Tag: ottawa

Housing and Homelessness

February 4, 2024

My local city Councilor jolted me with the following statement in his late January 2024 newsletter: “The issue that I want to focus on for this newsletter is Housing & Homelessness. If ever there was a time in recent memory when this issue was front and centre in the minds of pretty much everyone, this is it. Whether you’re homeless yourself, whether you can’t afford to buy a home, refinance your home, or rent an apartment, or whether you’re worried about challenges that will be faced by the next generation, our current crisis is affecting a majority of Ottawa residents”. Sixty-four percent of Ottawa households own a home! So, how could these issues affect the majority of residents? This statement did not resonate with me on several levels!

On one level, it is not front and center in my mind or my friends’ or neighbors’ minds. It is in the newspapers, on TV channels, and on the radio, but people I know do not discuss and are not interested in those subjects. It is infrequent if they talk about it, and when they do, they mention parts of downtown where people experiencing homelessness congregate. But people I know avoid downtown for lack of parking or the cost, especially since we find all our needs met in the suburbs. In our neighborhood, I have yet to see homeless people. I go out daily, know my neighborhood well, and have not seen homeless people to date. I believe it is a non-issue in my community.

When I talk with my friends, subjects of our discussions relate to the amazingly mild climate this year, the current popularity of hybrid cars, how they function, and whether we should get one, a hip replacement facing a neighbor, a trip by a friend visiting the Abu Simbel Temple in Egypt, and when Trudeau may resign. When nine men met to form a book club, we discussed the need for a men’s book club, the schools we attended, and how we should run our new-fangled book club; for example, should we have lunch before discussing books? Homelessness was never mentioned.

On another level, if my local city Councilor were serious about doing something about homelessness, he should have had some statistics on how many homeless are in our community. All I hear today is “evidence-based” policymaking. So, how about some numbers to substantiate the homelessness issue in general terms and as it exists in our community?

The other subject the Councilor mentions is housing and its affordability. These are current political challenges to satisfying the massive demand for housing created by the influx of newcomers to Canada. The various levels of government blame each other for the housing shortage. One reads that local governments take too long to approve applications for development proposals and charge hefty development fees. Both are disincentives for speedy housing construction. Recent federal government policy let too many students, refugees, and immigrants into Canada, which combined to create a high demand for housing that the construction industry has been unable to cope with. Beyond general curiosity, my friends and I ignore this subject; we all have a house, mortgage-free.

Unless the Councilor can identify homelessness as an issue in our community, I would suggest he focus on our local problems, such as poor road conditions, through traffic, and traffic congestion on surrounding major roads. Many streets are in an abysmal state with potholes. People traversing our community to avoid traffic tie-ups at major intersections endanger our walkers on the streets. The construction of sidewalks and additional streetlights would enhance safety. I believe road maintenance, safety, and traffic control are the real issues in our community. The Councilor could survey residents on what they perceive to be the problems in setting his priorities.

A Futile Assault on the Automobile

January 8, 2024

The Ottawa City Council approved a 4-storey, 18-unit residential building on a quarter-acre lot, in the middle of a residential area, without requiring parking. Yes, that is what they did, and I scratched my head, who is going to rent these units with no parking where there are no commercial facilities nearby? Oh yes, there is a bus, I think every half hour, that goes by the proposed development. But unless you are a hermit, happy to read books, and stay home, living without a car in this development will be a challenge.

What further upset me was that our local Councilor voted for the project and said in his newsletter that ‘we need more of this”. Does he not know that cars are part of the Canadian DNA? That cars are an integral part of our cities?

A key element of the official plan for the city is “densification” to permit population growth. Otherwise, the plan claims that “urban sprawl” will result. I guess, the planners never heard of “smart growth” or “planned growth” to alleviate the undesirable effects of urban sprawl (reduction of agricultural land, expensive infrastructure build, loss of wildlife, and pollution by increased car traffic).

A key justification for the approval was its location on a future “major transportation corridor”. The trouble is that the “corridor” has not been funded and the future may be decades away. These projects take decades to materialize while the construction of the building may take a year or two so the units would be rented without parking. Improved public transportation may be years away.

I cannot help thinking that the Council is also “social engineering” by encouraging the use of public transit.

But people have cars: statistics show that every 1000 people own 750 cars in Canada. And a building with 19 units will have at least 19 people living there or more likely, double, or triple that number. That translates into 14 or more cars. Since there is no parking on the major road fronting the proposed development, people renting there with cars will have to park on the side streets. I am sure neighbors will not like that and with the snowfall during the harsh Ottawa winters, it will create headaches for the snowplows. 

Canadians like their cars for the freedom they provide to go anywhere, anytime. Yes, mobility via the automobile does encourage urban sprawl. And yes, there are costs for this freedom (the public costs of infrastructure and private costs for fuel, insurance, etc.). However, Canadians decided that the costs are worth the freedom the car provides to get around (there are thirty million cars in Canada with a population of forty million).

As a result, the ubiquitous use of cars has left a huge imprint on the Canadian landscape. On a recent drive from Ottawa to Collingwood, we traveled on four-lane highways, the 401, and then north on the 400, crowded during the holiday travel season. We slowed down driving through Toronto, on six-lane highways in each direction. We saw a tremendous amount of pavement.

The number of highway construction projects indicates the huge public investments to improve the highway system. As well, governments attracted a fifteen-billion-dollar investment by Stellantis in Windsor and a similar investment by Volkswagen in St. Thomas, both in the EV battery business. Let’s face it, cars are not going away much as the Ottawa City Council would like to pretend.

The long drive allowed me to think that besides highways, the car industry includes innumerable gas stations and repair shops. And one cannot forget the outsized number of jobs the industry provides. Even with Amazon today, the retail industry thrives on huge shopping centers surrounded by mammoth parking lots for cars.

To my way of thinking, to assume that not providing parking will reduce the use of cars is illogical. Ottawa and other Canadian cities rely on cars for transportation. But the Ottawa City Council decided to not require any parking in a 19-unit residential building, rationalizing their decision on the availability of public transit—some system. OCTranspo, the Ottawa public transportation agency decided to cut service and increase fares given the financial losses suffered last year.

Are We Panicking About Housing?

November 27, 2023

Current headline news bombards us with titles like: “housing shortage”, “unaffordable housing”, and “people die on the streets for lack of housing”. These housing-related issues have materialized since 2015; we did not have these topics at that time.

However, all of these headlines spawn questions. For example, what is affordable housing? One metric the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC, the Canadian mortgage insurance company) uses is that no more than forty percent of after-tax family income should be used for housing. But does this metric apply today?

The median family income in Ottawa is just over $100,000 today, and the average house price is slightly over $600,000. The minimum downpayment is five percent for the first half million dollars, ten percent for the next half million, which translates into $35,000 for the average house in Ottawa. So, with this downpayment one needs a mortgage of $565,000 that would cost today circa $4.000 per month. The annual cost, $48,000, would therefore be over forty percent of the annual income of the average Ottawa family income. Which means housing is, in fact, unaffordable, unless one has a larger downpayment to reduce the monthly mortgage payment.

One way to look at housing issues is to identify factors creating demand for, and supply of, housing. Either decreasing demand, increasing the supply of housing, or doing both, would alleviate the current housing problem.

The major factors on the demand side are immigration and the entry of foreign students. Canada let in 430,000 immigrants and 550,000 foreign students in 2022. All of the housing demand can be attributed to these two classes of newcomers to Canada: there are 424 housing units per 1000 people in Canada, so the close to one million newcomers alone needed 400,000 units in 2022 when Canada builds only 250,000 units per annum (Census and CMHC statistics).

While the last two classes of newcomers are beneficial to Canada, they create a huge stress on the housing markets. They are beneficial in that Canadian fertility rates are below replacement rate, hence the rationale for increased immigration. Similarly, Canada is short of skilled construction workers, and therefore welcomes immigrants with such skills. And foreign students pay two or three times the university fees Canadian students pay and therefore contribute to the universities’ bottom line. But we must balance our priorities and perhaps providing housing is more important today than other objectives.

Most of the supply issues can be attributed to the shortage of skilled workers and the lack of land for development. Land is especially a major issue in some of our large cities. Vancouver is surrounded by water and mountains. Toronto’s expansion is limited on one side by water.

Densification has become the key word today to accommodate the increasing population. Densification requires rezoning by municipalities, that takes years. And vacant land development, where available, also takes years for approval.

Are there any solutions? On the demand side, the federal government could reduce the flow of immigration and the intake of foreign students to alleviate demand and pressure on housing. And municipalities could accelerate the approval process to increase the supply of housing.

The two levels of government, working in tandem, could alleviate the housing problem. However, both initiatives would also create negative consequences; Canada needs skilled people and universities favor foreign students. And an acceleration of municipal approvals may weaken environmental reviews and public engagement – both important review elements in the development process and expected by Canadians.  

The bottom line is that increased coordination between the different levels of government would go a long way to streamline the process of welcoming immigrants and foreign students entering Canada by making sure that housing is available.

The danger I see is that a panicky response today encouraging a hugely accelerated house construction program could result in an oversupply of housing in the next few years during which the federal government may change its priorities and reduce targets for immigration and the entry of foreign students.

Lessons Learned from Renting a Car in Corsica

October 9, 2023

Although tired from jetlag flying from Ottawa to Marseille the day before, we decided to take the early flight from Marseille to Figari airport in Corsica so that we could drive to our rental accommodation by the early afternoon.

I watched the airplane taxi to the airport from my window seat. Some people were already dragging their suitcases down from the bulkhead storage when the captain’s voice came on the loudspeaker telling the passengers to stay put until all the engines were shut down. We disembarked from the Air Corsica flight at the tail end of the small turboprop.

We hustled to the terminal walking across the tarmac – there were no mini-buses – to pick up our suitcases and rental car looking forward to the drive into the mountains where Jerome and Megan, our son-in-law and daughter planned to climb, hike, and canyon (the formal definition of canyoning is exploring a canyon via all techniques: including rappelling, sliding, hiking, etc.). They rented a huge house with space for us.

It was a short wait to pick up our suitcases and exit this small and informal terminal. The Hertz rent-a-car place was visible across the parking lot, and we walked down to their office. I entered the office with one client in front of me to be told to leave, they could have only one party in the office, the agent told me. I went outside, where another agent approached me and asked for my name. The agent searched and searched unsuccessfully until he discovered the reservation was made in Kathy’s name. So what? Well, the agent explained that she had to drive! That did not please Kathy at all! Corsica has a reputation for serpentine roads and blind curves.

The agent explained that I could add myself as a driver for 18 euros a day! That seemed outrageous, the euro has a fifty percent override on the Canadian dollar so we would be paying C27 per day for ten days, an amount equal to the total car rental cost. So, I asked, if could I cancel the original agreement and rent the car in my name. The agent said it would be excessive. So, Kathy decided to drive the serpentine roads of Corsica.

I used to plan our travel day by day in the old days and made all reservations for air, hotels, and cars. This time I decided to go on strike and have someone else do it for us based on a rough itinerary we provided. When it came to renting a car, we should have specified who would be the driver, but the travel agent never asked. For some reason, she identified Kathy as the driver. Lesson learned, always check out your final itinerary in detail.

The rental car agent handed the keys over and directed us to walk to the left in front of the office to find our car in a dirt lot. With no help where our car may be, we used the fob to see which headlights would come on to identify our car. The lights on an Alfa Romeo Tenali came on and the doors unlocked by the clicking noise I heard. An Alfa Romeo! Wow! That perked me up, I have never been in such a brand with its global reputation.

After putting our suitcases and backpacks into the car, I thought we were ready to roll but my daughter reminded me to check out the car for damages. I took numerous pictures of the bent back bumper to make sure that when we came back, they would not blame us for the damage and charge us. Then I thought why don’t we just go back to the office and ask for another car without damage? Well, back at the office the agent just said to take pictures and they would accept that as evidence. (We returned the car with no problem at all; the company had the damaged back bumper in their record).

Starting the car was another challenge; we could not find the starter button or a keyhole. A mechanic from the Hertz team came along to assist us. And never forget to ask where the filler cap opener is. We found there were two filler caps on this car: one for gas and another one for electrical charging – and we found a cable on the back seat – this was a hybrid.

The Alfa was appointed with plush seats and with the GPS speaking to us in French, Kathy enjoyed driving it, and I enjoyed watching the scenery. I am sure we could have switched the GPS to English, but we understood French and it was a good exercise listening to French driving in Corsica. It took us no time to figure out that “rond point” is a roundabout. Because of the serpentine road leading up into the mountains, the drive was slow, especially watching out for all the cyclists, motorcyclists, and car traffic.

It was unexpected that Kathy ended up driving for ten days in Corsica, but the Alfa was a bonus, it was a fun car to drive. I wanted to try it too, and as long as we did not get into an accident, I thought I would be safe, but decided not to take the chance. And a good thing, as it turned out, I carried an expired driver’s license! But that is another story.

To My Blook, Where the Writing Hobby Took Me

June 11, 2023

You may ask what is a blook? Well, the word is a combination of the words blog and book. And a blook is a book consisting of blogs. It is a new word, first coined in 2003 by Jeff Jarvis, a well-known journalist from New York. Since then, several blooks have been published and the “Blooker” prize was established in 2006, fashioned from the “Booker” prize. Julia and Julie, by Julie Powell, was awarded the first Blooker prize in 2006; it is a cookbook based on blogs preparing the recipes of Julia Childs (a film by the same name was made in 2009).

I was intrigued by the concept of a blook and was inspired to compile my own do one since I have been blogging for a few years. The pandemic was the trigger for the start of my blogging. When avoiding people, and staying home had become not only desirable but periodically mandatory, when my gym and community center where I played bridge closed, what was I to do at home? I was retired with plenty of time on my hands. Expressing personal opinions and describing my activities in writing seemed like a good idea to keep me busy.

But my blogging begs another question: “What experience did I have in writing”? This is a relevant question since I had never worked as a professional writer; my writing was limited to technical and policy papers. After I retired, I did publish two books, a memoir, and a travel book.

I can anticipate your next question: “What made me write these books”? And the trigger to start writing my memoir was a friend who challenged me to write it because she said that my children do not know who I am. And she was right: I was a Hungarian refugee/immigrant to Canada in 1956, married a Welsh girl, spoke English at home, and never discussed much of my history with the family.

All of our children attended university, married, and settled in the US, limiting opportunities to discuss my early background. When my friend challenged me to write my memoir, I had to agree that she was right, and I got motivated and even excited, to write my memoir, primarily for my children and grandchildren.

To prepare myself for writing my first book, the memoir, I enrolled in the online university Coursera. I took several of their writing courses. The Coursera Zoom classes include lectures led by Wesleyan University professors and writing assignments reviewed by fellow students. I found it interesting reviewing others’ work, some people I found to be excellent writers, while others were novices. I thought I was somewhere between the two camps.

And I enjoyed receiving comments on my work, I learned much from these comments: one reviewer rebuked me for sloppy writing when I said I was at Kennedy Airport in New York City in 1957. The reviewer criticized me for my poor memory or for not having done the research. The correct name at that time was “Idlewild” airport. It is important to check your facts, especially when you write about events sixty years ago. Overall, I found the courses very helpful in practicing my writing skills.

To further my writing knowledge, I also signed up for writing blogs such as The Write Practice and took free Zoom lectures on how to do a memoir by Marion Roach Smith. In addition to reading “How to do memoir” books, I also read many memoirs. My favorite was “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah, written with humor, and sensitivity about growing up in South Africa having a white father and a black mother. 

After a year’s work, I published my memoirs on Kindle Publishing and sent copies to all family members, awaiting their response. Some thought it was interesting and commented, “I never knew this” while one granddaughter found parts of it boring. At any rate, the family got to know me a little bit better.

Buoyed by having a book published, I was motivated to embark on another one, this time on our travels in Southeast Asia. As before, I read travel books such as the annual Best American Travel Writing series and took some Zoom courses as well on how to write about travel. My favorite travel authors were Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson.

I learned a few key lessons from the courses I have taken and the experience I have accumulated writing my two books: write about subjects that you know, express your personal opinions and feelings, and “show and not tell”.

The first one seems obvious, but it is interesting how easily one can get involved in matters unfamiliar to you, only to start looking up the internet for information. Although that avenue is useful and available to everyone, it is mostly informational. I found people are much more interested in your personal experiences and opinions. For example, a hotel in Barbados might tout its beauty on the oceanfront while someone who has been there may point out that the furniture is old and decrepit.

Before I started studying the fine art of writing my writing had reflected my positive, non-critical attitude.  But I soon realized that, in the writing of others, my interest was drawn more to their personal reflections and observations rather than my descriptive, non-critical approach.

And “show and not tell’ advises you not to use general statements like “it was a beautiful sky’ which is a “tell”, but rather “show” it in terms of its color, shading, cloud formation, and your reaction to it and let the reader interpret your description.

Having improved my writing skills and enjoying writing, I wondered, “What is next?” Another book was not of interest to me, and the pandemic had shut us down from travel and socializing. But I was still interested in writing, and I had the time to carry on with writing short pieces on select subjects where I express my thoughts and opinions.  

And so, I started writing; I wrote blogs about the pandemic, about the Ukrainian war, and about Canadian and Ottawa issues and controversies. The number of blogs I have written has grown and I thought that I should try to weave them together into a book format, the idea behind a blook. Look for my Kindle blook by the end of the year!