The girl at my work is Muslim and she's not allowed to receive interest, so she tells the bank to keep the interest on her savings accounts. It's wild. The banks have special accounts for Muslims.

Lol so they rather pay 4% on top of regular rates, sure

lol practice your religion all you want but this is the first time in history I'd side with a bank.

No wonder Jews and muslims are mortal enemies, lul

Halal mortgages are a thing. Had some buyer walk cause they couldn't secure a Halal mortgage earlier this year. I was like wtf??

LOL how do the Persian mortgage brokers survive in North van?

because persians dont give a shit about islam

Wait aren't they Iran = sanction = shot callers behind Hamas?

Iranian people who live in Canada probably aren't members of Iranian parliament, so no, it's kinda different.

the Iranians here are the ones that had to leave because their own people couldn't stand them.

Persians here are to Islam like Irish Catholics are to Catholicism.

They're pretty loosey goosey with it.

Well I finally did it. Moved last week from East Van to Burnaby. Have almost triple the square footage of the condo - plus a garage and driveway. It was a shitshow to move with two young kids, but the it was worth it. Don't have four people crammed in one room like it is 1950's Soviet Russia.

Good luck with the new home and newfound space!

RS Balling, welcome to no side walks and no street lights

^ That's one thing I didn't like about Burnaby, the sidewalks. It's very extra and a waste of space, but I like that strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb in Vancouver.

sidewalks look better than most of ditchmond and the overhanging wires. Im glad i bought a place that doesnt have overhanging wires.... so friggin ugly

I would have imagined the #1 highlight when getting out of Vancouver is no buckets nor chairs. And it's a bonus if your house has no sidewalks.... Because no need to shovel snow!

Having lived in Van my entire life I didn't even realize that Burnaby or other Cities perhaps didn't have that boulevard between the street and the sidewalk it just became the norm for me but I guess you're right in that Burnaby it's just street meets sidewalk.

I had a long time coworker who moved out of Van to Richmond and her number one thing she loved was not having to deal with lanes anymore. Mmm I suppose, some lanes are pretty shitty but I've never lived anywhere with a shitty lane so I don't hate them.

We are in a large townhouse now - so still don't have to shovel the sidewalks! But I will have to shovel a relatively large driveway. Worth it in the end. I am still amazed that I have my own bedroom and my laundry isn't in my kitchen anymore :awwyeah:

Now that you bring it up, I don't understand why we have back lanes. That's a huge waste of space that could have been my backyard :pokerface:

Though since I live on a main road, parking would be a pain, and I wouldn't be able to park 4 wide like the way I do right now.

garbage collection once a week is unsightly while my shit dont stank

Same, sidewalks in Burnaby (when they even exist) are trash. Burnaby doesn't give a shit about pedestrians.

This is very common in GTA where the backyards are against each other with no back lane. There's just no privacy it feels like since when I'm on the second floor, I can see straight into the back neighbours first floor and second floor windows. And I'm sure they could do the same thing too. You'd need some 8-12' hedges/trees to give yourself some any privacy from second floor windows.

Yeah, same situation out here, it's not great. People have trees or otherwise put up structures in their back yards as a workaround for the privacy issue you're describing. We only have the one storey and we have a sort of cabin in the back to block the view of the neighbors' second floor windows lol.

It's interesting to see the opposing opinions on back alleys. My parents definitely perceive them negatively. They raised us in Coquitlam where most of the newer subdivisions don't have alleys, so they associated them with lower income neighbourhoods and think that they're all filled with trash and people doing drugs. There's some truth in that.

There are benefits to back lanes/alleys even in SFH neighbourhoods though. Easier to maintain city services. Garages, driveways, and garbage collection don't back onto main streets and therefore don't interfere with street car or pedestrian traffic. And in this era, it's easier to increase the density of units on a lot with laneway homes. It also provides a natural break between lots backing onto each other.

With Vancouver's 33' frontage lots I'm quite happy to have back lanes. The cityscape would look pretty awful with garages at the front of each of those lots. I can't deny the curb appeal of those wider, suburban lots with the classic front driveways and garages though.