Sun
The Canadian Real Estate Association says the average price of a home in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s region went up 12.6 per cent from September of last year to September 2007, but while that gain may seem large to those wannabe homeowners struggling to get into the market here, in fact it was the lowest percentage increase of any major Western Canadian city except for Winnipeg, and the Peg was right behind us.
Paul Luke
Province
Tom and Kerrie Everitt have compiled a book of strange tales from the real-estate industry called True Real Estate Stories. Photograph by : Jason Payne, The Province
If you think the real-estate world has treated you badly — or weirdly — consider the realtor who opened the door to a showing and found a corpse.
Or the buyer who fell in love with a 200-year-old Greek house with no bathroom but a suspiciously well-fertilized garden sprouting cabbages the size of footballs.
How about a British villager digging holes for a kennel when her spade struck an unexploded German bomb? Or the Kentucky realtor who meets an adulterous ghost at a grand piano? These and 65 other tales are stuffed into True Real Estate Stories (self-published, $22.95), a new book by Tom and Kerrie Everitt, husband-and-wife realtors from Vancouver.
a book two years ago when workers resodding their backyard unearthed the tombstone of a First World War veteran.
Convinced there must be more such stories, they launched a website, truerealestatestories.com, and invited people to share experiences.
Stories about neighbours, tenants, agents and landlords from hell — and heaven — flowed in from across the globe.
The Everitts may be be top-selling Vancouver realtors with Dexter Associates, but their book confirms their skills as therapists, cross- cultural sociologists and poets of perverse property.
“If my clients say, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how difficult that was,’ I wanted to be able to say, ‘Read this. That’s nothing,'” says Tom, who has a BA in English. “We wanted an entertaining book about the human side of real estate.” Not to mention the supernatural side, the over-sexed side and the angelic side.
Some of the stories are so astounding, they beggar belief.
That’s where Kerrie’s legal background came in handy. A former corporate lawyer with McCarthy Tetrault, Kerrie had each author sign a document attesting to the factual basis of a story.
“That’s the only way you can do it,” she says. “The whole point of this book is they are true stories.” The Everitts paid $75 to $150 per contribution.
Huge film buffs, Tom and Kerrie named each tale after a movie and divided the book into 14 genres: horror, comedy, action, family entertainment, and so on.
The book, which will be officially launched Thursday, delivers enough chills to give it an irresistible marketing link to Halloween. In one of his 69 introductions, Tom reveals they get more ghost stories than any other category. The book abounds with blobs, bones in basements, pet cemeteries and poltergeists.
Many stories venture well beyond the weird into the hilarious — or heart-rending.
One of Kerrie’s favourite stories concerns a Massachusetts couple who want to buy a house and find a child’s grave in the backyard. Not only that — there is a perpetual easement attached to the property, giving the deceased’s family unlimited access to the grave. Moved but not scared, the couple buys it anyway.
On a lighter note, Tom, 40, is fond of a tale in the “X-Rated” chapter in which the narrator describes how exuberant tenants make boisterous whoopee in the unit above hers.
“It was like living inside the audio track of a porno movie,” she writes. “After a while . . . I rated the lovers on performance time and vocalization.”
One woman befriends the neighbourhood gossip, only to discover this neighbour has a telescope pointed across the street at her bedroom (“The Spy Who Loved Me”).
The Everitts learned the idiosyncrasies of international markets while preparing the book. Sixty per cent of the stories are from the U.S., 30 per cent from Canada and 10 per cent from Europe or the Middle East.
An elderly American woman submitted a story about how someone actually bought her house the first day it was listed.
“I had to tell her there are situations in Vancouver where there are 25 offers and a house may go $650,000 over the asking price,” Tom says.
True Real Estate Stories will soon be available in bookstores and can also be purchased through the Everitts‘ website. Portions of the profits will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.
Tom and Kerrie are already contemplating a sequel. They foresee a tidal wave of tragic tales from the subprime crisis in the U.S.
Brian Lewis
Province
The Vancouver Whitecaps have spent much time and money over the past few years trying to put their proposed downtown Vancouver stadium in the back of the net.
But shots to advance their cause have often been blocked by skilful regulatory goalkeeping at city hall.
So if this is the way Vancouver plays, as it has with past issues such as Wal-Mart, then the Whitecaps should look elsewhere.
Why not Surrey?
Assuming that the soccer world unfolds as many predict, and within a few years the Whitecaps graduate to the Major Soccer League where England mega-star David Beckham now resides, then they should consider the longer-term big picture.
It shows most regional growth over the next 30 to 40 years taking place south of the Fraser River and east into the Fraser Valley.
In effect, the Lower Mainland “core” is shifting south and east away from downtown Vancouver, where land costs and availability are prohibitive.
However, the Whitecaps already have major plans to build significant soccer infrastructure south of the Fraser.
The team is talking to Delta and Surrey about constructing a multi-million-dollar national training centre in either municipality.
As Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi explains in a document recently sent to the City of Surrey, the team proposes to build a six-field facility with a mix of artificial and grass surfaces that would include a clubhouse, a physiotherapy clinic, changing rooms and other technical facilities.
This proposal was sent to Surrey in response to a request by Coun. Tom Gill, who says the training centre should locate on the eastern end of the 120-hectare Tynehead Regional Park near 168th Street and 96th Ave.
Gill also admits he’s been “dumped on” by some environmentalists for wanting to put the soccer facility into a regional park and, naturally, the regional district would have to be involved before anything happened.
However, Lenarduzzi also tells me that Delta is a long way ahead of Surrey in this race.
“We’ve been talking to Delta over the last year about building the national training centre there and we’re near the point where something could happen,” he said.
Delta chief administrative officer George Harvie says his municipality already has a 13-hectare recreation-zoned park near Highway 91 and Highway 10 that could accommodate the training centre.
And the city could give the Whitecaps a favourable long-term lease similar to the deal it did with the Western Hockey League Vancouver Giants, whose training centre is also located in Delta.
So why not put both the national training facility and the stadium south of the river so they’d be close together for the mutual benefit of many in the soccer community?
Lenarduzzi says the Whitecaps’ stadium focus remains on the downtown waterfront, although he acknowledges that the region’s growth is in the Valley.
But others can see the benefits of locating the stadium in Surrey.
One site often mentioned is the industrial area at the north end of Scott Road which is also served by SkyTrain. The city, the province and the private sector all own property there and it was once the proposed site for Pacific National Exhibition relocation.
“That’s an ideal location for a soccer stadium,” Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says, “and I’d certainly like to get into discussions with the Whitecaps organization about it.”
But convincing the Whitecaps to look south for their stadium location may require skills as exceptional as Beckham bending the ball.
If you have a story idea or noteworthy item about anything going on in the Fraser Valley, you can e-mail Brian at [email protected]
Michael Sasges
Sun
At last count, the Millennium Water sales and marketing campaign organized by Bob Rennie, here in the recently opened sales centre, had received more than 4,000 expressions of interest. The homes he and the Millennium development company are bringing to market may be the most studied designs ever in the history of new- home projects locally. ‘ Every plan has been through 12 to 16 revisions,’ Rennie reports, the thoroughness driven by a desire to anticipate design three years from now.
The Millennium Water show home’s kitchen illustrates why Bob Rennie anticipates visitors to the new-home community’s sales centre will react with, ‘Wow, this is the future.’ That future will be constructed from a mostly European presence . . .; – Miele of Germany will supply most of the appliances, consisting of (at least) a gas cook top; a hood fan; a wall oven; and a dishwasher. All will be Energy Star compliant.; – Eggersmann of Germany will supply the cabinetry.; – Dornbracht of Germany will supply the faucets of polished chrome.; – Sub-Zero will supply the refrigerators and wine coolers, where offered, and Panasonic, the microwaves.;The Millennium Water developer is offering buyers three colour palettes for their homes, the labels representing the ‘legacy’ status of the homes: ‘Vancouver’ (light); ‘Canada’ (medium); and ‘world’ (dark). Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Master bathrooms at Millennium Water will promise a luxurious spa-like feel. Oversized showers will be tucked behind glass windows, and the over-the-counter his-and-her sinks, left, will add an attractive, contemporary look. Countertops will be finished with composite stone, and floors topped with natural limestone. Water-saving dual flush toilets will be among the project’s efficiencies. Millennium Water will be constructed according to green-building practices, with low-emitting materials. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Millennium Water’s 16 residential buildings will span seven city blocks on the southeast shores of False Creek. City Hall has directed that they have horizontal dimensions, rather than vertical. This, reports Millennium Water principal Shahram Malek, will ensure that most residents will be nearer to the parks and water than they would be if they were residing in a tower. Project architects include Arthur Erickson, along with Nick Milkovich & Lawrence Doyle Architects; Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architect Group; Merrick Architecture Borowski Lintott Sakumoto Fligg Ltd.; and Walter Francl Architect. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Bob Rennie and the Malek family are selling the Millennium Water homes with a show home that represents Plan E in the eventual 181 West First Avenue building. (The 130-home building is a Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architect Group design.) Plan E is a two-bedroom + den, two-bath apartment that offers its households almost 1,120 square feet of living space inside and and another 170 square feet outside, on an enclosed balcony. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
MILLENNIUM WATER
Project location: Southeast False Creek, Vancouver
Project size: 733 market homes (302 in Phase 1); 16 residential buildings
Residence size: 600 sq. ft. to 2,400 sq. ft.
Prices: $450,000 to $3.5 million (in Phase 1)
Presentation centre address: 212 West First; entrance on Cook Street, between West First and West Second
Hours: Noon to 6 p.m., Sat. to Thurs.
Telephone: 604-733-2010
E-mail: [email protected]
Developer: Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties Ltd.
Architects: Arthur Erickson, with Nick Milkovich & Lawrence Doyle Architects; Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architect Group; Merrick Architecture Borowski Lintott Sakumoto Fligg Ltd.; Walter Francl Architect
Interior design: Coordinated Hotel Interiors Ltd.
Occupancy: Summer and fall, 2010
– – –
The Millennium Water new-home community is big. It will be green and it will be gorgeous, homes and grounds. But it is primarily big because the 2010 Winter Olympics’ athletes, coaches and administrators will reside in the homes before their owners.
Failure to construct those apartments on time and on budget, would therefore be a big failure by a host country — a failure nationally and internationally — as the world looks on.
It is good, then, to remember:
– The Millennium Water principals, Peter Malek and Shahram Malek, are experienced multi-building developers whose work has generated national and international prizes in industry competitions; they are also men who are treating this new-home project as a ”Canadian legacy.”
– Vancouver City Hall is an Olympic Games and Athletes Village partner. Since Expo 86, its staff has also directed and expedited rejuvenation and densification efforts that have helped elevate Vancouver to object-of-the-world’s-desires status.
”First of all, we have very good construction crews,” Shahram Malek says to the question: Can you do it in time?
”We have two of the best contractors in town [Metrocan Construction Ltd. and ITC Group] and have had for almost two years. I think everybody recognizes this has to be finished by a certain date. So people are not looking out for roadblocks; they’re coming up with solutions.
”Additionally, the City of Vancouver has been extremely helpful. They, obviously, play a big role in this, in terms of expediting the matters all city halls usually do, getting permits arranged, making sure problems are anticipated. The city set up a project office just for this project.”
Preparation of the seven city blocks on which the Athletes Village and, after the Games, the Millennium Water residences and grounds will be located, started last winter.
Millennium and the city are scheduled to turn buildings and grounds over to Games organizers in November 2009. They are scheduled to get them back in April 2010.
The residences will go to the Olympics with their kitchens sealed off and their hardwood floors protected.
“Somebody said the other day, and I thought it was cute, ‘well, will we change the toilets?’ ” reports Bob Rennie, organizer of the Millennium Water sales and marketing campaign.
”Well, the chances of a toilet in a new home not being used by a construction worker before you move in are zero.”
Those toilets will be water-saving dual-flush toilets, one small contribution to the pursuit by the developer of LEED ”Gold” status for the 16 residential buildings and by the city of LEED ”Gold” status for the neighbourhood.
LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a program started by American builders to define a national standard for “green building.” Up here, it is administered by the Canada Green Building Council.
Other contributors to whatever success developer and city hall might enjoy with its LEED endeavours include:
– Radiant capillary heating and cooling in the ceilings and blinds that automatically limit heat gain.
– Natural flooring: stone in the bathrooms, wool carpeting in the bedrooms and floors of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, like LEED, another Good Housekeeping-seal of environmentally sensitive construction.
– Construction materials and paints free of volatile organic compounds.
– Energy monitors that allow each household to “understand and control . . . resource-consumption habits,” in the words of the Millennium Water features and amenities sheet.
– Six acres of ”green spaces, including parks . . . ponds, rain gardens, children’s play areas and rooftop and community gardens.”
– Every inducement imaginable to lessen private-vehicle use. Led by the nearby Canada Line, now under construction, these will include ”a hybrid-car-share program, bicycle paths, water taxis, streetcars and buses” and as much retail as possible. Urban Fare, for example, will be the neighbourhood grocer.
– A community centre designed by Arthur Erickson in collaboration with Nick Milkovich and Walter Francl and designed to ”achieve a LEED platinum rating.” This community centre will be managed by the Vancouver park board.
The homes — if the show home in the recently opened sales centre is a guide — will be sophisticated mediums in which households will be able to express their individuality and aspirations, attachments and loyalties.
For example, those floors of stone and wood and wool carpet, noted above, will be at least nine feet below the ceilings in every home. Their millwork will be constructed from FSC-certified wood.
The homes have undergone exemplary scrutiny, exemplary because it was thorough and was anticipatory.
“Every plan has been through 12 to 16 revisions,” Rennie reports.”But we’re not delivering for three years.
”We have to be way ahead of the market to be current in three years.
”I think it shows because you walk into that presentation centre and you go, ‘Wow, this is the future.’ And that future is, efficient space-planning.”
Unlike the residential buildings on the north shore of False Creek, the Millennium Water buildings will not be towering buildings.
Instead, by city hall direction, they will be ”horizontal” buildings.
”In the official development plan for the area, which had been underway for many years before our involvement, the city didn’t want to see any towers here,” Millennium’s Malek reports.
”They wanted this to be different from a typical tower situation.
”The advantage of this form of building, which is the horizontal building, is that everyone – I should say, most people – who will be living in this complex will be close to, or closer to, either the parks, the greenery, or the water than they would be were they living in a tower.
”That is a major benefit, that you are close to open spaces, greenery, the water.”
City plays huge role smoothing problems
‘‘ Additionally, the City of Vancouver has been extremely helpful. They, obviously, play a big role in this, in terms of expediting the matters all city halls usually do, getting permits arranged, making sure problems are anticipated. The city set up a project office just for this project.’’
Preparation of the seven city blocks on which the athletes village and, after the Games, the Millennium Water residences and grounds will be located, started last winter.
Millennium and the city are scheduled to turn buildings and grounds over to Games organizers in November 2009. They are scheduled to get them back in April 2010.
The residences will go to the Olympics with their kitchens sealed off and their hardwood floors protected.
“ Somebody said the other day, and I thought it was cute, ‘ well, will we change the toilets?’ ’’ reports Bob Rennie, organizer of the Millennium Water sales and marketing campaign.
‘‘ Well, the chances of a toilet in a new home not being used by a construction worker before you move in are zero.’’
Those toilets will be water- saving dual- flush toilets, one small contribution to the pursuit by the developer of LEED ‘‘ Gold’’ status for the 16 residential buildings and by the city of LEED ‘‘ Gold’’ status for the neighbourhood.
LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a program started by American builders to define a national standard for ” green building.” Up here, it is administered by the Canada Green Building Council.
Other contributors to whatever success developer and city hall might enjoy with its LEED endeavours include:
Radiant capillary heating and cooling in the ceilings and blinds that automatically limit heat gain.
Natural flooring: stone in the bathrooms, wool carpeting in the bedrooms and floors of wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, like LEED, another Good Housekeeping- seal of environmentally sensitive construction.
Construction materials and paints free of volatile organic compounds.
Energy monitors that allow each household to “ understand and control . . . resource- consumption habits,’’ in the words of the Millennium Water features and amenities sheet.
Six acres of “ green spaces, including parks . . . ponds, rain gardens, children’s play areas and rooftop and community gardens.”
Every inducement imaginable to lessen private- vehicle use. Led by the nearby Canada Line, now under construction, these will include “ a hybrid- carshare program, bicycle paths, water taxis, streetcars and buses” and as much retail as possible. Urban Fare, for example, will be the neighbourhood grocer.
A community ce n t re designed by Arthur Erickson in co l l a b o ra t i o n w i t h Ni c k Milkovich and Walter Francl and designed to “ achieve a LEED platinum rating.” This community centre will be managed by the Vancouver park board.
The homes — if the show home in the recently opened sales centre is a guide — will be sophisticated mediums in which households will be able to express their individuality and aspirations, attachments and loyalties.
For example, those floors of stone and wood and wool carpet, noted above, will be at least nine feet below the ceilings in every home. Their millwork will be constructed from FSC- certified wood.
The homes have undergone exemplary scrutiny, exemplary because it was thorough and was anticipatory.
“ Every plan has been through 12 to 16 revisions,” Rennie reports.” But we’re not delivering for three years.
“ We have to be way ahead of the market to be current in three years.
“ I think it shows because you walk into that presentation centre and you go, ‘ Wow, this is the future.’ And that future is, efficient space- planning.”
Unlike the residential buildings on the north shore of False Creek, the Millennium Water buildings will not be towering buildings.
Instead, by city hall direction, they will be “ horizontal” buildings.
“ In the official development plan for the area, which had been underway for many years before our involvement, the city didn’t want to see any towers here,” Millennium’s Malek reports.
“ They wanted this to be different from a typical tower situation.
“ The advantage of this form of building, which is the horizontal building, is that everyone — I should say, most people — who will be living in this complex will be close to, or closer to, either the parks, the greenery, or the water than they would be were they living in a tower.
“ That is a major benefit, that you are close to open spaces, greenery, the water.”
Olympic Village site ‘ last piece of waterfront around’
The road that Peter and Shahram Malek and Bob Rennie took to their recently opened Millennium Water sales centre was long and winding.
“ Milepost Zero” was the $ 193 million the Maleks agreed, in the spring of 2006, to pay the City of Vancouver for the property, a record land price locally and nationally.
Detours were many after that. Please consider the following headline, from a Vancouver Sun story in the fall of 2006, representative of the permitting journey: “ . . . Tempers flare as city planners and private developers lock horns over creation of an Olympic Village that screams West Coast and sustainability.”
Why do it, why undertake such a remarkable expenditure of time and treasure?
“ One reason is that the property is the last piece of waterfront around,” Shahram Malek said.
“ Another is the fact that the whole community is going to be built in one go. You’re going to see a seawall in place, a community centre in place, all the parks in place. You’re not going to be living in a construction zone.
“ At the same time you’re going to have ancillary facilities built; the Canada Line to the airport will be finished at approximately the same time.
“ Those factors had enormous amounts of appeal.
“ That the site will be used as the Olympic Village also, I think, added to its appeal.”
Leslie Cauley
USA Today
A WiMax tower and base station on a downtown Chicago rooftop
Ultra-hip fashion designer Nanette Lepore, famous for her saucy minis and sky-high platform shoes, has added one more item to her “It” list this fall: a hot new wireless technology.
Her fashion house recently began using an advanced wireless technology called “WiMax” in two Manhattan offices. The service by Towerstream provides fast broadband and Internet phone calling for 110 users.
In fashion terms, the move to WiMax was, well, seamless.
“It’s completely transparent to the user,” says network manager Jose Cruz. “People don’t know they’re getting it.”
Around the globe, there is growing support for WiMax — short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.
It can be used for “fixed” office solutions, a la Lepore, but what’s really building interest is its potential for high-speed data surfing on the go via wireless phones and other WiMax-enabled devices.
Unlike Wi-Fi wireless technology, which is limited to small hot spots such as Starbucks or the home, WiMax can cover several miles or more. Proponents — including some heavyweights such as Sprint and Motorola— say a network of WiMax towers could make the USA one huge hot spot.
The rush to embrace WiMax is being driven by advances in technology, a shifting competitive landscape and consumers’ ever-expanding appetite for broadband wherever they are.
Also adding impetus: The Federal Communications Commission is urging companies to deploy WiMax quickly to expand mobile broadband options for consumers.
WiMax technology was developed for mobile data transmission, but it’s also ideal for Internet phone service. That makes WiMax exciting as a consumer product — and threatening to traditional wireless carriers, says Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff. The company, backed by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, is working with Sprint to build a national mobile WiMax network.
“It will do for the U.S. consumer what we did for the U.S. consumer 20 years ago when we came out with cellular,” Wolff says. By enabling people to surf the Internet anytime, anywhere, on any device, it “will be as game-changing as when you no longer required people to be tethered to a 6-foot cord to make a phone call.”
Unlike Wi-Fi, which is unlicensed, more-powerful WiMax uses airwaves that require a government license — the same as cellphone service.
Not surprisingly, carriers that have WiMax licenses, such as Clearwire, are bullish on its future. Those that don’t, including companies that want to offer mobile broadband via cellphone networks, are quick to dismiss it as a fad.
WiMax is a workhorse, so it can support lots of high-bandwidth customers with ease. That translates into fast broadband at cheaper prices. Cruz says his Internet and phone bills are 50% to 75% cheaper than what he used to pay Verizon.
As for performance, Cruz is paying Towerstream for a 3-megabit connection in both directions, but he says speeds have hit 10 megabits. He hopes in time to adopt mobile WiMax for Nanette Lepore’s international sales force. “Our idea is to bring in the best technology for our time to provide us with the best bang for the buck.”
On the move
While “fixed” WiMax has proved useful, mobile WiMax is relatively new — and controversial. Critics say it offers few advantages over conventional wireless broadband options.
The biggest WiMax proponent in the USA is Sprint, the No. 3 wireless carrier. In addition to Clearwire, it’s working with a stable of wireless allies — Motorola, Samsung, Nortel and Intel among them — to push mobile WiMax globally.
Atish Gude, Sprint’s senior vice president of mobile broadband, says the growing popularity of Wi-Fi only underscores Sprint’s belief that broadband users want to take the Internet with them on the road. Mobile WiMax won’t disappoint, he promises.
“It will really be like the broadband that we experience today” with DSL or cable modems, Gude says. “It will be the real Internet.”
Motorola CEO Ed Zander predicts WiMax will take off like a shot when WiMax-enabled devices powered by Intel chips — laptops, handhelds, smart-phones and more — hit the market next year.
“WiMax could be even bigger and more dramatic than the original Internet,” he says, adding: “We’re doubling down and betting the farm” on WiMax.
Smiling users?
Consumers could be the big winners, says Moe Tanabian, a principal at IBB Consulting in Princeton, N.J. Because WiMax is efficient, he thinks retail prices for consumers will be cheap compared with today’s cell-based wireless broadband.
Over time, he says, WiMax will deliver Internet speeds up to 100 megabits per second on the downlink path and 10 megabits on the uplink. “That happens around 2012.”
That remains conjecture, however. To prove their case, WiMax supporters need a real network with real customers.
Cut to Sprint and Clearwire. Their planned nationwide network has Clearwire focusing on smaller markets and Sprint tackling big cities. To complete the job, they’ll have to install mobile WiMax gear at more than 60,000 cellphone sites across the USA.
Sprint has committed $5 billion, but allows that the final tab will be a lot more. Its first markets — Chicago and Washington, D.C. — are expected to go live in the spring.
Gude says consumers are in for a few nice surprises — such as no service contracts. Customers also will be allowed to use any WiMax device or software. “We’ll take anybody.” That’s a big departure from typical cellphone businesses, which put strict limitations on devices and software.
Once mobile WiMax takes off, Sprint thinks cellphone carriers will be forced to change their ways. “The pressure will come from customers,” Gude says.
Other viewpoints
Not surprisingly, wireless companies that don’t own oodles of WiMax spectrum, as Sprint does, have a different view.
AT&T, the largest U.S. cellphone company, favors cell-based HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) technology for offering mobile broadband.
Kris Rinne, an AT&T senior vice president, acknowledges that her company has few WiMax licenses, but says that’s not the issue. “We view WiMax as very suitable for fixed” locations, she says. For mobile wireless, however, “HSPA is the right choice.”
For Rinne, it all comes down to the numbers. While mobile WiMax is in development, HSPA is based on a wireless standard called GSM that is already used by 85% of the world’s mobile phone population. In addition, “more than 180 operators worldwide already use HSPA.”
Her point: WiMax as a standard will have a hard time getting global traction. “Lots of times, a technology has some great aspects, but it gets overhyped in terms of how it will develop,” Rinne says.
HSPA supporter Hakan Eriksson, chief technology officer of Swedish equipment giant Ericsson, agrees. “WiMax technology is not offering anything in terms of performance that HSPA is not already offering.”
To be sure, mobile WiMax is in the early stages of development, but IBB Consulting says it’s poised for fast growth. By 2012, IBB predicts, it will have 45 million subscribers in North America.
Even so, it would still have a long way to go to catch HSPA, which already claims more than 300 million users worldwide.
While HSPA can leverage off its global audience, “WiMax has to start from scratch,” Eriksson says.
Confident supporters
Motorola CEO Zander says he expects such criticism. “IBM said the same thing about mainframes” never being overtaken by PCs, he chides.
“Incumbents,” he adds, letting the word hang in the air for a moment, “you know how they are.”
As any technology buff knows, mainframe computers have survived for some uses, but PCs now rule the world. Therein, Zander says, lies a Golden Rule of business: “Don’t bet against technology.”
“If there is something that is compelling to people, it will happen,” says Zander, who spent years in the trenches of Silicon Valley before jumping to Motorola. “Incumbents might wind up doing it, or new entrants might wind up doing it, but it will happen.”
Peter MacKinnon, general manager of WiMax for Nortel, seconds that notion. While HSPA is strong, he says, history has shown that clever innovation can — and often does — trump the status quo. Witness the death of eight-track tapes, VCRs and pay phones.
“The WiMax industry is here; it’s going to happen,” says MacKinnon. “We need to think about what we’re doing with our nice, comfortable (wireless) world we live in, because it’s about to be shaken.”
Mark Laba
Province
Chef/owner Lalit Sharma, left, and wife Kiran Sharma at their North Vancouver Indian restaurant, Mumbai Masala. Lalit holds garlic naan and tandoori prawns and lamb, Kiran holds samosas and butter chicken. Photograph by : Jason Payne, The Province
MUMBAI MASALA
Where: 138 West 16th St., North Vancouver, website: www.mumbaimasala.ca
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-984-8888
Drinks: Fully licensed
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; noon-3 p.m,. Sat.-Sun.; dinner 5 -11 p.m. every day
– – –
“I got it bad,” Ricky Roulette said to me.
“Whadya mean?”
“Well,” his gal Lucky Lucy said, “as if the NFL, CFL, World Series and the start of hockey season isn’t enough, Ricky is now betting on cricket matches overseas.”
“You got a bookie who’ll do that?”
“Hey, I could place a bet on a boxing match with a kangaroo in the Australian outback. This guy’s that good.”
“But cricket matches? I mean, those things take weeks. Even if you win that’s a long time to wait for your money.”
“It’s not about the money,” Ricky said. “It’s about the process.”
“Tell that to your bookie next time you lose,” Lucky Lucy said.
So when we pulled up to Mumbai Masala, Ricky told me how he had placed a bet on the Mumbai Cricket Team and won himself some cold, hard cash.
“OK then, you can pay for dinner,” I told him.
Me, I like to hedge my bets, so that when I lay down some moolah I’m guaranteed something in return. And even if you’re not a betting person, the odds are you’ll like this place.
A carved wooden sentry greets you at the door, which beats those Gap door greeters easily. Sets the scene for the semi-opulent surroundings with ornate gold moulding, wood furniture laquered to a sheen and walls painted the colours of exotic spices.
Spice is truly the key to this eatery, conceived by seasoned restaurateur and chef Lalit Sharma. The complexity of the spicing is evident in each dish and, with some of the African-influenced recipes, dinner here can be a heady experience.
We began with the quintessential samosas, veggie-style ($4.95), served with both a pungent tamarind dip and a spicy mint chutney. It might sound basic but when you get the right flaky pastry and beautifully balanced stuffing that we tasted here, the mundane becomes marvellous.
We moved on to more esoteric fare with the Prawns Zanzibar ($15.95) and Beef Mshikaki ($11.95). The first is a creamy coconut mire spiked with Congo piri-piri peppers, the prawns pan-fried before their saucy submersion. I found the thickness of the sauce a bit strong for the prawns but that didn’t stop my quest for crustaceans.
The beef dish was a sizzling plate of chili-and- garlic-marinated sirloin pieces, tender to the tooth and savoury to the palate. Onions and peppers surrounded this blistering affair and I wrapped it in garlic naan as a kind of makeshift sub-continental sandwich.
To bind this whole shlimazel together, we dove into eggplant bhartha ($8.95), which proved to be a great version. Honestly, I can’t see how you can go wrong with anything on this menu. The vindaloo is fiery, the curry savoury and there’s some unique entries like the Sahi Salmon with ginger and tomato masala, Kuku Paka, a Swahili coconut chicken dish or the sensory overload of the Lamb Kalya, a lusty African curry.
Lucky Lucy was impressed, Ricky Roulette, inspired, was on his cell-phone placing cricket bets and me, I was so lost in a curry vapour I slipped the wooden sentry at the door a tip.
THE BOTTOM LINE: An edible journey from Mumbai to Mozambique.
RATINGS: Food: A; Service: A-; Atmosphere: B+
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Waitress Rachel Chou holds the house special fried rice (front) and satay chicken. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
When I commented to a server on how inexpensive the dishes were, she was honest. “Middle,” she said. “Not too cheap. Not expensive.”
Between you and me, a meal at Ellie’s Tropical Cuisine is cheap. The most expensive dishes (and they’re seafood dishes) are $12 and the majority are under $10; appies can be had for as little as $2.50.
The menu jumps borders from Malaysia/Singapore to Taiwan and attracts Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Taiwanese and North American customers. Normally, a restaurant with a menu featuring 127 savoury dishes would have me wondering if a kitchen could competently put out so many dishes.
For these prices, you’re not getting fine cuisine but the owner-chef, Pamela Ong, a self-taught cook, actually gives you great value for her modestly priced food. Eggs with shrimp and mushrooms ($7.50) were a little over-salted but featured fresh, plump shrimp in an airy omelette; grilled fish on banana leaf ($11.95) featured a lovely sole with a golden coating; sauteed pea tips seemed expensive at $10.50 until we saw the enormous portion; beef noodles with spicy sauce ($6.95) was an earthy plate of darkly marinated shortrib meat, udon noodles and veggies — very nice!
Ong’s curry laksa and beef curry are apparently popular dishes, as is the chicken with three sauces.
And if you think the food menu is extensive, the beverages take up a lot of real estate, too, with fruit juices, smoothies, slushies, cold fruit teas, milkshakes, shaved ice drinks and interesting teas (like the chrysanthemum blossom tea).
There is no such person as Ellie, by the way. The name is plucked from a popular bakery in Taiwan. The vibrantly painted room has a surreal touch with several oversized Escher prints with his signature staircases going off in all directions. And unlike the acreages occupied by many Asian restaurants in Richmond, this is quite small and intimate.
ELLIE TROPICAL CUISINE
Continental Centre, 3779 Sexsmith Rd., Richmond, 604-232-0999
Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday; closed Monday.
Stephanie Yuen
Sun
Owner Matchima Noikumta of Go Thai. ‘We love to serve special seasonal and original dishes using very authentic ingredients.’ Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
It is not uncommon to see Southeast Asian restaurants offering cuisine from Singapore, Malaysian and Indonesian on the same menu. Thai restaurants, however, seem to be on a league of their own and often adhere to serving nothing but Thai dishes only.
My recent visit with a couple of friends to Go Thai Restaurant in New Westminster proved just that with an exception — their mixed dessert menu, which features carrot cake, cheesecake and assorted ice cream along with deep-fried banana.
“We just want to give them more dessert varieties,” explained chef and owner Matchima Noikumta, a VCC-trained chef.
Go Thai moved into the corner of Columbia and Braid about two years ago.
Besides the regular menu, Matchima also posts chef’s specials on the board in the dining room. “We love to serve special seasonal and original dishes using very authentic ingredients. I use my own recipes for unique flavour, such as the fresh chili, lime and spices in the papaya salad and the homemade marinade for the Thai wing.”
We started off by sipping fresh coconut juice that was a bit nutty, not too sweet and very refreshing from a young coconut — a nice way to begin a Thai dinner.
Though I am always skeptical about deep-fried wonton, the Go Thai Delight with satays, spring rolls, wontons, wings and prawn wraps seemed to be a nice appetizer platter for sharing. The shredded jicama in the rolls was delightful, as were the tender satays and the wings; the usage of phyllo for the prawn wraps was a positive surprise. And yet, the wontons were once again as expected: plain and boring.
The taste and aroma of the hot and spicy Thai soup is one of the reasons I enjoy Thai cuisine. Needless to say, a tom yum goong was in the order. Not knowing the strength of Go Thai’s star system, we settled for the one-star soup. For my liking of real spicy food, I would have asked for three stars. Fumed with lemon grass, galangal and lime flavour, this soup was loaded with prawns, squids, mussels and mushrooms.
The menu lists five Thai curry dishes: red, green, yellow, panang and matsaman, all cooked with coconut milk and with a choice of chicken, pork, beef, tofu or prawns ($3 extra).
Red, green and yellow curries differ in their colours, herbs and spices. Panang curry is from Malaysia and uses less coconut milk. Matsaman curry is from India, with key herbs including cardamom and tamarind.
Different roots and vegetables also go with different curries. For example, bamboo shoots are in the red curry, eggplant in the green, potatoes and onions in the yellow curry. Panang curry favours lime leaves and basil and matsaman includes yam, peanuts and pineapple.
We opted for the green curry, since we all love eggplant. The thick, creamy, steaming curry did not disappoint us.
The drunken squid with chili was a bit chewy and not “drunk” enough for me, but my friends quite enjoyed it.
The crispy noodles and vegetables with chicken reminded me of a northern Chinese dish where they deep-fry the noodles before pouring sauce on top. Go Thai’s crispy noodles tasted pretty good but were nothing near crispy; they were also too saucy and included far too many bamboo shoots.
Deep-fried banana with vanilla ice cream for dessert was a must when I visited Thai restaurants. This time, I asked for mango ice cream instead.
One bite into it, I knew I had made the right switch.
– – –
GO THAI RESTAURANT
502 E. Columbia Street, New Westminster
604-524-3453/604-524-3493
Open Monday to Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m.
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