing to pay for it, which for these two West End buildings are luxury rentals. And thanks to the city's 'STIR/rental 100' affordable housing benefits, we are all effectively covering a development levy deficit going towards Airbnb units now available in the two buildings. None of which has anything to do with low and moderate rents. Stop with the BS Blair. You lost credility in the community a long time ago and the less we hear of your righteous renters vs land baron evil condo owners imaginary war the better.
Catch22
Apr 21, 2015 at 4:57pm
Condo owners are elitist rich people? Really? If you want that, go across the Burrard Bridge and head west for a while.
But seriously, the objections to this are really about a 40 story tower with ten levels of parking located practically in Emery Barnes Park. The building is grotesquely out of scale given its location.