sq. ft. is livable in anything other than solitary confinement in a prison... and is willing to pay amounts closing in on $1000/month is going to need something stronger than Mary Jane to keep the delusion going. Everyone who has analyzed what these "apartments" really cost -- I hope what you've discovered will be picked up the MSM (or would you want to consider writing a letter to the Province about all this?). The kind of analysis you are doing is very telling and should be put out there. I can't run the numbers myself, but my impression squares with E.G.'s. Will Vancouver increasingly become a city of haves and have-nots? LOL the place I rent is 1000sf, has a storage space almost the size of these units, is a 2 minute walk to skytrain and lougheed mall and only costs $150 more than these places. I dont see why anyone NEEDS to live downtown. Add a bus pass into your budget and you can get downtown from anywhere in Burnaby, South Van or Richmond in about 30 minutes. And you get to have a normal sized place. why does anyone WANT to live downtown anymore? it sucks so bad -- 24 hour a day clattering of shopping carts and drunk ESL student backpackers vomiting everywhere from seymour to robson, because it's canada and there's no rules, right? Well that's ironic. $850 is my rent, in New West. It's a 1 bdrm, over 600 sqft. I'm pretty sure people with