Canada's Housing Bubble

Aug 26, 2011 Douglas Todd communities.canada.com

In a conversation last week with Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson revealed a downside to the environmental progress the city is making.

Vancouver is becoming so attractive, the mayor said, that many well-off people from around the world are moving to it. The trend is dramatically raising the cost of housing, making it virtually unaffordable for his kids and future generations.

It was interesting to hear the mayor put words to the double-edged dilemma created by Vancouver's success. It's a worry often expressed by many parents and young people in the city, as well as by many suburbanites.

Robertson articulated his views on this awkward subject in the 48th minute of a dialogue he took part in last week with Hanh, prominent environmentalist David Suzuki and Jim Hoggan, author of The Climate Cover-up.
Here is how the exchange took place during the conversation, which can be found here in its extended video version.

During the following section of the conversation, Hanh was describing the importance of building healthy communities, whether monasteries or cities, to combat despair about environmental degradation. The monk appears to suggest people can become more hopeful about the future by visiting vibrant communities and cities, such as Vancouver.
Mayor Gregor Robertson -- who had said earlier he's in a "friendly competition" with other mayors to see which city can be "the greenest on the planet" -- responded to Hanh by saying that there are many hopeful environmental stories in the city of Vancouver.

In the past 15 years, Robertson said residents' use of cars and carbon emissions have both gone down dramatically, by roughly one per cent every year - even while the population has expanded to 570,000 people and the economy continues to grow.

"This is a very unusual trend in the world's cities now," said Robertson.
"But there's a grain of hope in it -- {in showing} that a city that is committed, and that sets aside the perceived inevitability of calamity, can be a stronger community. We can change our ways of getting around and looking after each other. I think there's a lot of hope in that for generations to come.

"The converse is that {Vancouver} becomes a very desirable city. People come here from all over the world for the beauty and for the sense of community...  That creates challenges for my kids and the next generation to live here. It's not affordable to live here now.
"People come here with money and they want to be part of this. And that makes it difficult. So it's creating other challenges for us. The hope in my mind is that what we can do here {in the city of Vancouver} is what any city can do.

"That kind of community building and change is possible anywhere. Instead of concentrating in places like Vancouver, {I would like to see} more cities learn and adapt and become more liveable -- by reducing their impact and strengthening community. But I don't think {such change} comes... from a place of despair. I think there has to be a sense now of the challenge of hope you {Hanh} have spoken of."

The famous Buddhist monk and author, followed by hundreds of thousands of people in the West, responded by saying there is a feeling of guilt among many of those who are wealthy.

"Many owners of business, who make a lot of money, know they are doing damage to the environment." Since they cannot escape the guilt, Hanh said they try to set aside money and time for charity work.
"But I don't think people can be happy without that feeling of guilt in themselves, even if they have a lot of money and power," Hanh said. People can only feel happy when they are living simply in communities, including in cities, and feeling they're doing their best.

"If they do this, they don't need to feel guilty, and this can be very healing. This kind of healing is not possible without the group environment."