Previous discussion (also today) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11086981
Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
151–160 of 629 posts
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#152If having essentially no affordable housing rendered a city an economic ghost town, then much of the Bay area and Manhattan would be "ghost towns" - which, in turn, would lower housing prices radically. What might happen to Vancouver is probably similar to other major cities with housing crunches but an otherwise desirable economic climate: lower wage workers will be displaced further from the city and forced to comm…
The problem in Vancouver is the house prices are not driven by economic activity in the city itself. Bay area and Manhattan prices are a product of the local economies. Vancouver prices are a product of speculation and wealthy people who live/have property there but don't work there.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#153Vancouver and cities like it became popular because of the critical mass of fun, interesting, creative, hard working young people who moved there and created communities. Once priced out, they will just go elsewhere. Other young people will follow and recreate the same communities with a lower price tag. Depending on local land use restrictions, some amount of gentrification then follows. In other words, this is a pr…
Does Vancouver have rent control? I thought rent control was one of the big causes of the SF housing crisis... or so people say. For me, at least, it's the only way I can afford to live in the city!
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#154Vancouverite here. It is an economic ghost town. Its a complete nightmare for employment as well. There may be 2-3 data scientist jobs in the city right now.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#155If having essentially no affordable housing rendered a city an economic ghost town, then much of the Bay area and Manhattan would be "ghost towns" - which, in turn, would lower housing prices radically. What might happen to Vancouver is probably similar to other major cities with housing crunches but an otherwise desirable economic climate: lower wage workers will be displaced further from the city and forced to comm…
I have an anecdotal example of a friend living in SF complaining about high price of garbage disposal installation. To me it made sense, as anybody making living as a plumber is likely to be priced out of SF (unless they bought back in the 70s), so you're paying for guy's commute from Union City or Hayward or Fremont + garbage disposal installation + commute back.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#156Vancouver and cities like it became popular because of the critical mass of fun, interesting, creative, hard working young people who moved there and created communities. Once priced out, they will just go elsewhere. Other young people will follow and recreate the same communities with a lower price tag. Depending on local land use restrictions, some amount of gentrification then follows. In other words, this is a pr…
San Francisco is an outlier given the extremely dense concentration of high paying jobs which drove housing into orbit
San Francisco's housing policies drove housing into orbit: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/. There are numerous other discussions of this: http://www.amazon.com/TheRent-Too-Damn-High-Matters-ebook/dp....
We have the technology to build lots of units (steel-frame construction, elevators): http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/03/silicon_valle.... "We" just choose not to use them.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
How's the tech scene in MTL?
Probably second to only SF in North America for the game industry, SFX for the film industry is also big here.
what site(s) should I be using to look for jobs in Montreal in software? My background is in mechatronics but a ton of the embedded engineering jobs I've seen require some French language skills.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#158Come to Montreal! It's great here. No way would I want to pledge the rest of my life to a bank in exchange for the right to exist. Rent controls here. It's odd: it's like the state understands that banks are bastards. Montreal has some issues with organised crime but nothing compared to the organised crime of banking / money laundering through land. I don't have to pay some gangster $1MM for a shack. Leave the boomer…
Problem is salary in Montreal are ridiculously low, and taxes in Quebec are higher than Ontario/British Colombia. Higher taxes should come with the benefit of more services: the health system is clogged and for non-french speaking families, the education system isn't the most friendly.
Indeed. I love Montreal but the health care system in Quebec is absolutely ridiculous. It's not unusual to wait 12-15 hours at the ER. In Vancouver, without an appointment, you have to wait about 10 minutes to see a competent doctor.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#159It blows my mind that the internety tech industry, of all industries, is so heavily concentrated in a handful of physical locations around the world. There's this vicious cycle where companies think they need to be in one of these places to attract the best talent, and employees think they need to live in one of these places to have the best career options. Sometimes when I'm at Red Door in SOMA, overhearing twenty d…
It's easy to complain about zoning, tax policies, NIMBY-ism, lack of investment in public transit, etc. etc. But the reality is that you could turn all sorts of dials to increase the supply of available housing over the course of years and decades and you'd still have a situation where not everyone could live in an affordable condo/apartment in whatever $TRENDY_CITY.
I suspect that the current concentration of certain sectors of the tech industry in the Bay area is just unsustainable. There's an upper limit to how much companies can afford to pay for employees relative to other areas, how much employees can afford to pay for housing, and how long commutes they'll tolerate.
Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
#160If having essentially no affordable housing rendered a city an economic ghost town, then much of the Bay area and Manhattan would be "ghost towns" - which, in turn, would lower housing prices radically. What might happen to Vancouver is probably similar to other major cities with housing crunches but an otherwise desirable economic climate: lower wage workers will be displaced further from the city and forced to comm…
The article's gist is that Vancouver lacks the "otherwise desirable economic climate" that makes the SFBA, Manhattan and London housing markets at least tolerable. Rather than being a side-effect of explosive economic growth as in SF, the housing prices are totally out-of-step with the local economy.