B.C. Best Places to Retire Thread.

we were checking out real estate - we crossed this area off the list. not a chance .......

Times have changed, now there are no operating pulp mills north of Nanaimo, the last one was Neucel in Port Alice and I think it is closed for good...

Had a choice to make.....Shuswap area ........or somewhere in top half of the island. Chose the 'swap but I will always LOVE the island.

that's good info GB.
wife wants to be close to Victoria. me love many aspects of the North Island.

Affordability is a factor.....probably the biggest factor. We'll see in twenty years....

at the current rate of 4N buying in BC? - it's gonna be all over, except the crying, by that point in time ..... hope i'm wrong.

I don't think it's going to slow down any time soon, at least not in this general area. I find it crazy but they've moved on to tearing down reasonable, in some cases very nice smaller homes and building this bs. There's no way in hell any local is going to be able to afford these places, the wages here just don't allow for this kind of purchasing. So there's nothing driving it besides speculation and outside money. Kind of makes me sad, they're turning a perfectly nice little city into a place where no one will be able to afford to raise a family anymore.

Weather-wise, Victoria / southern Vancouver Island looks like the place to be. Moderate temperatures in both summer & winter, and high # of days of sunshine.

Most of what I think I know about the area is from Google for example, the Wiki.

We spent 1 night in Victoria, and another in Sooke in 2011. We rented 250cc dual-sports and did a clockwise loop around the southern island. We very much enjoyed Victoria, Sooke, Port Renfrew, Lake Cowichan, Duncan, Nanaimo, and back to Victoria. No off-road, as the KLX250SF I rented had sportbike tires (Wifey was on a Super Sherpa).



Wife likes to garden, I like to ride. Aside from real estate prices, why would I not want to live in or near Victoria?

I left Duncan at the end of March, '81, partly because we had 3 hours of sun that month. The weather seems better now, but it still is not unusual to go for a week or two without seeing the sun.

FYI some current info... https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/263880/Deadly-summer-for-riders

The Valley has become too popular with people who have too much money and/or access to credit, and think they can jump tall buildings in a single bound.........and everyone should get out of their way when they are on the road.

This statement in the article says it all about the mentality:“Alarmingly, there are also far too many riders out there who have no proper licence to be on a motorcycle at all, and their crash rates are very high."

They keep building homes as fast as possible, people continue to pay too much for cut-every-corner-builds and there are more vehicles on the limited roads who are always late, speeding, passing, running stops & lights. Yea, it is dangerous even with some skills and common sense.

I am reasonable sure a "refresher course" on safe riding will do little to reset the road mentality out there today.

Yikes!

This is an accurate description of most of major centres in BC. Aside from retirement areas here, I see this on 2 wheels and 4 wheels literally several times a day. This was yesterday, a rider on an R1, in rush hour. And a note, an R1 stops better than a gravel truck.

running motorcycles/bicycles/Priuses off the road? it is considered a sport in the Kelowna area, according to our (way too long) two years in Kelowna.
YMMV.

Sorry to hear that yamalama, especially if the move is irreversible. This will be our fourth year renting a place in Vernon (Sept to June) to be close to family. Nice place to visit, nice people, great skiing and good place to practice defensive riding as you've noted. Can't say we're ready to sell our home back East and move here yet tho due to the gap in real estate values.

Lycan, Lycan, Lycan ...................take another look at that picture.

If he/she/it* was still on the bike when it entered that sardine-can-maker, the second picture would be red & black on the pavement, so we must assume he/she/it* chickened out at the last moment and jumped off the bike. Somehow managing to survive that high risk maneuver would be unpleasant, to say the least. Rest in peace!

* no offense intended, just trying to be inclusive and PC without using dozens of possible pronouns.

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PS.
Perhaps they were doing this and just did not see that trucks brake lights?


Darwin would like say that it would have been best for the species if it was their last ride.

Yes, he survived.
His Nike seemed to suffer from frame damage. Front for misalignment. Cracked engine case. Rad leak. Bodywork didn’t fare well.
I think he should buy a 25 year old Corolla, or learn how to brake faster than a fully loaded gravel truck.

I fully support IQ tests for many mechanical device operations in today’s 1st world. Most government military around the world conduct IQ tests to this day for basic inscription. Problem is 50% of the world population would end up walking everywhere. But maybe that’s an uncomfortable truth that should stay down in CSM.

This type of driving isn't only in BC,the drivers here in Calgary are some of the worst I have ever seen.I don't enjoy riding my my bike on the streets here anymore and there are also too many entitled people here as well.

Driver asleep at the wheel on I-5

I work for Emergency services and have been to quite a few calls of people passed out behind the wheel.