I read this article on [A href="vny!://www.virtualvancouver.com/news/olympicrealestate.html"]Vancouver olympics[/A].
The article basically stated that the only winners from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are politicians and their friends. Do you think the Olympics are good for Vancouver?
Ask Montreal! Didn't they just finish paying for them last year around this month - 30 years to pay for them?
Or..you could look at Calgary. They came out with profit once the Olympics were finished in 1988.
....and there's a classic example of the 'cup half empty or the cup half full'.
And Montreal just finished paying off the Olympic Stadium like last year.... some 30 plus years later...
I think Observer just mentioned that SD. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c028.gif" border=0]
oops.
No modern Olympics have ever made a profit. Cities don't go into the Olympic process thinking they're going to make a profit. Its a showcase to the world to get people to come there. Because for 2 to 4 weeks the entire world focuses on your city and no matter what the cost that's the best PR money can buy. Except for the fact that news reporters come also looking for a story. Next year you'll hear a ton of human rights/pollution/food safety problems coming from China. Then when the BBC/NBC come here they'll just take a trip to Downtown Eastside. That's the downside.
Do you think the Olympics are good for Vancouver?
No!
Expo '86 lost 311 million, but it re-started construction in the 1980s, boosted tourism and countless mom and pop businesses in the GVRD.
While it will increase construction will it be smart growth or just silly sprawl growth?
Better access to whistler and expensive condo... The only think "positive" is the Sea to Sky highway made safer.
Funny thing is that the Olympic Village condos will look right at an eye sore the viaduct. Tear that sucker down.
Sportsdude wrote:
While it will increase construction will it be smart growth or just silly sprawl growth?
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Both. Smart growth within the population-dense areas (City of Vancouver- and Burnaby, Richmond to a lesser extent) and silly sprawl throughout the rest of the 'burbs.
SD_ you might be interested in Smart Growth BC. They do a lot of discussion circles in different parts of the province. Once you move here, you could jump in and join them.
[a href="vny!://smartgrowth.bc.ca/"]vny!://smartgrowth.bc.ca/[/a]
Sportsdude wrote:
Funny thing is that the Olympic Village condos will look right at an eye sore the viaduct. Tear that sucker down.
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LOL!!! Kind of hard to tear down with GM Place, BC Place and Expo Blvd right underneath! Maybe it just needs a makeover? Some paint?
Sounds like my kind of site and people.
Yeah Vancouver is such a great model to do things and yet go down the road to Abottsford and its just depressing. Richmond is the same way just by looking at how things are mapped out.
not saying tear down the BC Stadium (although I believe its a goner after 2010) or GM Place. But when it comes time to replace that puppy. I say don't replace it. Portland turned their downtown highway into a park.
I sure don't have any problem with parks, but Vancouver has Stanley Park......a 1000 acre park (amongst many others). It'd be kinda hard to place hockey in a park.
well roads are like a black hole, they're going to have to be replaced sometime and since back in the 70's Vancouver rightly decided to stop the highway plans from gutting the city and killing it. Why not take it down? What's the point of having it? Or is the city just using it as a monument to commerate the day the will of the people fought back and won?
The Olympics is positive for both the city of Vancouver and for real estate prices there. I heard that there's a condo going for $18M because Vancouver is an international city etc. now. This increase can only be positive for the economy and area residents.
Even if you look at Seattle there is a building explosion in the downtown area with condos going up all over. Vancouver being on the West coast can only help Seattle too. Even the BC permier was down here drumming up Olympica talk with our officials last week. Moreover on that same site about Vancouver [A href="vny!://www.virtualvancouver.com/news/UShousingslump.html"]housing slump in the US[/A] it basically has insulated the West from such a downturn. A quick look at real estate classifieds in the west such as craigslist.org or even [A href="vny!://classifieds.virtualvancouver.com/index.html"]Vancouver Real Estate[/A] or whatever confirms that there really is no such concern here for now in the West.
Show me where I'm wrong
P.S. Go Spurs
Coincidentally, though not surprising, today's [A href="vny!://www.virtualvancouver.com/news/homeprices.html"]Vancouver Top News[/A] story is about unaffordable home prices. It says that up to 70% of the average household's income in Vancouver is used for housing costs + utilities + taxes. Hope RBC didn't waste too much money on it's report - next time tell us something we don't already know.
The market in Vancouver has nowhere to go but down. Give me a break re. that penthouse at 1000 Beach Ave. listed at $18.2 million. Great views of clouds and rain 8-10 months of the year. Vancouver is NOT a world class city because it rains more than London which is world class because it was the centre of the western world for decades a century or so ago. Vancouver is the gateway to Asia.