June 1, 2023 That went fast

So busy, life has gotten almost out of control busy. The last three weeks went by in a blur. I’ve had so little time to stop and reflect, little time to it and write.

It feels far too chaotic. I almost miss the days of covid when no one could go out and we were forced to stay home – almost.

I feel bad I haven’t taken the time to write about all of my adventures lately. But I’ve been too busy living them to write about them. There have been a lot of stories to tell. 

I was in Pitt Meadows a suburb of Metro Vancouver and walked the neighbourhood of my AirBnB and met a gentleman standing across the street from a quiet mid-seventies-built home. This home was a very typical home for the area, one that, when it was built, probably sold for under fifty-thousand dollars. An affordable home built for families. 

There was a “for sale” sign on the house. 

I asked the gentleman standing across the street if he knew what the price was. “One point two million dollars.” 

“I don’t know who has the courage to take on such debt,” was his comment. 

He was right, who can afford these huge mortgages on what was once an affordable family home? 

He recently immigrated from India and knows that he will never afford to own a home in Canada, certainly not in Vancouver. We kept asking each other the same question – why? Why have things gotten so out of control, and since covid even more so? In the major cities of India, he says the same thing has occurred. Prices have skyrocketed out of the realm of reality.

That same trip I took a drive down Hastings Street in Vancouver. Google didn’t want me to take that street, despite the fact it was the shortest route, it tried to make me take a different road. Perhaps there is something in the algorithm that tries to keep people away from that forlorn area of the city. It is a desperate and lost place. 

There were people sitting in the open filling their crack pipes. Others sat on the sidewalk with their heads hung low, weaving and bobbing to some unheard music. More were wandering around and yelling at phantoms. Mental health and addiction issues were on full display. 

And not a cop in sight.

My stomach churned and my heart ached at the sight of all those people living in desperation and destitution in the middle of one of Canada’s most affluent cities.

Only thirty minute drive away a small home sits for sale at over a million dollars.

The same question kept circling around in my brain.

Why?