The Monster Homes Dilemma

People moaning about the size and extravagant design of homes in West Vancouver is nothing new. This neighbourhood is a well-heeled one and public outcries are par for the course when it comes to complaints about home sizes. Mostly the type of moans and groans come from planning application requests. One family may have applied to build and extension with a summer house and two extra bedrooms and the only thing the neighbour, or indeed neighbours can think about will be the incessant noise from builders and developers who will no doubt be working on the project from morning through until last light.

The council which oversees planning application in West Vancouver are mulling over a limit on the size of a new home build. If such a limit is opposed then what will that limit be? Will the council restrict new build homes to a certain bedroom limit and will this impact on the value of an entire district?

A recent meeting was held in West Vancouver which invited members of the public to speak out on the issues they felt directly affected their beloved neighbourhood. Passions were running high and the debate raged on for well over an hour. Many feel the sheer size and amount of “monster homes” being built in West Vancouver threatens to damage the character of the area forever.

The problem is, when a district has radically changing land values (in West Vancouver’s case the land value has soared) then the design and style of the house changes too. Why build a small little one bedroom home on a plot that has very high land values? Prospectors want to get more bang for buck; or in this case build a nice nine-bed, nine-bathroom family monster house and sell it on one day for millions of dollars.

It is something that has happened in the past both here in Vancouver and in other big cities in North America where land values shot up. An influx of new development will see big homes replace the small town houses and then the character and charm of the place is immediately under threat.

The West Vancouver council has to tread a fine line with approving only plans that fit in with the existing neighbourhood, or risk the wrath of the residents that have lived in the neighbourhood for years and feel as though their home town is under threat from overzealous investors.

Republicans Grab Control of the Senate

The Republicans have grabbed control of the Senate for the first time in eight long years after all the results of the mid-term elections came in. It was in some of the key southern states (and the mid-west) where the Republicans surprisingly won those votes; states like West Virginia, Arkansas, Iowa, Colorado, North Carolina and the remote northern state of Montana.

The Republicans are expected to post even more gains as voting ballot forms are counted in other states. Senator Mitch McConnell told Americans the mid-term election win was a vote "against a government the people cannot trust" and the Senator is now firmly placed to lead the chamber.

Why Mid-Terms?

The election comes almost exactly half way through President Barack Obama's second term in office. The Republicans focused on President Obama's final term in office and his "mistrust" with the American voter. The party now controls 52 seats in the Senate, and it is finally poised to win more. In fact, not since the 1930's has the Republican majority in the House of Representatives been so high.

Barack Obama's has been deeply unpopular in the run up to these elections but it's not just him; the American voters are fed up with all of its politicians. This means that when Mitch McConnell steps up to contest the presidency he could find voter anger or apathy firing off his way there too. We have known all along that the buck always stops with the President, which is why Obama is suffering this so bad this morning.

Republican Rick Gets His Job Back

Latest: Rick Scott has been re-elected as Governor of Florida following a very tight race.  Thom Thillis has succeeded in North Carolina ousting the Democrat Kay Hagan. Moreover, the Republicans can celebrate the first ever black Republican to be elected to the elite House - Mia Love in Utah is celebrating wildly.

Driver Smashes Into Number of Pedestrians in East Jerusalem

A suspected terrorist attack in East Jerusalem on Wednesday morning has injured three people seriously. The attack came in the form of a car driver deliberately ramming several pedestrians just hours after protests had erupted at the most holiest site in Jerusalem - The Temple Mount.

The suspect in the car was shot dead by security officials and the Temple Mount was closed to tourists and visitors alike. The shrine - known as  al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslim worshippers - was the scene of earlier protests by around 100 Palestinians. In fact, there has been a great deal of tension building up since a right-wing Jewish activist was seriously wounded in a shooting.

Rabbi Glick wants Jews to be able to prey at the site. But the al-Aqsa Mosque (which is located inside Temple Mount) is one of the most preserved sites to the Islamic culture on the planet. The protests on Wednesday morning did turn rather ugly at one point with several police officers being wounded by fireworks. The police responded with stun grenades but did not make any arrests.

Last week, the main suspect in the shooting of Rabbi Glick was gunned down by Israeli police after they surrounded his home in East Jerusalem. Moataz Hejazi, a 31-year old Palestinian shot at officers who had arrived to arrest him and the police returned fire killing the suspect. Palestinians took to the streets to protest about the enforced closure of the holy site (pictured above) since Thursday. Generally there has been much unrest since June in East Jerusalem as the Palestinian population are still angry with the Israeli authorities for the latest attacks in the Gaza province this summer.