Sign in

Leo Spalteholz

@leospalteholz.bsky.social
2.3K followers 4.5K following 3.6K posts

Victoria YYJ. I post mostly about 1. Housing advocacy with @homesforliving.ca 2. Renewables, climate, EVs. Real job in work integrated learning

PostsRepliesMedia
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 7h
Rent control is more complicated than yes/no question of good or bad. But the more restrictive forms of it are pretty clearly a net negative. I'm in favour of a rent stabilization system to protect existing tenants from large increases while avoiding most of the harmful effects.
160
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
All these new types of homes and a lot more are welcome in my traditionally single family neighborhood
1140
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
As the federal government ponders whether to extend the ban on foreign buyers that they introduced in January 2023, it's worth remembering that it did about nothing in BC. Even though a few foreign buyers rushed to buy before the ban, the rate of FB activity remained low (~1%) pre and post ban
031
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There’s a set of NIMBYs that are convinced that councillors are in the pockets of developers. Ironically the best way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to allow a lot more housing by right. Potential for bribes aside, a good housing regulatory environment allows even total assholes to build housing
0111
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Frodo throwing some haymakers
020
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I will not stand for this denigration of my home town #salmonarm
010
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
2026: Exceptionally Silly
060
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
So far the NDP have said their top issue is Trump (7th from the top of British Columbians’ stated priorities) while the Conservatives have chosen DRIPA (9th from the top). Both seem to have judged voter priorities poorly Greens picked the #1 issue but not sure if that pivot will be believed
130
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Liveable CRD grades are out! @livablecrd.bsky.social Check out your local mayor and council options livablecrd.ca/scorecard/
084
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Strange article. Chuck spends a long time reaffirming that filtering works and makes housing more affordable but for he is also super mad about it for women reason Market housing helps and costs taxpayers nothing so we can focus $ on getting more non market housing. What’s not to like?
1100
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Huge loss. Big respect for all of @ravikahlon.bsky.social work on housing and other files theprogress.com/2026/09/22/h...
theprogress.com
Health Minister Ravi Kahlon say he does not plan to run in upcoming election - Chilliwack Progress
Kahlon is the third cabinet minister to step aside
1354
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
BC still has the highest rate of forced moves in the country. Likely due to a large part of the housing stock being in the secondary market where landlords can evict people for owner use. Recent boom in PBR should help slowly shift this balance though
0101
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Slim pickins
020
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Birb watching
050
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Can this please be the end of garbage electron apps? Rewrite them all in native code please. Next up: Teams There is absolutely no reason why a glorified chat client should be sucking up several GB of RAM. www.devclass.com/devops/2026/...
devclass.com
Microsoft agentically ports Copilot runtime to Rust for $120K
The software engine underpinning GitHub Copilot and a growing number of Microsoft products is now wr ...
041
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Representing livablecrd.ca at the Moss St Market. First batch of questionnaires get published on Tuesday!
081
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What a saga. To the credit of the structural engineers who blew this case open, they told me they figured it was unfixable and would likely need to be torn down right at the start 7 years later it turns out they were absolutely correct www.timescolonist.com/local-news/t...
timescolonist.com
Twice-evacuated Langford rental highrise to be torn down, replaced
Ridgeview Place, also known as Danbrook One, has been empty for more than three years because of serious structural concerns about the building’s foundations.
060
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“Oak Bay council needs to learn to say no” may be a brand new sentence
1100
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Believe it or not, Oak Bay has some 2100 apartments, almost all built 50+ years ago before it was illegal under zoning The last time anyone was foolish enough to try to build an apartment they had to fight the city for 10 years to get a measly 15 homes approved.
3152
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
28% of freight truck sales are electric in China. In Canada only 1.9%. Hopefully this situation will be a kick start www.cbc.ca/news/busines...
cbc.ca
Skyrocketing diesel prices could turn into high grocery prices soon, as shipping costs go up | CBC News
With diesel prices skyrocketing due to ongoing global conflicts, filling up the trucks that carry food and goods across Canada has never been more expensive, experts say — and Canadians could be feeli...
1112
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The surprising thing is that even in Victoria with gas prices at well over $2 some 55% of new car buyers are still buying pure gas cars today.
6152
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Victoria asking rents stable with a down month in September
073
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
So far so good by the way. All in cost about $1000.
0140
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“Last week we got FOMO that someone was ahead of us and in 7 days we solved a millennium prize problem.” Controversy about who deserves credit for this aside, it’s an incredible time to be alive
000
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Before the entry was shortened to “mostly harmless”
000
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Just in time for the municipal elections, my marriage can vote
2120
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Holy chart crime
0110
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Scratched out “used by researchers” 4H kids being ruthless 😂
000
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Lol, @robshaw.bsky.social is killing it with the Political Capital podcast covering the politics craziness happening right now Here quoting from Conservative Party chief of staff Delaney’s wild resignation letter.
040
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Name candidate: Socred Redemption What’s your guess? fraservalleytoday.ca/2026/09/04/c...
fraservalleytoday.ca
Chilliwack, Abbotsford MLAs form new provincial party with other recent Conservative breakaways
CHILLIWACK - Two officials who have recently left the B.C. Conservative Party to become independents have now ...
420
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
In August, 5.8 million Norwegians bought just 30 gas cars and 64 diesel powered cars Meanwhile 5.7 million British Columbians bought about ~15,000 new fossil fuel powered vehicles in the same month
262
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Forget about the youth We need to legislate social media protections for our vulnerable politicians Because the algorithms amplify culture war ragebait our politicians are getting confused into thinking this is what real people care about Social media bans for politicians now
2132
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
On the province's $1.5B budget forecasting error: "A formula was incorrectly dragged across cells," said a ministry representative. Oh I see, a little excel whoopsie
static.klipy.com
Michael Scott's Oopsies Ohno Grimace
ALT: Michael Scott's Oopsies Ohno Grimace
2376
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A good read. Only hard decisions here, but for a president where every single import from Canada represents a failure, I don’t think there are terms short of our abject surrender that would have satisfied the Americans thewalrus.ca/mark-carney-...
thewalrus.ca
Mark Carney: Why I Rejected Trump’s Trade Deal | The Walrus
The prime minister on saying no to Washington and how Canada plans to withstand the fallout
041
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Two things are true 1. Who we elect to local councils has more bearing on how many homes we get than any other level of government. Pro housing council can be 100x improvement 2. We will not durably solve the housing shortage until we move housing production policy to higher levels of government
0164
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"Council didn’t disagree with the need for housing close to UVic, but it wasn’t swayed the project deserved the density" I simply don't get this reasoning that housing must be earned. In other words: Council recognized that people need housing but didn't think people deserved housing.
6254
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
This resonates AI assisted coding brought back the joy of software development for me. After 20 years I'm simply done with the drudgery part of it while I have the skill to supervise AI outputs Also incredibly impressed with how my nephew is using it to do super cool hobbyist engineering projects
010
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
This place is alright I guess
140
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Equally positive as the >50% summer generation is the ~28% winter low.
081
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
No. Just no.
010
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
It’s unfortunate that Saanich forgot that buildings can have more than one storey when they built this fire hall
050
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I enjoy driving around Saanich with all the new protected bike infrastructure
1200
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Proving once again that municipal government is fundamentally the wrong level for big reforms to make housing abundant. Not to say that local govt doesn’t matter, it matters a lot, but foundational change can only hold at provincial level or above www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Vancouver council decisively rejects villages plan after 'tsunami' of opposition | CBC News
Vancouver city council has decisively rejected an ambitious but controversial plan that would have reshaped the growth of the city for decades to come.
1345
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Island folks know nothing beats that “last car on the ferry feeling”
2250
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
do a breakthrough
030
Reposted by Leo Spalteholz
Livable CRD @livablecrd.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Introducing Livable CRD 🗳️ A non-partisan coalition making Capital Region municipal elections easier to navigate. We publish a candidate scorecard + questionnaire on transit, housing, climate, healthcare & more. We inform, we don't endorse. 👉 livablecrd.ca #YYJ #BCpoli
livablecrd.ca
Livable CRD
Livable CRD is a non-partisan coalition scoring Capital Regional District municipal candidates on transit, housing, climate, arts, and other livability issues.
11610
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Condon makes an incredibly compelling argument for broad upzoning. Why fiddle around parcel by parcel when we can broadly allow housing and unleash years or decades worth of future homes?
0110
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Trying some electric camping
170
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Love it when I go for my usual walk and a bunch of new housing suddenly pops up
1100
Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
What www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
'Here we go again' after CRA pays out another bogus $5M income tax refund, agency insider says | CBC News
The Canada Revenue Agency has paid out another $5-million refund to a single taxpayer, this time to a B.C. businesswoman, despite what it now alleges was a bogus return that included "illogical" and "...
020