Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Did anyone else head to the Central Park Canada Day event yesterday? I went for a couple of hours and was generally quite happy (didn’t stay for the fireworks though).

Pros:

• Great location for an event, easy access from Patterson skytrain
• Lots of room to sit and listen to the music and view fireworks
• Didn’t see any troublemakers. Everything was very family friendly.

Cons:

• Needed twice the number of food trucks/stalls. I left to go have dinner rather than waiting in one of the massive non-moving lineups. Next time I’ll bring takeout with me.
• Starting at 6:30 was too late. Why not make it all afternoon/evening and have more entertainment and events to participate in.

Was curious what was left, so I took the drone down today for a quick look...

Not much left - too bad, I used to love going to the pool while it was snowing and watching the snowfall from the hot tub, or while floating in the pool.

Wow, once the warm weather hits, the solicitors come out of the woodwork. I've had window cleaners, gutter fixers, painters, and of course religious types knocking on my door like crazy for the past 2 weeks.

If they can't be bothered to visit during poor weather, they can't really be that serious, can they? Especially the religious types.

Lots of advertising going out about Burnaby trying to find new space to build a brand new city hall because the old one is so, well, old.

I can't see why they can't rent some space temporarily and just demolish and reconstruct on the existing City Hall land they already own.

It's in the perfect location already, and at least some of the existing infrastructure must be OK. Is starting from scratch really the most cost effective solution (or do they want to sell the existing location to developers for $$$ because it's an ideal location)?

Was just walking around Metrotown today and was marveling at the number of low-rise apartment blocks that have signs posted that are being targeted for rezoning / construction.

I'm honestly of the opinion that any low-rise within 1km of Metrotown skytrain station stands at least a 75% chance of being torn-down and re-built as a high-rise tower.

Yes, we need the density to support the number of people living here, but the rents are going to go astronomical. Count on 3/4 of your monthly salary (from a good job) going to housing. What little is left will be eaten up by the insane food prices. Things are nuts around here.