We live in a Banana Smoothie Republic: North America’s Most Unaffordable City Has a Wage Problem.

That’s what happens when you fashion yourself as a resort city that has been beholden to speculation from its very inception.

We asked for this housing nightmare, twice. It’s a perfect model for the internal contradictions of capitalism to be laid bare.

And if Bloomberg is saying we have a wage problem, it must be really bad. But any talk about raising wages is met with the usual chorus about small businesses shutting down en masse and the local economy being gutted. Don’t believe it. It didn’t happen in Ontario and it won’t happen here: What Working-class and Poor White People Need to Understand About Rich White People.

Let’s say you are an EMT working for $15.00 an hour and the minimum wage goes up. Now everyone working in retail and fast food is making the same as you. Pretty insulting, right? Wrong. That’s what corporations want you to think so you will fight to keep other poor people down. If the minimum wage rose to $15, you could get a job anywhere for the same pay. That would give you leverage to negotiate a higher wage by saying, essentially, “There is now an abundance of jobs paying what I make. I can leave and take one of those jobs unless you pay me more for my added skills.” Your skills are now worth more. Instead of $15, you may get $20, but you’ll never get the $20 if you keep fighting to keep others down. Lifting others lifts you up too.

“The paradox of tourism is that is destroys the very reasons it exists”: Cities around the world struggling with too much tourism.

As Europeans have discovered, tourism exacerbates inequality. It exerts intolerable pressure on cities: Housing shortages are worsened, inadequate transit systems are overwhelmed, as is the public realm — from cultural landmarks to streets, sidewalks, parks and squares.

Metro Vancouver renters praying for a housing crash, new poll says. At first I thought this headline read “Metro Vancouver renters paying for a housing crash” and then I realized that it might be true: renters will bear the brunt of any coming correction. They always do.

Meanwhile, we’re fast approaching the deadline for AirBnB operator compliance. According to this map, it’s not looking good.

And then, this: Homeless Vancouver family desperate to find a place to live. Hey AirBnB, you want us to believe that you are not just a soulless corporation that shouldn’t even be operating in a city with such a low vacancy rate? House. This. Woman.

Feds announce ambitious plan to cut poverty rates, activist far from impressed. “We need laws that make good employment and living wages mandatory. We need rent control so all the money that low income people get doesn’t go into landlords’ pockets. We need vastly higher welfare and disability rates. There’s nothing in here about that, it’s a really awful strategy, as far as I’m concerned. There’s nothing in it.” – Jean Swanson. Elect. This. Woman.

This shadowy “probably Hector Bremner” group on Facebook called “Vancouverites for Affordable Housing” is releasing American style anti-union attack ads against Kennedy Stewart: Faceless on Facebook: Why is the social network allowing anonymity to flourish ahead of B.C.’s local elections?

And then there’s this clown, styling herself as some sort of Ford acolyte: Dan Fumano: New party tests Vancouver’s appetite for ‘indelicate’ style of discourse. I’m going to have a lot of fun this election.

Gratuitous self promotion of the day: NEEDS Invite and Incite You to “Rage Against the Miami Sound Machine”. Wherein I capture and torture a Bob Rennie/Chip Wilson style scumbag. Enjoy!