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Dan Fumano: How a Vancouver neighbourhood fought, and defeated, a daycare
(vancouversun.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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To my surprise, by the end of the article I was against the daycare too
Genuinely curious: why?
I agreed with their complaint that this sets a precedent that would allow people to start all kinds of businesses from their homes that would disrupt the entire neighborhood. I don’t know why the people got so angry about it though.
Also, 16 kids getting dropped off/picked up by their parents at the same time of day crowding the road, 16 kids playing outside and screaming two hours a day, I wouldn’t want to live next to that. I can choose not to live next to a park or a playground, I can’t control if my neighbor decides to turn their home into a playground.
But when you live in a city you have to accept some level of "disturbance" (remember this is children playing, not a rock concert) from others. Following your logic, we wouldn't be allowed to permit anything in the entire city ever again. Vancouver desperately needs new things like daycares and housing and we can't let the loudest (and richest) residents veto their inclusion.
Zooming out, this is 10 minutes from the downtown core of Vancouver, the region of 3 million people. You can't expect it to be preserved in amber forever. Ultimately this will mean fewer families are allowed to live in Vancouver because childcare is so important, and that hurts the entire city.
Which often sounds like murder due to the blood-curdling screaming kids do these days, for fun. It's not the happy giggling like on TV.
I work in a childcare centre which has a capacity of about 70 children on the busiest days. It's not that loud. And children don't often just scream for no reason. It happens of course, but they don't just stand around screaming at the top of their lungs. And when they do decide on screaming or there's a dispute generally there's an educator to sort it out. You sound really out of touch.
Making up things to be angry about.
Yeah, you seem like the common SUN reader.
This daycare is across the street from Douglas Park.
There is one park and two schools within 1.5 blocks of Douglas Park.
Oak st is one block from Douglas Park
Cambie st is 2.5 blocks from Douglas Park.
If they want a quiet neighborhood they should move somewhere else.
The city should redevelop all the land that faces the park and build dense, mixed affordability housing and childcare.
I bet there's a reason they don't. I don't know what it is, because I'm not a city planner, but I bet they know why, because they are city planners.
Yeah the reason is making nimbys angry
I think getting upset about noise from children playing in the middle of the day is absurd. But, I think the concern about precedent setting is valid. If this is a genuine concern of the residents that claim this is why they don’t want the daycare, I’d propose a change in local rules that specifically carve out an exception for daycares so that it is explicitly not precedent setting. If it’s just NIMBYs gonna NIMBY, I expect even a carve out wouldn’t be good enough.
I'd say the problem here is this isn't precedent-setting. It's not a rule change, it's an arbitrary process making an arbitrary decision based on the arbitrary opinion of the city's chief planner. Daycares should be by right but because of this insane ad hoc process we have no clear guidance on what's allowed where. Just because one guy opens a day care in point grey doesn't mean the next guy can open a nuclear plant.
Well, someone's forgotten that some people are more sensitive to sound. What's false consensus again?
As mentioned elsewhere, within a block and a half there's a city park and a school already. People so sensitive to sound should fuck off to the suburbs.
Do you have kids in daycare? I do and my daycare is awesome.
Literally none of the stuff you talk about ever happens, it’s a well-regulated school that takes amazing care of our kids and everything is under control. If there’s 3 parents picking up or dropping off at the same time it’s the exception. Maybe twice a week? A pickup or dropoff takes about 5 min so there’s not a lot of overlap.
These are just talking points from grouchy nimbys.
It’s also worth considering if the city is densifying as people are asking for there’s gonna be huge demand for all of the services (including childcare) that go along with that densification.
Side note, I like your username!