Science, technology, politics and dance
Who got lucky and who didn’t with the random ballot lottery? Here’s my quick analysis. Elizabeth Taylor (VANCOUVER 1st) emerged the luckiest, moving up 60 places compared to where she would’ve been in an alphabetically ordered ballot. She entered the race lucky with a memorable name. Lady luck must really like her. Glynnis Chan (YES […]
Read More →
End global speculation in our housing market Rental-only zoning along transit corridors VPD real estate crime unit Community owned housing on public land Locals-only presales Work with province to tax landbankers Crackdown on Airbnb Complete ban against Airbnb until Airbnb agrees to: Automatic licence verification Platform accountability Enforce existing $1000/per day fines against all violators […]
Read More →
After telling people that the backup time for today’s mass rezoning public hearing is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3PM, Mayor Gregor Robertson decided to suddenly recommence the hearing at 11AM, without any notification to the people who had left home for the night expecting to come back at 3 O’clock tomorrow. Thanks to a little bit […]
Read More →
Update: The City Clerk reopened online sign ups following my complaint. Katrina Leckovic, City Clerk, City of Vancouver By email at: [email protected] 18-Sep-2018 Dear Madam, I’m disturbed to hear from citizens who were planning on speaking at the mass rezoning public hearing that you’ve closed online sign ups for the hearing last night, despite having […]
Read More →
Update 8:30AM: Vision Vancouver is playing dirty again! The online sign ups for public hearings are supposed to end an hour before the hearings open. But they closed the hearings for mass rezoning the night before. If you haven’t already registered, please go to the city hall in person before 2:30PM and register to speak. […]
Read More →
Vancouver’s chief licencing officer announced with much fanfare that the number of Airbnb listings in the city have dropped from around 6,600 in April to just 3,742 in September. But in just 10 days since the City of Vancouver’s September 5 announcement, hosts have added 578 news listings, bringing the total to 4,320. Out of […]
Read More →
Airbnb hosts seem to be getting around the new City of Vancouver’s licensing requirements by using brazenly fake licences. Some fine examples include “12345678str”, “000000000” and “Exampp”. To meaningfully protect our long term rental market from being decimated by Airbnb and other short term accommodation platforms, we must take the following steps: Introduce licence auto-verification, […]
Read More →
All the candidates are talking about “tackling speculation”, but what exactly is the state of speculation in our market right now? Here’s a map of single family homes that came on the market in the last 12 months that were bought in the three years prior. I have been tracking the market for the last […]
Read More →
The 4.5% allowable rent increase for 2019 announced by the BC government will hit Vancouver renters hard. I pledge to offer Vancouver’s renters a rental rebate financed by Airbnb fines. Such a move would help rental households without burdening either the Vancouver taxpayers or our city’s landlords. The latest Airbnb scan I conducted last night […]
Read More →
Airbnb hosts seem to be getting around the new licensing requirements by using licences issued for other businesses, including licences for massage therapist, computer services and health services. To meaningfully protect our long term rental market from being decimated by Airbnb and other short term accommodation platforms, we must take the following steps: Introduce licence […]
Read More →