Random Photo Friday: Build it and they will come?

It's not one of my favourite photos per se, but it is one that I feel depicts much of the relentless construction madness that's been devouring Vancouver for the past 10 years. I'm not sure when it'll ever end but when it does, you can bet your line of credit dollar, it's gonna be fuuuuugly.

Old buildings pending their imminent demise. Sad eyes reflect hi-rise cranes

marking the territory of yet MORE featureless condo towers 'coming soon to
a tiny lot near you'. Hideously small, totally non-functional and ridiculously
overpriced. Go nuts! (You probably will.)

If I were to start on my rant about the utter insanity of this City's obsession with condo towers, fake wealth and hormonal mortgage whores, this post would never end. Besides, there's a man with a blog who explains it all far better than I ever could. Let me introduce you to Garth Turner, Lord of eloquence, sarcasm and utterly brutal honesty and irony. I love him to bits!

You could easily be forgiven for thinking we have a problem of sink holes in Vancouver. And you don't have to be sucking on the ever-prevalent BC Bud to find yourself scratching your head wondering, "WTF? I swear there was a diner here yesterday?". Buildings seemingly get sucked underground overnight in this city. Next thing you know, there's just a massive hole filled with rain and re-bar where a funky shop/apartment building/photography store/restaurant/or other Mom 'n' Pop business used to be. And then you notice the cranes, more than 150ft high, signalling the increased height of the intended replacement - an over-sized monstrosity that'll suck up even more of the rapidly diminishing views that once made Vancouver so beautiful. Towers upon ugly, featureless towers, some of them already showing signs of mould and efflorescence, even before they've peeled the sticky plastic off the ill-fitted windows.

When Vancouver won the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics the housing-market quickly started to go nuts, escalating waaaaay beyond reality and sky-rocketed far beyond the financial means of your average city-dweller. People were convinced they should buy up property right away because once the world came to Vancouver and saw just how freakin' fabulous it is here, they'd for sure all want to live here, so buy, buy, buy. Build, build, build.....then buy again and build some more. And keep building....frantically building....never stop building. Tear shit down and build on it. Tear up the parking lots and build on them. Uproots trees for more condos and better views. Build, I tell you - BUILD! And, just when you think there's nothing left to build, build another umpteen towers of useless shoeboxes until there's absolutely nothing left and no-one can breathe. And then wait....and wait.....for the droves upon droves upon millions of people they said would be emigrating here. Keep watching, they're bound to turn up at some point....right? Okay, so maybe you should stop holding your breath, but keep your eyes peeled. Any minute now they'll arrive in their millions, charging off the planes, trains, ships and automobiles packed with all their worldly goods, just salivating at the thought of snapping up a million dollar closet-sized condo in some 30-storey tower where they can go stir crazy and stare at ALL the other surrounding towers while they figure out how the hell they're going to pay their next month's mortgage....or you simply tap up the bank of Mum & Dad to bail your sad-ass out. Or, better still, just move back home and have mummy wipe your ass for you.

Problem is - they're still building - building upon ugly building - one on top of another on top of another....but no-one's coming. No-one can bloody afford to move here. The people who live here can hardly afford to be here...and yet still they build. And keep on mindlessly building. I'm not convinced this over-zealous and unnecessary insanity will ever end. But there's no-one left to live in these place. Anyone who'd buy has already bought and will likely struggle to make the hefty profit they drooled over. Many people have actually left the city/Lower Mainland because of crappy salaries that in no way meet the ludicrous cost of living here. Supply is visibly out-weighing demand (and affordability) and yet more and more places are going up while literally thousands of units remain empty. Welcome to the reality of Vancouver. The best Shitty on Earth.

So for me the photo above shows the broken spirit and neglected old glass of a once-vibrant building now on its death row countdown, and staring its far uglier successor(s) in the face. Sad but true.