Vancouver's affordable housing problem

Eco-density

Vancouver has a bit of an affordable housing problem in that it has none. I live in a 600 square foot 1 bedroom apartment on the edge of Vancouver that I could sell for 270k. I bought for a lot less than that which is why I can afford it (barely) despite making a top quartile income (probably top quintile I think).

Vancouver is a highly desirable place to live and that’s going to define how much housing is going to cost. The city planners have good ideas in raising density to manage some of the effects of the city’s desirability but our crazy left wing politicians are nuts to think that this will make affordable housing available without government subsidization which is something I don’t support. The pile of money spent on that would be better spent on schools, transit and infrastructure.

Want to depress housing prices? Increase crime, stop funding infrastructure, cut fire/police protection and hand out free handguns.

Do what’s sensible and focus on making the city liveable for those who live there. Focus on making it sustainable.

P.S. Big box stores. They’re here to stay and if the city won’t allow them in the city then their neighbours will allow it and your citizens will end up driving further out of town to get these big box items. Wouldn’t it make better sense to find ways to mitigate the impact of big box stores? Insist on environmentally friendly practices? Insist on higher taxation to cover for the increased traffic in the neighbourhood? If anything, let’s get these buildings closer to town, get them in a mall! Anything that makes it easy for people to get there.

That said, you don’t want to overdo it with big boxes. They do damage the neighbourhood, they do create costs to the environment. Change the economics of these businesses so we don’t have too many of them.

Life 210 – Be like Fonzie

First in a series of life learnings I’ve had that I’ve found useful. Your mileage may vary, I’m just documenting what I’ve learned.

Control your temper. I used to be fairly temperamental especially with those close to me like my family and over the years I’ve learned to manage my temper much better. Manage is probably not the right word as that implies I get angry still or I put myself in situations where I have to tell myself to calm down. I just don’t get worked up about stuff anymore, I think about the upside all the time rather than the downside. I’ve chosen to pick my fights when I really need to pick my fights not to pick them because I disagree with someone.

Learning to control my temper has lent me tremendous strength. I’m not easily bothered by someone’s jabs, I keep my senses about me and think better. I’m in control of the situation. I drive other people crazy because I never seem to lose my cool in situations where they say they’d go crazy and they don’t understand it. I don’t honk my horn, I don’t raise my voice, I don’t glare at you, I’ve got better things to do with my time and energy.

What’s Fonzie like? He’s cool. And that’s what we’re going to be, cool.

Male cleavage…

Male cleavage… It’s show time, folks!

Man boobs.

Smoooooooo

IMG_0071, originally uploaded by k : ) Style.

Anyone know who this gorgeous lady is?

Cheney's Heart Rhythm Restored – TIME

Cheney’s Heart Rhythm Restored – TIME

Yes, Dick Cheney has a heart.

Pasta sauce for a month for $10

Use this recipe and you can make enough sauce for a month and it’ll only cost you about $10. Takes about an hour. If you’re poor this is a life saver.

Ingredients:

6-8 medium sized carrots carrots ($2.00)
4-5 medium sized onions (you can mix sweet, yellows, red etc for more flavour) ($2.00)
2 large cans of tomatoes (769ml) ($3.00)
1 can of anchovies ($1.50)
3-4 cloves of garlic
Salt, pepper, oregano, basil, sugar to taste (.50)

Optional:

Bay leaf
Red wine
Meat of your choice (ground beef, italian sausage, bacon)
Zucchini
Mushroom
Chili flakes

1. Dice your onions and carrots. How roughly you chop them is up to you, I like them quite small. Heat up a large stock pot and start sweating the mixture in batches so as not to cool off the pot too much. Note: Use the pot that you’re going to make the sauce in. Crush your garlic and add it in here too.
2. While sweating the onions and carrots, drain the cans of tomatoes (save the juice) and then crush the tomatoes and add that juice to the captured juice. Chop up the tomatoes so they’re small chunks and separate them into two batches.
3. Take one batch and add it to the carrot and onion mixture and start saute the whole mixture. Let it brown a bit here and there so you can get some carmelized sweetness. This should take about 5-10 minutes.
4. Add half the tomato juice to the pot (enough to cover the mixture) and turn heat down and start to simmer. Add the can of anchovies as well. Oh yeah, you should be adding salt and pepper at each step – not a lot at each point but enough to bring out the flavours, we layer our flavours around here. If you have mushrooms or zucchini this is when you add them.
5. Add oregano and basil – a teaspoon each to start, as much as a tablespoon. If you have a couple bay leaves add them now. Add your chili flakes now for some heat.
6. Simmer for 30 minutes on low heat to dissolve the anchovies and let the flavours build up. Add tomato juice as needed to keep the sauce from getting too thick (this sauce will not be as thick as the shit they sell you in supermarkets).
7. Add a spoonful of sugar (or honey) to give the sauce a touch of sweetness and to cut any bitterness from the tomatoes. You may need to add more depending on the quality of your tomatoes. Add some red wine now if you have it, it’ll give the sauce more depth. Even cheap stuff will help.
8. Take remaining tomatoes and add to the sauce. Simmer for a few minutes. Splitting the tomatoes means you get the fresh flavour of the newly added tomatoes and you also get the carmelized sweetness of the first batch.
9. Make pasta, toss with sauce. Eat. Enjoy. Stop eating that supermarket shit.

Meat: If you have meat to add to this brown it in the same pot before step 1 and set aside till you start the simmering process. If you’re adding bacon then cut back on the anchovies as they both add saltiness. For variety you may want to add meat separately so that you don’t get stuff with ground beef for the rest of the month. If you’re a veggie you can add some ground round.

For $10 and 1 hour of your time you’ve made enough sauce to eat for a month (your mileage may vary), if you’re poor this is cheaper than eating mac and cheese or instant noodles and it’s healthier.

So.Cial Custom Butcher

So.Cial Custom Butcher, originally uploaded by Urban Mixer.

Short dining Reviews for nice places I’ve been too lately:

So.cial at La Magasin: Went there tonight with Megan, Rob and Ron. I’ve been going to their butcher shop for sandwiches from time to time and they’re delicious. Great bread, fresh, tasty toppings and great meats. The lineup at lunch hour is absurd, 20+ minutes for people who usually only have a half hour for it.

Dinner was an uneven affair, the food was very good and the service was friendly but the whole thing wasn’t tight. The fresh oysters we ordered took an age to arrive and the waitress apologized for it and when they did arrive they were rather small but very delicious. But $3.50 for one? The wine was reasonably priced and they had a good selection except for too many Chardonnays.

My braised short rib was good and very nicely presented but despite being very high quality beef it wasn’t marbled enough. A great beef rib is highly marbled so that it really melts in your mouth but that beef rib is hard to find. The bread pudding it came with with outstanding though and the portion size was really impressive.

We waited too long to get our bill but it looked like a table next to us was giving our waitress a hard time by repeatedly sending wine back and having her bring other ones out. Nonetheless the staff wasn’t tightly run, I didn’t get a sense of a team of people who were excited to be working there and who were helping each other get the work done. It felt low energy and the room felt that way as well.

Nonetheless I do recommend So.cial, the food is very good and the room is very nice. A few tweaks to it would really pull the place together nicely.

Rare: Out on Howe, I went there for Shelley’s birthday dinner and was treated to an outstanding multicourse meal. I can’t recall the details other than that I was very impressed with each dish that arrived and I’m hard to impress. The Mojito was first rate and muddled correctly (hard to find) and the service was outstanding as well, my 2nd best service of the year. Take someone here for their birthday.

Crave: Out on Main and 25th and the site of the best service I’ve received all year and the best burger I’ve eaten. The burger is quite rich but not overwhelming, the bun is a bit of a foccia bread but not quite. Everything was great, it’s where I’d take a girl for a date as it’s not pretentious and has a nice cozy atmosphere. Highly recommended.

Fuel: Had the whole hog which I’ve previously reported on. I had great service but Ernie didn’t when he went. Presentation was excellent and the detail that went into the work was impressive. The flavours were a bit mild but the food was prepared so well I was ready to forgive it. The wines that were available were well matched and reasonable. Recommended.

How my life has changed

I’ve swapped jobs twice this year for many different reasons and it’s interesting looking back at how my life has changed.

My hours worked have gone down from the 70-80 range to the 50-60 range and now it sits around 36 hours a week thus I have a lot more personal time now. I cook at home more often meaning I spend less money and I eat a lot healthier (My fibre intake is as high as its ever been). I sleep better than ever as I don’t bear the burden of work all the time, I don’t toss and turn through the night which means sleeping 7 hours is fine (I used to need more b/c of the lost sleep).

I see my friends regularly now and can go see a movie during the week without worrying about what problems I have to deal with when I get home (what’s an escalation?). I haven’t checked my email once at home at my current job yet and I don’t see it ever becoming an issue. I feel like blogging regularly now.

My daily work email volume has dropped from a couple hundred a day with me replying to 40-50 a day and a backlog of several hundred in my inbox to about 50 a day to the now 20 or so a day. I went from very interesting, fulfilling work to (let’s not talk about it) to interesting, fulfilling work. The people were great at every place so no change there and I am, and was always, treated as a valued member of the team.

I’m also getting paid more now than before. So paid more, healthier living (going to join a gym soon), work less, have friends again, ready to do some volunteer work (Big Brothers? Soup Kitchen?) and I’m happy.

Insurers Shift Cost Burdens to Homeowners – New York Times

Insurers Shift Cost Burdens to Homeowners – New York Times

Home insurance has largely been subsidized in the US for a long time especially in high risk areas due to government regulation as the government wanted people to settle in those areas (and it got them votes). Now it’s payback time and insurers are taking things back.

Hillary '08

I don’t have a vote since I’m not American but I’ve made up my mind, I’m voting Hillary. I’m largely a liberal but I’m more of a pragmatist and in looking at the list of potential candidates Hillary is the one who can govern best and help rescue America from it’s national nightmare of lost hope, squandered opportunity and divisiveness.

The Republican candidates are fairly weak and are boxed in by their religious right and their war hawks. Even if they had a credible candidate the party itself renders that person incapable of doing the governing necessary to get out of Iraq, restore America’s dignity and bring the economy under control.

The Dems’ list of candidates is stronger but Hillary trumps them all from top to bottom. She brings years of experience in the White House and as a Senator. She’s taken her lumps and now is known for being able to build the type of relationships that lead to good government. She’s a pragmatist who knows that change is a gradual process and that you don’t make that change by sabre rattling. And with Bill in her corner she’s got the best political advisor and ambassador possible, if she needs something done she can send Bill as her consigliere to fix it.

American voters, ditch your idealism (Obama supporters), ditch your religious bias (republicans), ditch whatever else you believe in because if you want good government and you want to the nightmare to end so that America is respected and has real power around the world then you vote for Hillary. In eight years she can reverse much of the damage done by your current adminstration. You may not agree with all of her politics but ask yourself how your politics can be accomplished if your nation is weak and divided?

Addenda:  While I don’t particularly like the politics of Conservative Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, I support him right now because he’s the only one capable of providing good government and good government is largely what he’s provided Canada. The direction he’s taking the country isn’t spot on with me but it’s close enough and I’d rather have good government over my politics.