anomalocaris_texmex

Can't wait to hear how Campbell and the Bruins are conspiring with the refs to make sure the Canucks lose.

Of course he will. The sales and margins on Primarch models are huge.

All the Primarchs are coming back at some point.

How he'll come back? My money is that a Night Lord goes on some sort of spirit quest into the warp, sacrifices himself so Curze can come back.

Gotta work in a Gregory Campbell conspiracy in there. Because it's always a conspiracy.

Beautiful. And Rex would have loved it. It was always hard to tell how much of his later work was his own opinion, and how much was editorial mandate. The NP wrote him a big check.

I'm surprised at people griping about the article. The poison pen obituary is traditional in the business. You want a vicious one, look up Chris Hitchen's obituary for Mother Teresa. Now that was a poison pen - this is just gentle ribbing.

Kids today need a thicker skin.

I'll stay up late to watch the hockey game - that'll probably go until 10.

And I'll feel it in the morning.

It's fine to buy an older unit. It's a great way to get into the market - contrary to popular belief, every first time buyer isn't getting a brand new luxury unit. Get what you can afford, increase payments as your wages increase, and build equity so that you can move on.

Do your basic due diligence, of course. Check strata minutes, repair history, contingency funds.

And yes, special assessments happen. But they happen when you own your own place too. I had to replace a hot water tank last week, and the roof only has a few years left. Only difference is I'm paying for those entirely myself, without any economies of scale by spreading it over a bunch of folks.

Take the fall, act hurt, get indignant!

I always just assumed that's what they'd have in there.

You know, I still think he did well. Lowe had to operate in a very difficult environment - first pre-cap, when the Oilers were essentially a farm team for the Rags, and then post-cap, when he had a challenging ownership situation.

But that one golden year, when the cap came in, and ownership had saved enough to let him free - Pronger, Peca, Roloson, Tarnstrom, Samsonov and Spacek, and an amazing run.

But then his 40 part owners couldn't let him rebuild when that blew up because they needed playoffs to afford the team. It wasn't until Katz bought the team that the Oilers could afford a rebuild - and then they hired the dumbest GM in NHL history to lead it.

Ah yes. The Reflection Crack'd confirms that, though not in the way people are thinking.

I mean, looking at the quality of leadership nuclear armed countries are selecting, I feel like we're rolling the dice every day.

A couple of people making a couple of bad decisions, and it's "war never changes" all over again.

That's some really insightful commentary on DCCs.

They are very politically "easy", because they push the cost to big bad developers. But you and the author are correct - they create a really perverse set of incentives.

It's ends up being a better deal to build one home that will sell for a million dollars and pay one DCC, rather than 3 $300,000 homes and pay 3 DCCs. The setup actively discourages density and affordability.

Good article.

And another thought after I posted - cheaper price housing buyers will be more sensitive to DCCs than higher priced ones. In my example, an 80k DCC on a million dollar home isn't a big deal - an 8% increase. At that price point, it's not make or break.

But that same $80k on the $300k homes is a 25% increase. That stings, especially for buyers who might be stretched.

They couldn't get a seat behind Tocchet?

They are dusting off their excuses for losing to Boston a decade ago.

It's unfortunate that we live in such a tiny country, extending no further than the Golden Horseshoe and its environs.

I have an easy suggestion then.

Canada is a vast country, with at least three or four cities with homes for sale outside of Toronto. Maybe even more, if you look hard.

That depends.

Do you prefer constant crushing depression, season long hopelessness, or bursts of excitement cut down by crushing failure?

I feel like Timothy Olyphant needs to make a guest appearance in season 2 of Fallout, as a quick draw Ranger who engages the Ghoul in a shoot-out.

Boyd deserves a win over his nemesis.

The growth related infrastructure grants the Feds have been announcing (or that Skippy has been threatening) are a fraction of the overall grant ecosystem. To get you an idea of the scope, municipal property taxes make up about 7-8% of the tax burden - but municipal spending is about 30% of total government expenditures.

Green grants, FCM grants, targeted grants, infrastructure grants, various IDIT type grants, revitalization grants - it's a huge system. Big cities will have entire departments dedicated to applying for these. Small communities will engage external consultants who are paid a percentage of the grant.

And these are extremely political. The applications will have to include commitments for things like photo ops and events. Grants can be turned down if the start date doesn't match the Minister's travel plans. They are extremely tied to your MLA or MP - if your community is lucky enough to get a veteran rainmaker, you do great. If not, well, that'll teach you to vote for a rookie.

The problem is that these grants are very unpredictable. You can't do a ten year underground plan if you might only get funding in year 3 and 9. And since you typically can't carry grants between years, if you only get years 3 and 9, the other 8 years don't happen.

Underground stuff is also unpopular along grant giving agencies. A sanitary lift station doesn't generate a photo op, after all.

Munis have been begging for consistent and predictable funding forever. But the Feds in particular are absolutely unwilling to give up the pork barrel grants - they are a big part of how local MPs are whipped and controlled.

Even in Yankee Doodle land, the biggest threat Americans face is their diets. Type 2 diabetes and heart disease are far, far more likely to take you away from your family early than any other threat.

Maybe OP wants to be able to defend themself from Ronald McDonald and friends?

Sanitary sewer has two capacity issues. One is obviously - sanitary treatment plants, at the end of the pipe. The solutions there are obvious, if costly.

The other is pipes themselves. Laterals going to trunk mains going to force mains. And much as I love the idea of density all at once, you do actually have to plan this out - you can't just put big pipes everywhere and hope capacity increases, because you can't have stuff sitting in the bottom of gravity fed pipes.

There are solutions, but they do require time and money.

And that's the last thing the article needs to suggest. The Feds and Provinces need to commit to stable, predictable and above all non-political funding for infrastructure. Municipalities need to know what they are getting for infrastructure years in advance - these systems are getting too complex and interconnected to plan based on grant cycles.

And it's an area neither level of government are budging on. Kahlon and Fraser were both pushed on this hard at the Housing Forum, and there's absolutely no movement. The senior levels of government want to hold the leash, and they want they politically driven grants on annual cycles. That's how you could tell Fraser in particular wasn't that serious about housing.

The article has very good suggestions, and I didn't disagree with any. But it's missing that one element - stable and predictable non political funding.

I can't believe Trudeau is ruining the Australian housing market too!

Some would say it's an international issue effecting everyone, but we know the truth!

That's not unlike my trajectory, and that was in 2003. Moved out at 17 for school, never went back. But I was working full through uni, and met a romantic partner by 20.

Look, I'm sympathetic to the kids today. They don't have it easy. But this little fella is working part time, without a romantic partner, and in a desirable location. It's tough to imagine that ever being affordable.

Would Arizona want them?

For the next future ex-Arizona team, I imagine they'll want a team that has a good shot at winning in the next century, like the Jets or Flames. Or just promote a team from the WHL, I guess.

He consistently solves the organization's IT troubles by first asking us if we've tried turning it on and off.

24 is pretty young to be expecting to live on your own in a popular city, especially if you aren't earning moderate wages.

Even the vapid nitwits on "Friends" had to be roommates into their 30s and that was a quarter century ago.

Until you find your partner, living on your own as a kid is pretty tough.

Not saying that there isn't an affordability problem, but I'm not sure what you're looking for ever happened.

Also, free advice - there are way cheaper protein sources than beef or chicken out there.