The Vent and Rant Thread

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

New Orleans is below sea level. The entire city is a flood zone

True enough but some spots are higher (or less low) than others. People hear that "80% of the city flooded during Katrina." This is true as far as it goes but the parts that flooded were, mostly, the newer parts of the city and a goodly proportion of that was New Orleans East, which I don't really consider the city. The French Quarter didn't flood, the Marigny Triangle and most of the Marigny Rectangle didn't flood, most of Uptown (the sliver by the river) didn't flood, Esplanade Ridge, Gentilly Ridge, and Gentilly Terrace didn't entirely flood.

Katrina was a levee issue, not a storm issue. It was a quick moving Cat 3 at landfall, though it had only declined from a 5 shortly before, and it actually veered slightly, hitting just east of the city, not a direct hit or just to the west, which would have been worse. The levees were supposed to hold through that.

For example, my closest cousin lived (and lives again, though the new house is a story up) in Lakeview by one of the canal wall breaches. She and her family evacuated to Baton Rouge. Her neighbor did not evacuate because his tropical birds would not be welcome in a shelter. The storm had newly passed by that Monday morning and the streets were, as of yet, unflooded. The power was out, he went to his car to listen to the radio news and see what was going on. After a few minutes, he noticed insulation blowing up against his windshield. When he got out, he was ankle deep in water. Remember, it was no longer raining. He barely got to his garage in time to get his inflatable boat before there was a tsunami of water. He ended up on the balcony of a 2-story house streets away, where he was rescued. His birds drowned in their cages.

I had evacuated from my Marigny Triangle apartment to a cousin's house in Baton Rouge. The building there did not flood. I remember listening to the news fairly early that morning and feeling a sense of relief, then came the reports of encroaching water even though the storm had passed. It took awhile before they reported where it was coming from (the breaches). I saw my cousin's house or the roof thereof on the news.

/I can not tell you how close I came to screaming curses at work almost two years after the storm when they finally admitted that Katrina had not just diminished to a 4 and veered but actually diminished to a 3. There is no rage like Irish/French Creole/German rage, especially when one finds out that the levees did not do what they were supposed to do, especially with what has come out about negligence with respect to their construction and upkeep.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

The housing market has dropped quite a bit where I live, but 320k is still typical for an older (55+years) 2 BR condo and new ones in the same area are typically 500,000
Downtown Vancouver, much higher, and West Vancouver, well a wee studio is over 1/2 a million.

http://beta.realtor.ca/propertyDetai...rtyId=13559662

And while we do have medicare it is not paid for by property taxes, wages are about the same as New Orleans and overall cost of living is far higher excluding housing, which is perhaps the second least affordable in the world.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...orld-1.2505524

I was fortunate to buy when I did. Pretty sure covingtoncat73 will be saying the same thing one of these days.

Helen

My brother and his wife are trying to buy their first home in Vancouver at the moment. I see now why it's not proving to be easy!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

My brother and his wife are trying to buy their first home in Vancouver at the moment. I see now why it's not proving to be easy!

Unless they're dot com multi-millionaires, it is several different shades of not easy. I'm up on the Sunshine Coast, and even the lower end of the Coast is no longer vaguely affordable. Up where I am it's still reasonable (for definitions of reasonable that include $350k for a starter house on a small lot with no view.) The TINY lot at the end of my block, barely big enough for a parked car and a single-wide, but with a great view, is asking $250k for the lot alone. No septic (and no room for a field, so you'll have to install your own treatment system), and water and electrical pulled to the lot line.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Unless they're dot com multi-millionaires, it is several different shades of not easy. I'm up on the Sunshine Coast, and even the lower end of the Coast is no longer vaguely affordable. Up where I am it's still reasonable (for definitions of reasonable that include $350k for a starter house on a small lot with no view.) The TINY lot at the end of my block, barely big enough for a parked car and a single-wide, but with a great view, is asking $250k for the lot alone. No septic (and no room for a field, so you'll have to install your own treatment system), and water and electrical pulled to the lot line.

That's a lot of money

Last time we spoke they were looking seriously in a place called Steveston (I think it's just outside Vancouver?). That may have changed now though as my brother changed jobs recently.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

That's a lot of money

Last time we spoke they were looking seriously in a place called Steveston (I think it's just outside Vancouver?). That may have changed now though as my brother changed jobs recently.

The housing prices have gone down quite a bit in the last 3 years but far from cheap.

If it is not a permanent move renting might be a better option. Hard to do for those who have always had their own home, but buying a place that might actually depreciate in value if you project relocating in the future is not always the best.

Depends on what they are used to and their expectations etc.

Helen

[Bilbo1967]

They currently rent (in Richmond), but want to buy now that they've started a family.

I guess it's similar everywhere; our eldest son is now 17 and we're already worried that he'll never be able to afford to move out!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Both my father and my sister have the very annoying habit of putting empty packages back on the shelf.

When this happens to the peanut butter it's annoying. But when they do it with the Imodium it's a lot more than just annoying!

Shit happens....

[Dylrob]

I have completely lost any and all patients with my mail carrier. He frequently delivers mail to the wrong box, sometime even the wrong building, and now my latest order from Amazon has been returned because "carrier could not locate the delivery address"... despite every single package I've ordered for the last year going to this exact same address!

(Yes, I even double checked to make sure it was shipped to the right address)

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

I have completely lost any and all patients with my mail carrier. He frequently delivers mail to the wrong box, sometime even the wrong building, and now my latest order from Amazon has been returned because "carrier could not locate the delivery address"... despite every single package I've ordered for the last year going to this exact same address!

(Yes, I even double checked to make sure it was shipped to the right address)

Because of b.s. like that I rented a private po.box about twelve years ago. It's not usps, so I don't run into the"won't ship to p.o. boxes" nonsense. A shipper thinks it's an apartment. I can't remember the last time anything went missing. A hundred bucks a year, great peace of mind. They've also forwarded select pieces of mail to me when I traveled for work all of the time

[CRussel]

Yes, we use a similar arrangement -- I've got a box at Pony Express in Redmond.

[cromag]

Complain to Amazon (with a copy to your local postmaster). The USPS is trying to establish itself as a package delivery service, which is why they'll deliver Amazon packages on Sunday, and getting a complaint might carry some weight.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

Because of b.s. like that I rented a private po.box about twelve years ago. It's not usps, so I don't run into the"won't ship to p.o. boxes" nonsense. A shipper thinks it's an apartment. I can't remember the last time anything went missing. A hundred bucks a year, great peace of mind. They've also forwarded select pieces of mail to me when I traveled for work all of the time

I do the same thing. I have two private PO boxes, each with their own credit card billing addresses attached. This solves three problems I've encountered; companies that won't ship outside the US (these days 75% of what Amazon sells can't be shipped outside the US,) companies who insist that the billing and shipping addresses be the same, and third, a permanent US address for the banks. Both boxes forward to me anywhere in the world, both remove all third class bulk mail, both are set up to forward just once a month (99.9% of my mail isn't time sensitive,) and one of them will even, upon my instructions, open packages and remove invoices, consolidate and repack, and then forward, saving me a fortune in Customs import duties. When a time-sensitive letter is due, such as my US driving license renewal, I just tell that particular box company to forward daily as mail arrives. Same when I order something that I want quickly. I've been using both box companies for the past 25 years, and while one of them is a bit 'dense' (a chain mail forwarder,) the other is privately owned, sharp as a tack and follows instruction perfectly!


Stitchawl

Stitchawl

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by cromag

Complain to Amazon (with a copy to your local postmaster). The USPS is trying to establish itself as a package delivery service, which is why they'll deliver Amazon packages on Sunday, and getting a complaint might carry some weight.

That's what I ended up doing. And I apparently they were able to reverse the return, as it finally showed up on my door step this afternoon.

[Dylrob]

You know I'd enjoy a live guitar performance more if it wasn't right in front of my apartment at 12:00 in the morning.

So yeah, the folks in blue uniforms should hopefully be arriving shortly.

[cromag]

Serenade by a potential suitor?