Lucy O’Brien
@psketti.ca
260 followers 700 following 740 posts
(she/her) Urbanist, gardener, bike commuter, armchair architect, interested in local politics and journalism. If you’re cis I trust you less. Read as many books as you can. YYJ
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
psketti.ca
Fires have historically never occurred in single family homes, which is why we need to preserve our “complete communities” and enforce euclidian zoning
psketti.ca
Look, what you’re saying makes perfect sense, and I agree with all of it. I’m just trying to describe what the actual current conditions are like. Changing people’s minds is very challenging and I wish you luck. But the current market conditions are directly responsible for the unsold units
psketti.ca
If you can find a single lender in today’s economy to do that, I suggest you do so, because I’m not aware of any entity looking for additional risk right now
psketti.ca
I don’t agree with everything the mayor says, but I do agree with this. If we let perfect be the enemy of good then we will never do anything at all. Let’s see how this works and then adjust accordingly.
psketti.ca
Everyone on earth should take a calm quiet walk through their neighbourhood at 6am.
A view to the east of a rising sun, the gradient of dark blue to brilliant orange to gentle yellow to soft blue is centred in the frame and enclosed on each side by street trees. In the foreground, Gladstone Avenue crests a hill and falls out of view.
psketti.ca
And it only takes one lender or insurance broker saying “you can’t do that” to force a developer to maintain the status quo
psketti.ca
The presentation will discuss concrete actions that we can take as a society, as friends, and as individuals to support healing and improve everyone’s health and well-being.

It’s in the David Strong Building, room C118, at 5pm tonight. #yyj #uvic
psketti.ca
This talk will describe case studies of how parental and childhood exposure to traumatic experiences, such as residential schools and genocide, can affect individual health and wellbeing. While these early experiences are significant, research shows these outcomes are not set in stone.
psketti.ca
The idea that stress can influence our health has become well accepted. But did you know that stress experienced in early life, including by your parents before you were born, could also impact your health?
psketti.ca
Today at 5pm up at uvic, there is a talk being led by Dr. Zaneta Thayer, who is an Associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College that you all should go to.

It’s called On the Importance of Good Beginnings. #yyj it’s free and it’s open to anyone.
psketti.ca
you’re correct. But changing a whole industry is not a simple task
psketti.ca
Anyways, you probably already know all of this so I should stop typing now. But most developers these days aren’t being greedy, they’re trying to stop their business from collapsing under immense debt.
psketti.ca
A lot of this is real estate industry bigwigs lying through their teeth about what a house should actually look like. I’ve heard builders say that every room *has to* have an ensuite and a walk in closet now, because no one will buy otherwise. Which we all know isn’t true. This drives up build costs
psketti.ca
Developers are actually losing money in some cases, yet the prices still are where they are. The unfortunate reality is that the cost of construction is now higher than what people are willing to pay for a home. Developers aren’t dropping prices because they’ll lose even more than they already are
psketti.ca
Before you know it, what looked like a ten million dollar project at the start has become a $14 million project. So in order to make any money at all, the developer is moving to a margin of almost zero profit after expenses. That’s why so many projects are stalling, or not even beginning at all.
psketti.ca
That $10 million project also has to pay the salaries of people who work for the developer who aren’t directly involved in the construction (purchasers, administrators, lawyers, financial managers, salespeople. Not to mention that taking that big a loan out is extremely risky if the project stalls
psketti.ca
And if the cost of labour or materials rises faster than the original estimate at the start of the project, which DEFINITELY happened between 2021 and now, then the $10 million project might actually be a $13 million project.
psketti.ca
The main problem is that developers have to pay interest on the loans they take out, and most multi-family projects in the last ten years have taken 2-4 years from planning to occupancy, so at 5% interest a $10 million project ends up costing the developer $12 million after interest,
psketti.ca
Samesies tbh. But the OCP’s greenways proposals look like they’ll be creating a network of extremely pedestrianized corridors
psketti.ca
There’s a lot of things that should’ve been done better. But at least it’s a lot better than before. My hope is that things keep getting slowly better forever and ever amen
psketti.ca
Haegert Park has been having “improvements” for most of the year now… and yet there’s just no info about it anywhere
psketti.ca
Reminder that you can have your say in Victoria’s transit network! The survey stays open til October 26!
Reposted by Lucy O’Brien
lucasbrowneyes.bsky.social
Microsoft shoved their AI Copilot into everything in Windows 11. Which lead to an increase in Windows 10 use. So they announced they'd stop support for Windows 10, but its usage was still strong. So they started to put Copilot into Windows 10.

Windows 7 use is surging 5x now.

AI is product poison.
psketti.ca
I think (and I might be wrong about this) that what Dave meant in his original post is that he is doing this as a person, but is not speaking as a councillor on behalf of the city, and that his analysis may contain personal opinion that is not endorsed by everyone on council.