When will we go heedlessly to crowded restaurants, concerts, and sporting events again? Will we fear … [+] urban life, with all its attractions but with its inevitable and constant proximity to one another?
Getty
As New York City and the world around it consider a gradual reawakening, the focus on managing the threats to physical health assumes priority over everything else. Much less discussed, although profoundly significant, will be the way New Yorkers manage the emotional toll taken by the pandemic and the shelter in place order which has kept us all homebound for so many weeks. More than the illness itself (assuming we are careful enough not to set off a major spike in new cases), so much rests on how we feel about our changed reality.
Psychologists with whom I have spoken report a broad spectrum of reactions to the pandemic, from denial to terror. Most Americans fall somewhere in between, with fear of illness, fear of impending economic stress, and disorientation caused by this time out of time colliding against the desire to return to work and to “normal life.” Of course, there will be a new normal which will approximate but not imitate the world we lived in before. When will we go heedlessly to crowded restaurants, concerts, and sporting events again? Will we fear urban life, with all its attractions but with its inevitable and constant proximity to one another?
The closest parallel to our current circumstances can be found in the city’s recovery after 9/11. Then as now, many anxious New Yorkers spoke of leaving the city. Then as now, people feared large groups, concert halls, and stadiums; they felt apprehensive about the possible presence of an insidious and invisible enemy. Every package seemed a possible bomb, every subway stoppage a reason for anxiety. We had orange alerts, amber alerts, red alerts. Some people did leave the city for the perceived safety of suburban or exurban communities. Most of them returned a year or two later, missing the lively and diverse life which our great cities have always provided.
After three months of stunned paralysis, the post 9/11 real estate market surged into action as 2002 began. Pent up demand drove buyers in every price range, as they realized that they still wanted a life in the city. The reduced prices of the reviving market, which had dropped 10% to 15% over the fourth quarter of 2001, inspired a surge of moving up and moving in, both for those who wanted a larger home and those who had fled the city the previous September.
Do we have more to fear than fear itself? Yes and no. The suburbs will prove to be no safer than Manhattan. Vaccination will tame this virus, as it has tamed so many others. Little by little, world populations will develop immunity. Economic activity will come back to life, as industries, products, and services we don’t yet fully imagine spring up to deal with issues in the changed world. And our world will change, just as it did after 9/11, in ways we can now barely recall.
In today’s environment, the recovery will likely be slower. We will still be viewing properties in masks and gloves for the coming months, probably until the end of the third quarter, while the fourth quarter will be dominated by the Presidential election. Services will come back to life sporadically and gradually. But after spending so much time at home, many buyers will better understand how well their current environment works or doesn’t work for them. Many will want to move, and many will see opportunity in the reduced prices which will follow the pandemic. Feeling afraid, the biggest inhibitor to action and thus to economic activity will abate, as psychologists note it always does. A few years from now New Yorkers will simply be getting on with their lives, many in new homes bought in the wake of this crisis. The “new” normal will have become, simply, normal life.
HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.
Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.
Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.
The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.
Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.
The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.
Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.
Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500
Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438
Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103
Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359
Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent
How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.
More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.
Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.
An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
