Quote:
Originally Posted by adamuptownsj
OK lol you didn't even read my post. Building at the AIM site, which is almost explicitly targeted for a RoRo terminal and additional cranes, would indeed neuter the port. How would people even get in and out? an overpass from Queen St. West? I could not have been more clear that Lower Cove could probably be developed once AIM is gone and the port can use that space. You have this bizarre pipe dream of the port not really working or growing, and affordable housing replacing strategic federal land in a city with thousands of acres of undeveloped, serviced, PDA land. Even if waterfront opens up, by the value of it alone, it should be for mostly market housing.
Don't get me started on Trudeau. It's his fault in the first place. 'Doing something on housing' would start with not importing millions of people in less than a decade, not raising capital gains taxes to the moon, and not implementing expensive environmental standards above and beyond the 2020 building code to unlock 'federal housing money'. If you believe a Q2 2024 announcement that the port will be turned into 5-and-1s at some indeterminate point will make us mentally go back to 2015, you're totally mistaken. Trudeau made the mess. He can't buy his way out of it with Albertan taxpayer money at this point. And don't think I care about Poilievre, all he's good for is taking taxes back down to Harper level and nuking the CBC.
I am totally opposed to the boat lol. The Canadian military is a futile venture that hasn't won a war since Korea. Why do we need a rusty old boat clogging up the harbour to be used as cadet office space? The Brunswicker is a serviceable facility. There is no race to declare every federal facility in the city surplus. Why not just buy or expropriate Brideau's 15% of the Old North End at FMV and build there, where there's already schools, sewers, and streets, if the feds are going to get into residential construction?
There's dozens of posts on here about finding a better use for Lower Cove and for Long Wharf. I've made many of them. Nothing is going to happen until the port can make use of AIM's site, and for the city to make serious progress on Fundy Quay.
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There would be ample room for them to expand into the AIM site for a RoRo terminal, additional cranes, WITHOUT neutering the port. I don't have this bizzare dream of the port not growing and developing (your putting words in my mouth, and please don't). Rather, I have this positive idea of the port growing and further developing, while making some room for housing on under-utilized federally owned port land. Also, I never suggested that only public and affordable housing should be built at any of these sites, private investors could certainly be involved, too!
Also, lol @ this entire housing situation being Trudeau's fault. How many times do we hear over and over again that "housing is a provincial issue". Higgs and previous NB provincial governments deserve far more blame for the housing supply crunch in NB than Trudeau and the federal government. Furthermore, it's ridiculous that you seem to think pre 2015 Harper era policy was better, and that you seem to think Harper's CPC's or PP's are fundamentally different on the issue of immigration compared to the Trudeau Liberals. You're trying to distract from the issue by bringing up immigration levels... immigrants aren't the problem, the problem is the lack of housing supply. Every policy initiative that aims to increase the amount of housing is part of fixing that problem... but somehow you think high taxes and the freaking CBC are the problem? Utterly laughable.
Those frigates are an important part of Saint John's history, and getting one back would not only greatly add to the image of the city, and it would also be a tourist draw. It's your negative view that it would be a rusty old boat floating in the harbour. It's my positive opinion that it would be a restored old frigate floating majestically in the harbour, and be something for us all to be proud of, ,regardless of your weirdly unpatriotic opinion of the Canadian military being a "futile venture".
Regardless of the dream to get one of the Frigates back as a floating fixture of Saint John Harbour, there's still room for some housing to go up at the federally owned HMCS Brunswicker property.
As for how people would access residential housing at part of the AIM site, take a look at a map below, there's all kinds of solutions including yours of an overpass, that could be utilized to make it work and provide public access. Not sure why you consider it so wildly unrealistic, especially when the Prime Minister himself is saying it's a good idea to build housing on under-utilized land at Canadian ports. You seem to have this bizarre idea that the Port would be castrated if it only got to take over 60% of the former AIM site with the other 40% being utilized to build some high rise residential with striking views of the Port and Bay of Fundy. It's utter nonsense to suggest the Port couldn't continue on it's growth and development trajectory with only 60% of the former AIM site. The Port would absolutely be able to flourish into the future.
Don't paint me as someone who wants to shut down our port and build public housing in it's place... it's not at all what I'm suggesting, and not at all what Prime Minister Trudeau is suggesting either.
