Photo mantage - see note at bottom of post
Well.
One thing we, the idiot bloggers who said so at the time, now know for sure, it was not about using the money from the sale to generate more affordable housing elsewhere.
How do we know this?
Because Lori Culbert and Dan Fumano just told us so in their most excellent recent VSun piece:
...The (B.C.) Liberals have maintained that selling Little Mountain gave them the money to build social housing in other locations, but Postmedia discovered that — because (developer) Holborn hasn’t yet paid for the bulk of the land — the Liberals instead borrowed the money from the Treasury Board and promised to pay it back once Holborn settled its debt...
So...
What was the sale of a massive 15 acre chunk of public land in the heart of Vancouver and the resulting demoviction of hundreds of families that followed really all about then?
Was it a really big favour for a favoured $300K, plus, big donor?
Maybe.
However, I think I'll stick with my original hypothesis, which was formulated after the discovery of a small item buried in Cookie Dough Mike de Jong's budget update in the fall of 2012:
Now those suddenly negative numbers, which if you think about it kinda/sorta presaged the Culbert/Fumano rumination by almost seven years, got me thinking of the long con of the original budget bump that occurred with the sale of the land back in 2008.
And the conclusion I came to is that all those families and, as we now know for certain, all British Columbians, were screwed so that the BC Liberals could claim, yet again, that they were running a surplus in the run-up to the last of the GordCo, Inc. election victories the following spring.
Which was ten years ago.
My, but that 'Golden Era' sure does have a long tail, eh?
_________
The image at the top of the post is not real...Mr. Campbell most definitely did not campaign, or put up campaign signs, at the soon to be destroyed Little Mountain housing complex in the spring of 2009...We just wish he had.
.
5 comments:
Which gets directly to the point many of us have been trying to get across to the general public and journalistic “elite” hereabouts for some time.
Which is that there are several local “idiot bloggers” who should be viewed as the valuable resource they are. Not competition. Not “idiots ranting in their underpants”, as one puffed-up faux elite once publicly wailed. But a go-to source of information in the public interest.
Every time I drive by the mostly vacant site of the demolished Little Mountain family housing project I am reminded of the wonderful community that used to be there and what all those families lost. A shameful reminder of the previous provincial government.
you nailed it the first time all those years ago. Claims of a balanced budget were just that. Claims, and totally non-factual. Which anyone paying attention knew. Published pundits would say that voters were ok with all of this as they re-elected the corp. a couple times. Hopefully changes to election financing will help put an end to this return the favour type politics, at least on such a grand scale.
Thanks for keeping the light pointed at this stuff.
Did I read that correctly, they haven't paid for it yet? well if they haven't just expropriate it all and start building social housing like what was once there and be done with it.
My understanding is the company paid too much and weren't able to get the zoning they wanted to ensure their profits were going to be large enough. They were waiting for property values to go up even further. There is currently a downturn in land values, so when this land is going to be developed for foreign buyers is anyone's guess. Just expropriate and get on with life. The developers most likely believe they can leave it as is for the next 30 years, then develop and make a killing. if we expropriate now, we could have decent housing for people living and working in the city. We have already read, in case of an earthquake only those on duty as medical staff and first responders will be available. Turn it into something like False Creek South or Champlain Heights with a blend of market and co op housing. I'm not suggesting social housing, but rather affordable housing, because with the current housing prices, even families making a couple of hundred K a yr can't afford to purchase much in the city of Vancouver.
next time some one from the b.c. liberals starts flapping their gums, hand them a copy of this.
Little Mountain advocates hold 'Rich Coleman Vacant Lot' ceremony 10 years after land-sale announcement
A mock ceremony Saturday slammed the provincial government for its failure to replace social housing at Little Mountain in East Vancouver.
Nick Eagland
Updated: April 8, 2017
Chudnovsky said CALM felt the people of B.C. should never forget the vacant lot. The group wanted to honour Christy Clark’s government and Housing Minister Rich Coleman appropriately, he said.
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