Tea & Two Slices is a long-running local news round-up by NEEDS frontman and veteran dishwasher Sean Orr, who lives and works in Gastown, deeply aware of his privilege.

This is ridiculous. Proposed ‘affordable’ East Vancouver rental no place for minimum-wage earners:

According to a City of Vancouver staff report, a renter must have a yearly income of $60,000 to $69,999 to afford a studio unit. The report explained that affordable housing is the cost of shelter that is “equal to less than” 30 percent of before-tax household income. A person working 52 weeks a year on the current minimum wage in B.C. of $12.65 earns $26,312 a year.

Forget the current minimum wage…let’s look at median income:

Drawing from the 2016 Census data, a previous city staff memorandum to council noted that the median income for a single person or one-person household was $38,449. This means that people earning about that same amount, which is more than what minimum wage earners get, still cannot afford a studio. The median income of $38,449 is only 64 percent of the $60,000 income threshold for affordability.

Who the hell is this project even for? Please tell me. I’ll wait.

As nuanced as the discussion is around housing affordability, someone read this article and tell me what the fuck Mike Klassen is rambling on about: How badly does Vancouver want affordable housing? I honestly had to check the date to see if this was written 8 years ago. Nowhere does he talk about what kind of supply should be built and for whom. Nowhere does he mention that the objection to Rental 100 is that people just flip the apartments after the first tenant and charge way above market rates. How can you write a thousand words on this subject and not say, well, anything?

It’s like he’s positioning himself as some sort of smug centrist who is the only one who can see that “some density is good in some places but bad in others”, as if we haven’t been having this conversation for over a decade. Dude, pandering to developers doesn’t work. Giving the incentives doesn’t work. Compare and contrast: Jean Swanson files council motion to stop City of Vancouver subsidy for market-rate rental projects.

Imagine we finally received a piece of data that totally vindicates you for saying that foreign ownership is a huge piece of the puzzle and Mike Klassen is saying, “yeah, well…if you can’t afford a car you look at getting one with a few thousand kilometers on it”. Like, he knows that cars depreciate in value, right? Dan Fumano: A $75-billion snapshot of foreign-owned Vancouver real estate.

Hey, I know! Let’s take our most vulnerable population and make them even more vulnerable: B.C.’s housing policies mean drug users can be targeted for eviction: study. I wonder, where does this fit in with the government’s own deeply flawed, drug user anti-stigma campaign?

Speaking of stigma and vulnerable populations, this is an important read: Cay Burton: Reclaiming my youth—a thank you letter to the Canada Line.

How’s your reconciliation? Trudeau apologizes after telling First Nations mercury poisoning protester, ‘Thank you for your donation’. Make Trudeau a Drama Teacher Again.

Sounds about white: Remove flag or pay fine: White Rock restaurant given ultimatum.

Poll: Should ride-hail drivers be required to have commercial driver’s licences? Wow, Province readers are actually right on this one.

Bonus: VIDEO: Kelowna police have guns drawn, Batman’s offer to help rejected.