Happy Cities

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In Vancouver, talk of growth intersects with the investment of outside money—and although there’s no firm data, it’s clear that developers are courting foreign money, especially when marketing luxury condos.

“The growth in absolute numbers of dwelling units is highest in Vancouver, but the population is growing faster in the city of Surrey,” notes Patrick Condon, UBC’s chair of urban design.

​“That speaks to the point that some of these new housing units aren’t occupied at all, or are occupied by one person or temporarily occupied. That’s not the case in Surrey, where if a housing unit is built, you can be sure there will be at least three people in it.” (BCBusiness.ca)

​I was looking at open houses this weekend in East Vancouver where droves of anxious buyers are trolling for accommodation under $1,000,000; good luck with that people. (91% of single-family homes in Vancouver now valued at over $1 million, study shows. VanCityBuzz.com)

Apart from the housing mania in Vancouver, there is an automobile mania that has been fueled by low interest rates as well. ​Vancouver is making the same mistakes as most other polluted and vehicle congested cites by funneling single passenger cars out of the suburbs into dense urban areas and allowing gas and diesel exhaust to be spewed into our high density residential areas. ​(BCAirQuality.ca)

​Each carsharing vehicle removes 8-10 private vehicles off the roads.

In Germany, statistically, each carsharing vehicle is used by 35- 40 members. Currently, more than 80% of Italian Carsharing Members are working professionals. (CarSharing.de)

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The current easy credit building boom of rushed inefficient construction in a city that has a long history of leaky condos, and insufficient strata contingencies is still way behind the curve of supplying affordable ​low maintenance housing.​​

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Some experts go so far as to predict that replacing the all-glass outer layers of buildings may become necessary as early as 15 to 20 years from the day that the condo is built, and cost as much as $80,000 per unit.

​In short, what seems very attractive and appealing to condo buyers today may come to haunt them in the not-so-distant future. (TheGlobeAndMail.com)

However, for buildings in which major problems have been discovered... the financial strain posed by construction estimates makes it difficult for strata corporations with problems to obtain the approval of 75 per cent of owners they need to go ahead with special assessments to cover the costs of repairs.

Condo owners have options. If individual owners can’t afford the full amount of special assessments, or can’t finance repairs on their credit, strata corporations can take out loans on behalf of the building. “In the last two or three years, there has been an increase in the number of lenders that fund these (strata loans),” said Brian Chatfield, president of North-Vancouver-based 1 City Financial Ltd. (VancouverSun.com)

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The Secrets of the World's Happiest Cities

What makes a city a great place to live – your commute, property prices or good conversation?​ (TheGuardian.com)

There is a clear connection between social deficit and the shape of cities. A Swedish study found that people who endure more than a 45-minute commute were 40% more likely to divorce. People who live in monofunctional, car‑dependent neighbourhoods outside urban centres are much less trusting of other people than people who live in walkable neighbourhoods where housing is mixed with shops, services and places to work.

Driving in traffic is harrowing for both brain and body. The blood of people who drive in cities is a stew of stress hormones. The worse the traffic, the more your system is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, the fight-or-flight juices that, in the short-term, get your heart pumping faster, dilate your air passages and help sharpen your alertness, but in the long-term can make you ill. Researchers for Hewlett-Packard convinced volunteers in England to wear electrode caps during their commutes and found that whether they were driving or taking the train, peak-hour travellers suffered worse stress than fighter pilots or riot police facing mobs of angry protesters.

But one group of commuters report enjoying themselves. These are people who travel under their own steam, like Robert Judge. They walk. They run. They ride bicycles. By spending resources and designing cities in a way that values everyone's experience, we can make cities that help us all get stronger, more resilient, more connected, more active and more free. We just have to decide who our cities are for. And we have to believe that they can change. (TheGuardian.com)
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