Random Thought Thread v2

[OutOfTheCube]

I'll very likely still be living where I'm at with the price of homes going the way it is, so will be pretty sweet to watch 2044 from my driveway.

EDIT: But my mortgage will be paid off by then, huzzah!

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I have no doubt it was a liability thing yet my niece and nephew in Montreal were issued with glasses at school in order to view it (grade 5 and 7).

Yes, but Montreal (well most of the island) was in the path of totality. You want to see that, I can understand being liability shy with only a partial like we had here.

[MoneyGuy]

About 50-50 I’ll be dead by then.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

About 50-50 I’ll be dead by then.

Then put yourself in that path for the next upcoming one. It’s worth it

[Fuzz]

You'll either see something cool or be raptured. Can't really go wrong.

[81MC]

Another Rezoning mailout. It’s cute how blatantly they went out their way with pictures to illustrate to suit their desired outcome. Semi D and Rowhouse, green grass and little trees. Single detached - all concrete no tree and a car in front.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Another Rezoning mailout. It’s cute how blatantly they went out their way with pictures to illustrate to suit their desired outcome. Semi D and Rowhouse, green grass and little trees. Single detached - all concrete no tree and a car in front.

I don’t know why people are flipping their wigs over it. As if your neighbourhood is going to be terraformed overnight. You’ll be viewing the eclipse over Calgary by the time you see any massive wholesale changes here. I’d go the public info session, but it will probably be all of the psycho weiners from the neighbourhood facebook group out en force.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I don’t know why people are flipping their wigs over it. As if your neighbourhood is going to be terraformed overnight. You’ll be viewing the eclipse over Calgary by the time you see any massive wholesale changes here. I’d go the public info session, but it will probably be all of the psycho weiners from the neighbourhood facebook group out en force.

All the wives of my Bonavista friends were freaking out about it in their group chat today (was a meeting at our community centre tonight). Like, obviously adding density to Calgary is good for the City and like you say basically nothing is going to change on your street quickly so it's not a 'now' problem. Finally, people are generally going to knock down the dumpy neglected houses first, so I could see this even improving streets.

[81MC]

I don’t mind it, but I seriously have some reservations. Particularly how secondary shores and backyard suites are considered. You can have a four dwelling unit parcel that actually has 12 in reality but it’ll be treated as 4.

Also, it’s like, okay we’re in a crisis we need to act now now now! And yet, hey, these changes won’t actually come to fruition for 20 years?

And, where is the data to support that increasing dwelling count improves affordability? So a property now has a two suites, it’s value hasn’t gone down and it hasn’t done anything for long term home ownership opportunity has it? What, the apartment rental market drops because of an increase in unit availability that by some’s own submission won’t be anytime soon?

Also, the idea of losing our urban canopy so a handful of developers can turn for merely affordable family homes into million-dollar multi suite properties irks me.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Sliver

All the wives of my Bonavista friends were freaking out about it in their group chat today (was a meeting at our community centre tonight). Like, obviously adding density to Calgary is good for the City and like you say basically nothing is going to change on your street quickly so it's not a 'now' problem. Finally, people are generally going to knock down the dumpy neglected houses first, so I could see this even improving streets.

The best thing the City could have done is enact the change, but not tell anyone they did. Let everyone figure it out as they tried to develop a property. People would be overjoyed at the decreased red tape instead of frothing at the mouths with pitchforks in hand imaging vast swathes of land being converted from bucolic single family homes into long rows of favelas (without adequate parking).

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Wormius

The best thing the City could have done is enact the change, but not tell anyone they did. Let everyone figure it out as they tried to develop a property. People would be overjoyed at the decreased red tape instead of frothing at the mouths with pitchforks in hand imaging vast swathes of land being converted from bucolic single family homes into long rows of favelas (without adequate parking).

'There will be no parking," says the clown railing against this change who parks on the street because his garage is full of junk.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Sliver

'There will be no parking," says the clown railing against this change who parks on the street because his garage is full of junk.

Yeah, people are very disingenuous. I can park two cars and a motorcycle in my garage and 2 cars in the driveway for guests, as needed and it’s not a big house. Most people on my street and in the neighbourhood are in the same situation. They have the room.

How would these they react if somebody told them what they could do with their property? They’d be guaranteed lose it. I have no doubt they’re all hypocrites when it comes down to it.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by 81MC

I don’t mind it, but I seriously have some reservations. Particularly how secondary shores and backyard suites are considered. You can have a four dwelling unit parcel that actually has 12 in reality but it’ll be treated as 4.

Also, it’s like, okay we’re in a crisis we need to act now now now! And yet, hey, these changes won’t actually come to fruition for 20 years?

And, where is the data to support that increasing dwelling count improves affordability? So a property now has a two suites, it’s value hasn’t gone down and it hasn’t done anything for long term home ownership opportunity has it? What, the apartment rental market drops because of an increase in unit availability that by some’s own submission won’t be anytime soon?

Also, the idea of losing our urban canopy so a handful of developers can turn for merely affordable family homes into million-dollar multi suite properties irks me.

The city's population is growing around ~2% per year - do you think not building additional homes will bring prices down?

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Yeah, people are very disingenuous. I can park two cars and a motorcycle in my garage and 2 cars in the driveway for guests, as needed and it’s not a big house. Most people on my street and in the neighbourhood are in the same situation. They have the room.

How would these they react if somebody told them what they could do with their property? They’d be guaranteed lose it. I have no doubt they’re all hypocrites when it comes down to it.

Two cars here, one motorcycle and a motorcycle trailer. Plus lots of crap.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

All the wives of my Bonavista friends were freaking out about it in their group chat today (was a meeting at our community centre tonight). Like, obviously adding density to Calgary is good for the City and like you say basically nothing is going to change on your street quickly so it's not a 'now' problem. Finally, people are generally going to knock down the dumpy neglected houses first, so I could see this even improving streets.

One of your neighbours (in Bonavista) was in Twitter saying that there are some areas that are exempt from the rezoning? I guess I’m assuming that’s not actually true, otherwise it would create chaos.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Slava

One of your neighbours (in Bonavista) was in Twitter saying that there are some areas that are exempt from the rezoning? I guess I’m assuming that’s not actually true, otherwise it would create chaos.

Some areas have special caveats registered on land titles that supercede any zoning changes. Not aware of any in Bonavista, but it's possible, and that might be what the neighbour was referring to.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by you&me

Some areas have special caveats registered on land titles that supercede any zoning changes. Not aware of any in Bonavista, but it's possible, and that might be what the neighbour was referring to.

He was talking about Mount Royal and other older areas, but wanted it in Bonavista.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Checking in:

We woke up in Napanee and drove east to southern Quebec this morning. Found a nice small field so we could have a fairly unobstructed view of the sw. There was some high cirrus cloud that I thought was going to taint the event but in the end it didn’t matter.


Today’s experience ranks as one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed. To be able to look directly at the sun and see a glowing iridescent ring encircling a black disc in the sky was truly spectacular.

No video, picture or story will ever be able to perfectly encapsulate what it actually looks like. It was simply incredible.


10/10 would do again

Lchoy we toured Kingston yesterday and it was pretty much a perfect day. Where did you end up watching? You say totality you got a gap in those high clouds?

Thanks Surferguy! Kingston is a neat place for a day trip, we usually stop over if we're headed to Ottawa or Montreal.
It was clear for us at the start of the eclipse, but with 10min to go until totality, the rain clouds came in and blocked a lot of the sun. We can still see through the clouds with the eclipse glasses, but we couldn't make out some of the more fine details like the sun's corona or the Bailey's beads.
Totality was awesome, even though 3mins was a long time by eclipse standards, it went by in the flash by the time we could fully comprehend. It was an instant where everything turned into a purplish twilight, and every just became silent. You're right, pictures can't do it justice, I think if I see another one, I'm just going to enjoy and not worry about taking pictures

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by D as in David

The city's population is growing around ~2% per year - do you think not building additional homes will bring prices down?

You'd have to build more homes than there are newcomers, and that's even after you've built enough to catch up from the negative hole we're already in, before prices come down. It also wouldn't be an immediate lowering either. You'll just have properties on the market longer (more than an hour) until their sale nears previous comparables.

It's really just a fight of how much pressure can we put on rising prices. It still would take a heck of a massive building boom to get prices to remain steady, let alone bring prices down.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Slava

One of your neighbours (in Bonavista) was in Twitter saying that there are some areas that are exempt from the rezoning? I guess I’m assuming that’s not actually true, otherwise it would create chaos.

Areas already zoned higher?