Everyone who considers themselves remotely normal is without fail, looking for someone to care about them. If you're lucky, you will encounter a partner who loves you and cares about you and wants to accompany you on your journey through life. If you're not lucky, then you will have to go about it the hard way.
And therein lies the rub. The law of human nature says that no one cares how much you know until they firstly know how much you care.
So what that means is if you're looking for someone to care about you, the real issue is to really, sincerely, and honestly examine your own capacity to first care about them. It's as simple as that, and yet so hard to carry out in real life, since so many other "things" get in the way. These things that get in the way could be that you carry emotional baggage, pain from a previous experience, selfishness, or ego. Or, the cruel truth could very well be that you just are not very capable of caring about someone that much.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Gentrification and Densification
The metroplitan region I live in is undergoing a major transformation. The combination of a cheap CAD$, stable economy, low interest rates, and increasing population has driven housing prices up, way up. Many foreign investors are snapping up houses in the west side of Vancouver. The sellers in Vancouver west migrate to Vancouver East, which pushes those people over to Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, and Delta. As a result of this migration trend, housing prices also get pushed up in each region.
Once these sellers sell their detached homes, many of them will opt to move into multi-family, higher density developments like townhomes and condos. As a result, more and more townhomes and high-rises, and low-rises are being constructed all over the region. One side effect of this construction boom is that the apartment developments push out low income housing.
Chinatown is a prime example of this phenomenon. About 10 years ago, Chinatown was vibrant, active, and filled with busy shoppers. But now, it is slowly losing its vitality, becoming derelict, with no new shops opening to replace shops that have closed down due to moving or going out of business. At the same time, a few major condo developments are being constructed right in Chinatown, driven by people who can no longer afford the higher priced condos in the downtown area.
When I was a young lad, my parents would take us to Chinatown once a week to go shopping and eat dim sum. There were certain shops in Chinatown that we would always visit, as my parents liked certain ones for the vegetables, and certain ones for the meat. Sometimes my parents would buy some candy for us while we went shopping. I would jump for joy, and pick the Blackcurrant pastilles, which were my favourite (and still is). That was then, this is now. But nonetheless, my heart is saddened now when I look upon what is supposed to be the busiest street in Chinatown and find only a couple of people walking in it.
Once these sellers sell their detached homes, many of them will opt to move into multi-family, higher density developments like townhomes and condos. As a result, more and more townhomes and high-rises, and low-rises are being constructed all over the region. One side effect of this construction boom is that the apartment developments push out low income housing.
Chinatown is a prime example of this phenomenon. About 10 years ago, Chinatown was vibrant, active, and filled with busy shoppers. But now, it is slowly losing its vitality, becoming derelict, with no new shops opening to replace shops that have closed down due to moving or going out of business. At the same time, a few major condo developments are being constructed right in Chinatown, driven by people who can no longer afford the higher priced condos in the downtown area.
When I was a young lad, my parents would take us to Chinatown once a week to go shopping and eat dim sum. There were certain shops in Chinatown that we would always visit, as my parents liked certain ones for the vegetables, and certain ones for the meat. Sometimes my parents would buy some candy for us while we went shopping. I would jump for joy, and pick the Blackcurrant pastilles, which were my favourite (and still is). That was then, this is now. But nonetheless, my heart is saddened now when I look upon what is supposed to be the busiest street in Chinatown and find only a couple of people walking in it.
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