Mountain Man
Senior Member
Looks better, hopefully some of this stuff starts to happen and the soccer dome doesn't!
I like the porte-cochère (that circle drop off thing) and think it actually makes good sense on the site.
I don't even know where to start with this post ... my head is still spinning.The Westbrook mall issue will be taken care of if they go through with their original plan. I think we tend to blame our lack of transportation usage compared to cities like NYC for our issues, but with the right development we strategy we can effectively increase transit usage. Having mixed use development and increased density does really work wonders around stations as seen in cities like Vancouver. I think the city is to blame for feeding the urban sprawl.We invest in so many projects such as roads that lead to the suburbs that people begin feeling more inclined to drive. If i can get from one point to another faster by driving with limited worrying about parking then why should i live in the inner city and pay more for rent or even think about taking transit? The fact detached homes are still selling well while condo market is suffering is purely poor policy. They should limit the amount of neighbourhoods being created, this itself will increase detached home prices, people will have no choice but to flock to condos and townhomes. Instead the city was considering approving more neighbourhoods to feed all the hungry home buyers last week. Its like giving an alcoholic more alcohol. I guarantee if detached home prices were in the range that they are in Vancouver or Toronto while condo/townhomes remained in the lower range we would cure the vast majority of our urban sprawl issue. Neighbouring communities like airdrie would be picking up suburban livers and the bills associated with maintaining their new communities not Calgary. We would effectively be able to reduce road and utilities expenditures and freeze taxes and invest in a more efficient city that could manage to clean all of its roads of snow for a change.
From what? Claiming Calgary councillors have a strong favouritism with home builders because they contribute largely to many of the councillors election campaigns or the fact dense cities like London where I personally was able to spend a few months have many homes with prices 2 to 3 times that of a condo in the suburbs helping discourage home buyers where as in Calgary buying a detached home is dirt cheap relative to condos? I'm not even making this theory up, I read a very well written academic article on density a few months back, it definitely mentioned prices having a strong correlation with density. I would definitely link it if i stubble upon it again. How many new home buyers in Calgary would consider buying a detached home today if prices were to double due to limited supply? I would think not many, they would seek more affordable options or be pushed to neighbouring towns around us. You keep building and people will keep buying simple as that.I don't even know where to start with this post ... my head is still spinning.
In theory it has been working in Vancouver and Toronto but imperfectly. Detached homes are so overpriced largely because developers are not building enough of them. The problem that largely created an overall rapid rise in housing prices were expectations and also limited supply to meet the demand, especially in the rental area. If you flood the market with enough townhomes, condos, and rentals, prices will remain stable even if demand picks up for non- single family homes. We have plenty of spots to grow up. And i don't think at all one bit we'd be exchanging for a lower quality of life. I mean do people living in Europe all have a lower quality of life? Our expectations have been set in Calgary that we need a detached home while for example my family who in London have a family of 6 are living in a semi-detached home that would be selling today for 500 000 pounds, worse yet over there most homes don't even have basements like we're lucky to have. I think its our attitude that needs to be change. I mean when you have half the density of Toronto and even less than its neighbour city Mississauga, you know theres a serious problem with our approach. Building around LRT stations is a start but is it really enough? I don't think so. Policy goes a long way in changing peoples tastes in a market. In basic Econ 201 they tell you about the substitution effect, its the real deal. The goal here would be to make detached prices expensive and non-detached prices stable and affordable, if you increase both your in trouble for further sprawl. Plus if Airdrie, Cochrane and more neighbour cities want to pick up single family home buyers then I'm perfectly fine with that, it reduces tax burdens on Calgarians for maintaining new utilities and services and allows for a more efficient running city. Those cities would be left to decide how much they are willing to handle the burden. I'm hopeful millennials and future generations will be changing this notion of absolutely needing to buy detached homes to raise a family.