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Dear Mr. Lapointe,

Thank you for taking the time for answering questions in this AMA. My question goes to the recent NPA proposal to make metered street parking outside the downtown core free on Sundays and statutory holidays. I apologize in advance, but this post may get a bit long, but it is an important issue and I am interested in learning about your policy rationale and some background I feel is necessary.

I am curious, in coming to this decision, have you, or your policy team, read The High Cost of Free Parking? The author of this book is none other than one Donald Shoup. Dr. Shoup is a professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and has served as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA.

If you haven’t read this book (admittedly it is 800 pages long, although it is currently the bible in the parking and urban planning world), have you, or you policy team, listened to the podcast on this subject by Freakonomics? And, if you still haven’t listened to a 30 minute podcast on this extremely important issue, have you at least read this op-ed in the New York Times by Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics at George Mason University?

If the answer is no, let me provide you with a brief synopsis of what the most prominent experts in the subject say.

Currently, the cost of parking in North America is grossly underpriced. As I am sure you understand, nothing in life is free, including parking. Not only are their costs to build, pave and maintain parking spots. But more importantly, there is the opportunity cost of parking. We are using a valuable limited resource, urban land space, for parking rather than other possible uses (car lanes, bike lanes, pop parks, land development for housing, commercial uses etc..). In fact according to the NYT articles, the average cost of a parking space in LA, a place not known for limited supply, is $31,000 per spot when taking into account maintenance and land costs. That is more than the actual cost of most cars parked in the spots. If we don’t give people free cars, why should we give them so called “free” parking?

Additionally, the negative consequences of “free parking” are profound. According to Dr. Shoup, “A surprising amount of traffic isn’t caused by people who are on their way somewhere. Rather it is caused by people who have already arrived. Our streets are congested, in part, by people who have gotten where they want to be but are cruising around looking for a place to park” Actually between 30-45% of congestion is people simply looking for parking in some areas. So by underpricing street parking, you not only giving a subsidy to cars and encouraging driving (while discouraging other possible uses for the land space), but also this will further encourage drivers to continuously circle the block looking for underpriced parking further increasing road congestion.

So it light of the above, my questions are as follows:

• Have you or your policy team read The High Cost of Free Parking in coming to this decision?
  
  
• Do you deny Dr. Shoup's and Dr. Cowen's thesis that underpriced parking is a subsidy for drivers that encourages driving? If so, why? If not, why do you support further underpricing parking?
  
  
• Can you please defend your position against Dr. Shoup’s thesis that cities must properly price parking to reflect its true costs to efficiently allocate a limited valuable resource, urban land space, among various possible uses?
  
  
• What studies lead you to suggest that the proper price for parking outside of the downtown core is free after 8pm, on Sundays and on statutory holidays?
  
  
• If you believe, the market price outside of the downtown core is not free after 8pm, on Sundays and on statutory holidays, why do you support giving a subsidy to drivers for free parking rather than a subsidy for other possible users of the space (such as for drivers for another car lane, cyclist for another bike path, people for a pop up park, residents for more land for housing or businesses for more land for commercial development, etc…)?
  
  
• How will you make up the lost revenue from this policy proposal? (I would prefer specifics over generalities)
  
  
• In light of the above, do you still stand by this position?
  
  
• If you do still stand by this position, why do you support shifting the true costs of parking from drivers who park in those spots to other people, residents and businesses of the City of Vancouver.
  
  Also, I posted a very similar post on your blog and you never answered or defended you policy rationale. Hopefully you can do so here
  

You're a bit off the mark there, who says someone with a mortgage is living beyond their means? Or someone who has paid it off worked super hard, maybe they're just older and have accumulated more wealth? The new homeowner with a mortgage likely has simply accumulated less wealth, likely because they are younger. Remember, property tax is a proxy wealth tax, and taxing wealth is very good and efficient means of tax collection because it's not regressive, as those with wealth have a much lower marginal propensity to spend. If you want to think critically instead of mindlessly brushing off very well accepted and influential work in the fields of wealth and income inequality because of some ideological red scare in your mind that has no basis in reality, I would suggest

https://www.amazon.ca/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty/dp/0674979850/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525630837&sr=1-1&keywords=Capital+in+the+Twenty-First+Century

this book will give you lots of context and reasoning supported by empirical data.

I mostly picked up info from books when doing a Google Earth overlay showing Vancouver's original coastline, but lots of Wikipedia articles have been getting better recently. The Vancouver Archives have a lot of cool stuff, and just google searches for the history of specific items bring up articles of interest.

EDIT - I need to hunt around for a book on Vancouver's history that I had in the seventies, The Vancouver Book by Chuck Davis. It had some amazing stuff, like the tunnels in Chinatown that were used for illicit purposes, wartime stuff like where the searchlight and gun emplacements were (many still visible but few know what they are), a great story about a ship being shot and sunk (sorta) accidently by one of the gun crews.

Think I'll pick up this one too, it looks good.

I bought a car from the auto auction in the late 90's (CAAG in Surrey). Back then it was a risk v reward thing as you're never sure exactly what you're getting. You can browse the cars beforehand, start them up but they are packed in so tight you can't really drive them.

Plenty of deals to be had but its largely influenced by how popular it is that day. Best times is low season (Oct-Feb), and if it's raining. Mid week was better deals than weekends.

To judge prices, ignore blue book; Check Craigslist. Craiglist is the market.

Buy an ODB2 sensor to check diagnostics. (Depending on how old the car is, it may not work). Before every auction the auctioneer will call out any declarations and it will be on a big board (out of province, salvage, not legal etc)

The atmosphere is hectic and crazy and confusing and exciting, but once you've got a couple of times and see how it goes its not bad at all. If you want to bid on a car, have a price in mind and put your hand up if the price is right. An auction worker will come over to you and call the bids out for you so you're not confused by all the hand signals and yelling. If there is a reserve price on the car and you don't meet it, you can negotiate on the spot with the seller (standing near the auctioneer) if they are willing to take less than the reserve.

Try not to feel intimidated or bullied. Get a price in your mind and work with that.

Last note: You're going to have to settle price and insurance quickly, but they do have a broker on site to do transfers/reg/taxes

Hopefully this helps. My experience is close to 20 years old, but I spent a TON of time at the auction place and got a real good feel for how it worked at that time.

Fellow Vancouver enthusiast and local of 8 years here, I can't recommend this book highly enough: The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. I think it's somewhat rare these days, so good luck finding a copy at a reasonable price! It's an absolute treasure of a book, one of my all-time favourites. It's essentially the author's life's work - funny, poignant, exhaustively comprehensive and full of obscure human interest stories. I can also recommend Vancouver Special by Charles Demers, a local comedian and longtime Vancouver resident. Derek Hayes' historical atlases are quite good as well.

Why?

Because average is over

https://www.amazon.ca/Average-Over-Powering-America-Stagnation/dp/0525953736

The widening gap between rich and poor means dealing with one big, uncomfortable truth: If you’re not at the top, you’re at the bottom.

The global labor market is changing radically thanks to growth at the high end—and the low. About three quarters of the jobs created in the United States since the great recession pay only a bit more than minimum wage. Still, the United States has more millionaires and billionaires than any country ever, and we continue to mint them.


In this eye-opening book, renowned economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen explains that phenomenon: High earners are taking ever more advantage of machine intelligence in data analysis and achieving ever-better results. Meanwhile, low earners who haven’t committed to learning, to making the most of new technologies, have poor prospects. Nearly every business sector relies less and less on manual labor, and this fact is forever changing the world of work and wages. A steady, secure life somewhere in the middle—average—is over.

With The Great Stagnation, Cowen explained why median wages stagnated over the last four decades; in Average Is Over he reveals the essential nature of the new economy, identifies the best path forward for workers and entrepreneurs, and provides readers with actionable advice to make the most of the new economic landscape. It is a challenging and sober must-read but ultimately exciting, good news. In debates about our nation’s economic future, it will be impossible to ignore.

Yes, and if it was priced $10 in Canada, and $10 in the USA, you would be crazy to buy it in the US, I would not disagree with that! Further, if you were American why not come to Canada and buy it for roughly $7.50 USD after exchange right?

However, not all things are priced the same in the US and Canada. So for example, a 5lb brick of cheddar cheese in US is $9.85 ($13.13 CAD), while at super store (2.27kg of No Name Cheddar) in Canada it is $25.98 CAD. So yes taking exchange into consideration that brick of cheese is almost $13 cheaper in the US.

Or maybe look at Gas, its currently $1.869 USD/UsGal across the line and 110.9/litre in Vancouver this morning.

$1.869 is $0.494 US/litre... well even after exchange that is 65.8 CAD/litre.... 65.8<110.9 no?

Heck look at lego.

LEGO City Great Vehicles Auto Transporter - 60060 $79.90 from Amazon.ca (CAD)

LEGO City Great Vehicles Auto Transporter - 60060 $26.98 from Amazon.com (USD)

It really does not matter if you want to say it is $59.92 USD vs $26.98 USD, or if you want to say it is $79.90 CAD vs $35.97 CAD. The price is cheaper in the US regardless of what currency you get paid in.


TLDR - Who is talking about paying more? Further, what you get paid in is irrelevant to the discussion.

absolutely. try this one

i use a variation of it that is an overnight bulk ferment, but the results are still good using the same day recipe. your results will vary depending on your pizza stone/steel, how your oven/broiler behaves, and of course a ton of other things, but it's a good place to start!

if you're really keen on going further, i HIGHLY recommend buying the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. its my bread and pizza bible.

This is good, nice to have a choice. But for bigger ticket items, Amazon.com still wins over Amazon.ca.

Here's an example. I bought a Vitamix a while back. Amazon.com beat Costco Canada, Costco USA, and Amazon.ca by quite a bit.

CAN$830 at .ca

USD$648 at .com

Made in USA, so no duty. You're paying GST/HST either way, assuming customs flags you to pay when you declare. (Often, they don't.)

That's worth a trip to Blaine, especially if it's batched up with similarly savings on some books and other Amazon items.

Anyways, nice to have a choice. I know Amazon can't control all the pricing of their suppliers.

People always say this but I've never seen them be price competitive on anything. I searched for "Bar stool" and clicked the "Sale Bar Stools!" section and found:

• This set on Wayfair is $15 less on Amazon
  
• These stools on Wayfair are $49 at Structube
  
  I feel like Wayfair is a great place if you want all styles in one place, but I've never seen actual deals.

I have the g1w-c https://www.amazon.ca/Spy-Tec-Recorder-Dashboard-Authentic/dp/B00JJ3SQRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505660812&sr=8-1&keywords=g1w&th=1

Cheap. Very good quality. IF you're not happy with it too, easy to return with amazon but this has been the best dash cam I've owned. Can see plates easily.

I'm a win10 user, whole office used macs. They were awesome and got me a https://www.amazon.ca/UX433FA-DH74-Ultra-Slim-Nano-Edge-i7-8565U-Windows10/dp/B07HRZRLVJ/ref=sr_1_1?hvadid=325039145166&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9001532&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9487299744611177317&hvtargid=kwd-563056667428&keywords=asus+zenbook+ux433fa&qid=1555948074&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Nice solid hardware build and is good for non gfx-heavy dev work.

The leaching of lead from systems is relevant in Prince George Rupert because of the acidic water. Our water chemistry is going to be very different. GVRD water reports are here.

If you're worried about water quality, run your water for a few min. And/or put in an under-counter filter like this one.

On a side note: My father was involved as an elected board member on a small water system. In their case, the water system was functioning fine and providing safe clean water. But the provincial government - in what amounted to a cover-their-ass move - mandated that every system meet some incredibly high standards that were absolutely unaffordable for small systems to implement. We're not talking lead here, but going from something like 99.9999% to 99.99999% which was overkill and millions of dollars of costs onto ~300 users. Downloading of costs and shifting of responsibility for a negligible benefit.

I'm going to leave these recommended dashcams here for anyone who might need some ideas.

[Yi Dashcam - budget pick for if you park indoors @ 65 CAD] https://www.amazon.ca/YI-1080P60-Dashboard-G-Sensor-Recording/dp/B01C89GCHU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523078644&sr=8-1&keywords=yi+dash+cam

[G1W-C - budget pick if you park outside @ 70 CAD] https://www.amazon.ca/Spy-Tec-Capacitor-Resistant-Recorder/dp/B00JJ3SQRI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1523078838&sr=8-3&keywords=g1w

[A119 - best image quality you'll find under 300] https://www.amazon.ca/VIOFO-A119-Camera-Logger-Latest/dp/B01M28B92C/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1523078871&sr=1-4&keywords=a119

[Mini 0906 - cheapest acceptable dual camera] https://www.amazon.ca/Blueskysea-Capacitor-Dashboard-Recorder-G-Sensor/dp/B075JHKBR7

[Blacksys CH100B - value dual camera setup] https://www.blackboxmycar.ca/products/blacksys-ch-100b?variant=5191081918497

I recommend getting a small container for your keychain and keeping ear plugs in it. You may surprise yourself with the number of situations you find yourself reaching for them when you always have them on hand. Something like: https://www.amazon.ca/Airtight-Smell-Proof-Holder-Platinum/dp/B07FZBRFN6/

Get these books:
109 Walks and
103 hikes
The directions/explanations aren't the best, but at least it will give you ideas. And lots of the listings are not super well known, so often it's less crowded. I like just flipping through and picking a random spot. The walk book has walks that can take from a couple to many hours, but the hike book has major hikes - many of them are carry-in camp style for more serious hikers. Happy adventuring!

I have an AUKEY DR02-D front and back dashcam from amazon.
https://www.amazon.ca/AUKEY-Wide-Angle-G-Sensor-Dual-Port-Charger/dp/B075VRXRD6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542831989&sr=8-1&keywords=dr02d


Once in a while this goes on sale, I got mine for $120. Easy to install, and decent picture quality at 1080p. Front camera has 170 degree view, rear has 152. Night shots are clear and bright lights don't flare.


Though it comes with your standard USB plug and 12V adapter, I got an OBD2 adapter so that it can get power 24/7.


https://www.amazon.ca/Qiilu-OBD-II-Diagnostic-Extension-Adapter/dp/B076T6DLQ3/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1542832137&sr=1-5&keywords=Car+diagnostic+adapter

Please considering buying and installing a dashcam. They can be invaluable at times like this when something happens to you on the road. I recommend this one, because it is the absolute best bang for your buck, but there are cheaper ones out there.

Stay safe out there.

I think it’s this one, which is a pretty good read if you’re interested in Vancouver history in any event.

Historical Atlas Of Vancouver https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1553651073/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1gnyCbKM1275Y

Garibaldi Lake is really nice and not too far for a day hike. I did an over nighter and had to dig out a tent pad under a meter and a half of wet snow... that was a bit unnecessary.

103 Hikes is a good book for info. You can also pick one up at MEC I'm sure.

Amazon is probably the cheapest option for all the equipment you need.

Here's a bunch of equipment you'll want to grab:


Winco Winware Stainless Steel Dough Scraper with Wood Handle https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0017HUR9E/

10" Round Banneton Brotform https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MQA0BMT/

Mercer Culinary Offset Serated Bread Knife https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01F35UGWS

Flour Water Salt Yeast: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/160774273X

You'll also want to grab a clear round plastic storage container for your starter. Amazon doesn't have any good deals on them but it seems like Walmart/Home Depot/Gourmet Warehouse may have some. FWSY has a recommendation on a size, can't remember off the top of my head.

Once Flourist opens up it'll be the place to grab your flour from.

http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/

I liked this book too 109 Hikes of the Lower Mainland

Here's one I haven't read but it's the same author: 103 Hikes Southwestern British Columbia

Hundreds of possibilities .. easy ones are Lynn Canyon, Cap, Stanley Park, Lighthouse Park, do all the beaches, Minnekhada, Colony Farm, Seymour Demonstration forest, +1 on Pacific Spirit, Deer Lake

I enjoyed Vancouver Special by Charles Demers

> In Vancouver Special, writer and performer Charles Demers examines the who, what, where, when, why, and how of Vancouver, shedding light on the various strategies and influences that have made the city what it is today (as well as what it should be). From a history of anti-Asian racism to a deconstruction of the city's urban sprawl; from an examination of local food trends to a survey of the city's politically radical past, Vancouver Special is a love letter to the city, taking a no-holds-barred look at Lotusland with verve, wit, and insight.

Just buy one. They are cheap, and useful. Amazon

Goes well with the Torque app

bottled water is also bad.

There are ways to test your water if you are concerned. A brita filter can reduce lead levels as well.

Amazon. Get a Bluetooth one, along with torque app. There's a bunch of vehicle specific apps too.

Android can be Bluetooth or WiFi, iPhone needs it to be a WiFi obd module.

This is the unit I use.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B011NSX27A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YQgtDbRWCVX9M

http://www.vancouvertrails.com/

http://www.amazon.ca/103-Hikes-Southwestern-British-Columbia/dp/1553653742

I bought this one.

https://www.amazon.ca/Veepeak-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Scanner-Android/dp/B011NSX27A/ref=pd_bxgy_263_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=92BXK3R3X07WM5PHT7QP

I was thinking of the A119 v2. Uses capacitors instead of batteries.
https://www.amazon.ca/VIOFO-A119-Camera-Logger-Latest/dp/B01M28B92C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517723532&sr=1-1&keywords=a119+v2&dpID=51UPd4U5xlL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

I have the Thinkware F770. Helped pay for a deductible for my insurance claim, so it paid for itself. Lady hit my car getting out of hers, and camera caught everything off the storefront reflection.