The Georgia Viaducts are coming Down
Like it or not, the Georgia Viaducts are coming down. It’s inevitable.
Personally, I don’t really care.. Now before anyone can say how can you not care, you live here you need to care!
I don’t. Why? Because, I don’t concern myself with things that are out of my control. You can protest and throw a big fit, but at the end of the day the City is going to make the decision, they have all the power and trust me when I tell you, those things are coming down.
Now if you want my opinion, if this came down to a vote I would vote yes, tear those viaducts down. Quite frankly I find them to be an eye sore, a dated infrastructure constructed in 1972 that sticks out like a sore thumb on such a beautiful city.
In a city where land is at an absolute premium it doesn’t make sense to have this infrastructure which creates all this dead space. The potential to add an extra 4000 new residents and 4.5 acres of new waterfront park sounds pretty good to me.
I know some may accuse me and say why because you’re a realtor and it’s more product for you to sell? No, I could care less. There’s plenty of inventory to sell as is. I just see it as a more viable option long term.
For everyone who is against it, I totally see where you are coming from. There are many valid arguments.
Yes Concord Pacific, the developers, are absolutely going to profit from this, that’s obvious. The expected cost of $200 million will undoubtedly go over budget, as every development project does. Although it’s said the entire cost will be covered by charging development fees to Concord Pacific there’s a strong likelihood that it doesn’t cover all of it.
Yes, the commute to downtown Vancouver from the Eastside might take a couple extra minutes. Yes the whole “the viaducts aren’t earthquake proof” is a bunch of bs. If we have a major earthquake there will be a whole lot more than just the viaducts collapsing.
However, after assessing both sides of the arguments it’s important to understand traffic to downtown Vancouver has actually decreased by 20% over the last 15 years thanks in part to better public transit, car sharing, and biker friendly roads. Ultimately this is the direction Vancouver is striving towards. They want to eliminate cars on the road, beautify the city, and create more housing.
Agree with it, disagree with it, it really doesn’t matter. The viaducts will be coming down.
