October « 2005 « Les Twarog Vancouver Real Estate and Condo Blog

Archive for October, 2005

Thumb tapping on wireless devices leads to chronic pain

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Repetitive motion injuries, which have long afflicted desktop and laptop users, are invading the mobile handheld world

Alicia Chang
Sun

CREDIT: Damian Dovarganes, Canadian Press Dr. Jennifer Weiss, assistant professor of orthopedics at the University of Southern California, types out a message on her palmOne Treos, a cellphone-size messaging device.

LOS ANGELES — Chris Claypool was addicted to his BlackBerry wireless handheld. Like many users, he never thought twice about pecking away at lightning speed, replying to a wave of e-mails from clients around the globe.

Last year, the 37-year-old agricultural sales director from Post Falls, Idaho, noticed a throbbing sensation in this thumbs whenever he typed. He switched to tapping with his index finger, then his middle digit and finally his pinky. But his thumbs pained him to the point where he can’t even press the buttons on his TV remote control.

After months of aching, Claypool took a break. Now he only uses his BlackBerry to send short messages — typing with the tip of a pencil eraser whenever his thumbs get sore.

“It affects business because I can’t whack away on my BlackBerry like I used to,” he said. “It’s just too painful.”

Repetitive motion injuries, which have long afflicted desktop and laptop computer users, are invading the mobile handheld world.

There’s even an informal name for the malady — “BlackBerry Thumb” — a catch-all phrase that describes a repetitive stress injury of the thumb as a result of overusing small gadget keypads.

Business executives and tech-savvy consumers are increasingly using BlackBerries, Treos, Sidekicks and other devices with miniature keyboards designed for thumb-tapping to stay connected while on the go.

And that has some ergonomic and hand experts worried about injuries from overexertion.

“If you’re trying to type War and Peace with your thumbs, then you’re going to have a problem,” warned Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

No national statistics exist on how many people suffer from this type of thumb ailment, but some doctors say they are seeing an upswing in related cases, said Dr. Stuart Hirsch, an orthopedist at St. Joseph‘s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, N.J.

“It’s mostly the road warrior who prefers to answer e-mails on a thumb keyboard,” said Hirsch. “If all you did was just answer with a simple yes and no, it would not be a dilemma.”

For as long as video gamers have been blasting aliens, so-called “Gamer’s Thumb” has been a sore spot for them, as well. With tens of millions of portable video game machines on the market, lots of young hands risk digit abuse.

Games for such devices generally include some type of printed warning about injury risks from prolonged playing.

Earlier this year, the American Society of Hand Therapists issued a consumer alert, warning users of small electronic gadgets that heavy thumb use could lead to painful swelling of the sheath around the tendons in the thumb.

The group recommended taking frequent breaks during e-mailing and resting one’s arms on a pillow for support.

A booklet that ships with the Nintendo DS handheld system advises a 10 to 15 minute break for each hour of play, and a break of at least several hours if gamers experience wrist or hand soreness.

“People tend to use just one finger over and over again and it’s that repetitive use with one digit that could lead to problems,” said Stacey Doyon, vice-president of the American Society of Hand Therapists and a registered occupational therapist in Portland, Maine.

The BlackBerry, which debuted in 1999, employs a full QWERTY keypad for thumb typing to automatically send and receive e-mail. About 2.5 million people currently use Blackberries, more than double from a year ago.

An executive for Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the BlackBerry, said the company considers ergonomic factors when designing its keyboards.

“Of course, any product can be overused . . . so people should listen to their own bodies and adjust their routine if necessary. But I would caution against confusing rare examples of overuse with the typical experience,” Mark Guibert, vice-president of marketing, wrote in an e-mail.

Musculoskeletal disorders, which include repetitive strain injuries, accounted for a third of all workplace injuries and illnesses reported in 2003 — the latest data available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Roche Bobois retro furniture – it’s all about feeling comfy

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Paula Brook
Sun

Look down, look way down. In the middle of the living room, where the sofa and a couple of arm chairs used to sit (big enough for two to curl up in, as Friendly used to say), we’re now seeing a collection of cushions and bolsters and ottomans big enough for several people to stretch out on.

There’s a sea change in how we sit, say the decor people. In the modernist lexicon, even the word “sofa” seems obsolete. The new term is “seating system,” though you tend to see the beautiful people in the glossy advertisements lounging more than sitting on their low-profile, Euro-styled sectionals. Turn the page and they’re fast asleep on their modular cushions in the glow of a flat-screen TV.

So much for getting any reading done at night, you might say. Or in the afternoon. Pull up a sectional and have a sleep!

Which doesn’t sound all bad, compared to the stiff-backed parlours and plastic-coated living rooms of bygone times. In fact, there are very good and practical reasons for the sectional sofa’s return to glory, three decades after it made its debut in the conversation pit of early modernism. Then, as now, North Americans were in the midst of social upheaval — feeling raw in the wake of a war gone wrong. In dire need of sectional healing, you might say. At home, with loved ones, in front of a blazing fire — or at the very least, a hot video.

So says Nancy Bendtsen, co-owner of Inform Interiors and Bensen Inc., which makes modern furnishings, including a variety of sectional systems. “There’s been a distinct change in the way people buy furniture since 9/11,” she told me. “People realize that they want to be really comfortable and secure in their homes. The nice thing about a sectional is when you have a group of friends over, you’re close and facing one another. It’s an extremely sociable way to sit.”

Or to sprawl, luxuriously. One of the most striking systems on the market is the Mah Jong, designed in the ’70s by Hans Hopfer for Roche Bobois in Paris, now in its eighth stunning edition. In Europe, the sectional, like modernism itself, has never actually gone out of fashion.

“It’s more of a Rubik’s Cube than a sofa,” says Lesley McDonnell, who recently reopened Vancouver‘s downtown Roche Bobois store. She has given the Mah Jong system pride of place in the brightly renovated Hastings Street showroom, where the hand-sewn cushions, richly upholstered in Kenzo Maison, exert a magnetic power over furniture browsers.

Which is precisely the lure of lowdown lounging, and why Hopfer named it Mah Jong. Like the earthy symbols of the Chinese tile game, this seating system lies close to the ground and invites meditation, if not outright hibernation. In fact, among the dozens of ways you can configure these cushions, which cost anywhere from $700 to $2,000 each, depending on fabrication, is a four-cushion-square king bed — the perfect solution for an upscale den-cum-guest-room.

You can also stack the cushions two-up to create traditional-height seating, then use singles as ottomans or as a base for your coffee tray. It’s the haut-couture version of the old Moroccan bazaar, suggesting a kind of hitch-your-camel-and-rest-awhile ambience conducive to intimate conversation and boisterous partying and everything in between.

McDonnell calls it “the new art of sitting” — a perfect match for the laid-back West Coast lifestyle. “What our clients are often looking for is low-profile seating that suits open-plan homes, that doesn’t block their views and looks good from every angle,” she notes. “We’re no longer just pushing the sofa up against the wall.”

Nor do we want static rooms where the furniture dictates where and how we sit. The smartest sectionals being designed today can turn on a dime — from loveseat to chaise to arm chair with ottoman. Indeed, Smart is the name of a bright new model from Montreal designer Normand Couture’s Cameleon collection.

“We think of it as a playground for the living room,” says Alan Wilson, owner of Industrial Revolution where you can buy the Smart system (from $5,000 for a small-room setting). “With chairs and tables and a bookshelf combined, it’s almost to the point where you never have to leave your sofa,” laughs Wilson.

That kind of compact flexibility especially suits Wilson‘s condo clientele who want to make the most of small spaces. “Most people don’t have the luxury of an extra room for watching TV or accommodating guests or whatever. A sofa can’t just be a sofa anymore. It’s like, okay, what else can it do?”

Because the Smart modules slide along a wooden trestle, with movable arm and back rests, it can do a lot, easily. End tables pop out, cushions slide apart and presto — two chairs with a coffee table. Take all the bolsters off your sofa and you’ve got a guest bed with night table.

The Modern Addiction system by Thayer Coggin of High Point, N.C., carried at EntreNous in Yaletown, arguably does more. Its eight modular pieces carving graceful curves and angles out of even the squarest room ($7,500 for a small, simply upholstered system to $20,000 for the works in Ultrasuede).

As a bonus, the set’s ottoman opens up for storage, creating more space and better views, the two top priorities of modern decorators, according to EntreNous designer Lorie Grant.

“The original sectionals were big and chunky,” notes Grant. “The best new ones are lower and lighter. They seem to float in space.” Her customers likewise opt for minimal accessories, preferring small multi-function sidepieces and using ottomans as coffee tables.

None of which solves the really pressing question Grant hears again and again from clients: Where do we hide the TV? Stay tuned.

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Land title system guarantees ownership of land

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Sun

Q: A friend tells me that homeowners in B.C. don’t own the land on which their properties are situated. Title gives various rights and responsibilities but we only hold the land at the pleasure of the Queen. Is this correct and is it something to be concerned about?

– Paul Shawcross, North Vancouver

Lawyer Scott Smythe of McCarthy Tetrault, a commercial real estate specialist who is also chair of the real property (Vancouver) section of the Canadian Bar Association, answers:

Technically, no one owns land absolutely except for the Crown. In practice, however, B.C.’s “Torrens” land title system virtually guarantees absolute ownership to landowners in B.C., subject to certain statutory exceptions.

A landowner owns an interest or “estate” in land commonly known as the “fee simple.” Ownership of a fee simple estate represents the maximum legal ownership (i.e., the largest bundle of rights) available to a person in our legal system.

The owner of a fee simple estate has the right to use and occupy the land, and is entitled to transfer it to third parties without restriction. A fee simple estate may also be transferred by will to future generations and, therefore, is potentially infinite in duration.

A “title” to a fee simple estate is registered in the B.C. land title system under which the owner of the fee simple holds “indefeasible” title to land (i.e., title that cannot be forfeited or taken away), subject only to certain statutory exceptions, such as rights reserved to the Crown in the original Crown grant of the land (generally mineral rights) or the right of the Crown to “expropriate” land (i.e., take title to a person’s land, with compensation, where necessary for public purposes such as transit lines).

While a B.C. landowner’s fee simple estate cannot be disturbed or taken away other than in very limited circumstances, if the landowner dies without a will and with no next-of-kin, the interest in the land would go back or “escheat” to the Crown.

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High debt and rising interest rates could mean trouble

Friday, October 21st, 2005

One mistake people make is trusting the lender to tell them if they can afford the loan

Tara Perkins
Sun

TORONTO — Interest rates are ratcheting up and many Canadians will feel the pinch as loan and mortgage rates follow suit.

“Canadians are in a very precarious situation as it is,” says Laurie Campbell, program manager at the Credit Counselling Service of Toronto.

Gas prices, home heating costs and property taxes are all on the rise, she notes.

More significantly, the national savings rate has dipped into negative territory for the first time in decades, meaning Canadians are spending more than they earn.

“With interest rates on the rise, it could have a big impact on many people,” Campbell says.

This week, the Bank of Canada raised its trend-setting interest rate by a quarter-point, to three per cent.

On Thursday, Governor David Dodge warned that the Canadian economy is growing enough that further rate hikes are warranted.

While fixed mortgage rates are determined by the bond market, variable rates rise along with the prime rate.

That means that, following almost a decade of record low interest rates, mortgages are now in line for a shakeup.

As Canadians have been depleting their collective savings, they have been gorging on mortgages. Low interest rates helped fuel the appetite for real estate.

Residential mortgages now account for about one-third of all credit to households and businesses, according to a study released this week by the Canadian Institute of Mortgage Brokers and Lenders.

Mortgage credit has increased by 9.4 per cent annually for the past two years. In the second quarter of this year there was $617 billion in residential mortgage credit outstanding.

So far, Canadians have been keeping up with the rising mortgage debt load. Only 0.25 per cent of mortgages are in arrears, compared with 0.5 per cent during the 1990s.

But Andrew Innisf, general manager of Solutions Credit Counselling Service Inc. in Surrey, says many consumers are overextended because of the eased lending environment of recent years.

A lender’s priority is “to make the mortgage work,” he says. “And that’s where people can run into trouble, because they trust the lender to tell them whether or not they can afford the loan.”

Benjamin Tal, senior economist with CIBC World Markets, says “many households operate on a very narrow margin and don’t have much room to manoeuvre.”

They will feel even a modest increase in interest rates significantly, he says, “especially given the fact that 30 per cent of homeowners have variable rate mortgages.”

Variable-rate mortgages have enjoyed rising popularity lately. While 31 per cent of Canadian mortgage holders have them, 37 per cent of people who took out a mortgage in the last year chose a variable rate, the brokers’ institute study says.

But at the same time that mortgage interest rates are rising, the spread between short-term and long-term mortgages is dwindling, it adds. The premium that consumers pay to lock-in a fixed rate is decreasing.

That may encourage a shift away from variable mortgages, the study says.

Tal’s advice to those with variable rates is don’t panic.

“I think over the next two to three years, if you look at variable versus fixed, you will find that the difference is not very significant,” he says.

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Not all get a kick out of stadium

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Gastown business group, activists oppose new soccer home

Frances Bula
Sun

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun Files Whitecaps president John Rocha (left) and operations director Bob Lenarduzzi unveiled an artist’s concept of the proposed stadium

VANCOUVER – The proposed Whitecaps soccer stadium on the Vancouver waterfront has united two groups that have been at odds for years.

Gastown business owners and residents lined up with Downtown Eastside advocates Thursday to voice serious concerns about the proposed stadium and ask the city to conduct a thorough review of the possible negative impacts.

And Jon Stovell, president of the Gastown business improvement association, asked the city to consider a review of the entire waterfront, since Whitecaps owners Greg Kerfoot has bought not just the land where the stadium is proposed but the entire stretch of land from Canada Place in the west to Crab Park in the east.

“Any planning of this rail land should be done comprehensively,” said Stovell. “We see literally hundreds of issues.”

Stovell said the city needs to look carefully at whether it wants to set a precedent by allowing construction of the stadium, saying it could result in a long strip of development that would create a wall six to 10 metres tall between Gastown and the waterfront.

“We need to look at whether there are opportunities lost if we do this, as opposed to developing at grade. We should be looking at can we put the trains underground, if we don’t build over top of them and ratify their existence.”

Stovell added that Gastown, which has struggled for years but is seeing a revival lately, doesn’t need to be saved by the stadium.

“We’re kind of saving ourselves.”

A staff report has recommended that council approve a six-month high-level review of the stadium proposal, to study everything from neighbourhood impacts to technical feasibility, before planners even consider a rezoning process. The Whitecaps are being asked to pay the $160,000 cost of that review.

Most speakers with concerns asked council to endorse that careful review and perhaps even expand it, except for a Gastown residents’ representative, who asked council just to kill the proposal on the spot.

Ian Armitage, president of a strata from the 300-block Water Street, said local residents who are “only a soccer ball kick away” from the proposed stadium, said the stadium will bring noise, crowds, traffic, and light pollution to the area.

Speakers from the Downtown Eastside, like Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Centre Action Coalition, Kim Kerr of the Downtown Residents Association, and Chris Slater of the Anti-Poverty Coalition, also asked for a thorough review that respects people from the Downtown Eastside.

Swanson said there are 14,000 low-income people living in Gastown and the Downtown Eastside who should have a major say in whether the community impacts are acceptable.

She asked the city to make sure there are public meetings in that neighbourhood where people really get to participate, instead of being given a lesson by staff about the merits of the project.

Downtown Eastside advocates also said it was insulting that the Whitecaps hadn’t talked to people first and that they had presented the stadium as a done deal in a splashy announcement last week.

But Whitecaps president John Rocha said the group has only done what city staff have asked them to do and that it has always emphasized that it is ready and willing to go through what consultation the city thought was right.

“We were surprised that people were critical of the launch,” said Rocha. “We were saying that we were sharing our vision, not that it was a done deal. We want to be great neighbours to all the communities.”

Although city councillors were mainly asking questions at this point rather than giving opinions, it was evident that Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors have the most concerns about the stadium.

COPE Coun. Tim Louis said it is important that “when the private sports industry expropriates public amenities like the viewscape,” they have to be prepared to return significant public benefits to affected neighbourhoods.

The Whitecaps had a survey done of public opinion on Wednesday, nine days after the stadium plans were unveiled. The poll of 290 Vancouver residents, split evenly between the west and east side, indicated that 55 per cent supported it, 17 per cent were opposed and 21 per cent had no opinion.

When they were asked what factors would make them more likely to support it, people liked most the idea that the stadium would also be used for non-sports events, such as outdoor concerts and ethnic and community festivals.

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Non-residential building takes up construction slack

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Fiona Anderson
Sun

British Columbia‘s construction industry remains hot as growth in non-residential construction and home renovations offset a softening in residential construction, according to a report by one of Canada‘s major banks released Thursday.

Construction of residential homes has levelled off in B.C., but in most other provinces there has been an actual slowdown, said Adrienne Warren, a senior economist with Scotiabank and the author of the report. More than offsetting any decrease in the residential sector is an increase in non-residential building and home renovations, Warren said.

In B.C. and especially Vancouver, the increase in non-residential construction has been fueled by the upcoming Olympics and increasing trade with China, Warren said.

“We’re seeing much stronger trade activity in the West Coast . . . [in] distribution centres and manufacturers than would be the case in Central Canada.”

The increase in the non-residential sector has been growing steadily, but the momentum has increased over the last two quarters, Warren said, a pattern she expects will continue for the next year or two.

The value of commercial building permits in B.C. is up 58 per cent this year, while the value of institutional permits — for schools, hospitals and government buildings — is up 143 per cent.

There has been very strong growth across all three components of the non-residential sector — institutional, commercial and industrial — said Keith Sashaw, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association.

But institutional development, with the building of teaching and research labs at UBC and the B.C. Cancer Centre, has been especially active.

“The economic climate in B.C. is such that it is attracting a lot of investment,” Sashaw said.

Everyone points to the Olympics, Sashaw said, but the 2010 Games are just a small part of the overall investment. What the Olympics did do was send a message to investors that Vancouver was back in business, Sashaw said. Changes such as provincial tax cuts, have also fostered a strong investment climate.

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Comparisons between Shaw Cable & Satellite Bell Expressview price plans

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

We spend a lot on our TV entertainment, but surveys show many of us don’t know what we’re buying

Peter Wilson
Sun

From Corner Gas to the CSI and Law & Order series to Desperate Housewives to Hockey Night in Canada to NFL Sunday Ticket, Canadians love their television.

On average, we eagerly lap up about 22 hours of it a week, with 7.6 million subscribers hooked up via cable and 2.3 million subscribers pulling it in via satellite dishes.

We like new video bells and whistles with about 50 per cent of viewers subscribing to the new digital services. And, as the word builds, we’re getting ready for high-definition television (HDTV), although right now only about four per cent of us watch it.

As well, we’re considering those new personal video recorders (PVRs) that allow us to pile up hours of digital programming (including HDTV) on massive hard drives.

However, despite the fact that Stats Canada reports that the Canadian households in 2003 spent an average of $460 a year on cable and satellite service, most of us really don’t have a handle on what we’re getting for our money.

Call it bundlemania, the result of which is consumer confusion.

For example, go on Shaw’s website — which, of course, you wouldn’t be able to do if you didn’t already have the Internet — and you’ll discover that you can get the Basic Cable & High Speed Internet Lite Bundle for $42.95 a month.

Or you could order the Premier Home Bundle (including digital cable and high speed light Internet) for $66.95 a month. Or you could go whole hog and get the Total Home Bundle (high speed Internet and digital TV) for $91.95 a month.

For the intrepid consumer to find out exactly what these bundles comprise requires persistence and the time to manoeuvre around the Shaw site to come across a chart of the TV offerings, where its all laid out.

Those who want these bundles then have to discover the difference between plain old high speed Internet and the lite version.

Then consumers have to price out a cable digital terminal and a Internet modem either to buy or rent.

As well, there’s the difference between a plain old digital terminal ($99), a digital terminal that allows you to get HDTV ($239 after programming credits) and a PVR ($589 after programming credits.)

Then of course, there are the TV packages like NFL Sunday Ticket (available at $37.49 a month four four months); 18 Canuck games for $139.95, current video-on-demand movie titles at $4.99; and even pay-per-view offerings like Carmen Elektra’s Naked Women Wrestling for, well, we couldn’t actually determine a price, but we’re sure it must be there somewhere.

Oh, and should you want just basic cable with nothing else or full cable with all the tiers (and, again, you’ll have search around a bit to get the tier details) you’ll have to phone to get the price, because that depends, it seems, on where you live.

From talking to Shaw president Peter Bissonnette, we found that those offerings cost $25 and $47.95 respectively.

To be honest, it’s just possible that these unbundled prices are there on the site too, but we couldn’t find them with a couple of hours of searching.

But then nobody in Canada expects this to be easy.

Just ask Mario Mota, a vice-president at Toronto‘s Decima Research, who believes that satellite and cable providers make their offerings too tough to understand — so much so, that many Canadians don’t even know what it is that they’ve actually ordered.

“There’s no doubt that consumers are confused about offerings in terms of what they are and who gets what,” said Mota in an interview. “Our survey has constantly shown major consumer confusion, even to the point where people don’t even know what they have and yet they’re paying for it.”

Mota believes that cable and satellite operators make the various tiers, bundles and deals far more complicated than they should and this actually makes it hard on themselves and restricts their ability to get more revenue from customers.

“They’ve really got to step back and make the offers as simple as possible for consumers because, first of all, people don’t have the time and energy to work their way through this stuff,” said Mota.

One of the reactions to the plethora of offers is that users just settle for the simplest to understand

That means, said Mota, that cable and satellite providers are missing an opportunity to upsell customers.

As well, he added, consumers are confused about the technology. One of the questions that Decima asks is if subscribers have a digital box that allows them to receive HDTV broadcasts.

“A large proportion of customers, in the 20 to 25 per cent range. are telling us they have an HD box, but they don’t,” said Mota, who checks the model numbers. “They just have a standard digital box.”

Strangest of all, a small group of people can’t even name their TV provider. A few in the Lower Mainland still believe they subscribe to Rogers, which sold out to Shaw a few years ago.

There’s somewhat less confusion over satellite offerings, because neither Bell Express-Vu nor StarChoice (owned by Shaw), can bundle TV with Internet services or, as is happening now at Shaw, with Internet phone offerings.

“A basic digital subscriber package is $27,” said Bell ExpressVu’s marketing vice-president Pat Button. “Then we have various theme packs — which are $8 a month — and we have the most popular package for us is what we call Pick 5 which has five theme packs for the price of four. The price then is $47 with the basic digital package.

“We find that customers go quickly to that $47 landing point and they sort of customize from there,” said Button

Should they want, Express-Vu users can take the Total TV package — including four movie channels with 12 theme packs, for $87 a month.

And for another $10 they can add as HDTV channels (Shaw doesn’t charge for its HDTV offerings, but is considering doing it soon. )And then there’s the NHL games and NFL Sunday ticket and the like.

Of course, with satellite TV you have to buy the dish and the digital box, which, depending on what you want, ranges from a basic $99 to almost $600 (with another $99 for installation, unless you take a 24-month contract..

At the upper end you get the HD PVR Plus System- Model 9220.

This model allows users to record up to 180 hours of programming (25 hours of HDTV) and, because it has two tuners can be connected to two TV sets and you can watch and record two live programs or record two programs while watching a third pre-recorded program.

Despite the criticisms of industry experts like Mota, Shaw’s Bissonnette doesn’t believe that his company’s bundles or offerings are confusing to customers.

And, said Bissonnette, consumers get real benefits from bundling because the more they add to their basic packages –including Internet and phone services — the more they save.

“About 51 per cent of our customers right now take some kind of bundle and there are very few of our customers that just take basic cable,” said Bissonnette.

On the Internet side, he added, just five per cent of their well over one million customers take the service alone, without bundling.

Express-Vu’s Button also believes that pricing for TV services is easy for its 1.6 million subscribers to understand and that they evaluate the service and, if they don’t like it, they can always switch.

“All of our research shows that customers are very price elastic, when they buy television or television services,” said Button. “Ultimately the value delivered by the product is reviewed and revalidated on an ongoing basis by the customer.

“So since they watch it and live it and breathe it, its a very personal part of their world every month when they bill comes in they validate whether its actually delivering the value that they thought it would.”

Mota, however, said that there is a reluctance by TV viewers to switch from a service they’re already using because they view it as a hassle and a step into the unknown.

Right now, said Mota, that is playing into the hands of the cable operators, because the early-adopter, must-have glow that first surrounded satellite television in its early years has faded.

In its most recent survey, Decima Research asked consumers who were considering going to digital TV in the next year, whether they were leaning towards satellite or cable.

Of course, this would be directed at cable subscribers only, because satellite TV is already an all digital service.

“And cable is really top of mind for them, rather than satellite,” said Mota. “Why is that? Well, these consumers are already cable customers as it is. So the decision to go with the cable company is easier.

“You’re staying with the same company, the same billing relationship. It’s not a whole new world of switching providers entirely.”

– – –

WHAT TV COSTS YOU. COMPARING SHAW WITH BELL EXPRESSVU:

Shaw Cable:

Basic Cable — Thirty-four channels including local stations, Seattle stations, The Weather Network, Sportsnet-Pacific, W, Vision CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet: $25 a month

Full Cable — Sixty-five channels, or three additional tiers of programming including Much Music, CNN, Spike, CNBC, History Television, Food Network Golf Channel, Life Network, Bravo! CMT and Showcase: $47.95

Digital Cable — Includes forty channels of music, plus eastern U.S. FOX, NBC, ABC and CBS stations (free) plus the chance to pay for, in bundles ( five for $6.95 or 30 for $22.95.) , such stations as Fashion Television, The Independent Film Channel, G4Tech, Travel TV and Animal Planet.

As well you can get movie channels (including six movie central channels for $20.95), pay-per-view, on-demand and specialty channels like Fairchild Television ($17.95) and Asian Television Network ($16.95) and adult channels like Playboy ($17.95) and Hustler ($20.95): $99 for basic digital box plus whatever you decide to order.

Shaw offers seven HDTV channels — including the major U.S networks and a movie channel — for which it charges nothing extra at the moment, but you need an HDTV box.

Bundles of other services: This is where cable differs from satellite, in that it can bundle such services as high speed Internet and Internet telephone service, which, in B.C., is available only in Victoria for $55 a month.

Shaw offers a Total Home Bundle (including high speed Internet, basic cable, full cable, pay-per-view, U.S. superstations, digital music and access to Shaw on Demand for $91.95.

Or you could go for the High-Speed Lite Internet plus full cable bundle (includes basic and full cable) for $69.95 and so on and on and on.

Bell Express-Vu:

Basic Digital Subscription: Includes all the Canadian networks, U.S. networks (either from the east or the west), music stations, Knowledge Network, etc.: $27 and for another $1 you can have both east and west feeds of U.S. networks.

Extra Value Combo: Offers the basic digital subscription with any five theme packs. Theme packs include the general headings of news and learning, sports, family, lifestyle, variety, movies and french, some with two offerings each. Among the stations available are CNN, TSN, Food, Much More Music and several channels, like Book and Lone Star, that on Shaw are included in the digital cable lineup: $47.

HDTV Value Combo: Same as the Extra Value combo, except that you get as many as 27 channels in HDTV, when they feature HDTV programming, including the likes of NBC, Fox, ABS and CBS: $57.

Ultra Value Combo: Same as the Extra Value Combo, but with premium movies and six theme packs: $68.

Max Value Combo: Basic digital subscription, premium movies, with all 12 theme packs: $88.

Pay-per-view: Movies, sports, special events and the like are all available here including the likes of NFL Sunday Ticket ($179), NHL Centre Ice ($179), Canucks Pay Per View ($139.95), WWE Wrestling (the recent No Mercy was $34.99) and Football Cheerleaders exposed for $4.99.)

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VSB sees golden opportunity on 2010 Olympic Village site

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

Naoibh O’Connor
Van. Courier

The Vancouver School Board wants to cash in on the Olympics to build a new elementary school in Southeast False Creek.

A provision for the school is cited in the third year of the school board’s five-year capital plan, which was approved by the board Monday night. It will be submitted to the provincial government for consideration. The Ministry of Education announces what projects it will approve in districts across B.C. in the spring.

The city and private developers are developing industrial land between Cambie Bridge and Main Street, part of which will be used for an athletes’ village during the 2010 Olympics. A school site is included in the plans.

According to Les King, the school board’s director of facilities, the provincial government, the city and the Olympic committee could share the cost for constructing a building shell to be used during the games. Once the Olympics are over, the building could be turned into a school for relatively little money, he said. But the school board needs a financial commitment from the provincial government to contribute to the construction costs.

“We’re just identifying this as a good opportunity. The government doesn’t have to participate in this,” King said. “We’re just saying this is a good opportunity to get a building built as part of a partnership with other agencies.”

If approved by the provincial government and the other partners, planning for the school could begin in the fall of 2006, although construction wouldn’t start until 2008 with 2009 as a completion date.

King noted if plans for the Olympic village in Southeast False Creek unfold as expected, athletes housing will be turned into market housing after 2010, which would create the need for a school. “Because it’s ready housing, it ought to be filled relatively quickly,” he said. “[The development] is geared to families with kids, so it’s a family-oriented area and we will have pressure there for a school.”

The five-year capital plan also includes plans for several other new schools, including an elementary school in the plan’s third year for UBC where development continues to increase.

The plan also proposes a school in its fourth year near International Village. The school-aged population in that area is expected to increase as a result of new developments around International Village and North False Creek.

A new school for Fraserlands, meanwhile, is cited in the plan’s fifth year.

King said those three schools are the VSB’s top priorities but the Southeast False Creek one is being submitted now for consideration because of the opportunity to share costs. “It’s a timing issue, not a priority issue,” he said. “It saves everybody money. We’re just identifying the possibility for [the provincial government]. It’s not our highest priority and it’s not jumping the queue for the other priorities for schools.”

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