This is The City to Beat on Housing Reform
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2024
- “Neighbours over NIMBYs” - that’s a sticker we saw on the back of a sign in Edmonton, Alberta, and it gives a hint as to some of the attitudes that make this maybe the most forward-thinking city for housing reform in North America.
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References:
Two homes to 16-unit townhouse complex: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont... (also: engaged.edmonton.ca/t5mconnec...)
Church development: rightathomehousing.com/turnin...
Skinny homes legalized in 2013: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...
Skinny homes approvals: www.edmonton.ca/public-files/...
Edmonton eliminated parking mandates: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...
Canadian Home Builders’ Association municipal rankings: www.chba.ca/municipal-benchma...
Report on housing from Canada’s federal housing authority: assets.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/sf/pro...
Edmonton mayor on homelessness support: / edmonton-city-council-...
California mountain lion city: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...
Mayor of Windsor, Ontario: / 1752843859661295872
Mayor named to housing team: windsorstar.com/news/local-ne...
Edmonton is in the running for the Strongest Town contest. If you'd like to consider the options and vote, round 1 is open until Thursday, March 7th: strongesttown.com
How can we modify, reform the system??
Presently It's an awful model for the future...
Edmonton is terrible. City is bankrupt from these silly policies, and the administration and politicians are fleeing because of their theft and mismanagement.. The destruction of the parking mandate destroyed the city, just developers bribing councilors to not supply parking. City streets are now packed with parked cars of tenants that cannot park near their houses. Council is made up of a bunch of people from a bike group that decided to run for office and they started putting 500lbs concrete planter pots on parking spots to prevent people from parking there and spending millions to put chairs and bike racks on parking spots. We now see 200 square foot penthouse suites for families. Try putting a planter pot or bench on city councilors parking spots and see how that goes.
“This housing development helps no one… especially not the 3 extra families who can be housed on this plot of land rather than just the 1.” - NIMBY
Nimbys also seem to think that their house was built by fairies and unicorns and definitely not a *whispers* developer. 😮
"this development isn't needed, _I_ already have a home!"
It's not that, It's literally a monopoly.
Why have enough supply when you can artificially choke supply so that you can have higher demand and higher prices.
The definition of a monopoly
You should not be allowed to control someone else's land. You have land rights but you shouldn't have the right to control everyone else's.
NIMBY's often pair this with paternalistic concern trolling about how the new higher density houses are so bad that the people who choose freely to move into them will be suffering just as much as everyone else, and that nobody should have to have the indignity of living in anything less than a fully detached single family home with parking for 2 cars.
@@krombopulos_michaelLiterally happened here a few weeks ago. An 100% affordable housing building finally broke ground and is quickly being built in a transit rich area of my city. There's no parking in the unit and people were commenting that it's going to clog up the parking in the area and how can people who need cars live there... as if people are being forced to live there... They rather lose dozens of units for parking which is so ridiculous given how desperately we need the housing here.
I’m seriously blown away by how many people have the attitude that building denser housing is somehow only beneficial for the developer
Exactly!! So many people have the mindset that condos or townhouses = luxury always. Whereas usually every unit in that complex will be cheaper than the single family home they replace!
i think a big problem is that co-ops aren't normal, here in sweden what is effectively co-op apartments (though not called such) are extremely common and thus when people hear about new apartment buildings being constructed that's just more opportunity to own an apartment!
Imagine if that attitude existed before these cities even existed. There would be no human civilization
I'm not really convinced this is a true belief. When I listen to NIMBYs present, I often think they're trying to tailor their arguments to reach outside their bubble. And "but rich people profit" is a way of reaching left-leaning politicians, the mirror image of how I use market-based language to argue against parking minimums. (I truly believe there shouldn't be parking minimums, I just don't think "the market knows best" is the reason why.)
It's not like they somehow have a different opinion when it's non-profit supportive housing.
@@swedneck The terminology might be different but it's quite common to own apartments in Canada too, but they're called condos (condominiums).
Local here. This city kicks ass. You didn’t even mention the huge investment into bike infrastructure that’s under way right now - at some point in the future I anticipate being able to do most of my commute with my bike. I truly appreciate how open minded and aggressive our council is when it comes to reforming building codes.
To clarify, the City committed $100 Million over 4 years, which works out to $25 per citizen per year. For reference, the Netherlands has spent about $48 per citizen on cycling infrastructure every year for decades.
Source: Factsheet Upgrade fietsinfrastructuur - Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure
To clarify my clarification: Edmonton has made some incredibly powerful changes in policy within a short time, and it's now important that they hold this new direction. So for example after 4 years, they need to invest another $100 Million.
@@OntarioTrafficMan Edmonton ain't getting fancy underground bicycle parking anytime soon, I don't get your point? sure netherlands is the best country in the world blah blah blah
It sure they are so related.
The bike lanes seem to only exist in wealthy progressive neighborhoods. And much of the lanes go under-utilized.
My wife and I lived in Edmonton for a few years. Moved back home to be closer to family which really helps with raising our young ones. However, we take about Edmonton a lot and miss it. Maybe we'll move back one day. We have talked about doing so just so our kids might live in an area they can actually afford a home.
Having positive examples is so vital to avoid doomerism. Thank you for this!
I think the research and examples were always there. It's dealing with people that always bring the nihilism.
Not just avoiding doomerism, but informs young people of a viable ALTERNATIVE to these high priced cities like Vancouver. If you have no good reason to be in Vancouver, the best negotiating tactic is to walk away (literally).
All of these "positive examples" look like every other high density crapshack I've ever lived in. Put a tiny deck on it and pretend like someone will use it. No lawns for kids. Block the sun. No one actually knows the neighbors. You have access to transit but your chance of depression goes up 1000%. My advice is to leave the city, not hope that making more ugly buildings for even more people will improve things.
If I'm wrong - name at least 10 of your neighbors.... right.
@@RealityGutPunch Many people don't know their neighbors, even in suburbs. If cities are so terrible why is NY expensive and 1000s of people spend a fortune to vacation in places like Europe? Cities are where there's a lot of different jobs, shops, and recreation.
If apartments were terrible why are the top floors more expensive?
Some people would rather have a affordable apartment home then be homeless.
Long commutes are stressful. Some people like walkable places with short commutes.
I'm not saying cities can't improve. Like more lawns and greenery.
Some people don't want big lawns and think it's a waste of space.
Kids also need walkable places so they can get out and go places and to third places on their own without being too dependent on parents to ferry them. Many parents can't do that.
There were comments on About Here who said they were devastated their parents shamed them to quit their extracurricular activities cause their parents couldn't ferry them.
Also, how can kids make a better future for themselves if they can't do their activities?
Letting people do their activities keeps them out of trouble too.
There's kids who are able to take the train alone in Japan.
There was a comment from a European on Not Just Bikes who said he/she felt safer in crowds, like in Europe, then the empty streets in America. The people and walkable centric design, versus car centric design, is what invites crowds.
There was a comment on Not Just Bikes of a teen girl who said she was stuck in the suburbs. Her single mom is blind and they're poor. They can't afford a car, uber, or driving lessons. There isn't really transit, walkability, or bike lanes. She said she couldn't travel to get a job even if she wanted to.
People have to remember that when you force people to depend on needless and expensive things like a car, gas, car maintenance, and car insurance then that will exclude many people like poor people or people unable to drive.
Then some people just dictate at homeless people when people made it needlessly hard for poor people.
Watch Not Just Bikes and Yet Another Urbanist.
In Calgary there's a bunch of NIMBYs upset about a condo tower that's affordable housing for blind people. The reason it's going to "block the view from a dog park" the park is one that few people know exists, the view the tall building will interfere with? Downtown. So a tall building will interfere with the view of tall buildings, and people think that's more important than affordable housing for the blind
Ironic to protest a building for the blind saying it'll block their *view*
Selfish assholes lmao
THATS their complaint? Yeah, so sorry you cant SEE downtown
I've been hovering over my keyboard, at a complete loss for words, for five minutes.
If I had a dog, I'd be too busy paying attention to my dog while at a dog park than worrying about my view of tall buildings being blocked by another tall building. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have pets.
The irony...people complaining about a view of a dog park when it's housing for the blind...
@@baddriversofcolga no it's the view from the dog park, the park itself is just a tiny plot of land on a steep hill that's really hard to get to. Though it's really close to a train stop, it's unsuitable to build a house on let alone a tower. The complaint is that a plot of land between that dog park and downtown is getting a tower, oh no the view from a hard to access park that only a handful use is going to change
50 cars for 42 people is insane. I'm glad they stop requiring parking minimums
Where would your guests park? Everyone I know does have their own vehicle
@@michah7214 not having a parking minimum doesn't mean there is no parking at all. It just means the people developing the site can choose how much parking they think is required for its use. This means funds and space can be used much more efficiently.
@@Jonago. That means investors can put up buildings cheaper and leave the mess for the community to clean up.
@@michah7214 not having parking minimums also doesn't mean there are no rules on parking. Local governments still have rules on it, just in a different shape than parking minimums
@@Jonago. Yeah the local governments have parking minimums.
If Edmonton, where -30°C days in winter is not unheard of, can encourage people to get out of their cars, there is absolutely no excuse for any other municipality to not go in the same direction. "There's no bad weather, just bad preparation."
I have lived in Edmonton for a decade.
The thing I love about this city is that I can drive anywhere in 20 minutes. I call it the 20 minute city.
The freeway that circles the city just had some massive bridge widening.
East-West transcanada Yellowhead highway that runs through the northern half of Edmonton is removing all their stop lights and becoming a freeway.
The East-West white mud highway that runs through the southern half is going through major expansion.
The Terwigiglar is almost completed it’s free way conversion.
And I love this about Edmonton. Rush hour is recently getting bad, but as a whole much better than any other city in Canada.
Even Saskatoon is getting some (for us) rapid transit. More buses for the average worker, instead of just broke students. 😅
@@Niko-iv4ch This is a really good mention for both Edmonton and Calgary - our traffic congestion is some of the best in the world. We have very overbuild road systems with space that could be very easily taken by bus priority, cycle tracks, or even pedestrian plazas without making driving any more difficult.
I hope that stroad conversion is put on the agenda in Alberta soon. We have enough roads to move people long distances, it's time to take the streets back for the people.
All of you are both, I lived in e town all my life, yall obviously don't take ETS or work outside, pure delusion
Some people don't want to go anywhere without a vehicle. I'm one of them
As an edmontonian this had made me proud for the last year, i just hope we can dig ourselves out of the realy big hole we dug, outer edmonton is all stroads and car dependent suburbia and i have no idea how they will rehabilitate that
I general I think desuburbification starts with permitting mixed use zoning, allowing businesses to open in neighbourhoods and shit
large, underutilized roads are the easiest to convert to multimodal infrastructure, both in terms of construction and politically. Wide arterials with large sidewalks and bike lanes are a regular feature of new high density suburbs around the world.
@@FullLengthInterstates The process is slow but Edmonton has some pretty great plans, too: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/here-s-why-edmonton-s-132nd-avenue-renewal-project-is-garnering-attention-1.6990066
@@OhTheUrbanity The nearby bedroom city of Fort Saskatchewan is also at the tail end of developing a new Land Use Bylaw. It won't be as ambitious as Edmonton's, but they're talking a lot about diverse housing types, mixed-use areas, walkability, and moving away from Euclidean zoning (that last one is from an RFP they put out for a consultant on this). I'm really hoping that it and other regional communities will follow Edmonton's lead!
Large shopping centers, strip malls and big box businesses with huge parking lots are quite easily convertible to vibrant main streets with shops, public markets, and mixed uses.
What isn’t mentioned in this is the massive transit expansions that have been happening, and the huge investment in bike infrastructure. Proud of my city.
Don’t forget the awesome investment in the Yellowhead and Whitemud. And the bridge widening on Henday. Or Tereigiglar being converted to an expressway.
The problem is our transit is garbage, the new LRT is dangerous they didn't put crossing arms in intersections and the LRT/transit is dangerous in general.
Your point in the video about Edmonton succeeding because it's a progressive city in a conservative province mirrors Austin's situation in the US. I don't think it's a coincidence that Austin has approved twice as many building permits per capita as the next best major city in the United States, and we're already seeing rents comes down as a result.
So, a city that wants to approve more housing but isn’t stifled by state/provincial regulations?
Edmonton and Austin are definitely twins of each other in terms of the geopolitical spaces they occupy and their role as the province/state capital and college town.... Even their tallest buildings are twins of each other... Stantec Tower and 6th & Guadalupe are almost mirror-glass twins of each other...
Glad to hear that about Austin!
Austin has had some of the worst rent and housing prices in Texas. Probably not the best example.
Austin is an unaffordable mess. Rents are coming down as a result of macroeconomic factors hitting the nation in 2024, not their housing policies. Bad example.@@stickynorth
The NIMBYs in my area are against any type of increased density and rapid transit because they are apparently bad for the environment. Yet they are okay with farmland and forests being torn down for single family subdivisions.
they make no sense. sprawl kills farmland and with climate change farmland is becoming more and more valuable into the future.
Their only actual stance is wanting their own property value to rise
@@SigFigNewton considering thats now the only way for anyone not working in the banking sector to have an investment that grows in value in Canada at a rate equal or better than inflation? Makes sense.
@@avroarchitect1793 it’s highly counterproductive.
If housing costs dropped, spending at local small businesses increase.
There ain’t much worse for a city’s economy than NIMBYs
@@SigFigNewton remember that most people have their entire retirement savings in the value of their homes. Not the best idea but thats how it is in Canada. Their homes are their pension/ pension savings. We need to fix the other problems if we want to really stop this.
I live in the SF Bay Area in California and develop real estate. Listening to this was so refreshing and enraging at the same time… I spent 7 years of one infill project trying to split a lot. 7 years and waiting for the meetings with old people next door trying to stop my lot from becoming the density of all the surrounding ones… 7 years of holding costs amounting to $80,000… 7 years and $50,000 fee to draw a line down the middle of my lot
A couple months ago a Berkeley doctor passed around flyers objecting to a 5 story building on Solano... in _Albany_. Insane.
I do think that videos on cities that are doing it well are better than videos on cities that are doing things wrong. It gives us a lot more hope that we can make some changes and what we should aim for.
100% - there’s a lot more to learn
i am currently in Calgary and can't wait to get back to Edmonton. Edmonton is a hidden gem 💎 and will really shine over the next 5 to 15 years ✨️
I moved from Edmonton to Calgary years ago. Oh boy do I wish Calgarians are more open to this type of change. The endless urban sprawl into farmland and all the resistance to rezoning is maddening.
@@mhawang8204 It's probably no surprise to you then that the Edmonton CMA passed Calgary CMA in GDP/capita in 2015, and has been leading in population growth almost every year since 2012.
@@MultiCappie Also Edmonton will likely see between 2,000,000 and 2,500,000 in the metro area by 2050 !! A staggering amount of potential growth !
When I went to Edmonton a couple of years ago, my big takeaway was how much sprawl there was, and the relative lack of density. I'm glad to hear they're trying to change that.
thankfully Edmonton is a very progressive city despite being in the most conservative province. the big zoning law revamp that came into effect on Jan 1st 2024 is a game changer. along with the removal of parking minimums in 2020. the future is bright for Edmonton, as long as we can keep the provincial government out of the city's business.
Change? We are expanded highways and building new ones too.
I call Edmonton the 20 minutes city, cause I can drive anywhere in the city within 20 minutes.
yeah, who wants greenery? trees, lawns, flowers are a waste of space.
@@emmapeel8163 Lawns are bad for the environment. We're in yet another drought year. If the city can make public transit and biking work for more residents, some people don't even need cars. Reduce parking lots and build more community gardens.
So nice to see videos like this on Canadian cities, not just American! As a Halifax NS resident, I'm excited to see how the new zoning laws which just passed here will play out, the city just approved denser housing to encourage more "missing-middle" housing. I think the city will see a lot of change in the next few years, hopefully away from the sprawl that was so common for a while. Thanks for the great videos!
I am also a Haligonian and I am cautiously optimistic. I hope we can densify and promote walkable neighborhoods. Everytime I see an article trying to promote density/walkability/bike infrastructure in Halifax the “we are not Europe and our city is different! Biking is stupid” comments fill the comment sections. Some people have no desire to try to be better and I worry it is going to keep Halifax the sprawling outward
@@LoganT101I feel like there will always be resistance to change no matter what politicians decide haha. I know though, people have such strong opinions about bike lanes and housing (especially people on Facebook) but I think overall it’s a vocal minority who are against these positive changes !
@@LoganT101 Well, Halifax is a lot more European in its current state than Edmonton ever has been, and we're managing to affect change, despite all manner of joyless husks emerging to say similar things when we started.
Alberta has placed tough density zoning laws on municipalities for over a decade.
As well, in 2015, just before the oil crash, the city had a lot of subdivision with construction just beginning. They thought the population would be much higher than it is today.
I have moved into a new edmonton
Subdivision that has been under construction for 9 years, and still has several years to go before being completed.
@@LoganT101I lived in Halifax for 3 years, and got my bike stolen every one of those years I lived there. I took the bus when I didn't want to be covered in slush and mud all day at work, and it was miserable. People act like there's no reason not to bike in Canada, and I guarantee I biked more of my life to work than all of them. Halifax weather is awful for biking 7 months of the year, and having to leave for work nearly an hour early so you could change out of your rain gear only to be sweaty and miserable all day sucks.
I love biking, and I can bike hundreds of kilometers a day. I hate doing it in cities, especially in Canada. There's a reason new bike lanes are hardly used. We don't live in Europe.
Edmontonian here. We still have a lot of problems. As mentioned, our urban sprawl is really bad, snow clearing and transit aren't great. There has been a lot of progress but we're also surrounded by more or less tax havens like Sherwood Park and St. Albert so the city can only do so much.
Yeah, their hands are pretty much tied: once Edmonton starts tightening some policies and increasing taxes, people will increasingly go to Sherwood Park and St Albert further depriving Edmonton of money while continuing to use its infrastructure. This does not feel right.
This is true of business taxes, but residential taxes are quite competitive. Lower in Edmonton than St. Albert or Leduc. Sherwood Park is lower, but that's because of the leg up they get by being a "hamlet." It's not clear to me if there's some point at which hamlet status may be unsustainable and they'd be forced to incorporate, but it would solve a lot of problems for the region.
True but we're doing pretty well. Expanding the LRT...arc card harmonization with surrounding transit authorities...slow for sure but moving in the right direction.
@@KNosk826 we have a huge fight on our hands to convince people that transit is safe. I’m probably one of the rare Edmontonians that’s comfortable sitting next to someone homeless.
@@orthranus3352 agreed.
0:32 what really stands out to me is that the building(s) doesn't even dwarf the other homes, if you count it as two buildings, then the buildings is just slightly bigger than the home next to it. Yeah the look of the building is starkly different than the other homes in the area, which I wish was taking more into consideration, however all the other buildings look like they are rather old and a bit dated, so maybe if they got upgraded/redone today or built today the visual difference wouldn't be so big.
They even elegantly solved the parking issue by keeping the on street parking but then squeezing a just big enough to park your car parking lot in the back.
Either way it's always better than a McMansion
@@Cragdognamedbear Very true.
@@Arjay404concur!
But over time the neighbourhood will transform and update to something similar. It is a process. If the old place got torn down and replaced with a new single family house people would complain about its style as well
People's OCD isn't a reason to choke housing.
Ottawa is starting our zoning reform process, and Edmonton is a great example of what can be achieved.
I hope we can meet or exceed what they accomplished (ideally 4 stories as of right- as recommended by the housing affordability report)
Quebec city allows up to 4 stories in the vast majority of its territory since... basically forever. And thus has some of the lowest rents in Canada for a 100,000+ pop city.
@@noseboop4354 that’s awesome, yeah Quebec City and Montreal have pretty great housing elasticity- and allowing for as of right housing is one of the main factors.
And allowing single-stair buildings to at least that height, and ideally 6 stories would be a big help too.
I live in Edmonton and I have been seeing the positive things our city has been doing and have since taken an interest in urbanism. I've been waiting for a channel in this space to take a look at Edmonton. What's more impressive is how there are things outside of housing that are being addressed (active and public transportation) and the culmination of all these things can be represented by the Blatchford development which will feature Edmonton's first (and hopefully not last) transit mall. There's a long way to go but the innovation needed to solve the sprawl is present (if only we could hit the reset button on St. Albert and Sherwood park).
Edmonton is also very young and there seems to be lots of desire for Gen Z's such as myself to live car free and I see a future in Edmonton where that is possible.
But of course there are so many negative reactions to many of these things like the 15 minute city conspiracy theorists (which is probably a very radical example). Most people, especially Gen X's, seem to complain about things because they don't like change. But at the end of the day they will just go with it and say nothing if it succeeds. Therefore the biggest takeaway from Edmonton is a. Elect the right people and b. Let the professionals plan and ignore the nimbys.
Remember all this when you think of having kids, or later you're in your condo elevator with your groceries and your kids and you had to go through 5 doors and 3 different locking mechanisms to get to your pantry... and then you realize you don't even have room to grow a head of lettuce and your "neighbors" are methheads because transit has made your condo complex more accessible to them.
This is all based on my experience and everyone I've ever known who has lived in high density. It's not even good when you're single, and hell for kids. MacMansions aren't the answer either, but the idea that some city planner is even remotely capable of creating a human friendly space is laughable. Every one of them suck.
@RealityGutPunch I actually agree with most of what you say. If you could believe it, there actually exists something in the middle of those things... mid-density: where everybody has their own front door, but not everyone has a garage. Where everybody can get to the store, school or work without needing to own a car. You say planners can't create human friendly spaces, but the planners of the past are the ones who have made it this way to begin with through euclidian zoning laws. A funcitonal city doesn't have just high-rise and low-rise, but offers a spectrum of density. This lets the market work more efficiently so everyone has access to the sizes and forms they demand.
Way to go Edmonton! Hopefully, the rest of the major cities learn from this.
Well Calgary at least will be automatically following Edmonton...
We are also building and expanding are highways. In 2014, the city thought it would half more million people in the city by now.
The Trudeau econony slowed down growth, but the expasinist plans for thr city were alrady green lighted.
I live in a new edmonton subdivision, and like many of oodles of new subdivisions in Edmonton, it still isnt completed after 10 years.
@@Niko-iv4chTroll alert. Back to the Soviet Union with you, Potemkinbum.
Same here and there is one county in California named Solano County, CA (Halfway from Sacramento and San Francisco) that currently has a debate over forming a new city. It has concerns ranging from environmental, Civil Rights and National Security in this debate.
Excellent work done by Edmonton. Truly.
I am honestly pretty proud to live in this city. It is stroad infested to be sure, and the public transit I would call barely adequate, but council is certainly trying and not just paying lip service to the idea of improvement. There are several big LRT projects on the go, one recently completed, and a lot of bike lane construction in addition to all the changes to housing and zoning mentioned in the video.
One big one just completed, but two smaller but still important ones as well: NAIT/Blatchford and New Stadium Station.
With getting rid of parking minimums you do ensure that the market is moderating parking.
Surely not. Developers will just externalize the cost of parking to the public via street parking. Simple as that.
Removing parking mandates is not enough. One would need to remove street parking in the neighborhood and enforce that. I heard that Tokyo is doing a pretty good job on privatizing the cost of parking
@@foobar9220 Yeah it's also important that the Cities bring market forces into their own parking rates at the same time, at least to the degree that it's possible.
From my research on the Edmonton plan, it looks like they're moving towards a green belt like solution. They are aiming to keep all growth within city limits to limit sprawl. This is honestly cool as hell, as a greenbelt in the prairies is almost always an impossible sell. Some other things that are interesting is that they are adopting very similar nodes and corridors planning like Vancouver. Think of the shopping streets which connect areas that are then surrounded by housing.
This is kind of misleading, and quite honestly a joke as far as I'm concerned. Within a couple years of annexing enough land for decades of expanding sprawl, we created a "no more annexations" policy. By the time it's a meaningful constraint, everyone involved in this decision will be retired (or dead) and changing it will be easy because it doesn't have the same emotional weight a green belt attracts.
Yes! Containing sprawl has been a huge focus for a long time.
I was in Edmonton this past week and was blown away seeing all the examples discussed in this video. The changes in zoning are really making a difference. Unfortunately, it is not the same in Calgary. Calgary is looking at making some changes similar to Edmonton’s and the latest group speak against? Bizarrely, the real estate association!
11:27 is one of the most depressing things i've heard. Such a disgrace that people like that get appointed to positions like that
Windsor resident here. You can't even imagine how pathetic and backwards our city is. Our mayor is permanently stuck to the rear end of Doug Ford and company. I wish we could impeach him for corruption, and that he immediately be removed from the committee on affordable housing. Want to blow your mind even further? Read about the plan to demolish and shrink the three regional hospitals in favour of building a new mega-hospital in the middle of a bean field on the outer limits of the city, despite having vacant land in the center, surrounded by major roads, bus routes and existing services.
My neighbourhood in Edmonton!!! Many NIMBYs hate it, but who cares what they think - we need homes!
❤
Those aren't homes, but do enjoy the cricket protein.
Anti Nimby's are just the opposite side of the coin. Expecting affordable housing in desirable areas, at the cost of Nimby's
We don't need homes, we need affordable homes. Demolishing a single family home and deforesting the neighborhood only to replace it with an infill monolith that has a higher per-unit price tag doesn't help anyone. The primary expense is land prices, and increasing density skyrockets the price of land. The city needs to expand in a healthy way with new suburbs built around new cores that aren't dependent on lengthly commutes to the physical center of the city.
@@TurnRiverthe problem of the nimbys they hate homeless and traffc but dont like to build affordable housing and public transportation. They all idiots.
Greetings from Edmonton! The city has also proposed a plan to reduce sprawl by mandating that existing developments need to be finished before new developments can get started. There was also talk about demanding infill development before more suburban sprawl at the edge of town, as yeah the transportation times can already get pretty high if you're having to drive across town. I'm hoping to see more density, the implementation of the 15 minute city plan, and WAY more transit and walking / cycle paths all over the place. Gotta end car dependency one of these days!
The real trick will be building neighbourhoods robust enough with things close enough that people will be comfortable actually going outside and maybe walking a few minutes to the local coffee shop or whatever, even when it is -40 out.
Edmonton also has the largest urban park system in all of North America!
Excellent video I am glad you were here and got a great pulse on the city, its successes and challenges. I am really excited for the zoning changes and what new ideas can be built to further density in our fantastic old neighborhoods. 2024 will be the stress test. Despite the challenges of an actively hostile provincial government I think we can be the underdog that offers a good quality of life to anyone who wants to give a smaller center a shot. Regardless, I echo the call for every city to push their own reforms, if we can do it in oil and sprawl centric Edmonton, just imagine the impacts other cities can make, we all deserve better.
Affordable family housing built by that church is a great thing. A lot of YIMBYs are only focused on single workers, or couples without children. Large families need urbanism and affordable homes as well.
I moved back to Edmonton after 15 years in Vancouver. I had a great career that paid really well and a big social circle, the housing crunch was just too much. The NIMBY attitude is just too strong in van, even working class people are convinced building more housing is somehow bad.
I think your video nailed it! build baby build! I'm very excited for all the new housing forms being built in Edmonton, and I'm hoping we can welcome a huge number of newcomers.
You forgot to mention our new train!
the criticism that this is only for developer profits is so funny, like if I buy a condo to live in it I'm only doing it to give money to developers. I don't have to do it, I just choose to
and presumably you are going to build equity in your house over time and if there are more units for less $ then you can get into the market more affordably. Plus you get the normal benefits of having a place to live, which everyone needs lol
people really genuinely think for 100% real that people don't live in new build condos or blocks. they actually seriously will say that it's all only investment vehicles. people who move in just never enter the equation. it's fascinating
It's such a silly argument. They're really arguing that people should provide their labor for free... I'm sure they themselves would gladly work for free...
I think those are the same people who tell me renting is "throwing my money away" or "paying my landlord's mortgage." I used to own a house and hated it... I like to up and move and I felt tied down and worried something would happen to my house that I'd have to fix/pay for. Anyway, I always respond that I'm paying to have a fairly maintenance-free roof over my head. One I can up and walk away from at the end of the lease or just pay to get out of early when I decide it's time to move on.
can you make a video on this idea that an apartment is a "box" and somehow a house isn't, and that apartments give no privacy (despite houses literally being visible inside from the sidewalk), and that in apartments you deal with noisy neighbours (only happens in older apartments, and we can't build new, better ones because of zoning)
Apparently the "noisy" in purpose built rental apartments is related to building codes?
I've never lived in a rental apartment building built after the 70s (not surprising, there aren't many).
But I wonder if those condos that the developers claiming to be "luxury" with the "high end" visible finishes have chosen to put noise insulation in and around unit doors so we don't have to listen to neighbour's conversations. Or adequate sound proofing between walls so I can't hear my neighbour in the next unit snoring. Adequate noise insulation between floors, and around pipes that are properly secured so I'm not hearing my neighbours toilets flush...
These buildings don't need to be noisy. Someone just needs to decide that they can market the units as having excellent, far above code, sound insulation, as a selling point instead of "stainless appliances".
Finally a spotlight on Edmonton, I was wondering whether the ongoing changes to garden suites, infill and row houses, zoning since the early 2000s wasn't all that unique. Seems it may be, thanks for posting.
I think since gentrification was late to the city, the old neighborhoods weren’t blocked by wealthy squeaky wheels.
It seems like Edmonton is quite similar to a city like Houston or Austin: a bit too sprawling and car-centric, but very genuinely committed to attracting new residents from the coasts by building a lot of new development.
Yes, and the city is really committing to transit investment with a ton under construction, set to double the length of our LRT network by 2030 compared to 10 years prior. Especially remarkable given that first half of the network took over 30 years to build out.
Austin has about a million more people than Edmonton. Houston has around 5x the population of Edmonton. The light rail in Edmonton is also lot more extensive than Austin or Houston.
The answer is it is doing all the above.
Not just LRT, but expanding the lanes on the Freeways, and converting busy roads to highways to boot.
The issue that differs from most cities in. Roth America, is you can park your ugly car in the street and leave it for 72 hours in almost every street in Edmonton.
It annoys me a lot that my neighbours won’t use their own driveways, but clog up the street instead.
Fantastic!
Edmonton is also making a lot of expansions to mass transit, with a new line LRT recently opening, 2 extensions under construction and a lot of additional extensions approved (plus early plans for 2 new lines)
Thanks for highlighting my town! We have lots of work to do but I'm proud of our progress 😊
The culture within city admin that embraced these changes is definitely key! We saw that attitude reflected in the snow clearing policy toward bike infrastructure
The majority of people hate the fact that bike lanes get snow cleared before the roads. It's criminal and I can't wait for this criminal City Council to get voted out. Downtown is a mess, crime and homelessness everywhere and businesses are leaving the core. The last 5 years have been really sad, this city is becoming more and more derelict and unsafe.
Good for Edmonton. My impression from visiting Edmonton sporadically from the early 80's through the early 2000's was that it was a sprawling suburban city. It was like a small Dallas in my mind. Nice to see some openness to dense growth. We need to build our way into affordable housing.
People have said that Edmonton was like the Austin, Texas of Canada but I'd agree that it's more like Dallas, especially its urban sprawl of which Edmonton is looking to adopt.
My cousin is local, and a mall near his house recently converted a large portion of unused parking lot into a high rise apartment, and a hotel's entirely unused back parking lot was made into a two story apartment. It's been amazing (and envy inducing) to visit every year and see the changes first hand
Nimbys be like: NOOO you can't build new housing! That would ruin the property value of the house I am going to die of old age in 5 years from now!
City needs to build up and stop building out. We be hitting Leduc and Nisku with all the suburbs still being built south
that huge annexation toward Devon and leduc didn't help
Great video summary, thanks for sharing my planning legacy with the world. Former City of Edmonton Senior Planner, and Manager of Affordable Housing Projects. Edmonton really does want to make a difference because it’s run by young and progressive people.
I lived in Edmonton back in 2014 until 2016 and loved the city.
With so many cities finally considering housing reform, including my city of Calgary just south of Edmonton, it's so nice to see some perspective a few years after the changes were made. The sky hasn't fallen, neighbourhoods haven't lost their "character" and more people can live in reasonably priced homes. Great video. But next time, get a better cycling model 😉.
I'm one of those people who escaped Toronto to Edmonton. I intend to live and retire here ;)
I live in Edmonton since I was 18. I truly love my home town.
Love the channel and I'm so glad you made a video about my city! It was awesome hearing you two talk at the WCC (and I got to put a face to the voice of your videos, haha) I wanted to come up and say hi but you two were both so busy. I'm so glad we have such a great urbanist channel that focuses on cities across Canada.
A big problem with building infill in places like Vancouver isn't the regulations, but the incredibly steep fees placed on every new unit.
Regulations contribute to inflated fees.
Did you have any opportunity to explore what's up with the Blatchford development on the old City Centre Airport lands? That'll be an interesting injection of density, anchored by a (pre-existing but grown steadily) post-secondary and the Metro Line of the LRT system. It's a bit cursory so far with just a few blocks of row houses, but this summer is when it should actually start to take shape as "transit-oriented", thanks to the new LRT station being connected to the internal roads and paths. Other half and I just bought a townhouse there that will be ready for move-in sometime around then too.
Edmonton makes me want to put up with PC provincial government. They're making such great progress. Great seeing you there!
They have not been "progressive" conservatives for a long time now. It is the "United Conservative Party" (UCP) for years now.
Put up? PC governments are proving to be great everywhere you go. Alberta has the 3rd highest HDI in the world. People are flocking to the so called "Red States". I think the media paints PC areas in a negative light. I used to vote liberal but after 12 years in Edmonton I cant imagine living under a liberal government with all their promises and no action.
PCs? The UCP is Wildrose at best.
I think I agree. When the Alberta gov't speaks (about anything at all) I want to move away. When Edmonton city council talks, it makes me want to stay and be part of what seems to be a huge experiment in logical (and yet subversive) thinking.
@@josephsimonsful I can just imagine. I think I would cocoon myself in the city strategy, put my head down and ride those bike lanes.
LOL Windsor's audacity!!
Plus they passed a great improvement to cycling infrasrture.
As a born-and-raised Calgarian, I am shocked and appalled that anything about Edmonton could possibly be good (*cries in Calgarian*)
lol.
Maybe don't watch Shifter's video about Edmonton's Bike Plan. Or RM Transit's (now deleted???) video about Edmonton's Valley Line. And don't ask for my assessment of your new arena project. hahaha. Good luck down there in the Bottom of Alberta.
@@MultiCappieBro don't get me started on the fucking arena project shit had me fuming.
@@swagmund_freud6669
Sorry, just having fun. Good luck.
😸
I was there visiting family for Christmas. With a few exceptions around the West Ed, i was pleasantly surprised by the architecture
I used to live in Edmonton, and it's been cool to see the city's council move in a generally progressive direction for the last decade on things like transit, housing reform and downtown revitalization.
That being said... I do wonder if this video is overstating the case a bit. Edmonton's YIMBY housing reforms are great, but ultimately, the city is not very dense. In terms of population-weighted density, it is basically on par with, or less dense than, other mid-sized Canadian cities (3.6k pp/sq.km). Calgary (3.9k), Ottawa (3.8k), Hamilton (4.2k) and Quebec City (3.7k) are all denser on average than Edmonton. Winnipeg (3.5k)and Halifax (3.4k)are basically on par. Maybe Edmonton has better distributed its density than these other cities. But I'm more inclined to think that Edmonton's reforms have not yet had a meaningful impact on the city's population density, and that it remains affordable largely for other reasons, including some that you alluded to in the video like the abundance of land available for sprawley greenfield development. Hopefully the future of the city will move away from that trajectory.
How are you calculating those numbers?
There's some irony in the NIMBY reflex to a four-plex or like being built in residential neighbourhoods when there are so many examples of so-called 'monster homes' being built in neighbourhoods with often only a few making sour faces from adjacent neighbours. These monster homes are often ugly things that tower over everything else around them yet house only one family.
My Indiana suburb is increasing density by building multi-family housing and its great. The person who thinks a 3-story apt/condo building is a towering monstrosity needs to get a life.
Small improvements like this over a few decades can be transformative for our cities. I hope more cities follow examples like these as they become more apparently beneficial, thanks in part to your videos showing it. It'd be difficult for me to see positive trends like this without your work.
I just have to give props to Edmonton here, I've seen how bad it can get and somehow Nimby's argue to keep it like that, because 'if I have to suffer, everyone has to suffer'. These are massive steps towards improvements. And even if Edmonton has space, increasing density and limiting sprawl means it becomes economically feasible to mix in retail and such, and it could open the door to much improved public transport as well. It will take quite a few years to really see the benefits of the new zoning, but what you demonstrated here are basically some of the first spring flowers.
100% agreed, from an Edmontonian here. You don't get anywhere without starting now, and that's what we're attempting to do here.
You should take a look at Edmonton's Bike Plan and LRT vision too. Then give us a couple decades (hahaha) and come visit!
Neighbours over NIMBY's! I love that!
This is quite interesting and makes me hopeful of similar reforms hitting NYC. I will admit to being in the nihilism camp as any new housing built in NYC has become far from affordable. We don't need anymore luxury rentals that'll charge over $3k for a studio.
@@cmdrls212 that's exactly what I've been saying...
@@cmdrls212Manhattan isn't everywhere. Take a look at Long Island. It has lots of places that look just like Edmonton.
Great video! Also, just wanna appreciate the design of a lot of those new buildings! Not that that's super important, but they look pretty, and varied too!
Excellent video on how progressive cities with a council and mayor who actually want to help can change affordability and density. Kudos on calling out the pathetic mayor of Windsor, ON for being a complete failure. Born and raised here, Windsor mayor and the majority of our council voted to reject a proposed $40-70M from the federal government for a housing initiative. Add to that the fact that you pointed out (our mayor was appointed to head a committee on affordable housing), and it's even worse. No city has any leg to stand on when it comes to not having a plan to overcome the current crisis. They only need to look to Edmonton and other similar forward-thinking cities for the answers.
isn't downtown edmonton more parking lot than building?
There's a ton of parking just east of downtown. Eliminating parking requirements didn't change that overnight, but it does open it up to more possibility of development.
there's a lot of parking currently but it is being filled in with development. you also have the Whyte Ave area south of the downtown that is medium-rise walkable
The US has a city somewhat like Edmonton: Houston Texas. This city never had a zoning code but they are cursed with HOAs and an extreme right-wing Christian conservative state government that meddles in the big cities' internal affairs.
I'm really impressed by Edmonton of all places to lead the way on housing reform, how incredible has it been to see that Canada could finally see modern missing middle housing coming to be
Edmonton has had a significant urban discourse happening since around 2006. Arguably 1997ish with the "Smart City Initiative", but the technology didn't really exist to enable it. It was how we shut down our redundant downtown airport, built the downtown arena ("Rogers Place") and embarked on a vision of a city-wide urban rail system.
This infill is incredibly normal in Richmond BC and has been for over a decade.
@@pr0wnageify
You're saying that infill where the developer doesn't even need to apply for a permit has been normal in Richmond for over a decade?
i do think that a us counterpart to edmenton is minneapolis!! in fact, minneapolis is the only city in the country whose housing prices have not grown above inflation over the past ten years.
they have eliminated large swaths of single family zoning, parking minimums, and are on a fast track to build more transit!!
Near transit, there's actually parking maximums. This was a long haul to get there. I have consultation events in my calendar back in 2019, so at least 5 years.
There's so much I like about Edmonton, I just wish we weren't hobbled by the provincial government so much.
Hear hear. Time to respectfully engage in dialogue with rural Albertans.
Wow, amazing. Im European and it is good example for other North-American cities because it cannot be brushed off with: "ok, but we cannot do it here / Europe and Asia are older and denser" and BS like that. We also had our 60s/70s car boom and bad decisions, but you need to see it is possible. And Edmonton shows it can be done even in Suburbia (plus good to combine it with small businesses at the ground floor in those units). Mixed zoning (residential + small business) is crucial also for good competition to the corporations. It needs to be done piece by piece, street by street, as you showed at the end of video: Some are dense highrises, some are 6 units, some are 8. Here we have mostly like 7 - 10 stories appartment buildings so way denser but still ... this is a good step, good example and good policy template for other city governments across Canada and the US.
Fully supporting and please share Edmonton´s example instead of european one. Can be more convincing for counsels all over N.America. Yeah .. and those min. parking requirement :D this is uniquely N. American stuff that needs to be erased :D so much space for asphalt with no/minimal use -_- .. of course, together with that, basic public transport needs to be there / bus public transport. The denser neighbourhood gets, the more usage also each stop / line gets. Buses are good enough and can be done anywhere and then use other modes based on demand :) .. .GL to you all. And .. love your channel guys :)
100% agreed, from an Edmontonian here. Not enough people realise that Amsterdam was just as bike-hostile as any North American City in the 1960s. You don't get anywhere without starting now, and that's what we're attempting to do here.
You should take a look at Edmonton's Bike Plan and LRT vision too. Then give us a couple decades (hahaha) and come visit!
I Love the positivity of y'all Video's! Thank you!
I absolutely love these buildings. The street design matches up to it with protected bike lanes into downtown in line with the rail bike-walkways further out. I mean you cross the street at what was one of the worse intersections we have to something approaching civility and much calmer traffic down from two lanes to one lane. Breath of fresh air. Feels lovely and roomy. Seriously. Do more of this. The only thing that would make all this better is actual multi-mode transit connections. And that is from many smart small changes with a couple of savvy larger road renovs.
You top the hill and there is this beautiful modern nicely built multi-home building. It is a real pleasure to see it.
It's pretty interesting to see that Pierre Poilievre has called out parking mandates as unnecessary government red tape helping to hold back housing supply.
Pierre Poilievre opposes the Carbon Tax: the most "free market", least interventionist, way to tackle the existential threat posed by fossil carbon being released into the atmosphere.
The more we delay action on climate change: the more urgent action becomes. The reason is that our "carbon budget" (to hold the line a 1.5C or 1/3 of an XKCD ice age unit) remains fixed.
When the Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997: we had about 50 years to phase out fossil fuels (2050 deadline).
After 25 years of inaction: we have about 7 years to phase out fossil fuels (2030 deadline)
If Conservatives get elected: we will have 4 more years of inaction, and negative 1 years to phase out fossil fuels (2027 deadline, plus minus a few years).
Never vote conservative.
A shame, since Brian Mulroney was voted the greenest prime minister in Canadian history in 2006.
@@jamesphillips2285 ill vote for liberal when Trudeau is not the leader for the party respectfully...
I really appreciate how fair, unbiased and detailed your information is. I truly enjoy watching your videos. I also watched 'You Don't have to move to Amsterdam to be Happy' clearly that was geared towards the NJB videos. What I got from that was take pride In you city, join a group or organization to help make things better in terms of housing, public transportation, traffic calming etc. Thanks,
Exactly. This is exactly the message that NJB is missing. He complains about how things are bad, but fails to identify all the countless efforts which are trying - and succeding - to change things for the better, and fails to direct people to support those initiatives. It is infuriating as a former Toronto urban planner to watch videos where Jason would imply that Toronto's planners are car-brained villains, when in fact none of my colleagues actually were, and nearly all of them were just as passionate about urbanism as Not Just Bikes. The difference being that they understand the systemic issues and the avenues to addressing them, rather than just creating a cartoon villain of "North American planners" or "North American engineers" as NJB videos often do.
@@OntarioTrafficManYup! Be part of the solution.
This will help increase density in this massive area, low-density city. A good move forward in any case.
Its great to hear about a city taking an active approach to their housing problem. As much as people hate on Houston, they took a very similar approach. They don't have a missing middle issue, since it's legal & encouraged to build townhomes and skinny tall houses. But once you get out of the city, it's all suburban sprawl. There are mixed use, walkable, and bikeable neighborhoods in those suburbs though. The Woodlands and Bridgeland being the biggest of the two.
It's called freedom and capitalism. If you don't like what your neighbours are building your capitalist freedom allows you to sell. If the sale prices isn't what you wished it was, then you lose money. This is how our capital system works. I don't understand people's expectations to have their neighbourhoods never change. Do they realize someone likely opposed their own home way back when? If you hate development and developers theres this thing called the countryside you might want to look into. You can't see your neighbours and nothing big ever gets built. If you live in the city and oppose these things, I'm sorry to say but youre a hypocrite.
they want to have their cake and eat it too. it's gross. cities should be cities. people who don't like it can move to a rural area.
An energy efficient church, what an oxymoron :)) What can be less useful than a church? 😂
7:13 Well... considering the brand new "21st century hospital with 1960s parking lot" the Québec government is about to build in Vaudreuil-Dorion in order to save 50M$ in construction costs, then...
Awesome video! Love how critical and fair you guys are with your videos. I'm very excited for the future of Edmonton and seeing how its successes might impact other cities. ❤
Awesome! This is so encouraging!
i also have a lot of faith in Edmontons future!
hopefully we can build nice walkable 15 minute cities without any conspiracy theorists or malicious actors getting in the way.
Very uplifting! Thank you!
Good news! i am rooting for you guys from europe :)
Thanks, we need it.
Now all we need to do is keep our focus for the next three decades...
I've spent some time in Edmonton and my friend lives in one of those suburb projects outside the city ring where all the houses look the same, so it hasn't given me a great vibe on the city but it's really cool to hear it's better than I thought!
Best areas are Whyte Ave area south of the downtown, and the Jasper Ave corridor in downtown. in ~5 years time there will be much more new developments completed downtown.
Gee .. I thought all cities were judged by far flung suburbs? 🤔.
This enlightening and encouraging.
Thanks for the frank coverage of our city! They are trying to mqke it better but youre also right that it has work to do
I love hearing progress on this subject!
Thanks! Very motivating and I’ll be taking lessons from this directly to my community.
Thank you!!
One thing to consider about Edmonton is that along with these fantastic new zoning laws, it's always been on relatively flat expansive terrain, making it pretty easy to sprawl. The result is that, like Ottawa, Edmonton was one of the cheapest major cities to buy a detached home. Unlike Ottawa though, Edmonton built a very high quality high floor Stadt Bahn in the 80's which is now being complimented by a surface level low floor LRT line. While the old system is not without some signaling issues they need to work out, It's an example of how Edmonton really hit the ground running on urbanism compared to Ottawa, who opened their first struggling LRT line in 2019, and it has even more issues than Edmonton's. Now with the new zoning laws and TOD, Edmonton is going to start densifying key areas at a rapid pace, and it shows as Ottawa is now starting to majorly slip on affordability regardless of the fact that more people are moving to Edmonton. Even though I do love the Ontario, I have a pretty heavy Western bias when it comes to infrastructure development, as it seems we get a lot more built in tougher terrain for a lot less, and it makes no sense in the world to me. It also makes no sense that BC and Alberta are passing plentiful legislation making development easier and zoning more open, while Ontario continues to drag its heels when it comes to these things.
I'm not aware of any remaining signalling issues in the high-floor system. Can you elaborate?
@@MultiCappie The Metro Line used a faulty Thales signaling system that took 7 years to replace with a much better Alstom system they're using now. Before that, the line was slower and less frequent than it is now.
@@RoboJulesSo you're saying that there are no issues with the signalling at present that you're aware?
Nice. Loved seeing this example of flexible development.
0:37 new church WITH HOUSING DAMNNNNN
Thank you for this. It's really great to know these cities can still change for the better in our lifetimes.
Thanks for coming to the winter cycling congress! And thank you for paying attention to what our city is doing, urbanism-wide. We elected a fantastic, progressive Council 4 years ago, and unelected some pretty regressive people. That made a difference because it's signaled to the administration in the city that we really want to be YIMBYs, we want to have a walkable, ridable, affordable city with good climate protective policies. The vibe here is good, but being surrounded by regressive attitudes means we're not out of the woods. Having outsiders recognize how well Edmonton is doing (in terms of policies) is a big help.
Great Job Edmonton
You both are AMAZINGLY Correct...
Great video. As an Edmontonian, you are correct. We are a younger city that is a lot less precious about "heritage preservation" and development because most of us know cities are meant to be dynamic and every changing places, not set in stone monuments to past civilizations... There's the odd mistake we make in not preserving buildings worthy of it (Tegler Building, Alberta Hotel to name just a few) but given what we get in exchange, it's generally worth it...
The only flaw Edmonton has which you mentioned is the homeless/addictions issue. Flattening 50+ tent cities over Xmas probably wasn't the best way to solve it either since all it does is scatter those residents to the wind yet again but then again that was Ms. Smith issue and there's no fixing that level of stupid....
A city that doesn't preserve its historical landmarks and culture eventually becomes a cultureless blob or gets subsumed by the foreigner/ invader's culture. There is a reason the old buildings of Western Europe are part of their respective city's and country's identities. You don't imagne glass skyscrapers when you think of France now, you see the Eiffel Tower, the old streets of Paris and Notre Dame in your mind.
@@avroarchitect1793 Given that North America has been dominated by foreigners/ invaders for 400 years that is the culture here. So I don't see the problem.
@@ryuuguu01 I'm talking about Canada as a country not the continent. If you want to complain about conquest, then every country is evil. The First Nations waged wars of conquest and genocide long before Europeans got here. Stop virtue signaling and grow up.
My statement applies to Canada as much as any other part of North America. Why are you talking about the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame? They are not Canadian. Why are you talking about foreigners and invaders? If they come to Canada and get citizenship they are as Canadian as you. Canada is a mosaic and has been from before whenever you were born. If you can't deal with the fact that Canada is a mosaic that welcomes immigrants, move to the US and find some MAGA white supremacist group to join. We don't need any white supremacists who want to turn Canada into some Trump anti-immigrant nightmare
@@avroarchitect1793 Reading over your comment I notice you talk about " foreigner/ invader's culture" and don't mention any Canadian buildings like the CN hotels, CN Tower, or Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. So I am guessing you are not Canadian or you would know that Canada is known as a mosaic of cultures and that immigrant citizens have made up a large percentage of our population since Canada became a country. You sound like a MAGA Trump anti-immigration white supremacist but they would probably not talk about European buildings. So you could be a European (French?) white supremacist, or maybe you are a Canadian white supremacist and just don't know much about Canadian culture. You were triggered when I mentioned that 90%+ of the people who came in the last 400 years were at the time they foriegns, so that makes you some type of snowfake white supremacist.