Are White Rock's High-Rises THAT Bad? - The White Rock High-Rise Dilemma 

Thank you Arden, you made me feel nostalgic! Lovely post and drone footage!

I love this new generation of young story tellers. Doing their research and getting deep into a topic.

This is such a well done video Arden!

as someone from a city with 500.000 inhabitants where no highrise has been build in the last 30 years. (yay europe) We have all the same problems so its ludicrous to think high-rises caused them.

Thank you for reminding me of home. I went homeless and ended up in Quebec so I could live indoors on my pension. My childhood and my sons early years were often spent at the beach; sometimes stayed in cabins at White Rock. I was born in North Vancouver. In both places you may find yourself travelling over a hill to suddenly seeing the ocean through the trees. That is what I have in my dreams to come home to see again. I guess few ask where the displaced go. 🥰🥰🥰🤑🤑🤑

I’m 62 years old - I remember when White Rock was a sleepy border town with not much going on. But that was part of its charm, at the same time. Now, the entire Metro Vancouver region is under pressure to create housing. And one thing that never changes is that the wealthy never experience a housing shortage.

My 86 year old mother lives in a nice older apartment building that is being surrounded by huge towers over the last 7 years, with more to come. More traffic, yet ironically fewer neighbours, what with most of the new towers being inhabited by foreigners if they’re inhabited at all. Sad.

Homelessness is no longer hidden because the number of people being displaced by gentrification is so high. When you build expensive towers it raises the property valuation in the entire area, and land taxes increase. Which means rents increase, which in turn means many, many people are displaced. The number of homeless has risen dramatically since they began gentrification of the DTES and the Surrey Central area. We can not remedy this problem while we still allow the elite and corporations to tax dodge. Btw, retirement communities are not cheap, they are a far cry from affordable housing unless your income is around 2,500 p/month. The bottom line is, there needs to be more affordable housing everywhere.

As someone who grew up in White Rock, I honestly like the new towers. Semiahmoo mall, and all the strip malls were frankly terrible parking craters. My biggest beef with development in the area is all the terrible stuff going up along King George Blvd. It's far too car centric and completely unwalkable.

they fucked my town up so bad :/

Great video. I grew up in White Rock in the 80s and 90s. It may seem ironic but I think we had more diversity then than now, diversity in housing, diversity in income and ability. My parents bought their mixed-use building on Marine Drive, across the street from where you were standing at the old train station, for $50,000 in 1980. It was where we lived and worked. Growing up there were rich kids and poor kids, a healthy mix of class. There was one homeless person in town who was well known. We ourselves were solidly working class back in those days but could still own a home on the beach.

I grew up in White Rock and lived there for 33 years. The main issue with the high rises is that White Rock only has a limited amount of tax revenue for the city to function.. It has long been a concern that White Rock could get swallowed up by Surrey. White Rock has no businesses or industry which provide tax base revenue for the city to function. Their only sources of tax revenue has been residential housing, and the parking meters along Marine Drive. White Rocks city limits run from 8th to 16th, and 160th to 132nd. So 8 blocks by 28 blocks. Its a small town, with limited space. Creating population density high rises is the only way to increase taxable income for the city to function.

when they cut out trees they made White Rock into a parking lot, Joni Mitchell song about making parking lots back in the 1970's so here we are They had refused to listen. Thanks Arden.

i love your enthusiasm dude, super entertaining and thought provoking

Great journalism! You earn one subscription. Hope to see more. PS - On a personal note, I think the answer to the homeless is more mid-rise supported buildings. These people don't just need homes, they need a support staff who will help them, feed them and support them on an individual level and treat them like humans. I think Atira is a great example of an organisation here that does a great job at that. The more funding we throw at these kind of organisations the better. A lot of those who are homeless are dealing with substance or mental issues, and just need that support they need to stay off the streets.

I dont want to raise a family in a box

You might have missed the rather important details of Oceana Parc retirement community!!! It's for the rich seniors, not the ones depending on their pensions. From the website: 1 bedroom suites start at $4599/month....that's a limited time offer but does include meals and cleaning. 2 bedroom + den units start at $12,300/month.

I appreciate the work you put into this ! Good job

When the company that built the luxury condo building that you live in builds another luxury condo building that blocks your view, that’s just the way of the development company creating a bunch of low income housing. No more view = lower priced housing units

With the passing of BC Bills 44, 46, and 47, any meaningful public consultation with regards to development is finished. Where there's transit and in White Rock's case with future bus rapid transit, the province can and will dictate density.

Great Video and A Canuck myself. It's clear to see Vancouver is changing so its up to us to speak our voice and make the changes we want. Personally I like the Density as long as we minimize sprawl improve urban life and maintain our forests!

Growing up in and around White Rock, I'm genuinely excited that we are trending towards more medium and high density housing.

3:50 loved this part, you really did stay up till 5:00am

At work we have a client that owns six of the low density lots in Semiahmoo around 156 Street. They worked with their architect and the City of Surrey at the OCP stage to subdivide into 14 lots. I'm not sure how this will change with the new BC mandate when each lot can essentially build up to three units. Their design for the home includes a basement containing a 2 bedroom suite and a potential studio, only requirement they have not met is parking for the basement units.

Outstanding, informative and super engaging video. Well done!

I'm delighted to see young people taking an interest in these issues. It's easy, when you're young, to adopt a fashionable, passive, low-effort cynicism, then complain when society doesn't address your needs. Young people caring, thinking, learning, and most of all VOTING, is the path to progress. If you go to any public meeting for some development issue, it will invariably be dominated by older people with a "hey, you damn kids, get off my lawn!" mentality. All sorts of decisions get made that disproportionately reflect that group --- which is a legitimate part of a city's life, but far from the only part.

Thanks for posting! Nice to see niche content

Soon White Rock will do it's self justice in the eyes of Yellowknife: a city with significantly less people and 9 buildings 10 stories or higher (with the highest being 17). I came from Chilliwack, a city with only a 9 story building added for over a couple of decades. Doesn't change much. The growth is towards the highway and Sardis.

Nicely done. Thank you for this 🎉🎉🎉

Those photos at the start were so nostalgic!

Thanks for your video as i have not been to White Rock in a long time. You do great videos

Extremely informative and very well spoken. Subscribed

You got good quality videos for such a small channel. Hope you grow.

Just found the channel. I guess you're hitting the algorithm 😊 good work

Great video. White Rock is an interesting case study for development. It's so far removed from most of the metro region, yet there is very high demand to live there (for obvious reasons).

Nice. I seem to be coming back to your work more and more.

GREAT WORK! DIDNT KNOW THIS MUCH ABOUT WHITE ROCK

What a great video, as a person who grew up in the 70s,80s, and 90s in ocean park/ crescent Beach/ white Rock I saw the expansion and I mirror what your saying. And Fyi I grew up with a family from south Africa with your last name.

I lived there in the 70s, currently it is a text book example of shocking, gross over development. Someone must have profited immensely

What a great video essay

Well done video. Very professional.

I’m moving to White Rock in one week! How did RU-vid know to recommend this video? (LOL). Anyway, fascinating video. Very well done Arden, thank you!

Great video, had never heard of this place.

Thanks for creating local content like this.

Fire video dude! Very imformative!

Love the video! You should make a video on the development of Surrey Central becoming a new downtown core. I really enjoyed how you showed us how times have changed from 2008 to now. If you did the same for the Surrey Central area, you’d notice a significant difference too

Really interesting and well presented

You have done an excellent job of research and presentation in this thoughtful and easy to watch and understand video! Big congratulations and I hope to see more of your videos here. My one concern is about the resources of our community such as hospitals, police and fire departments that have not expanded to meet the needs of this increasing population. About homelessness, there is a millionaire in our Eastern Provinces who took his own money and 2 years of time in order to build a tiny house village of 96 homes for those in need. God Bless all those who take time to be kind and do what they can for others.

A beauty of a video

Thanks for the video. I remember when the resturant was on the side of the pier (2:29). Getting on the train to Portland and Vancouver. When I left White Rock the tallest building was the newly built Hospital that just passed the water tower, both on North Bluff. It was many years later that the block between North Bluff - 20th Ave, and 152nd - 148th Street which was woodland with an old sawmill, and the White Rock fire station was converted to a housing and the shopping centre. I should note that this is in Surrey not White Rock (the easy way to tell is if it is a numbered street or avenue then it is Surrey, White Rock names their roads, streets, and avenues. .

I have visited White Rock last summer twice and once in spring, I was happy to see small coastal town, quit uniq and it's associated to mee with two colors Blue and Green, I'm also afraid that it eventualy turn in to another megapolise like Seatle ar Portland or Vancouver, with concrate soul ( where people doesn't know each other and their neibor... at least I was lucky to be able in my lifetime to make a video about the White Rock before it changed to new unknown city. ❤

Great video. I didn’t realize that White Rock separated from Surrey around the same time as the Langley separation. There is so much good commentary in this video. I would caution conflating White Rock housing market with South Surrey. Although the real estate industry does this, it makes it confusing for people. These are two different city councils making two very different styles of housing. The Mayor of White Rock has nothing to do with Ocean Park, Semiahmoo, or Morgan Crossing. The benchmark White Rock single family home, benchmark townhome (the limited amount), and benchmark apartment are ALL lower priced than South Surrey. South Surrey is mostly standard suburban sprawl. Despite being farther apart from the ocean and not having the beautiful White Rock views, it has a premium cost. New luxury apartments may not help the entry level apartment market directly. But it has an indirect affect. There is a segment of the market that always wants the newest, best, bright, flashy product. So they end up ditching their old or ignoring the old for the new. The older, “less desired” units become more affordable. That’s exactly what has happened in cities like White Rock and New Westminster, which is why their apartments are more affordable than the cities that immediately surround them.

Great analysis dude! Absolutely well done! As a Van Isle resident you think you could cover the rail restoration talks over here?

One issue which most people are unaware of with density in B.C. is that strata living is not simple. It legally can be extremely complex and costly to owners. Legal issues with bylaws, human rights etc. stratas are very common for developers to choose to build as they’re the most cost effective for them. You can have as small as a duplex.

You are very deftly avoiding the foreign buyers who are the biggest demanders and purchasers of luxury housing and have caused our local residents to be priced out of the market. Money laundering and drug money and using the housing market for investment rather than for actual housing is bringing disaster.

Great video , so informative, 👍❤️🇨🇦

HOLY CHITINSKI BRO!!!...thsts way 2 many high rises!!....i grew up in coquitlam...iam 6oyrs now...this is actually terrible..THANK U 4 THE INFO...U DID AN EXCELLENT JOB ON NARRATING ❤❤❤

I just bought a condo unit in White Rock. It is RM 3 zoned, which is rare in white rock. I'm hoping a developer will buy it and I'll get a big payday. My family owned the property for the Altus but they didn't get a huge payday because they sold in 2016. I wish they were smarter about it when they sold

boy, you are good! And going up is inevitable, land is scarce, what you see is what you get, how to accommodate more people? stack them up-highrises.

I remember hearing stories of my grandmother and great grandmother in White Rock back in the 30s. Where they were a mile up from the beach. During the depression, my great grandmother wukd. Give bagged meals to the peole riding the trains

Kudos for making this great video about White Rock… a little long, but well done… Keep it up

When you consider the booming population of the whole Lower Mainland, the pressure on the environment as development spreads outwards, and the soaring cost of housing, high-rises are inevitable! On the other hand you are right that the character of White Rock has always been its beach town vibe. As long as city planners keep the high-rises uphill and well away from the waterfront area I for one am not going to carp about it.

Current Sfu comp-sci student and on campus resident that used to live in Langley, White rock used to be the place me my friends drove to to hang out on the pier, I wish it was more accessible by Transit when I was younger. Super hyped about the skytrain to Langley though(would’ve been even more helpful when I was bussing to Douglas for two years from Langley Township😭😭), because a lot of my friends still live there now I don’t have a car, it takes so long to get there :((( that be sick to see a video on from you if you’re interested in that as well!

You a cool guy. This is a good ass video

One of the biggest issues with WR is that the City has historically been very weak in the infrastructure department. The cost of infrastructure upgrades drives up the cost of housing.

Just wait till it looks like the west end of Vancouver! And it eventually will.

Quality video. Hope to see more sometime soon and for that algorithm to pick you up.

Great job.

Thank you for the video. Not sure how to solve the missing middle crisis. But as we become house poor, we don’t buy as much nor do we eat out much. The result is the downtown core dies, restaurants close, stores that sell nick knacks reduce their stock and eventually go out of business, bars close. People can’t afford to work in retail jobs because all their wages go to rent and they must use food banks to live. We see this in Victoria BC. With the loss of the government workers due to remote work and rise in homelessness, pretty well every thing starts to close at 4 pm and after 6 the only things open are Value Village, Tim Hortons, grocery stores, and the bars. Note the police building lock their doors at 4:30 pm. My guess is well over %25 of the office buildings are empty in the downtown core. If it was not for the tourists everyone would be shopping in Saanichton and Langford. Victoria virtually is a ghost town filled with the homeless and tourists. The clock is ticking for Victoria, there are lots of new condos being built in the core. Those new tenants will put some pressure on city council. These people will not tolerate their shiny new buildings surrounded by tents and the homeless.

Kinda hard to avoid increase in housing cost when cost of land, labor (to build), materials, permits, taxes, interest rates, etc. continue to go up and while demand remains high. Subsidized housing by the government could help, but only a fraction of the population can ever get that and it means even more taxes. Since it's usually based on income, it can deincentivize people to not earn more than a certain amount, otherwise they may not qualify anymore. So not sure what the solution is.

Please make multi-part video essay series on bringing back the Zellers

You are growing up to be a fine young man Arden. I'm a high school senior and plan on being a fine young man too

Yo I love the drone shots Could you please do one on Burnaby Brentwood and Metrotown developments I would actually love that.

At night, from the Blaine side the Highrise look like Mr.Crabs from Spongebob

I remember White Rock back in the 1960's. It was a bit of a dump compared to what it looks like now.

There was a time when the Federal Government said a renter should never pay more than 30% of their income. That same government gives 'pensions' and I doubt anyone in White Rock rents for $600 or less. One alternative would be to introduce U.B.I. No homeless would be under the poverty line. PS....... In 1986, where 16th & 152nd met, you walked an uneven gravel walkway into Semiahmoo Mall, in the heart of the city. Lots has changed.

Do you have any rental or pricing data on older high-rises vs newer high-rises? White Rock seems to actually be in not a bad place. I kinda think you just need a little time to let the older housing stock become the more affordable housing.

That's why I left in 2018

The only solution is to mesh Mass Immigration Policy with New Home Construction Rates. Since Expo 86, the Federal Government has ignored this basic common sense approach and has brought in more immigrants than we can build homes for hence why housing prices have skyrocketed to become the worlds 2nd highest cost per sq. ft. behind only Hong Kong. In 2023, Trudeau brought in 1.2M new immigrants while we only building 158K new homes...thus the next 7 years of home construction is simply to house last years immigrants. I hate to say this but Canada will crumble and home prices and homelessness is about to get 10X worse.

I grew up in White Rock and totally forgot what it used to look like even 15 years ago

I love you Arden

Lived on Kent Street for 12 years. Moved. ‘Nuff said.

nice editing ✅✅

What a well done video about a place I have no connection to.

If you’re trying to increase your tax base, by allowing more people to live in WR, you have a few choices. Plan A- build more high-rises and leave the single-family neighbourhood alone. Plan B- build more low rises, and reduce the number of single family homes. I like Plan A better.

Vancouver Vancouver will be a delightful place to live following the pole shift, with a far warmer climate, spared ice and snow in the winter, and close to the coastline as it is at present. Rising water following the polar melt will spare much of the mountains surrounding Vancouver, making the step out of the rising water fairly easy for survivors to deal with. For Vancouver, the issue is not being positioned after the shift, but surviving the shift itself. The Canadian West Coast in general will suffer from rapid subduction that will melt the rock in low lying places, due to heat from friction, and many local Indian tribes have tales and myths of such times. Tidal waves will assault the area, and volcanoes up and down the coast, dormant and active alike, will explode. Those who would survive might consider moving inland for the shift itself, and then returning. Be advised that bridges and roads will not be passable, so the return trip should be anticipated to be essentially on foot. Vancouver Island has added drama as the Juan de Fuca plate will separate under the pressure of subduction and act as a separate entity from both the North America and the Pacific plates. This is the reason for the island having been created in the first place, during prior shifts. Because activity is compression, with the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plates riding over plates sliding under, legends relay hot earth and boiling rivers. This will be less of a problem during this shift than in the past, as protecting layers of rock have already been pushed under the island. Nevertheless, two activities the coast will not have to deal with will be presented on the island: The Vancouver Island is likely to drift further toward Alaska, during compression, and find itself faced with a new coastline as a neighbor. This would be in the range of 100 miles or less. Thus, survival sites or supplies harbored on the coast may not be close at hand after the shift, to be retrieved by boat. Buckling and heaving upward during compression of the Pacific, during the hour of the shift, is likely to result in jolts sending survivors upward, a lateral quake, so survival in covered trenches needs to include a secure roof close to those lying in the trenches so they will not be dashed up. After the shift and the polar melt, the island will find itself with more area above the 675 foot area, having gained 100 or more feet of sea level during the compression. Note San Andreas Slide commentary.

We need non-market housing. Even if developers are given the land for free, they will always price at the highest they can.

Five Corners has a great tea room Clancy's Tea Cozy...Woe I was there a year ago, what growth, ruining the little city

oceana park is one of the building in whiterock i was driving building panels to all those panels are KPS panels i no longer live in BC i had to relocate my mom outside of BC after someone broke into her townhouse in squamish and stole 150K in gold and silver insurance police and everything else told us we are SOL for having gold and silver stolen so we had to move from BC to a small town in southwest SK now i am stuck because i can't up root and leave my mom in the middle of no where so i take everything one day at a time and hopefully in the future i can help her recover after this ordeal....

It's because we restrict housing construction so much that causes the prices to be so high. If every housing project is an expensive battle then why wouldn't you want to make the most money for it? Plus with the costs of hard materials and labour increasing by so much it is impossible to build "affordable" new housing without subsidies. Metro Vancouver has compounded this problem with new development charges that effectively place the burden of city maintenance/services on new development. If you want "affordable" housing you have to build a ton of it as fast as possible. Removing density-limiting zoning restrictions, remove stupid CACs and you will see the housing prices go down. Every new "luxury" high rise houses people, and these people would have otherwise competed for lower priced apartment with lower income tenants.

Do a poll with long time homeowners only... they are the ones who are the major tax contributors

all cities grow or they die -- the water front of white rock trying to maintain its "quaint" style is dumb and it should be modernized as most of those buildings no longer meet building codes in a lot of ways which makes them a hazard especially in emergency settings which are going to likely become more prevalent in the future. While I don't live in white rock I frequented it often when I was younger and always found it odd that the beach front was never developed with a "beach front style" while modernizing the buildings and infrastructure and has largely remained the same since I was a kid -- this is bad for 2 reasons. 1: not modernizing the beach front with newer buildings and better infrastructure is a hazard as I mentioned before. 2: as time goes by the beach a common place for people to want to congregate becomes unreasonably busy -- which based on my last visit to the area is already above and beyond at this point during peak times, creating both some unsafe conditions and likely will lead to damaging the tourism the city largely relies on. as for pricing people out -- lets be real here most water fronts are excessively expensive to begin with and always will be its not an excuse to potentially harm people in certain events and or stop the community from growing and improving. On missing middle largely this isnt going to solve expensive housing in bc at all a majority of it is city, provincial and federal bloat on the costs associated with building anything in this country and unless that is fixed pricing wont really come down in popular cities like white rock -- additionally its highly unlikely that anyone in the gov is actually pushing for cheaper housing when the truth is anything that reduces the cost of housing is more or less going to be a death sentence to someone's political career because 60% of people in this country own their home and losing equity in their home is a good way to lose votes. only way to make housing affordable is to improve the economy and increase the amount of higher paying jobs which means we need more industry because no one ever will make enough to afford a home working at food services job.

Maybe I missed something. I understand the importance of having the missing middle housing but the key to it working is that all the housing, from highrise to midrise to lowrise, is integrated. I think it's a crying shame what they've done by 24th ave and 168th. It's like there's no identity. One home is a clone of the other. I could never live in anything like that as I refuse to conform, to fit in, to be like everybody else. Even the different facades of the different blocks look too much alike. There's no driving or walking through the neighborhood with anything to captivate one's attention. The shops are all separated so there's no walking to the corner store to chat with neighbors. There's no integration of housing styles, small businesses, parkland, nor people. Everyone has their 24 foot identical wide yard with facade and that's it. The critical thing is, zoning has to change to allow for integration. Now there's a good bandwagon to join in on. Thanks Arden for all that about highrises. It's controversial and I'm not sure what side I'm on yet. In Vancouver there's great financial incentive for the highrises to be setback from the sidewalk and sit on a platform. I like that idea as the visual transition to the towers is a lot more comfortable, and it provides for more water views through the buildings. The concept for Semiahmoo Mall looks good so far I think. Just hope they keep all the highrises at the top of the hill.

Price is dictated by demand.

The problem is they're ugly and break the asthetic. It would be an improvement if there were building standards. Instead it's all glass and no people.

the high-rises are all far from the beach, the waterfront still has a unique look and feel

Does Sean Spencer still work behind you at the psychic detective agency?

Pointing to Burnaby and Vancouver as being successful with high rises doesn’t make sense when they are sold abroad and to REITs for huge prices.

Canada and the US has a desperate need for affordable apartments WITH government oversight on rent prices. The private sector has proven incapable

dealers and only fans needed proper housing 😂 fr tho