03-17-2025, 10:31 PM
(03-17-2025, 11:02 AM)Silie Wrote:(03-15-2025, 04:14 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Vive so it'll be rental, not $900K condos.
I actually think the cemetery will be a nice view, lots of green and tree cover.
Tend to agree that overlooking a cemetery isn't the worst. The units on the north and west faces of the building will fare no worse than the apartments along Moore and Union, and I don't think anyone's had problems there. The rent vs. own becomes moot, though, if the rents are "upscale luxury living," with affordability based on 80 percent of market. If only households with incomes above $90,000 a year can afford units that just barely accommodate two people, not much differentiates that development from others in the neighbourhood. Yet again, I wonder if any thought has been given at the regional planning level to the need for service workers (food, retail, cleaning, delivery/transport, shelf-stockers, etc.,) to maintain that upscale luxury standard. I have family members who have worked involuntary part-time overnights for years with a major grocery store, and between them earn about one full-time minimum-wage income. If wages don't even allow for a monthly GRT pass, how can the people who really keep things going live here?
I think it has been discussed elsewhere that there is a disconnect between the Regional planning tools and goals and what Provincial legislation actually allows the Region and Cities to proscribe. If the Region and Cities were to suggest that they would build enough housing so that everyone who wanted housing to suit their needs within the current urban boundary if only the Province would either provide the funding or give the Region and Cities the funding tools to raise the capital to build enough housing, I doubt that the Province would do so. Four decades ago, the federal government, provinces and municipalities were actively involved in building a variety of public housing and social housing. Through a series of cutbacks since the mid-1980s, virtually all construction was turned over the private sector who generally chase profits over the actual needs of the community. The result is either shoebox condos, increasingly larger suburban homes on smaller lots, or "luxury rentals", all of which leave gaps in the housing pool. Some non-profit groups, such as Habitat for Humanity, have been able to continue to build housing, but nothing on the level of what could happen if the federal and provincial governments were to actually return to building public housing.