THeBlueCashew

Quote from: "Berry Sweet"They'll say anything to get your vote, Annie...but yes all areas are growing at a boatload rate...I tried to leave the gvrd but I cant cause of some asshole but in a few years I can...and I will..im tired of this overpriced fluff city.

QuoteThe Decline of Vancouver



Vancouver, once a city with its own unique spin on Canadian ideals and culture, is well on its way to becoming a vacation city for the world's rich, its economy transforming into one predicated almost entirely on catering to their luxurious proclivities, and its citizens transformed into modern serfs permitted to live in smaller dwellings on the city's periphery, if you'll allow me to exaggerate for effect.



The nature of serfdom was one where serfs, unable to acquire their own plot of productive land, worked and lived on the land of wealthy nobles whom they served. It's effectively impossible for average people without seed capital to join in on the boons of the Vancouver property boom, and so their role in the city's largest source of wealth generation, property ownership, becomes catering to those who can take part, selling to them luxury booze, food, cars, clothes, and even their bodies. We have two classes of society forming along a divide that is growingly difficult to cross.



Foreign ownership is, of course, the culprit. Beneficiaries of the property boom, homeowners, developers, and the politicians whom they finance, often claim that foreign ownership isn't actually as big of a problem as we make it out to be.



According to our Immigration Minister "There is little evidence that immigrant investors as a class are maintaining ties to Canada or making a positive economic contribution to the country". Indeed, there is an estimated 300,000 – 400,000 Canadians living in China, the majority of whom are ethnic Chinese.



This is not about race. China happens to be the biggest country in the world and a flight away from our city, and thus represents the greatest influx of foreign buyers in Vancouver, but it is not Chinese people that are the problem. It is about a stream of wealthy elite corroding the vibrancy of Vancouver.



The problem is not just home ownership, but the erosion of communities and the long-term viability of Vancouver's economy. Entire downtown neighbourhoods and chunks of the west side are growingly becoming ghost towns as permanent residents are replaced with investors who don't occupy their units.



And yet we celebrate. Boomers who were lucky enough to buy in the 80s and 90s are millionaires several times over, and they and their children will largely live comfortably. A massive capital injection from abroad makes Vancouverites feel wealthy, while the city is in no real terms wealthier.



//http://sofard.tumblr.com/post/113616107456/the-decline-of-vancouver

QuoteVancouver house at 65 E 26th Ave. was originally listed at $1.6M, sold for just under $2.2M



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//http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-house-sells-for-567k-over-listed-price-1.3012604