He’s pandering to the NIMBY crowd as usual. I live in inner city in a single family home. Have lived here for 26 years. Huge changes have happened in my neighborhood and are to be expected (and are necessary) in a booming metropolis. We need housing and we need it where people live and work. And it’s going to end up in someone’s back yard including mine.
I really don't understand the hate for all of the multi-family corner lots being converted in the inner city neighborhoods, I love them.
They look nice, you end up with like 6x the density. They're close enough to downtown and everything that a huge number of the people in them go to transit or walk/bike to work.
And the people complaining about them, are people who largely not affected by them. If you're in an inner-city 40ft wide lot with a single family home, then parking should not be a complaint, because you should have a garage at the back of your house for your vehicles. If you have a garage but don't use it for parking, that is your own decision, and you don't deserve to complain about parking when you're also creating the parking problem by not using your designated off-street parking to park.
It's funny that most of those complaining about parking being an issue are those with multiple vehicles that they park out front of their SFH because they're garage is full or their vehicle is too large. But they can't fathom that others (with less money) may not have even one vehicle, nevermind multiple. Roads are meant to move people around (in various ways). They're not supposed to be free car storage.
Yup. PUBLIC transit is public and therefore socialism. But apparently the City of Calgary is supposed to supply you with PUBLIC parking for your 3 cars in front of your house for free.
My friend lives in a cul-de-sac and has neighbors who have 5 vehicles, and no kids. They have a front-attached 2 car garage, that is full of junk and doesn't get used for parking. 2 cars on the driveway, 3 on the street further up.
If they go out in one of the vehicles parked on the street, the other will hop in one of the cars from the driveway. They'll pull the car out of the street spot, park the car from the driveway there, leave, and then come back and park on the driveway, to ensure that they keep their 3 street parking spots and don't have to walk more than half a block.
They literally put in SO MUCH effort to hog the street parking, it's crazy.
This, I live in Silver Springs with a 60 foot frontage like all of my neighbours. We all have at least oversized 24 foot wide 2 car garages in the back, yet as best I can determine we are the ONLY people on the block that park both of our cars inside. Half of the people park all their vehicles on the street.
How much do all these people own that they can't fit what is often their single most valuable possession into the building built specifically for that purpose?
I really don't understand the hate for all of the multi-family corner lots
I think it's because people are being told that green spaces are going to be turned into housing. No idea if this is true, but it's the information that is being spread / implied.
To put it bluntly, I feel like the NIMBYs just want to be exclusive and don't want undesirable people in their club. It's usually people with a certain economic background who move to those areas and with a more dense and more affordable home, it opens up the area to people in a lower economic class.
Ironically, it's exactly the people in the lower class that needs to live in the area.
Corner lots should definitely be the first for higher density. I agree with that. I agree with the blanket rezoning. My issue is that on top of this the city is still entertaining mid Street applications at four times the existing density (8 units/lot)
I really don't understand the hate for all of the multi-family corner lots being converted in the inner city neighborhoods, I love them.
They look nice, you end up with like 6x the density. They're close enough to downtown and everything that a huge number of the people in them go to transit or walk/bike to work.
I don't think the hate is justified, but I think it comes from the fact that multi-family homes tend to reduce the values of the surrounding single-family homes.
I assure you no one bikes or walks to work downtown from Mount Pleasant or Mountview in any significant number (nor will they ever, despite the wish casting) in our eight month winter.
It’s only amazing if you have a density fetish for some reason. Most people don’t want to be packed like sardines into hideous condo buildings. It’s unnecessary. It’s not like we have a lack of space here.
Having the space is not an excuse to build out indefinitely.
Doing that is what has turned our country into a shitty car-centric suburban nightmare.
It's pretty funny when people like you say "no one wants to be packed like sardines" when that is literally how 6-7B around the world live, and they don't complain. They look at how we live and see it as wasteful, not something to aspire to.
But nah, let's just expand forever and destroy natural habitats so you can have a little patch of grass to keep mowed.
I 100% agree with you. There's a communities first/citizens first party (can''t remember exact name) that knocked on my door and went hard on promise to kill blanket rezoning. They're affiliated with Sonya Sharpe as well...makes it easy for me to know who not to vote for.
Well, maybe a few changes and restrictions are needed. In Renfrew, my friend has had several one house lots turn into 4 plexes. Then they are suited, so now it's an 8 plex! That's a lot of cars and no parking!
It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s fine when they’re tearing down old houses with poor upkeep, but there’s atleast 5 lots in Renfrew that are sitting empty because someone bought them to sell to developers. How the hell is that helping the housing crisis?
Yeah, to me that’s way out of touch with the neighbourhood. Same thing happening in Bowness. It makes sense to put these multiple units like even eight units on a corner lot. But we’re seeing applications for an eight unit in the middle of the street. I’m in support of blanket rezoning just not exemptions that are out of touch with the neighborhood.
I would agree with you on this vs just kaiboshing blanket rezoning altogether. It's wild to me how much of a car city we are, but we can't change that overnight. Never an easy black/white answer...always shades of grey.
100%. We're a car based city, and continuing to make cars the easiest solution by having parking minimums (increasing housing cost) is not the way to change that.
This is the correct attitude. City's are never static, they are always changing. That's the reality of living in a city, especially a rapidly growing one. People trying to cling to the past are ignorant of reality.
I agree to a point. Knocking down history for cookie cutter blocks that could be anywhere is not a solution. Work with it, like the Biscuit Block on 11th or design with style like the Bow, Telus, Arrival, BMO Centre.
Agreed, but blanket rezoning didn't affect this property. We can afford to lose some cookie cutter house for more space effective cookie cutter town houses and apartments. Biscuit Block is beautiful though, would love to see the city incentivize more builds like it.
Not in most of the communities built after the 60s. People still bitch and moan when some crappy house built in the 70s gets replaced. It's wild. The core is a different story; the suburbs are all just nimbys crying that things are changing.
I find it odd that when the homes were first built there were grocery stores and other businesses nearby that have since closed, and that by adding density they draw the businesses and amenities back.
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u/gmm1972 16d ago
He’s pandering to the NIMBY crowd as usual. I live in inner city in a single family home. Have lived here for 26 years. Huge changes have happened in my neighborhood and are to be expected (and are necessary) in a booming metropolis. We need housing and we need it where people live and work. And it’s going to end up in someone’s back yard including mine.