There have been some interesting local news stories over the past few months about beliefs, superstitions and sensitivities pertaining to Asians and housing in Greater Vancouver.
The relevance of numerology for house numbers was one such story, and I posted about it here.
More recently there were objections expressed about the cultural sensitivity of a proposed hospice being built at UBC.
These stories weren’t exactly earth moving, but after reading the latest stories about the way real estate is being flipped in Richmond, similar to what is commonly practiced in Hong Kong, I’d sure be interested to hear what the beliefs are of Asians as they speculate and settle in an earthquake zone.
A 3.2 magnitude quake was recorded on February 8th close by under San Juan Island, Washington. Then a 2.9 magnitude quake took place 38 kilometers from Richmond in the Strait of Georgia in the morning of February 16th.
Richmond is a low laying island with a strong agricultural sector that thrives as a result of the ideal silt and sand soil conditions, and the shaking from an earthquake can cause liquefaction, which is the affect of these sedimentary deposits becoming a fluid mass.
Since we are prone at any time to the big one, the occurrence of a nearby earthquake will inevitably test the stability of bridges and dykes in Richmond, as well as other structures throughout the Lower Mainland.
We are located in one of the most seismically active regions of Canada, and yet Lower Mainlanders are known to be apathetic towards earthquakes, and how it could affect them. I must be an apathetic type myself living in Port Moody where, due to soft soils, we are also prone to liquefaction. So when it comes to living in an earthquake zone, I’m probably no different than Asians then.
I’m sure glad to be in Port Moody and the Tri-cities though, where we don’t have the same real estate speculation and flipping, or the resultant market instability.