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The decline of Vancouver

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Re: The decline of Vancouver

#111

Post by conover »

spitfire wrote: post #24
jmspring wrote: post #17

I've been going to Vancouver regularly (about once a year) since the mid 90s. As the return of Hong Kong to China approached, the influx of Chinese investment spiked. It started in Vancouver, people who had been in the better parts of Vancouver and were of retirement age sold and moved out (basically the first wave) and those being bought out moved to places like the Okanogan, etc. Then, single story buildings in Kit…

In the early/mid 2000's Vancouver had a healthy games industry. Not sure about now. But your point is valid. Vancouver doesn't really have any technology industry that's in a virtuous cycle yet.

EA has a very large studio there that produces the FIFA video game franchise among other things.

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#112

Post by dghughes »

krrrh wrote: post #102
dennispi wrote: post #69

I live in Vancouver, and have for many years.. as such, I hope I can try and help inform an otherwise misinformed set of posts. I suspect they're off-base largely because a lot has changed since some of the authors of other posts have lived here. First, there are many technology companies in Vancouver. Hootsuite, Bench, A Thinking Ape, Clio, Slack, Amazon.. these are just the ones that came to mind. I know authoritat…

> due to the large number of homes which are owned by foreigners and are vacant. I'm not aware of a concrete way of measuring this.. but anecdotally, I suspect it's close to 30-40% of the downtown residential core. There have been studies out of UBC that estimate 30%+ van can't condos in the downtown area by using anonymize do BCHydro electricity usage data. As far as I know this number has been increasing. This has…

>the large number of homes which are owned by foreigners and are vacant. I'm not aware of a concrete way of measuring this.

I saw an interview on CBC about this and the person interviewed simply said "Look up." He pointed to row after row of full condominium buildings with only two or three lights on in each building.

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#113

Post by Mankhool »

eigenvector wrote: post #41
jmspring wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google / Microsoft / others are building office complexes in Richmond, Surrey, and other places close to the border because of "US immigration" limitations, but those aren't going to help build industry. Until the mid 2000s, I was looking for a viable company / excuse to move to Vancouver (meet the required points/immigration first bar), but never felt like tech was taking off there. I was involved in the identity ar…

Microsoft's latest development isn't even a real office. It's just a temporary stopover for non-Canadians to get them enough time working at MS to apply for an L-1 to go to Redmond. The people working there will not have immigrant status in Canada and couldn't stay even if they wanted to. The contribution to the Vancouver economy will be only from custodial or clerical support jobs. http://www.biv.com/article/2014/12…

I disagree,because of this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/microsof...

Imageworks is taking 2 floors in the same building, Amazon is already in the Telus building at the 555 Robson Atrium and have leased numerous floors in the new Telus Garden tower which will be open momentarily: http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/10/amazon-vancouver-office-t...

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#114

Post by cpncrunch »

krrrh wrote: post #102
dennispi wrote: post #69

I live in Vancouver, and have for many years.. as such, I hope I can try and help inform an otherwise misinformed set of posts. I suspect they're off-base largely because a lot has changed since some of the authors of other posts have lived here. First, there are many technology companies in Vancouver. Hootsuite, Bench, A Thinking Ape, Clio, Slack, Amazon.. these are just the ones that came to mind. I know authoritat…

> due to the large number of homes which are owned by foreigners and are vacant. I'm not aware of a concrete way of measuring this.. but anecdotally, I suspect it's close to 30-40% of the downtown residential core. There have been studies out of UBC that estimate 30%+ van can't condos in the downtown area by using anonymize do BCHydro electricity usage data. As far as I know this number has been increasing. This has…

Your comment "30%+ van can't condos in the downtown area" doesn't make any grammatical sense. Are you saying that 30% are vacant, or 30% are occupied?

Anyway, here is the study I think you were talking about, which says that 42% of Vancouver condos are vacant, compared to 3-6% in other areas of Metro Vancouver:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/22/vancouver-housing-va...?

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#115

Post by cpncrunch »

badsock wrote: post #36
goalieca wrote: post #29

From Vancouver, love the city but had to leave. Almost all of my friends left too. Cost of living was one thing but the quality of life just wasn't there for the suburban commuters and the city always felt depressed. There was no heart beat when walking the streets.

I lived there for a couple of years, and couldn't agree more. There's a lot of awesome people making their best efforts to counter it, but really it's a dead city. I remember realizing that all the cafes closed around 6 or 7 in the downtown area, then finding out it was because of lack of demand. A city of 2.5 million people that can't keep a coffee shop open past dinner - coming from Toronto it was bizarre. I also r…

I've lived in various places in Canada, and now live on mid Vancouver Island, which IMO has the best overall quality of life anywhere in Canada (if not the world). You get the same amazing scenery and outdoor activities, but with reasonable property prices and no traffic or urban sprawl. I live in a luxury, new 1200sqft townhome which I rent for $1200/month, I can walk into town or to the sea, and I'm 15 mins from Vancouver by floatplane (well, about an hour once you add the drive to Harbour Air, etc).

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#116

Post by obi-nine »

kuschku wrote: post #92
dennispi wrote: post #69

I live in Vancouver, and have for many years.. as such, I hope I can try and help inform an otherwise misinformed set of posts. I suspect they're off-base largely because a lot has changed since some of the authors of other posts have lived here. First, there are many technology companies in Vancouver. Hootsuite, Bench, A Thinking Ape, Clio, Slack, Amazon.. these are just the ones that came to mind. I know authoritat…

> The downtown core is one of the few places in the world where people live and work in the same area... > commutes range from 5-30 minutes (and that's going to cover people who walk, bike and take transit). So, in general, it is like a classical European city, where the streets are even full of life after the end of the workday? If that’s true, than this is actually amazing. And creates the new question: Why did it…

One of the main reasons touted for this is that we didn't allow the creation of a freeway system into the downtown core and along our waterfront. This was part of the planning in the '60s like every other major city but when it came time to build it the residents said no and stopped the process.

You can learn a bit more about the history in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_revolts#Vancouver

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#117

Post by khuey »

ido wrote: post #96
mahyarm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, the salary is still half SF, and 2 hrs away w/ TN Seattle pays %90 SF. And cheaper housing. LA is highway culture, SF the city is transit culture.

SF salary is $180k intermediate/$220k senior?

Remember the currency conversion. 1 CAD = 0.8 USD.

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#118

Post by dminor »

kuschku wrote: post #92
dennispi wrote: post #69

I live in Vancouver, and have for many years.. as such, I hope I can try and help inform an otherwise misinformed set of posts. I suspect they're off-base largely because a lot has changed since some of the authors of other posts have lived here. First, there are many technology companies in Vancouver. Hootsuite, Bench, A Thinking Ape, Clio, Slack, Amazon.. these are just the ones that came to mind. I know authoritat…

> The downtown core is one of the few places in the world where people live and work in the same area... > commutes range from 5-30 minutes (and that's going to cover people who walk, bike and take transit). So, in general, it is like a classical European city, where the streets are even full of life after the end of the workday? If that’s true, than this is actually amazing. And creates the new question: Why did it…

obi-nine you appear to be hellbanned - by default no one can see your posts.

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#119

Post by ulfw »

mahyarm wrote: post #74
edwinnathaniel wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hear hear! Here's my comment to back up dennispi post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9245915 As per my post (the TL;DR summary here...): Intermediate Engineer 90k or more, Senior 110k or more. Better health insurance/coverage. For example: child-birth cost almost nothing (VIP room costs $100 ish for 2-3 days after corp. insurance cover the rest, regular room is covered by basic health insurance I think). >Fina…

So, the salary is still half SF, and 2 hrs away w/ TN Seattle pays %90 SF. And cheaper housing. LA is highway culture, SF the city is transit culture.

Transit culture? Is that the idiotic 'I love sitting 3 hours a day in a bus going up and down 101 from my home to my employer in the South Bay and back'?

Re: The decline of Vancouver

#120

Post by geoka9 »

canekong wrote: post #108
doublerebel wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair description. I would say the quality of life will easily be higher in Vancouver depending on what you value, despite the slightly lower wages. Healthcare is much more affordable than the States, the public transportation blows Seattle out of the water. Housing is much more affordable than SF and on par with Seattle. Skiing, biking, and outdoors in Van is closer and cheaper. Easily as diverse as Seattle, just dif…

i stand to be corrected on the subsidies part! Did some more research this morning. It seems that the reports are generally focused more on how other cities are providing more subsidies than Vancouver, rather than Vancouver stopped providing subsidies. Definitely agree Vancouver is awesome to live in. To be perfectly honest, I'd love to move back to Vancouver. It's a very nice city, nice enough that I'd want to visit…

What's wrong with the bus system in Vancouver? It's extensive and the buses are nice and run on schedule. And you can hop on the Skytrain after a bus ride without having to pay an additional fare.
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