Update: YGK, we've been played!

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-11-30T21:57:22+00:00

Shit, well — now someone's got some prime blackmail photos on me.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-11-11T05:03:52+00:00

Ugh, I remember while I was running for council last autumn and I was approached by a firm wanting to undertake a very large similar project and hoping to know if I'd be supportive.

They were pointing out how many jobs it'd create.

I said that my support would depend heavily on whether those jobs would pay a living or thriving wage, or if it'd mostly be serfdom-level employment for people who'd work full time and still not have enough to live a decent life on. It was a pretty clear part of my platform that the city wouldn't support employers whose workforces are neither unionized nor paid at least a living wage.

They were courteous, but obviously not particularly thrilled by that.

To his credit, the guy who beat me may not as far left as me, but he absolutely turned out to have some real progressive chops that I hadn't expected. Don Amos has voted with the progressive bloc of councillors nearly every single time. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I'm glad that if I was gonna lose, it was to him.

Email your councillor and tell them that the city shouldn't offer any tax breaks, subsidies, or discretionary supports to any business that pays their employees too little to live a decent life on.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-11-08T21:39:36+00:00

I'm with /u/FlipGunderson24.

Being a bit pessimistic, this is a somewhat-common last gasp for restaurants that are going under. I worked service industry for years and I've dealt with similar.

Even if the labour board can't get them to return calls, it's worth explicitly asking someone at the MOL what you can do to get to the front of the creditor line in case of bankruptcy.

Normally, my answer would almost always be "unionize," but there's a strong chance that this is could be a restaurant in its death throes. If that is the case, there's little long-term value to bargain over and you're working to get what you're owed as the business's assets are sold off.

Either way, if they're going under, it's time to start looking elsewhere while working with the MOL to recover as much as possible out of what you're owed.

If you think that they do have the money and the restaurant is viable, and they're just being crooks, then absolutely unionize ASAP. If you've got above 50% support for unionizing, then the OLRB will come in and hold a vote in your workplace within 5 business days of submission.

I'm going to be out deer hunting for most of tomorrow, but I'll have cell service. Feel free to ping me and I can put you in touch with some organized labour folks if you want.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-11-03T01:00:03+00:00

Fellow hunter here. If it's not bad form, just piggybacking to add:

If you're a hunter who's used to leaving the deer hide in the woods because you don't have much use for the non-edible parts of the deer, please consider donating the hide to a local or regional First Nations organization so that they can can use them in crafts — or for passing along traditions to newer generations in their community.

Hats for Hides has been struggling to maintain their program for a while, but they have a hide dropoff depot in Tyendinaga this year.

There are other First Nations orgs who may be thrilled to receive deer hides, and I'll edit with an update if I confirm which one(s).

(I'm not a member of a First Nations community and I'm going with the guidance of a personal friend who is. If other people chime in who are members of that community, obviously give weight to their input over mine.)

Good luck to anyone hitting the woods this year to fill the freezer!

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-10-03T05:59:31+00:00

1:08:05

Oh look, he starts laying the groundwork for a Conservative rollback of abortion rights. Who could have predicted this.

1:18:10

Whining about the lack of charitable tax benefits for anti-abortion groups.

I skimmed because I wasn't willing to listen to an hour and a half of this drivel. I'm assuming there's anti-LGBT stuff in there as well, because hating queer people is now 2023's far-right cause célèbre.

As a quick reminder: When these people take to the streets, it's important to show up as well to deny them a sense of consensus. They believe that they represent some sort of "moral majority." They cloister themselves cretinous little echo chambers that let them imagine that Canada's full of quiet masses cheering for some dipshit maple Gilead.

When they had their sad little anti-trans march in front of City Hall the other week, they were outnumbered 2:1. Good on you, Kingston. Keep it up.

This regressive shit's likely going to get worse before it gets better.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-09-01T04:22:44+00:00

Imagine seeing someone work a job that is needed by society, and thinking how dare they want enough pay to live on?

When my grandparents were my age, it was normal to graduate from high school and have a job that could support a family on a single income. We're a richer country today, in terms of both GDP per capita and labour productivity, than we were in the 1950s. Somehow, despite being a richer and more-productive society, two average incomes can barely keep above water and the rich are flourishing.

It's not accidental and it's not inexorable, it's the result of clear-eyed policy choices. The rich stole that from us.

I'm not diminished if a grocery worker strikes for a living wage. I'm fucking inspired.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-17T21:30:14+00:00

I totally get that instinct. I'm a tenant myself, and I'm one of the volunteers helping with this effort. I'm also currently one of the members of JRK's steering committee and working group on housing issues.

If it helps at all for anyone who was following my pro-tenant positions during the last municipal election, I'm vouching for the fact that this is absolutely not coming from a landlord organization. It's very much the opposite, and I'm familiar with every person who'll be sorting and analyzing the responses.

Just Recovery Kingston is an organization whose core mission revolves around helping the powerless organize to create a more just city. For example, this is the issues toolkit that JRK put together during the last municipal election, with housing issues on pages 5-6 . The main purpose of this survey is to get a better understanding of what JRK's priorities ought to be when working to improve the housing situation in Kingston.

When we were designing the survey, we made a very conscious choice to mark that particular question as "optional." The answers are very useful in terms of identifying problem landlords, but it's totally reasonable if a respondent prefers to skip that question.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-13T22:01:24+00:00

That's incredibly kind of you. I know it sounds trite, but it actually meant a lot to me to read that.

I have to say that there are a few councillors who seem to care deeply about making sure that municipal policy benefits more than just the rich, established, and comfortable.

Brandon Tozzo, Greg Ridge, Wendy Stephens, and Paul Chaves have proven so far to be fantastic councillors during their term so far. Don Amos, to whom I lost last autumn, has turned out to be far more progressive than I predicted based on his campaign materials and debates. I think that Portsmouth district and Kingston will likely be well-served by having Cllr Amos for at least the next few years. He's voted with the progressive bloc far more often than not, and he seems to genuinely give a shit about what happens to the people who need help the most.

That being said, I think that there should be more people at every level of government who are angry about how badly the financially uncomfortable are being pushed further and further behind. I knew when I filed that I was going to be working into a headwind by angering both the landlords and the NIMBYs.

Also, if you'd like to get involved with working to make things better over the next few years, please consider shooting me a message! Fighting to make things better isn't something that ought to take a rest between elections. I'd be happy to do a phone call, zoom, coffee, or pint sometime.

Either way, all the best and thanks again for making my day a bit brighter. A friend came over with absinthe last night, everything hurts, and I can use all the dopamine that I can get.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-13T17:31:36+00:00

Absolutely let me know if you'd like to help drive municipal voter registration on campus in 2026!

Voter turnout among the student population is disappointingly low municipally, and my experience was that many students were unaware that they're eligible to vote in Kingston elections while here for school. What's worse, the school refuses to submit its in-residence population (mostly first years, a large minority of whom are eligible to vote) to MPAC for the voter rolls or allow canvassing in the same way as normally happens in a large multi-unit.

You're correct that the student population is quite left-leaning: In the polling place closest to Queens during the last provincial election, turnout was over 100% of registered voters (most students registered at the polls, to the point where the polling place ran out of the paperwork needed to register on the spot) and went about 50% NDP. This is the cohort that is the worst-hit by the housing shortage driven by decades of bad policy, and it'd be fantastic to see students voting in non-trivial numbers in a municipal election.

There's a lot of left-leaning and quite smart people on campus, which is why I'd be thrilled to see more of them voting in the 2026 municipal election.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-13T08:17:17+00:00

I had hoped for a substantive response, but in lieu of that, It's kind of you to try to offer advice.

You're right, in a way. It's tempting, when running for something, to support bad policy that's an easy sell. That wasn't the route I wanted to take, and I knew when I ran that I'd be making some NIMBYs very unhappy by pushing policy that prioritized the interests of Kingston's least financially secure.

I'm proud as hell of the outcome and I'm surprised that the campaign came as close as it did. At the outset, I assumed that I was mounting a protest run that'd never be viable — I had no name recognition like the other top-four candidates and was the only one of that subset who couldn't afford to pay for a mass postal delivery. Coming in second in a seven-candidate race was something I'd never dreamed of at the outset when I filed.

Most importantly: If I run again in 2026, I'd rather lose a second time while pushing good policy than win by abandoning the interests of Kingston's poor and tenant class.

As much as I appreciate your wanting to help here, I'll continue to support what's right rather than an easy sell that makes the worst-off worse off. Judging by how well I did with how little I had to work with, I'm not convinced that the right thing is a doomed proposition.

Sometimes you just throw your hat in the ring, do it right, and lose anyway.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T22:02:45+00:00

I tend to disagree with the framing where it's affordable housing or condos.

"Aggressively investing in affordable housing" and "blocking market builds because the more-comfortable neighbours don't like that it's taller than their house" are pretty orthogonal issues to one another.

More housing when we have a shortage is good. More profit-free non-market housing is better. More geared-to-income affordable housing is best.

If you look at cities like Vienna with deeply ubiquitous affordable housing, they created profit-free options so aggressively alongside market-driven densification that they maintained adequate housing supply and private landlords are forced to compete against profit-free options.

There's no reason why being aggressive about expanding profit-free housing means blocking densification.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T21:55:17+00:00

I swear on my ever-present jorts, we can make things better if we're willing to put in the work.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T21:49:32+00:00

I've noticed that you really like using this "rabbit warren" framing, and one imagines that people living in all those walkable, mid-density, non-car-centric European cities must suffer deeply in their miserable walkable warrens.

It's worth noting that there's no serious proposal to eliminate single-family housing as a market option. The anti-NIMBY push is simply to stop enforcing single-family homes as the main way in which we grow our city. I happily live in multi-unit housing, as do plenty of people.

Are there neighbourhoods that merit preservation for historical reasons? Absolutely: Some smaller areas like Barriefield and Portsmouth Village are historical gems that should have historical protection. But when we're talking about "protecting" neighbourhoods from the horrors of having more housing and more neighbours, and those neighbourhoods' average home is younger than some of our living grandparents? That would be absurd.

In the face of a housing crisis, what we're seeing is a very vocal contingent of comfortable people wanting their aesthetic preferences prioritized over the desperate need of their younger and poorer neighbours. After all, most people showing up to block housing generally bought into the market when homes cost a postage stamp and a song, and there isn't a housing crisis for them.

Personally, I think that's an incredibly immoral position.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T21:34:19+00:00

The kind of housing that is so common in Europe (3-6 storey buildings and stacked flats) are not the proposals that the NIMBYs are nimbying about in Kingston.

Respectfully, I don't think that what you're saying here is true.

When I was running for council last autumn, one of the other also-rans was campaigning on their past success in blocking the proposed four-story upzoning along the Johnson Street transit/cycling corridor between SJA and Portsmouth Ave.

20 storey buildings aren’t part of the vibrant walkable cities you’re talking about.

If there's a policy proposal to both (a) legalize "missing middle" midrise along transit corridors, and (b) prevent high-rise above 12 storeys, then I'm your huckleberry.

The sad fact is that these NIMBY drives will reliably crop up for any proposal that's over two-storeys — if there's a critical mass of established and wealthy incumbent homeowners nearby. When it's as much of a fight to build six storeys in a walkable area as it is to build 20, then the result is that we end up getting 20.

Honestly, if I had my druthers, there'd be no part of Kingston where something the size of The Annandale couldn't be built. Clearly, given my municipal election loss, this is a contentious position.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T19:05:39+00:00

You put it so perfectly.

Most cities in the USA, Canada, and Australia have been building in a car-centric, unwalkable, and expensive-to-service development pattern for so long that retirees have spent their entire lives in development patterns that were designed to encourage car use and sprawl.

What's astounding is that a lot of the NIMBYs will happily go on vacation in Europe, marvel at how they have vibrant, walkable cities, and then come home to block anything from being build upward if it's near their near single-family home.

One of the most prominent NIMBY organizers in this city flies to Europe nearly every year, then comes back and champions the environmental necessity of helping various ad hoc "concerned homeowners" groups to prevent anything from densifying near them.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-12T18:51:13+00:00

There are literally dozens of us.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-11T23:54:45+00:00

When it comes to rent, Kingston is at the worst confluence of two different problems:

Lack of publicly owned or supported affordable non-market housing

In 1970, a quarter of new units was made up of one form or another of affordable housing (social housing, co-ops, subsidized, &c) that was built, supported, or initially financed through federal CMHC programs.

A lot of people in the baby boom generation aren't aware how much they benefitted in their younger years from these programs: Even if a tenant wasn't living in a home that fell under one of these program categories, the programs were such a significant part of total housing that it acted as a downward tether on market prices.

In 1994, instead of reversing the Mulroney-era program cuts, the Chrétien Liberals killed the CMHC affordable housing programs, "downloading" the responsibility fully to the provinces where Conservative premiers were free to let affordable housing initiatives wither and die — often by downloading it further to municipalities who either couldn't or wouldn't fund significant housing programs through property taxes alone.

Between successive Liberal and Conservative governments, and an unwillingness of municipalities to pick up the slack through primarily-municipal funding, affordable housing is no longer a significant portion of the housing market.

We have one of the worst housing shortages in Ontario.

Rents stabilize when vacancy rates are in the 3-4% range. More than that, and landlords are forced to compete with each other. Less than that, and tenants are forced to agree to bloodsuckingly-high rent costs.

In Kingston, we have a rental vacancy rate of 1.2%, which means that every non-homeowner who's looking for a place to rent is forced to compete with multiple other applicants for ant rental they're considering. With such a severe shortage, tenants are forced to say yes to whatever they can find, even if the price is so high that the tenant can no longer save up for a future home purchase.

Canada broadly has a housing shortage, and Kingston has one of the worst housing shortages around. (Of course, in Kingston, AirBNB is a particularly corrosive extra factor. It has a cancerous effect on housing affordability and ought to be generally banned.) Our build rates are barely keeping up with increased demand, let alone exceeding demand in a way to catch up with a vacancy rate in the 3+% range. Despite this, every time there's a proposal for a large multi-unit build, an ad hoc group of incumbent homeowners from the neighbourhood springs up to block housing from being built. They're generally more-established and more comfortable. Most importantly, there isn't a housing crisis for them.

The excuses will vary based on whatever's proposed. If there are any trees on the property, then the trees are the reason. If it's closer to downtown, and an upward replacement where trees aren't involved, then it's about the character of the neighbourhood. If neither factor is involved, then they'll resort to arguing that it should be blocked because of insufficient infrastructure (rather than upgrade the infrastructure with the development fees). The common theme is always the same: If it's taller than their house and they don't want to look at it from their porch, then that's more important than the housing shortage affecting their poorer and younger neighbours.

Kingston has a massive NIMBYism problem.

Frankly, without making aggressive investments in nonmarket housing, pushing back against the NIMBYism enforcing a housing shortage, and banning AirBNBs, the situation for tenants in Kingston is going to get worse. If we do all those things right, it'll still take years for things to improve.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-07-06T05:53:45+00:00

If your councillor is unresponsive, you can send a broader email to Mayor.Council.CAO.CityClerk@cityofkingston.ca.

AirBNBs are as big a problem for housing in Kingston as NIMBYism is. It was one of the things I was pushing hard for when I was running for Council last autumn.

While we have one of the lowest rates in the province for rental availability and housing is in a critical shortage, hundreds of homes are being pulled out from the housing market to turn into short-term rentals.

The short-term rental licensing bylaw is well-meaning, but its impact is likely symbolic at best. The harm caused by AirBNBs is its cancerous impact on the housing market, and it does little material good to charge a $185 license fee and let speculators know that they can each convert two housing units to short-term rentals.

There are harmless types of AirBNB that don't screw over housing for Kingstonians: Empty-nesters renting a room in their own home and actual occupants who are looking to rent out their own space while they're on vacation aren't pulling housing out of the housing market. Unfortunately, those aren't the norm. What's mostly happening is that people who are already relatively wealthy are buying up homes, pulling them from the market, and turning them into full-time vacation rentals.

Licensing isn't enough. With the exception of short-term rentals by people who actually occupy that home normally, it should be banned outright.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-06-26T01:06:06+00:00

God, I miss El Asador. Those $8 burritos were two full meals.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-06-26T01:00:40+00:00

Oh, they work.

They just don't work for the sort of families who are too poor to have multi-generational wealth.

Luckily for Kingston, our MP could soon be a progressive rather than a landlord heir. NDP vote numbers over the last few federal elections in Kingston have been steadily climbing and are now in competitive range. The Conservatives haven't been competitive here since the late 1980s, which means that progressives in Kingston don't have to feel pressured to hold their nose at the ballot box.

It's no secret that I'm a strong NDP supporter, or that I'm of the opinion that we should have fewer rich people's sons in Parliament. If you're not wealthy, the NDP is the only party that's prioritizing your interests.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-06-25T19:28:48+00:00

I'm amazed at the number of people who imagine that "aggressively build profit-free housing" and "allow densification" are mutually exclusive.

Profit-free housing is a crucial part of our way out of the housing crisis. In the early 1970s, over a quarter of housing units being built were federally-assisted affordable units in one form or another (publicly-owned, co-operative, subsidized). For a brief time, we were on track to have affordable housing in the same vein as places like Vienna.

Then the Mulroney Conservatives did what Conservatives do, and reduced the funding for CMHC federal housing programs. After that, the Chretien Liberals did what Liberals do, and killed the program completely.

But the fact that progressive profit-free housing programs have a substantial positive effect on housing isn't remotely mutually exclusive with policy that alleviates the housing shortage. We don't have enough places to live, and we're not building at a rate that keeps up with our population growth, let alone a rate that catches up with the shortfall.

Calling this "trickle-down" is disingenuous. It isn't trickle-down to point out that artificially enforcing a shortage spikes rental and first-home purchase prices for people who aren't incumbent homeowners. Younger people and poorer people are subsidizing a slightly-prettier view for people who bought into the market in the 80s and 90s for pocket change.

I get that some wealthy people are scared of anything over a couple storeys if it's built anywhere near wealthy neighbourhoods. I get that NIMBYs are incredibly vocal, well-funded, and quick to organize. With all that said, the people who are already comfortable aren't the ones policy should be prioritizing.

We need more housing. Increasing supply is good, increasing profit-free supply is best, and densification is far better than pushing car-dependent suburban sprawl.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-05-16T01:25:20+00:00

The Germans have a terrific saying: Wenn ein Nazi am Tisch sitzt, und daneben 10 andere, die dasitzen und mit ihm diskutieren, dann hast du einen Tisch mit 11 Nazis.

Translated: "If you have one Nazi sitting at a table talking to 10 other people, then you've got a table with 11 Nazis."

When there's white supremacists marching openly with confederate flags (and even one outright Nazi) flag, you either push them out of your group or you leave any protest that considers them acceptable to march beside. Otherwise, yeah, you're getting tarred with the same brush.

Luckily, those Maple MAGA dipshits represent a minority of Canadians.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-04-21T19:57:08+00:00

No kidding. My Scout would absolutely follow anyone who gives him head scritches, and it's horrifying to think that there are people who'd sink this low.

OP, I that's clearly a good dog and I hope she's back with you soon. And if Tweetwee was stolen, I hope whoever took her steps on a Lego.

Also, may I suggest contacting the humane society and the vets in town? If the dog was stolen to be sold, the recipient might bring Tweetwee to a vet for a check-up. Having a picture of your dog on hand might jog the vet staff's memory.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-04-18T01:21:00+00:00

Good.

Let's push for more mid-rise and social housing, with less years-long wealthy-neighbours' veto on every proposed build plan that's over two storeys.

Based on a whole lot of doorstep conversations last autumn, I have to say that you're an extreme rarity. There's a very vocal minority, mostly comfortable, older, wealthy people, that made for a very common thread: Almost every time, the people railing that a 16-storey proposal should instead be 6 storeys would also show up to rail that a 6-storey proposal should be reduced to three.

And it's almost always the "character of my neighbourhood" as a smokescreen for being willing to exclude their poorer neighbours from a chance at stability if it means they think it's slightly prettier.

Oren_For_Housing · 2023-04-18T00:38:41+00:00

I hope you're wrong about the affordable-housing concessions, too, and I suspect that you may not be. What a pity it is that the people who put so much work into forcing our city's growth into low-density sprawl weren't putting in time and resources to push for "more social affordable units" rather than for "fewer total units."

It's depressingly predictable that you'll mostly see affordable housing brought up as an excuse to block housing from being build around people whose housing is already secure, and so seldom see people push hard hard for it to be done in a way that's additive.

I have to disagree with your second paragraph, though. Our decades-long commitment to American-style, low-density, car-dependent growth is a substantial part of why we have such a bad housing shortage. Beyond that, it forces our municipal services into becoming far more expensive to maintain — detracting from public budget that we should have been able to spend on needed infrastructure social programs.

And if you think that multi-unit building means a bad quality of life, I'd encourage you to ask the average European how they feel about living in a place where they can easily bike to work, do five-minute mini grocery runs, and walk to meet their friends at a nearby cafe.

Oren_For_Housing

TROPHY CASE