Moving from Toronto

[sergit]

A few random pics from my previous trip to Vancouver

[privatejet]

Originally Posted by sergit

EDIT: looks like renting a place where dos are allowed will be a challenge

If you do choose to try the West End for a year, check out the heritage rental building at Nelson & Thurlow. It allows dogs and has dishwashers and washer and dryers. And its across from a dog park. When I lived there it seemed like I was the only one who didnt have a dog (cats though)

[Rusty Gull]

^Just make sure you google any prospective West End building (or any neighbourhood for that matter) for bed bugs registry reports. There are a number near Thurlow and Nelson that are impacted. But this is also true for other dense areas in Metro Vancouver.

[cabotp]

There is a bed bugs registry report

I guess it is true "don't let the bed bugs bite"

[sergit]

bed bugs?
Do you have cockroaches too over there?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by sergit

bed bugs?
Do you have cockroaches too over there?

In places where they can survive, yes.

[twoNeurons]

Didn't you watch WALL-E? Cockroaches are everywhere... and they can be cute.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by sergit

bed bugs?
Do you have cockroaches too over there?

Having lived in Vancouver for my entire life I have never once seen a bedbug or a cockroach, and I grew up relatively poor.

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by vanman

Having lived in Vancouver for my entire life I have never once seen a bedbug or a cockroach, and I grew up relatively poor.

I've seen cockroaches but that was only in fast food places that I happened to have worked in.

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by cabotp

I've seen cockroaches but that was only in fast food places that I happened to have worked in.

I've never seen either in Vancouver.

[Yume-sama]

Luckily I've never seen either here. But, you get pretty desensitized to absurdly large bugs after you spend a Summer in Japan.

I about lost control of my bodily functions when I came across a ton of these things:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2868921...n/photostream/

They're like freakin' mutated Godzilla bugs or something. And they come a hell of a lot bigger than that.

And they travel in packs of thousands!

[zivan56]

I lived in a place that had cockroaches and mice (or rats?) in East Van (apartment building, not above a restaurant) around 1995....it wasn't the cheapest/worst place in the area either.

[SFUVancouver]

I've never seen either, either. I wouldn't worry too much about it but I would double check any prospective rental building by Googling it with "bed bug registry". There might be a few dozen buildings in city that have an issue, out of tens and tens of thousands.

[jlousa]

My understanding is the bed bug registry that is around isn't even official, it's just run by someone, and anyone can have a place listed. And the site operator won't remove a place once listed, so effectively it's just a method to piss off your ex landlord.

[SpikePhanta]

Haha, Vancouver isnt as bad as New york, my family got those nasty things after a family member brought it from New york.

Jesus they were annoying, but after fall in winter I killed them all with no exterminator. just bare hands a bug spray and destroying there nest.

Did cost us a lot though, since we had to replace two sofas.

[SpongeG]

my sister lived just off fraser and broadway and had cockroaches - this was like 1988-1989 you'd come in and they would just scurry as soon as you entered it was pretty bad - i worked at a place on kingsway in the kitchen and saw some running around - according to someone there most of the places along broadway have em he had worked at the broadway location before and seen the cockroaches

as for bed bugs they are pretty bad in some places - my nephew stayed with a friend who had a slumlord and the building was infested with them

anyway its a pretty bad problem cause you really have to get a new bed and furniture etc

[Rusty Gull]

My buddy lived in a heritage building at Nelson/Thurlow. Bedbugs made life hell for him and his girlfriend. They were literally gnawing away at his arms and shoulder every night.

I wouldn't dismiss the bedbug registry. If anything, the website probably underrepresents the problem that is out there.

Bedbugs LOVE density. That's why they love the West End, Manhattan, Toronto, San Francisco etc. Los Angeles has a miniscule bedbug problem relative to its population as it doesn't have the same kind of densities

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

my sister lived just off fraser and broadway and had cockroaches - this was like 1988-1989 you'd come in and they would just scurry as soon as you entered it was pretty bad - i worked at a place on kingsway in the kitchen and saw some running around - according to someone there most of the places along broadway have em he had worked at the broadway location before and seen the cockroaches

as for bed bugs they are pretty bad in some places - my nephew stayed with a friend who had a slumlord and the building was infested with them

anyway its a pretty bad problem cause you really have to get a new bed and furniture etc

When I worked in the old Pacific Centre food court back in 97. We had cockroaches in the place I worked at. Next door was worse than us. Unfortunately they would come to our side as well.

I remember one timing going to grab the meat slicer and I saw a cockroach crawl out of the electric motor compartment then I saw another. So I grabbed the can of raid that we had and started spraying the motor. Suddenly I had good 20-50 cockroaches crawling out of it. So I emptied the can then went and bought to more cans and emptied both those cans on that motor. Eventually no more cockroaches came out.

[Johnny Aussie]

I would like to add an Aussie perspective to the whole "it rains a lot" debate.
Until you actually live in a place where rain is a precious commodity, you don't really know how lucky a place like Vancouver is.
I now live in a place where we have to constantly monitor our reservoirs, which, until recently, were drying up so fast we had a daily stat report.
I am always amazed at how much bad publicity Vancouver can get because of rain. At the end of the day, how can one let that define a place?
Having lived in Vancouver before, I never let the rain get to me. I would train rain or shine. And comparing the ever-green landscape to waking up every morning to a bland brown prairie landscape in my Calgary days, again, you don't know how lucky you are.
Think of all the places in the world that would give anything for the abundance of liquid sunshine in the Pacific Northwest.
And as for bed bugs.... Sydney is the world capital for those if I am not mistaken!
Just some food for thought.