Vancouver Realtor® Blog - Wednesday March 3rd/2010 - Bike Lane or Millions of Dollars in Real Estate Deals, A Choice to be Made

Will the Dunsmuir Viaduct be allowed to stand, providing bicyclists a safe corridor to make the journey from East Vancouver into the city?  Or will it, like its sister the Georgia Viaduct, be sacrificed in the interest of property development?  It seems that Councillor Geoff Meggs who once supported building the $300,000 bicycle lane is now supporting the viaducts’ demolition.

Is this mass confusion or political wrangling? The city has just moved the barriers, as planned after the Olympics, to create the secure 2.5 metre path into the city.  Other bike lanes exist in the city but none of the other routes provide protection from cars.  They are designated by painted lines and bicycle graphics only.

Tearing down the viaducts, part of an outdated transportation system circa 1915, may make the city of Vancouver easy on the eyes, but would take away a vital route that helps commuters get into and out of the downtown core.  Commute times would increase and that $300,000 bike lane would disappear.

City council will have the first opportunity to vote on the proposal this coming April. No one is really sure how the vote will go, but the tempting carrot of millions of dollars of real estate possibilities will be hard to ignore. We will just have to wait and see, for now.

Vancouver Realtor® Blog - Friday February 12th/2010 - Activists Hope to Use Olympics as Forum for Social Issues

Coquitlam residents do not trust the city council, and they are weary of the council's initiative to changed the land designations.  The residents have continued to voice their concern over the council's attempt to change the land designation for certain areas from 'Conservation/Recreation' to 'General Urban.'  The new land designations are particularly aimed at the Westwood Plateau Golf Course, but Mayor Richard Stewart claims that residents should not worry about the city's intent, because the council does not intend on allow development on the local golf course.

Residents say that the council members and politicians say different things at different times, and this reason is why they are skeptical about the council's decisions and actions in regards to the land designations.  No matter what council members tell residents, the locals say that there is no reason to change the land designation unless the city has ulterior motives.

The bottom line is that residents are upset about the actions because if the Coquitlam council did not intend to develop the land, there would be no reason to change the current designations.  Not only do residents not want to see development of these conservation areas, they are extremely upset that the council is trying to lie about why its members want to change the laws .

Residents do not want the 'green spaces,' designated for conservation of natural habitat, to be threatened by political agendas.

Vancouver Realtor® Blog - Friday February 5th/2010 - Activists Hope to Use Olympics as Forum for Social Issues

A group conducted a rally to protest homelessness during the opening of an information centre designed to address efforts to combat the situation.  Students from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University gathered as Rich Coleman, B.C. housing minister, officiated at the opening with Gregor Robertson, Vancouver mayor.

Coleman said that the province is responsible for subsidizing more than 7,000 units of housing per year, and is also providing an additional 1,280 apartments in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.  The new office opened in the Woodward’s site, which is being renovated to include mixed-use housing, commercial areas and another SFU campus.

A spokesperson for the Carnegie Community Action Project claims the Woodward’s renovation and neighbourhood gentrification is forcing more needy people from their homes.  Wendy Pedersen said that her organization wants to make sure the Olympics audiences are fully aware of the plight of the homeless in the neighbourhood.  Another member of CCAP gave press kits to journalists who covered the information centre’s opening.

It is believed that some 700 homeless people live in the Downtown Eastside, an area that housed the Woodward’s department store before its closure and demolition.  The neighbourhood is located ten blocks away from the Olympics press centre, and also a few blocks away from the BC Place Stadium, site of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies and closing events.

Other groups working for the cause of B.C. fish farms are also hoping to get publicity during the Olympics.  Working under the auspices of the Pure Salmon Campaign, the groups wrote a letter to Norway’s H.R.H. King Harald V, requesting that he ask fish farms owned by Norwegians to improve their practices.  The royal is scheduled to attend the Olympics.  The PSC has attempted to communicate with the King previously, and did not receive a response.   In response to the recent letter, a representative for Ottawa’s Royal Norwegian Embassy replied that the King would not meet with the protesters.

Vancouver Realtor® Blog - Tuesday February 2nd/2010 - Legal Advice for Real Estate Transactions is Top Need

2009 will be forever remembered as a horrible financial year that was marked with personal debt that soared to unreasonable levels and home foreclosures across the globe.  In fact, trouble regarding real estate was the number one reason that people sough legal advice in 2009.

Over 358,000 Pre-Paid Legal members sought legal advice from lawyers during the year regarding issues such as foreclosures,  short sales, lord and tenant issues, and commercial real estate transactions.

The U.S. saw an unprecedented number of foreclosures, up to over 2.8 million properties.  These figures increased 20% from 2008, according to the real estate data company, Irvine.

Although the number of foreclosures in Canada was not as severe, the activity prompted the government to take action against mortgage brokers and lenders by limiting mortgage lengths to thirty-five years and tightening regulations regarding the down payment that is due.

The Pre-Paid Legal plan is an insurance-like plan that members use to access affordable legal services regarding real estate issues they may encounter.  Some lawyers actually claim that these figures only represent a small amount of the overall need for legal services regarding real estate problems.

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