Monthly Archives: November 2017

Someone obviously thought this was a good idea. These must be rich folks who aren’t concerned about resale value, appraised value, fair market value, long-term value, insurability, investment outcomes or their own lives or their family’s either.

Yesterday, I was visiting a client of mine in Gatineau and she told me about this tiny neighborhood café called Edgar. I am guessing that the place is no bigger than 16 feet of frontage and maybe 40 feet deep so only about 640 sf. The food is amazing, coffee great, and it’s a BIG […]

Take up the challenge: Organize a Block Party for your Street and Experiment with New Urban Forms like they do in Rotterdam  A useful definition of “block party” comes from Wikipedia:

If you flyover cities across this planet at 1,000 meters & you discover that the best parts of our towns are the older/more central parts & the new bits called suburbs are horrible, you are forgiven if you think urban planners have mucked up.

My elderly neighbor gets up every single day before the sun rises to: -do his chores -ride his bike -cut the grass -rake leaves -shovel snow -fix stuff -shop for his wife and family -and, in this photo below,

As expected, NIMBY (not in my backyard), BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything or Anyone) and CAVE (citizens against virtually everything) people are torpedoing tiny home subdivisions as this AP article by Scott McFetridge makes abundantly clear.   Tiny houses are trendy – unless they go up next door.

Introduction If you are a developer, you already know that most cities expect you to build all the roads your new development/subdivision requires and then turn them over to them when completed for a dollar. We not only had to build all the roads around the Canadian Tire Centre (where the NHL’s Ottawa Senators play) […]

According to modular builder StrongKor, cities of the future should follow these 10 commandments: I would add a few others:

[This article originally appeared in Ottawa Business Journal in March 2012, https://www.obj.ca/bruce-firestone] The sky is falling, the sky is… Many observers of Ottawa’s tech scene seem to think it’s the end of Silicon Valley North but try telling that to David Ross, 90% owner of Ross Video. The other 10% is owned by family and […]

If you read this LA Times article carefully (https://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vending-rules-20171108-story.html), you will note that Los Angeles city councilors are about to allow pushcart sellers to become legal for the 1st time except not in certain areas. Which areas are excluded?  …they would be banned from doing business within five feet of driveways, bus benches, fire hydrants, […]

One of my coaching clients asked me how come I suggest that real estate investors charge their tenants above-average rents apart from the obvious reason–to make more money and get a higher ROI. Here was my answer: Hi E, good question. One of the main reasons I raise rents is to keep bad tenants out. […]

[A version of this article first appeared in Ottawa Business Journal, https://www.obj.ca/bruce-firestone] When most people think about business models and modeling, they think it only applies to tech startups but turns out, they’re just as important in any industry including real estate. If I ask someone about real estate models, she or he will probably […]