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  #41  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2013, 12:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrjanejacobs View Post
I don't think so - the borough term is actually really common and used in a lot of City's, not just New York.

I am certain Newfoundlanders would never accept a street-naming system of numbering. haha

I think Architype is right about the ambiguity of community for administrative purposes. But boroughs are also known to be a lot larger than communities (more like a ward). "Ward" sounds like shit. haha Borough perhaps would be good for administrative 'wards'.

However, I think 'communities' are really important and we should more often support these kinds of organizations. For instance, we want to give residents of a certain area an identity - a "place" to identify with. Think about Georgestown or Pleasentville or Goulds or Kilbride, Quidi Vidi etc. These areas have really concise place-identity connections. Yes, they are historic - but that doesn't mean new places can't be similarly labeled for the sake of community-building.

CBS is the result of an amalgamation of 9 communities. They are oversized now, but some have pretty charming names that I would be happy to identify with - like "Greeleytown", "Peachytown", a new emerging name, "Cherrytown". If we can organize these communities with a volunteer government organization then we can begin much more sustainable planning at the community and neighbourhood scale.

I think being able to identify with a community is important for the sake of belonging to a place and larger community on the whole.
A page out of one of Ms. Jacobs' book if I've ever seen one.

I am pro amalgamation, simply because the current growth in the city, and the direction that the Avalon is heading, is unsustainable at its current rate. So much sprawl is capable of occurring because the communities are working against each other instead of WITH each other. If something is proposed, and one community doesn't want it, you can just build it somewhere else. The community that shut it down loses all the potential revenue generated from the project. They won't be so quick to shut the next one down.

Meanwhile, St. John's is getting screwed because the majority of folks in all the communities in the area cart themselves into the city for work. St. John's services are stressed, and so St. John's taxes are high. Amalgamation would undoubtedly raise the taxes in places like Paradise and LBMCOC... but rightfully so, in my opinion. Hopefully, taxes in the city would FALL themselves. Once everyone is contributing to the pot they are drawing from, the amalgamated area can develop a strategy to integrate services.

There are challenges, and much would need to be negotiated, but as a developer, I truly feel that each region is making it harder on themselves by insisting that they operate independently. Its great for developers though. So it depends how you slice it.
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  #42  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2013, 12:45 PM
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I'm so excited by everyone's posts in this thread. It reaffirmed a few things for me - most of which Jeddy1989 has been pushing for years, ha!

1. When questions like this come up, we need to look to Europe first, not mainland Canada. We're much more likely to find solutions that most closely address our needs there. It may not always be the case, but the success rate will be higher than looking to Nova Scotia, or Ontario, or wherever else.

2. We CAN achieve smart regional planning while still enabling our separate communities to not only maintain their unique identities but even strengthen them.

These two things excite me very much. I think I want to contact the relevant authorities with the London/Dublin examples. Who would be the proper target of a letter like that? The province, I assume?
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  #43  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2013, 2:43 PM
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I would love to see numbered streets here. They would make absolutely NO sense whatsoever!
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  #44  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2013, 2:44 PM
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Evil genius... lol Especially if we keep the same lopsided interpretation of cardinal points.

"So you're telling me 1st Avenue SouthWest is actually northeast of 1st Avenue Northeast?"
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  #45  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2013, 2:31 AM
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The street numbering systems are really helpful, but can also be mind numbing, also the block numbering systems provide coordinates even on streets with names, but it only works with a proper grid. The fact that we have GPS now makes things so much easier, you hardly need to know where you are going anymore.
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  #46  
Old Posted Mar 2, 2013, 2:37 AM
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  #47  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2013, 1:45 AM
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  #48  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2013, 1:54 AM
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Fascinating. Scary to think the divisions helped crime...
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  #49  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 8:51 PM
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I don't think this has been posted yet, or if it's been consulted by many forumers by I recently stumbled on to this report published on the City of St.John's website, dated 2011 by Stantec:

http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...ort_102011.pdf

It's an amalgamation report that supports Amalgamating the City of Mount Pearl, Elizabeth Park, Evergreen Village and St. Anne's Industrial Park with St.John's.

Pretty good read... haha
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  #50  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 9:38 PM
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Around the time of its release the city manager said that the report provided a "weak" case for amalgamation and that the report would likely reinforce opposition.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...-memo-117.html
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  #51  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 10:09 PM
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God damn - however, the City Manager's rationale in follow-up to the report (in the article) is a little naive... of course taxes would change - they will just even-out.

Why is the City Manager taking such a political view on this? It doesn't seem like something that should be up to the City Manager.... right?
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  #52  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 10:17 PM
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It really depends on who you ask in the metro region how they feel about the issue. Most of the "experts" from St. John's will sing amalgamation, even if reports from outside the city say otherwise
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  #53  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2013, 10:27 PM
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The city manager is there to give opinions and recommendations.
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  #54  
Old Posted May 23, 2014, 7:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrjanejacobs View Post
I don't think this has been posted yet, or if it's been consulted by many forumers by I recently stumbled on to this report published on the City of St.John's website, dated 2011 by Stantec:

http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...ort_102011.pdf

It's an amalgamation report that supports Amalgamating the City of Mount Pearl, Elizabeth Park, Evergreen Village and St. Anne's Industrial Park with St.John's.

Pretty good read... haha
I took a look at the report today, and I agree that the entire Waterford River watershed should be within the City of St. John's. After Hurricane Gabrielle, St. John's introduced site development regulations requiring peak runoff to be no higher post-development than it was pre-development. Depending on the site, the necessary stormwater retention can be costly. A number of commercial buildings, including the new St. John Ambulance headquarters, have been built in Mount Pearl to skirt the regulation. Since Mount Pearl drains into the Waterford River, this contributes to flood risk in St. John's.

C.B.S. and the whole of Paradise should be included in a larger City of St. John's that assumes responsibility for all of the roads within its boundaries. Once suburban residents are paying their fair share of infrastructure costs, there will be no reason for the provincial government to maintain our local highways.
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  #55  
Old Posted May 24, 2014, 1:18 PM
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IMO, we don't need amalgamation to solve many of the issues the region faces. Amalgamating some communities might be wise but I don't think amalgamating the while region at this time would be wise.
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  #56  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2014, 7:13 PM
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Moreover, the fear that underpins many amalgamation discussions will be the political polarization. Look no further than the City of Toronto.

The values of people living in the suburbs will unlikely correspond with the values of people living downtown. People in the suburbs see more roads, parking, conveniences for cars as a good thing (logically so). Power of numbers will give even more political weight to suburban voters with car-minded values if there was ever amalgamation.
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  #57  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2014, 7:14 PM
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In other words - Intentionally enclosing an electorate where there is such polarized opinions on city building can do more harm than good.
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  #58  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2014, 10:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrjanejacobs View Post
Moreover, the fear that underpins many amalgamation discussions will be the political polarization. Look no further than the City of Toronto.

The values of people living in the suburbs will unlikely correspond with the values of people living downtown. People in the suburbs see more roads, parking, conveniences for cars as a good thing (logically so). Power of numbers will give even more political weight to suburban voters with car-minded values if there was ever amalgamation.
Mercifully, none of the municipalities on the Northeast Avalon have the resources to build literal gravy trains à la Rob Ford. In both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, it's provincial governments that have been caught up in road-building mania for the last decade. Left to their own devices, I doubt the municipalities of the Northern Avalon would have built the ORR, the CBS Bypass, the Torbay Bypass, or the Team Gushue Highway in their present forms. Similarly, it's the Government of Nova Scotia and not HRM that has been upgrading 100-series highways and is in the process of building a new highway from Dartmouth to Sackville based on a report from 1991!

Downloading the responsibility for road building and maintenance to municipalities tends to reign in excesses since the full costs must be borne by local property owners. To do so on the Northern Avalon would require either amalgamation or a TfL-style transport authority responsible for both roads and public transportation in all of the local municipalities. The towns to the north of St. John's have been omitted from my suggested merger only because they're not attached to the growing spaghetti of highways leading southwest out of the City. Assuming that an amalgamated municipality would have more car-minded values than the City of St. John's gives too much credit to a City that allowed a bus strike to drag on for months, doesn't clear its sidewalks, is mad for big box stores, has agreed to maintain a new highway to Mount Pearl and beyond, and recently debated removing its bike lanes. Throwing a minority of tax-averse suburbanites into the mix is unlikely to cause any harm.
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  #59  
Old Posted Jan 6, 2015, 11:57 AM
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Galway

From VOCM:

Quote:
Galway Development to Proceed Despite Mount Pearl Concerns
Tuesday , January 6 2015 | 7:37:43 AM

The City of St. John's did not heed a request from the City of Mount Pearl to speak to them before a rezoning at last night's meeting. However, Mayor Dennis O'Keefe says that doesn't mean they're not listening.

O'Keefe says the problem Mount Pearl has with the Galway development, which sits on the border of the city, is mainly related to traffic.

Mount Pearl City Council says it does not support the proposed roundabouts at the Pitts Memorial Drive and Ruth Avenue interchange as it will create congestion on the existing Mount Pearl roadway. O'Keefe says They chose to rezone last night to get the ball rolling on the development, but he says that's only a small piece of the puzzle. He says the rezoning is only a small part of the development, and traffic issues as cited by the city of Mount Pearl have more to do with the future than right now. He says staff from both cities will take a look at traffic patterns.

At St. John's council last night, 55 acres of land at 40 Reservoir Road were rezoned to make way for a big box commercial development for Galway. Mount Pearl also says no development should occur around the 190 metre contour until a regional water study is complete.
Council's approval of car-dependent sprawl without a direct connection to the St. John's municipal road network illustrates the absurdity of our current municipal boundaries particularly well.
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  #60  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2015, 11:51 PM
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I've been thinking about this idea recently. Not just for St. John's but for the entire province. I don't necessarily support the idea of amalgamating entire areas but I think we need to look at regional models.

I've been thinking of it recently because it would be wise for the province to look at in an effort to save money. Do a major municipal restructuring throughout the province and download some additional services to those regional governments. It could allow the government to save money and decision making could be at done at a more local level.
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