I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if they didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympics, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles. ... At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. (From The Sporting Spirit by George Orwell, Dec. 14/45 included in Five Ring Circus, Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, by Christopher A. Shaw)
The Costco Connection Do politics have a place at the Olympics? The recent call by some countries to boycott the 2008 Olympics in China again serves notice that the Olympics serve not only as an arena where the best athletes in the world compete, but also as a place where international politics can collide. ... the Olympics are a natural venue for non-violent political protest. The Games are used to promote democracy and human rights around the world, so what better place to raise awareness of human rights infringements and other injustices? ...
July/August, 2008
The Olympic Games by definition are political: They involve citizens, they involve tax dollars, they involve politicians and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) demands financial commitment on the part of relevant government bodies as part of the bid process. Sporting competition is only the tip of the gigantic Olympic industry iceberg. Multinational sponsors, host broadcasters, developers and the high end of the hospitality and tourism industries win most of the gold medals.
When politicians and Olympic boosters try to sell the idea of bidding for the Games, this isn't labelled "bringing politics into the Olympics." Nor is it called "political" when organizing committees lobby politicians to pour more and more tax dollars into the bottomless pit of Olympic spending. Or, in the case of Sydney 2000, when the head of the Olympic Organizing Committee happens to be the Olympics minister in the state parliament.
But when protesters take to the streets to get public attention focused on the misplaced spending priorities in the host city/state/country, or to get world-media attention on local and global injustices, often with considerable success, they're accused of politicizing and contaminating something pure and holy, as if the Olympics are a religion or a social movement or an extended family. (emphasis added)
"The eyes of the world" argument pushed by Olympic boosters and politicians is equally useful for human rights organizations, anti-poverty groups, housing advocates, environmentalists and Indigenous peoples. As an activist involved in social justice protests in Canada and Australia over the last 10 years, I fully support their tireless efforts to make the Olympic industry accountable and socially responsible. (-- p. 13)
Officials at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort north of Vancouver say the collapse of a gondola tower was caused by water seeping into a welded and bolted joint and cracking the metal as it froze. (emphasis added) Doug Forseth, the senior vice-president of operations at Whistler Blackcomb, said experts inspected the damaged tower overnight. The support towers on similar Doppelmayr brand lifts, including the Wizard and Solar chairlifts, were checked and found without any problems. Provincial safety official were expected to conduct a second safety inspection with resort staff Wednesday morning before those lifts were reopened. ...
The damaged tower was constructed from two large pieces of metal tubing that were welded and bolted together, but somehow water managed to get inside the joint, said Forseth. The ice build-up caused the tower splice to rupture, an extremely unusual situation referred to as "ice-jacking," he said.
Thirteen people suffered minor injuries on Tuesday when one of the towers that supports the cables on the Excalibur Gondola near Fitzsimmons Creek partially collapsed, leaving three gondola cars dangling in mid-air. People were left stranded in the cold for about three hours while fire crews went gondola to gondola removing the 53 passengers from the 30 trapped cars.
The gondola undergoes an extensive safety check every year by the B.C. Safety Authority, and the last check was done within the past six months, according to a statement issued by Blackcomb.
The Excalibur Gondola, which runs from Whistler Village up Blackcomb Mountain, was built in 1994. It has an upper and lower section. The upper section of the gondola, which is independent of the lower section, was unaffected by the incident but was cleared immediately of guests.
... The accident comes at a terrible time for Whistler Blackcomb, which is owned by Intrawest Corp. Last week, the resort opened its new $52-million Peak 2 Peak Gondola, which transports skiers over a 4.4-kilometre span between the tops of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. At its highest point, the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is more than 400 metres above the valley floor.
The resort was preparing for the lucrative Christmas skiing season. However, if the Excalibur Gondola remains out of service, it will have an impact on the number of skiers that can be brought into the alpine areas of Blackcomb Mountain.
In addition, Whistler is cohosting the 2010 Winter Olympics with Vancouver, and this incident brings bad publicity just as the resort is trying to capitalize on increased global media interest in its facilities.
Finally, Intrawest’s parent company, hedge-fund manager Fortress Investment Group, has had a terrible year as a result of the global financial meltdown. On December 16, the New York-based investment company's stock closed at US$1.22, down from a 52-week high of US$17.32.
Fortress has been the lender for the billion-dollar Olympic Village project in Vancouver. The local city council recently provided a $100-million loan guarantee to try to ensure that the development will be completed in time for the 2010 Games. City officials have estimated that the project is $70 million over budget.
I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if they didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympics, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles. ... At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. (From The Sporting Spirit by George Orwell, Dec. 14/45 included in Five Ring Circus, Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, by Christopher A. Shaw)
For endurance athletes, the preferred poison is synthetic EPO (erythropoietin), a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production and, thus, oxygen-carrying capacity. Athletes in strength sports use steroids, which increase muscle mass. Human growth hormone is thought by some users to strengthen connective tissue and increase lean body mass, so it may work for most any sport. But athletes often combine drugs. A regimen might consist of steroid drops under the tongue, an EPO shot and a cream that is part testosterone and part epitestosterone (a masking agent). H.G.H. is often combined with steroids to build strength and aid recovery.
Testers in overdrive
Some 4,500 drug tests will be performed in Beijing, 25 percent more than at the 2004 Olympics. About 900 of those will be blood tests, and another 700 to 800 will check for EPO. Who will be tested? The top five finishers in each event and two randomly selected competitors. Each will provide a urine sample, a blood sample or both. The samples will be transported — by armed guards — from 41 collection stations to a facility near the National Stadium where some 150 scientists and volunteers will work 24 hours a day. Besides looking for banned substances, they’ll look for clues that an athlete is taking something new. Low natural hormone levels, for example, indicate an athlete might be taking hormones in synthetic form.
How They Might Get Away With It
Cheaters adapt, and crafty athletes are continually concocting ways to avoid positive results. Some athletes dilute their urine with water. Others use catheters to inject drug-free urine into their bladders shortly before their events. Certain methods, however, are out: male athletes will no longer get away with taking diuretics or other masking agents like the female fertility drug Clomid; those substances are now caught by the normal drug screening. A cheater’s best asset is often time. Drug users rely on detailed calendars to determine when to stop using banned substances. EPO, for instance, can be detected only for a few days after use — but the drug is said to be effective for several weeks after that. Then there are certain male athletes who may be able to take testosterone and not worry about testing positive: a recent doping study showed that two-thirds of Asian men and 10 percent of Caucasians are missing a gene function that converts testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine. These athletes could use the steroid and still test clean.
What They'll Try NEXT
By the 2012 Olympics, drug testers will likely have a new problem on their hands: some athletes will have moved beyond drugs. They will be gene doping, or altering themselves genetically. “This is infinitely more complicated,” Wadler says. By transferring synthetic genes into human cells, athletes could stimulate muscle growth, increase metabolism or boost endurance. Those transferred genes would blend seamlessly into the athlete’s DNA. Some experts say that the future is already here, and that athletes are probably gene doping for Beijing. “This is very much on our radar screen,” Wadler says. So far, the only sure way to detect gene doping is by taking a biopsy of the affected muscle tissue — not a practical solution. Which is just the kind of test that cheaters love. ... (-- p. 18)
The City of Vancouver revealed just how much of a mess it's in as a result of cost overruns at the 2010 Athletes Village at a special open meeting held Monday. The City has also come up with a desperate measure to save the troubled project -- giving the public the full financial picture surrounding the Olympic Village. The numbers involved are huge.
"Our completion guarantee requires us to complete the project and get it done and if the cost is $875 million then that's what it's going to cost us to assure that we actually get it completed," said Penny Ballem, Vancouver's city manager, at the meeting. The current shortfall between that amount and what's already been paid for by the developer and others is $458 million - a shortfall the City and the taxpayers need to shoulder. "The intention right now is to get this project to stability and ensure that we can complete, that we have an absolute certainty on where funding is coming from for the balance of construction," said Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson. As for who is at fault here, talk of firing key officials responsible is swirling about City Hall. ...
Robertson wants the province to amend Vancouver's city charter without going to the polls for voter approval so the city could borrow about $450 million needed to complete the project. The city has been footing the monthly construction costs since October, after lender Fortress Investment became uneasy over its $750-million loan to the developers. That loan is now being renegotiated but Robertson says if that deal falls through, the city needs to be able to borrow. Robertson says the charter change would be specific to the Athlete's Village and not give the city a blank cheque to borrow for anything. So while the project will likely be done for the Games, it is a different story for taxpayers, who will likely still be paying the bills long after the Olympic Torch goes out.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Ottawa won't cover any cost overruns on the Athlete's Village, but the B.C. government may come though with some aid. "I'll be crystal clear, we will not be funding cost overruns of the Olympic Village," he told CTV on Monday. (emphasis added)
However, B.C.'s premier says the provincial government is open to a plea for help from the city. "When you're dealing with a thing that is this important... to get the information on the desk before you decide what to do with it. We've been working with city to find a solution. Mayor Robertson has been very open with us about the challenges in front of him," said Gordon Campbell. And B.C.'s Finance Minister, Colin Hansen, says the province recognizes the city is in a difficult position.
1.3.1 How much can rent be increased for a residential tenancy?
Residential tenancy landlords can increase rent annually by a percentage equal to the inflation rate plus two percent without tenants disputing the increase. The total allowable rent increase for each calendar year is available on the Residential Tenancy Branch website in September of the previous year, under the heading “News”.
If the landlord charges an amount in excess of the inflation rate plus two percent, the tenant does not have to pay the excess rent unless the tenant has been served with a dispute resolution officer's order allowing the rent increase.
See also:
Form RTB-7: Notice of Rent Increase - Residential Rental Units (PDF) Policy Guideline 37: Rent Increases (PDF)
For a conventional residential tenancy rent increase that takes effect in 2009, the allowable increase is 3.7 per cent. ...
and:
Quote:
1.3.3 Can a landlord request a larger rent increase than the allowable amount?
Residential tenancy landlords can ask a dispute resolution officer to allow a larger increase, using the Application for Additional Rent Increase form, if the landlord has completed significant repairs or renovations that could not reasonably have been foreseen and are not recurring with a reasonable time period, incurred a financial loss from an extraordinary increase in operating expenses, or incurred a financial loss from an increase in financing costs that could not have been reasonably foreseen.
A landlord seeking an additional rent increase under the above grounds must make a single application to increase the rent for all units in the building.
A residential tenancy landlord can also seek an additional rent increase if the rent for a rental unit is significantly lower than that of similar units in the area. A landlord who, as the head tenant of a rental unit, receives an additional rent increase can also apply for dispute resolution for an additional rent increase on that basis to increase the rent to a subtenant.
Five Ring Circus Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games
Paperback
By Christopher A. Shaw, UBC professor of Ophthalmology with NO GAMES 2010
Quote:
I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if they didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympics, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles. ... At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. (From The Sporting Spirit by George Orwell, Dec. 14/45 included in Five Ring Circus, Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, by Christopher A. Shaw)
One of the enduring myths about the Olympic Games is that they are actually about sports. It shouldn't come as a surprise that much of the world - at least the part of it that depends on the corporate press fro their information - accepts this as being basically true. Fifty years of saturation advertising tends to have a considerable impact, dulling the background drumbeat of scandals and misspent public funds, International Olympic Committee (IOC) members on the take, corrupt judges and doped-up athletes use drugs, but public funds are almost always misspent, and the hidden area where most of this money goes is into real estate projects for private developers. What sports has to do with the Olympic Games for the IOC beyond the television rights is a serious question, but there's no doubt that behind every Olympic Games of the last quarter century were real estate deals in the making. This may surprise many readers who suppose that the awarding of the 'privilege' to host the Games originates with the IOC. In fact, it originates with the candidate cities that will do virtually anything and everything to get the Games simply as a device to promote projects that taxpayers would otherwise refuse, usually those that have lurked in the wings for years, soundly rejected because they made little or no economic or social sense. And, in every potential Olympic city, the actual Games drivers are real estate developers. How often is this true? Always. Viewed in this light, the IOC is less the predator than the scavenger, a ravenous corporate vulture endlessly circling the globe, waiting for the local developers in the various countries to bring down the prey, the local taxpaying citizenry. If enough magic Olympic pixie dust falls on the citizenry, the IOC and developers hope that the good burghers will abandon all reason and give their belssings and dollars willingly. Tying the Games to such projects suddenly imbues them with a different aura, and all previous rationality about real costs versus potential benefits goes out the window. The IOC and local bid boosters spend considerable funds to ensure that this occurs. If absolutely nothing else in this book takes hold, remember this:The Olympic Games at the local level are all about real estate. (emphasis added)
In the world of Vancouver real estate, there may be many players, but there is only one eminence grise, the legendary baron of Daon Corporation, Vancouver Land Corporation, Greystone Properties and now Concert Properties, holder of the Order of British Columbia and Order of Canada, none other than Mr. Jack W. Poole. ...
... He and his colleagues at VANOC have conned an anxiety-ridden Vancouver into bidding for and accepting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. He and his insider group are going to make billions, and he knows it. Vancouverites and British Columbians, just like the citizens in past Olympic cities, are going to lose billions but don't know it... yet. By the time they do, it will be a done deal, too far advanced to stop, with no paper trail, nothing concrete that could incrimate Poole and his friends in a scam of gargantuan proportions.
. The street where VANOC headquarters is located, Graveley Street in East Vancouver, recently had a facelift courtesy of the City.
. The City of Vancouver spent $368,941.03 for "road improvements."
. Property owners on the street were billed for the work.
. VANOC, however, merely rents the building from the City at a subsidized rate and hence will have paid nothing.
. Duke Energy, a US firm, had seconded one of their staff to the Bid Corp back in 2002/03 to work as the bid's media liaison. This act of generosity seemed odd at the time. We now know that Duke, along with numerous power generation companies, have been given free rein to the streams and rivers along the Sea to Sky corridor, just in time for all the new condo development sprouting along the highway. (emphasis added) ...
It's too late for Vancouver. Because there is no end to Olympic rapacity, the IOC and the developers will continue to target cities worldwide until their citizens decide to stop it. ... The structure and promises of Bid Books and the other governing agreements not to mention all of the official and unofficial promises, are contracts in name only. Alas, they are not contracts in law since they are not enforceable, at least not by the political entities that allow the IOC and local organizers free rein. Imagine, however, that Olympic organizers had to keep promises for fear of monetary and/or civil penalties. How many future Jack Pooles would there be if the prospects of financial ruin or jail time were realistic? How often would the IOC sponsor fraudulent bids if it knew it could be held liable?(emphasis added) (footnotes omitted) (From The View from 2008 to 2010 and Beyond, pgs. 281-283)
A man who witnessed a Taser incident at Vancouver International Airport last Sunday said security at the facility and RCMP are to blame for the death of a distraught man in the terminal who didn't understand English. Lorne Meltzer, a corporate valet, told CBC News Thursday he was at the airport picking up a client just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday and found himself facing Robert Dziekanski. He said he tried to calm an agitated Dziekanski, 40, in the public arrivals area and unwittingly let the Polish immigrant back into the secure international arrivals area, using his pass to open the one-way doors.
Meltzer has a security pass to the secure international arrivals area, as a personal assistant to a Vancouver businessman who often has clients fly into town. "I think the responsible parties are the Vancouver Airport and the RCMP for not having other negotiating tactics once he's at the heightened state," said Meltzer, who was the person who called in RCMP. He said he clearly warned them the man didn't speak English. Meltzer claimed the officers gave Dziekanski two commands in English and within seconds Tasered him after he held a stapler in an apparently threatening manner. "He [Dziekanski] raised the stapler in the air and they [RCMP] said, 'Put your hands on the desk,' in English," Meltzer said. Meltzer said the RCMP were too hasty to use the Taser and he refutes the police claim that the area was too crowded to use pepper spray, because "it was empty."
Dziekanski was Tasered by RCMP and later died. Police and a witness conflict in the number of jolts the man is alleged to have received. RCMP insist that the man was zapped two times, but Sima Ashrafinia, who was at the airport and recorded the incident on her cellphone, told CBC News on Monday that RCMP officers stunned Dziekanski four times. An autopsy by the B.C. Coroner's Service on Tuesday did not find the cause of death, citing no trauma or disease was found. Officials are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests and microscopic examinations.
Here's the kicker: In the video also posted at cbc.ca, Meltzer, a frequent airport visitor, says that after 10:45 p.m., there is no airport security!
Were translation services in Polish available at the time of the incident?
... RCMP officer facing charges of impaired driving causing death after a collision in Tsawwassen on Saturday. Orion Hutchinson, 21, was killed while riding westbound on his motorcycle on Sixth Avenue when he collided with a Jeep. ... Delta police have so far recommended two charges -- impaired driving causing death and exceeding .08 blood-alcohol content. The officer facing charges, who has not been named by police but has been identified as Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson, is to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on Jan. 15.
Media reports have identified the officer as RCMP Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson, who is one of four Mounties who were at Vancouver airport when Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, died after being stunned by a Taser on Oct. 14, 2007. The lawyer for Mr. Dziekanski's family says the shadow of the Braidwood inquiry into the death of Mr. Dziekanski is hanging over the investigation into last weekend's fatal collision.
A steady stream of visitors tour a small Hooverville, built on the site of the mostly drained old Central Park Lower Reservoir by unemployed workers, in early January, 1933. Named for President Herbert Hoover, whom many blamed for the state of the economy, these shantytowns which sprang up across America in the early 1930s housed citizens had lost everything during the Great Depression. Given its proximity to galamorous apartment buildings on either side of the park, this one seemed to many commentators to symbolize the disastrous impact of bad times. Leroy Jacob (-- p. 70)
Quote:
It's late September, 1932, and winter is not far off as Dorothy Muller, twenty-eight, helps her thirty-year-old husband, James, unemployed for two years, add a roof to the home he has built of discarded lumber and other materials at the foot of East 37th Street in Brooklyn, in the swamplands off Jamaica Bay. That's their son, James, looking on (from his baby carriage). The Mullers were just one of many homeless families putting up their own rough homes here and in similar places. Most of the victims of the Great Depression, then at its nadir, were essentially left to fend for themselves during the presidency of Herbert Hoover. (-- p. 71)
A quiet Vancouver homeless camp turned defiant on Thursday, in reaction the city’s attempt to evict its residents earlier this week.
Valerie Nicholson was one of roughly a dozen homeless individuals who have squatted on a patch of undeveloped industrial land below the Grandview Viaduct since August. Vancouver police evicted Nicholson and her camping companions from the city-owned property on Monday. But after three days of looking for housing – and three nights of sleeping on the floor of a Downtown Eastside apartment building – Nicholson and her neighbours moved back to the empty lot at 1480 Glen Dr. on Thursday afternoon.
“I’d rather be living inside, not out here in the mud,” Nicholson told The Tyee. “But we had nowhere else to go.”
In what now resembles a game of homeless camper Whack-a-Mole, the city plans to evict Nicholson yet again.
“We will be working with police to have the tents taken down,” city spokesperson Jennifer Young told The Tyee late Thursday afternoon. Young did not say when the city will act.
“The camp is in violation of the city’s land regulation bylaw,” Young said. “We will continue to enforce out bylaws.”
Young said the recent B.C. Supreme Court decision, which found it unconstitutional to prevent homeless people from sleeping on public property when there are not enough shelter beds available, does not apply to Vancouver.
“The decision in Victoria is related to the Victoria bylaws, not to our bylaws,” Young said.
Nicholson, who is 53, said she’s been homeless since the city demolished her former home, the troubled Marie Gomez Place, early this year. She said she’s been camping at various sites across the False Creek flats since spring.
“I’m on a lot of waiting lists,” Nicholson said. “I’m on waiting lists all over town."
Nicholson and her camp-mates were under the impression that a city outreach worker had given them permission to camp on the site. Young denied that the city has ever made such an offer. (Young also alleged that the city is building 3,800 units of new housing by 2010.)
Prompt payment on construction projects will be increasingly difficult well into 2010. What you don’t know will cost you time and money. (emphasis added)
Driving your business forward during our current economic times requires a concrete understanding of the best methods available to guarantee payment. Disputes over payment will continue to increase in number and scale. Are you are prepared? Adopting a “wait and see” approach could be crippling to your business. At this course, you will learn the major pitfalls and how to successfully avoid them.
Our expert faculty will walk you through the lifecycle of the construction project and provide practical and immediate solutions to claw back money that is rightfully owed to you and ensure payment on future projects.
Issues to be Addressed:
◦ Methods of managing construction contract risks in current economic times
◦ Contract terms you need to be aware of: Ensure your team is “in the know”
◦ How to best protect your position after the contract is signed
◦ Proactive strategies you can implement to ensure payment
◦ Steps to take when you don’t get paid
◦ Issues involved in terminating a contract
◦ A practical look at litigation and other options
◦ The nuts and bolts of builders’ liens: What you really need to know
◦ Essential issues in insolvency: Preventative measures and practical tactics
... At the time I was working for a landlord
And he was the meanest bastard that you have ever seen
And to lose a single penny would grieve him awful sore
And he was a miserable bollocks and a bitch's bastard's whore
And it's lend me ten pounds, I'll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning
I recall we took care of him one Sunday
We got him out the back and we broke his fucking balls
And maybe that was dreaming and maybe that was real
But all I know is I left that place without a penny or fuck all
And it's lend me ten pounds, I'll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning
An eight-month tenant-landlord battle in Vancouver’s West End came to a head this week following the public release of an April 2 decision from the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) that allows the new landlords of the Seafield apartments to issue 38 per cent rent increases to nine of the 14 units in the 77-year-old heritage building. The hikes are lower than the 73 per cent increases originally requested by new landlords Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson, brothers-in-law and former internet gaming executives who bought the building last summer and have since been trying to bring rents up to what they see as market rates.
Seafield tenants, the oldest of whom have lived in the building for nearly 50 years, have been fighting what first seemed like evictions for renovations (what they called ‘renovictions’) and then the 73 per cent rent increases disputed during a March 11 conference-call hearing between 18 tenants, Gordon Nelson Investments, and a dispute resolution officer. Tenants are currently unable to comment further as they are seeking legal advice and a potential judicial review of the decision, but advocates say the decision marks the effective end of rent control in the province.
“I have spent the last three years of my life asking the BC Liberal government to review the [Residential Tenancy] Act, to remove sections that are causing evictions and $500-a-month rent increases. They will not do it,” Sharon Isaak told reporters yesterday. Isaak co-founded Renters at Risk, a local tenant rights advocacy group, when she and her neighbours were served floor-by-floor eviction notices in their West End apartment building in 2006. Isaak and her neighbours fought the case at the Residential Tenancy Office and, after a lengthy battle, won. “I encourage every renter in this province to wake up…this decision signals the end of rent control as we know it.”(emphasis added)
Vancover-Burrard MLA and Vancouver-West End NDP candidate Spencer Herbert has been lending support to Seafield tenants through their struggle and, in efforts to provide better security to long-term renters, introduced a private members’ bill in the legislature last fall called the Long-Term Renters Protection Act. “Basically, the floodgates are open now for big landlords to seek massive rent increases for tenants province-wide,” he said. “We’re calling for a balanced Residential Tenancy Act between landlords and tenants. Obviously, landlords need to be able to make money. We’re not against yearly rent increases. We just think they need to be balanced.”
Despite the 38 per cent increases that have some Seafield tenants paying up to $500.00 on top of their regular monthly rent, Gordon Nelson Investments partner Chris Nelson says the new rents are still not up to market rates. “In the case of the two-bedroom units, we’ve rented a unit for $1850 a month. So it’s still $400 less [than market rates], so still a big subsidy to the tenants,” he told the Tyee. He called the Seafield case a “messy battle” that involved tough dealings with the tenants.
... The Seafield decision document from the Residential Tenancy Office suggested that tenants were making a good-faith argument that is not part of the Residential Tenancy Act. “There is nothing in the Act which prohibits landlords from working to maximize their profits,” the arbitrator wrote in the decision.
Christine Ackermann, Renters at Risk member and founder of political tenants’ rights website Renters Fight Back, says her efforts to call on B.C. housing minister Rich Coleman to change the Residential Tenancy Act have fallen flat. “When we asked them to make simple legislative changes, [Coleman] refused…He doesn’t want this to happen,” she said. “Well, parents, listen up: your kids will never be able to leave home. They will never be able to afford the high rents in this province. And while you’re at it, you better get your basements ready, because your grandparents are moving in, too. The seniors can’t afford this rent. This is a sham.”
Sure enough, here's the handbill one visitor received in his mail box last summer:
Quote:
Sherolinnah Eang
Shanelle Properties Development Ltd. - VGI
Jericho Village
www.mtdanielwaterfrontresort.com
Mobile (604) 812-6613
Business: (604) 228-0688
June 4, 2008
Dear Homeowner:
My name is Sherolinnah Eang. I own my own investment and development company, Shanelle Properties Development Ltd., which also owns a property on the Sunshine Coast, Mt. Daniel Waterfront Resort http://www.mtdanielwaterfrontresort.com/contact-us.php.
I am recently divorced and am interested in moving to the West side of Vancouver (preferably in or around the UBC area) with my 9 year old (sic) daughter, who attends Westside Christian School at U-Chapel on University Blvd. It is a dream of mine to raise my daughter in your neighborhood.
If you have a home for rent or on a lease-to-purchase basis in the range of $5,000 per month, I would be very interested in hearing from you. I would also be willing to renovate your home. Kindly call me at my office, or on my mobile phone. Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely,
Cherolinnah Eang
Investor/developer
Quote:
Note: Anyone in Vancouver these days with $5,000 a month to spend on housing is putting it toward a freehold purchase somewhere in the Left Coast's fluid - pardon the pun - leaky condo market. So what fresh hell is Eang hoping to ignite in this plum university neighborhood? Wishing her all the luck she deserves!
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