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Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

theguardian.com

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Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#121

Post by waterlooman »

OJFord wrote: post #88
Aeolun wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is 1% immigration per year a lot?

Canada is crazily underpopulated compared to the UK for example - which is about the geographic size of.. what, Ontario alone maybe, but has double the population of all of Canada. So immigration is actively encouraged, which is perhaps unique among developed nations (depending only on our definition of 'actively encouraged' I suppose) which is probably 'correct' and could be massive for GDP, but.. shouldn't there al…

I would guess because most of the land in this country is not arable (fertile) or hospitable, so even though we have lots of land, only the southern strip is worth populating.

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#122

Post by bobthepanda »

dheera wrote: post #90
bentlegen wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t speak for every industry, but many Bay Area technology employers have set up satellite offices in Toronto and Waterloo and are paying significantly higher wages (note: I represent one of them). This is having a net effect of driving wages up; I see it in the candidates we lose to other companies who are doing the same. Consider looking for a new gig. Also, Sentry is hiring in Toronto: https://sentry.io/jobs .

Maybe they should consider doing an early cap on property taxes and property values before it becomes like the Bay Area where even if you work at Google you can't afford a house. There is rent control where I live, but no buy-house control, and there's almost nothing available below $2M USD.

Prop 13 is arguably one of the reasons why Bay Area housing spun out of control, I don’t think this would help much.

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#123

Post by patcon »

cperciva wrote: post #103

When politicians say "people-centred vision", they really mean "lobbyist and special interest group centred vision". To them, "people" just means "whoever shouts the loudest".

Most of the work of good public consultation facilitators is (1) stopping those loud/frustrated/opinionated/entrenched people from distorting process, and (2) allowing many people to feel heard. (This is in addition to, of course, the more obvious: actually integrating that feedback, repeating it back, and acting on it.)

Perhaps surprisingly with (2), public consultations are sometimes almost like public therapy -- allowing people to feel heard so they can then take a step forward, even if it's not a step fully in the direction they prefer. People can make better compromises when they feel heard, they just need to be contained so they don't take speaking time/attention from everyone else.

Disclosure: highly engaged in public consultation process, civic tech, and consensus-building technology through my interest in https://github.com/compdemocracy/polis

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#124

Post by alacombe »

f6v wrote: post #110
rubyist5eva wrote: post #14

As someone that lives in Toronto and is moving out in the middle of the month to go back home near family. The idea that Toronto is going to focus on "affordability" is laughable. It's one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world, and the incompetent city council, mayor and all the way up to the provincial government are doing absolutely everything they can to keep it that way - mostly without even realiz…

Canada is a democracy though. If what you’re saying is true, why won’t residents elect a government that can do something?

Why elect anybody beside t those giving you free lunch over free lunch ? Nobody cares about who's gonna foot the bill.

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#125

Post by bentlegen »

waterlooman wrote: post #65
otoburb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Feel sorry for the kids who finish a degree in STEM from Waterloo or UoT and end up working for 40k a year. The starting salary for STEM grads seem to be well above 40K CAD, perhaps even >65K CAD [1]. >> A down payment on a Toronto house should take 24 years to accumulate When you pair your linked article with the fact that the GTA has experienced net-positive population growth every single year since 1971[1] then…

>If a new grad wants a starter property in the city then perhaps start with the purchase of a studio/1-bed. This lacks the history on what people used to be able to purchase, not just in Toronto but in all of Southern Ontario, and now even as far away as the Maritimes. The purchasing power for the average Canadian to afford things that actually mater (like housing), is dropping like crazy. Allow me to give you my own…

13 years ago in 2008 the 5 year fixed interest rate on a mortgage was 4.45%. The following year in 2009 it was below 2% because of the great recession.

Assuming you had that lower interest rate, I just want to illustrate that you may have been fortunate to have purchased at the exact best moment to buy property in North America, as home prices hadn’t yet adjusted to the new purchasing power consumers had (in the form of lower interest rates).

Also, unemployment was pretty high at the time, so while the job might seem meagre compared to today, you likely had a significant advantage vs. your underemployed peers in the region.

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#126

Post by [deleted] »

andi999 wrote: post #43
hourislate wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fed Gov and BoC have no choice but to keep interest rates at zero and continue to play with numbers to keep the ponzi going so the whole Country doesn't collapse. You also have to take into consideration that there is no where else to find any work but in the big cities. The whole damn situation is a mess with no way out. Feel sorry for the kids who finish a degree in STEM from Waterloo or UoT and end up working…

"A down payment on a Toronto house should take 24 years to accumulate", reading the article this seems to be based on a severe case of dyscalculia. If the apartment costs 1 million and you want to save until you have 6% (which is 60k), and you only save 10% of your annual 170k salary, meaning you save 17k per year so after 3 years plus you have the down-payment. In addition to proper math one also should probably sav…

[deleted]

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#127

Post by bentlegen »

bentlegen wrote: post #125
waterlooman wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If a new grad wants a starter property in the city then perhaps start with the purchase of a studio/1-bed. This lacks the history on what people used to be able to purchase, not just in Toronto but in all of Southern Ontario, and now even as far away as the Maritimes. The purchasing power for the average Canadian to afford things that actually mater (like housing), is dropping like crazy. Allow me to give you my own…

13 years ago in 2008 the 5 year fixed interest rate on a mortgage was 4.45%. The following year in 2009 it was below 2% because of the great recession. Assuming you had that lower interest rate, I just want to illustrate that you may have been fortunate to have purchased at the exact best moment to buy property in North America, as home prices hadn’t yet adjusted to the new purchasing power consumers had (in the form…

Looks like I was quoting variable rate figures, and not 5 year fixed interest rates, which were substantially higher than their variable counterparts (7.15% in 2008, 5.79% in 2009).

Source: https://www.superbrokers.ca/tools/mortgage-rate-history

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#129

Post by bregma »

f6v wrote: post #110
rubyist5eva wrote: post #14

As someone that lives in Toronto and is moving out in the middle of the month to go back home near family. The idea that Toronto is going to focus on "affordability" is laughable. It's one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world, and the incompetent city council, mayor and all the way up to the provincial government are doing absolutely everything they can to keep it that way - mostly without even realiz…

Canada is a democracy though. If what you’re saying is true, why won’t residents elect a government that can do something?

No one votes in municipal elections. It's what, a 25% participation rate? Cities like Toronto are run by a collection of special interest groups evenly divided into the developer-backed and BANANA-activist cliques, resulting in decades of deadlock.

Re: Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision

#130

Post by winkeltripel »

ttul wrote: post #95
DC1350 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything over a million requires a 20% down payment. Also, prices doubled over the last 5 years so if trends continue then a million dollar home today will take a 400k down payment if it takes 5 years to save

Something makes me think that ain’t gonna happen...

But this is what's been happening. It's happening in the bay area too.
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