Is the hipster zeitgeist shifting from Apple?
Could it be that the Apple fanboy-ism thing is starting to jump the shark? Does anybody want to bet that a year or so from now the cool hipsters will want Microsoft phones? My sense of the popular zeitgeist is that it is shifting in this way: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204083204577083042599679280.html http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/why-i-dont-want-an-iphone-any-more-50006257
More statistics on one bedroom apartments in North Vancouver
As I have mentioned before, I have a small tool running that, a few times a day, downloads all the ads for apartments and basement suites in North Vancouver. This has been running, with a few interruptions, since November 2008. I thought I would produce a quick summary of what the market for one bedroom apartments has looked like.
The attached chart has two squiggly lines. The top, red one shows the median monthly rent for all suites listed, averaged on a weekly basis, measured on the left-hand scale. You can see that advertised rents in November 2011 started out at about $1100 per month, and have gyrated around that figure since then.
The blue line at the bottom shows the number of advertisements per week. One can see a spike before the February 2010 Winter Olympics, but that on average, there's between 50-100 advertisements per week.
I have similar data for 2, 3, 4-bedroom apartments; if you're interested drop me a email and I'll post them too.
Only 7% of jobs in 100 major US cities are accessible by transit within 45 minutes
It may come as a surprise that, according to Brookings, only seven percent of jobs in the nation's largest metropolitan areas can be reached by residents in 45 minutes during the morning peak period (when transit service is the most intense). Among the 29 metropolitan areas with more than 2,000,000 population, the 45 minute job access average was 5.6 percent, ranging from 12.6 percent in Boston to 1.3 percent in Riverside-San Bernardino. The New York's metropolitan area's 45 minute job access figure was 9.8 percent (Figure 1).
I don't have broad experience with transit systems in US cities, but this statistic certainly rings true for me. The main problem seems to be that most transit systems are focused on the downtown core, when only 10% of urban area jobs are there.
I wonder what the similar statistic is for Canada's major urban areas?
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002251-transit-the-4-percent-solution?
Posted
from North Vancouver, Canada
City of Vancouver council expense visualization
Local Vancouver web guru Luke Closs has put together a great tool that visualizes Vancouver City Council expense data:
From: Luke Closs
Date: Mon, May 16, 2011 at 10:58 PM
Subject: [Vancouver-Data] Simple council expense visualizationHey gang, I wanted to learn some new technologies last week, so I built some
simple visualizations of the city council 2010 expense dataset: You can find it here: http://expense.recollect.net/
Date: Mon, May 16, 2011 at 10:58 PM
Subject: [Vancouver-Data] Simple council expense visualizationHey gang, I wanted to learn some new technologies last week, so I built some
simple visualizations of the city council 2010 expense dataset: You can find it here: http://expense.recollect.net/
City of North Vancouver opts out of Onni meeting
Council asks staff, Onni to reduce proposed density on Safeway site
The proposed development for the Safeway site at 13th and Lonsdale came under scrutiny Monday, with several City of North Vancouver councillors taking issue with Onni Group's proposal and their plan to embark on a series of town hall meetings.Low Level Road project to be discussed at May 11 planning commission meeting
Those who are confused and/or concerned about the Port of Metro Vancouver's Low Level Road Improvement Project may be interested to know that the project is on the agenda for the Advisory Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday May 11. I sit on the commission and am looking forward to the presentation, as there has been a lot of discussion in the community about and this is the first time the project has come before us.
Any questions you'd like asked? Let me know via email or a comment below.
Open House for 13th and Lonsdale (Safeway site) Development
Onni Development is holding an Open House on Tuesday May 17th regarding a proposed major development on the corner of 13th and Lonsdale.
The proposed development has a total of 500,000 square feet in three towers, nearly double the permitted density in the City's Official Community Plan.
CNV development map mention in North Shore Outlook
I had a discussion a few days ago with Sean Kolenko of the North Shore Outlook regarding the Civic Engagement Task Force and the development map I created. It's mentioned in this article in Wednesday's paper.
