Yuppy Scum

aer suzuki: 2nd Jun 2006 - 09:09 GMT

That's funny.

Those condos are ugly as hell but not nearly as ugly as some they're putting up, or have recently put up, here in Seattle. Strange how the pursuit of scads of money and a lack of good taste often go hand in hand.

elaine: 2nd Jun 2006 - 09:37 GMT

i take issue with the use of the word 'regency'. if the regency period was a brand it would sue bigtime.

Susan: 2nd Jun 2006 - 13:25 GMT

This urban blight is spreading malignantly across southern Ontario too. The shores of Lake Ontario (for those of you who don't know, it's the size of an inland fresh water sea)and it's cooling effect during our stinking humid summers,are deadened by high rises. Harbourfront in Toronto being a prime example.

ian: 2nd Jun 2006 - 16:05 GMT

Yawn. Only people with shit jobs complain about yuppies. You should be happy people are so desperate to move back into the city they'll live in bland, soulless complexes like this.

groovehouse: 2nd Jun 2006 - 18:50 GMT

We have these things 'inside the loop' where I live here in Houston. The workmanship is so shoddy and they are put up so fast, I have noticed that some of the one's they built about 5+ years ago are already falling apart in places!! People who build these things should be held to higher standards especially after ruining neighborhoods by integrating these things in areas where wonderful bungalows used to be. Die inner city developers, die!

Biff: 2nd Jun 2006 - 20:23 GMT

This looks like public housing. They better have a big pool and a full gym...

I.T.U.C.: 3rd Jun 2006 - 17:08 GMT

Yeah, the Regency (UK, 1760-1820). A mad monarch under the influence of the first stirrings of corporate greed and the peasant-hood blessed with rickets, scurvy, beaten down with rum sodomy and the lash; what a time to live. But a place!!!

I.T.U.C.: 5th Jun 2006 - 06:44 GMT

RUM: "a spirit, distilled from fermented sugar cane juice; an intoxicating liquor". And here’s the rub, made from sugar cane grown by African slaves in the West Indies during the late 18th Century. Produced to intoxicate the working class poor and the British military, into an expectance of their impoverished existences. Oh! and now the drink of the nouveau-riche "Yuppie-scum"...

Chris Erb: 6th Jun 2006 - 20:05 GMT

This building is actually quite nice to Fredericton standards. Even though Fredericton is one of the richest places in Atlantic Canada, it's still quite poor compared to much of the rest of Canada. These condos will likely be in high demand once they go up for sale. I imagine they'll sell for about $250 000 which is quite a lot around here.

The interesting thing is it's built in an area that isn't exactly considered the nicest part of town. It's about a 5 minute walk from downtown and close to a grocery store but that's about all its location has. It's just off Needham street which is where I used to live which is known as the drug street here. Across the street is an empty lot and a lighting store, to the right of it is a big ugly grocery store built in an old rail yard which has a big empty lot behind it with a decaying train station.

It's been designed to match the old school that has been turned into apartments near it. it fails miserable (especially the fake towers on the top) and is pretty bland (however, like I said before, it's much nicer than other apartments in the city).

Is the graffiti on the sign correct? You better believe it, there will be young government beuracrats and rich grad students crawling all over the place.

The name is an off shoot of Regent Street which is one of the main streets in the city and is about a block away. Everything within a couple blocks from the street has "Regent" somewhere in the name.

Chris Erb: 6th Jun 2006 - 20:05 GMT

Also, I drove by the other day, the graffitti has been very carefully painted over.

Grange: 10th Jun 2006 - 00:19 GMT

It says , "Regency Landing " which suggests its on the water , and unloads trade from around the world .
Yippies , they have to have somewhere to live , and play. With pastel sweaters , tennis rackets , and SUV"s to tackle the 1/2 of rain and express their road rage . OR MAYBE their bicycle rage !!! hummmmm .
There the lost generation .
But hey someone has to ridicule the low paying , hard working single parents eh !

Chris Erb: 13th Jun 2006 - 00:23 GMT

I don't know where the "Landing" part of the name came from. There are apartments up the hill called Regency Heights which makes sense. Maybe it's because the city is on a river?

GUS BRENNAN: 20th Jun 2006 - 23:38 GMT

REGENCY LANDING MY BACKSIDE, THIS IS NO MORE REGENCY THAN THE ARCHITECS WIFE, IF YOU WANT TO SEE SOME REAL OLDEN WORLDE PROPERTY CHECK OUT "BARNOLDSWICK" ON THIS WEB SITE AND YOU WILL SEE A REAL OLD TOWN, WITH PROPERTY AT A FRACTION OF THE PRICE

Chris Erb: 21st Jun 2006 - 00:20 GMT

You really love Barnoldswick!

On a sidenote, my girlfriend is moving to England soon so I sent her the link to your Barnoldswick post as I imagine she would like the scenery so you can count on at least one person seeing your "real old town".

Peter: 21st Jun 2006 - 01:49 GMT

gus: your repetative, repeated, repetative, repeated references to barnoldswick are starting to sound a bit spammy :/

t@ngent: 21st Jun 2006 - 08:20 GMT

i think he just really likes his town. a lot. but it is kinda boring now. and yes, the caps are tiresome too. obviously an aol user

GUS BRENNAN: 22nd Jun 2006 - 13:42 GMT

yes, i do really like my town, and there is nothing boring about it, as for caps, how the hell can caps be tiresome ??? will someone please explain !! so to prevent being tiresome, this is lower case, and yes i am an aol user, wait a moment! am i trying to justify my actions to internet SNOBS ????

t@ngent: 22nd Jun 2006 - 13:59 GMT

There's no snobbery, but there is such a thing as netiquette. you are perhaps new to the internet and don't realise this. many people don't until it is pointed out to them directly. Imagine walking into a room full of people having a discussion and shouting at the top of your voice to anyone who would listen. You wouldn't expect that to go down well, and your argument that shouting makes it easier for people to hear you would fall on deaf ears. There are things online which are socially acceptable and things which are not, just like in real life. Ultimately is your choice as to whether you abide by them. SHOUTING will however find you banned from most forums/blogs/newsgroups. Friendly advice, that's all.

Max: 22nd Jun 2006 - 23:51 GMT

Hi I'm a friend of the guy who posted this...
I wouldn't mind living in one of those condos lol
I'm a consumer whore!!!

Chris Erb: 23rd Jun 2006 - 02:40 GMT

Who is this consumer whore friend of mine who is also posting here? I am somewhat confused.

EvilGentleman: 23rd Jun 2006 - 04:01 GMT

I'm a consumer slut, I have little brand loyalty.

GUS BRENNAN: 23rd Jun 2006 - 08:09 GMT

t@ngent: always open to friendly advice, thankyou

saxman: 27th Jun 2006 - 16:43 GMT

I guess I'm not as hip as you guys and gals but I'm curious as to what you would prefer to see on this site? As Chris pointed out this is being built in an area that "isn't exactly considered the nicest part of town". My office is within a good three iron shot of that building (did you catch that yuppie scum reference? ;)) and I see it every day. To me this is at least bringing some new construction to an area that is quite dilapitated. Now if someone can do something with the falling down train station that he mentioned we might be getting somewhere.

Chris Erb: 27th Jun 2006 - 17:18 GMT

I myself would prefer to see some low income apartments being built. Look around downtown, there are luxery apartments going up everywhere: this one, Saunders St., Chruchill Row, the old shoe factory (not luxery but not low income either), and now Victoria St. All we're seeing is high income apartments and condos and nothing for the poor and students who really need it.

I do agree that downtown development is more than a good thing but there should be some balance

Peter: 27th Jun 2006 - 17:22 GMT

the exact same thing- overproliferation of luxury housing- is happening in nyc... where is everyone else gonna live when they all get priced out for such developments?

Chris Erb: 27th Jun 2006 - 17:28 GMT

And yes, the train station. There is an embarrassment to the city. I plan on doing a post on it when I'm done my Sussex series. To people not from Fredericton, the old train station is a building nearly beyond repair and has been declared one of the 10 top endangered historic sites in Canada. A little bit of it can be seen in the second picture in this post.

Do you work in the brick building behind the Chestnut Complex saxman or is it somewhere else?

jeeff: 27th Jun 2006 - 19:10 GMT

aside from public housing (which govts don't seem to do anymore), all new housing is marketed as 'luxury', and marketed to yuppies. that's where the money is. as yuppies move into new housing, people with slightly lower income tend to move into the housing vacated by the yuppies, and so on as everyone "moves up a step". this is called filtering. unfortunately the step up is often an illusion, as existing housing stock constantly deteriorates over time. the housing market has worked like this for a long time, but only since the 70's has filtering switched direction and produced gentrification in large cities, bringing a new pattern to old problems of class and housing entitlement.

saxman: 27th Jun 2006 - 19:23 GMT

"Do you work in the brick building behind the Chestnut Complex saxman or is it somewhere else?"

I'm in the one story office building next to the Sobey's parking lot. Jeez if you think I could hit that new building from behind the Chestnut complex with a 3 iron you must think I'm one hell of a golfer :)

Chris Erb: 28th Jun 2006 - 03:07 GMT

The yellow building by the catering place? I walk by that every day on my way to work. This city is far too small! haha

Also, if you search "Regency Landing" in google, this post is the second hit. I'm sure the developers arn't overly happy about that

SUSANNAH: 30th Jun 2006 - 13:20 GMT

Way too funny - Welcome to the neighborhood!! I wouldn't want to move in there.

Bezink: 20th Jul 2006 - 15:00 GMT

Personally, this is a great addition to that area. I would love to see the downtown core rejuvenated. It's far better than the mess they are making at the top of the hill. The fact that people would be willing to pay a pretty substantial price to be within walking distance of all their amenities, sacrificing the dream of huge houses on big lots, gives me small hope that the box-store fad will eventually die and that urban sprawl will be curbed. And I'm sorry, but I lived across the street and while the area may be shabby compared to others, it's not that bad. People pay a lot more to live by a lot worse in other cities. I fail to see the logic in wanting to preserve sketchiness.

Peter: 20th Jul 2006 - 15:15 GMT

whether its the "box-store fad", "urban sprawl" or "houses on big lots", many people tend to dislike homogeny... you know, where everything starts to look just like the others... rows of stores or suburban homes, stacks of prefab condos, etc...

Chris Erb: 20th Jul 2006 - 16:15 GMT

I'll go out with my camera this weekend and look at the building a bit more and show the area around it to give it some context. it's also much further along now than when this was posted.

Peter: 20th Jul 2006 - 16:17 GMT

nice! id love to see some updates and context too.