Quote:
Originally Posted by bingun
Similar to parts of the North End, Lower West has seen better days, at least the last few times I was over there. New development is one thing, but it's the poverty, crime, and disrepair that will put many off living there.
I wonder, once the city has finished their North End neighbourhood plan, will they begin a west side plan, or instead go east/Millidgeville?
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Gentrification, major investments in affordable housing, and investments in education seem to be the solutions needed to deal with these issues of poverty, crime, and disrepair.
Though, I don't think too many of the young people from the developing world moving to Saint John as students or immigrants are exactly put off by living on the Lower West side of Saint John because of "crime and poverty"... but there's certainly a lot of very privileged people who grew up in the Kennebecasis Valley and other areas of Saint John that have some very un-nuanced views about "the West Side" being plagued with poverty, crime, and disrepair.
Personally, I think it's a bit rich to suggest the Lower West Side is any more crime riddled than Uptown Saint John. (I'm not saying
you're saying this Bingun) though
I would say that the Lower West Side has far less nuisance crime to deal with than Uptown Saint John.
I have an aunt who grew up on the West Side in the 60's and moved away from Saint John for some very high profile jobs, then came back to SJ about 15 years ago. She had the gall to say she wanted to get her mother out of her very nice late 60's built 3 bedroom house on the Lancaster side of City line near St. Patrick's school, the house she grew up in, because the area has "turned into a Ghetto".
Yet, where did she move when she came back to Saint John? The Three Sisters Condos in Uptown Saint John.
Though, I guess she's since moved into Brentwood Tower in Millidgeville. I think there is a bit of a cognitive dissonance about the "crime" on the West Side making it a less desirable place to live, when across the harbour there's far more nuisance crime going on... yet Uptown Saint John is considered among the most trendy and desirable places to live and visit in all of New Brunswick.
I think there's far more crime to worry about all over the Central Peninsula than there is crime to worry about around the Carleton Peninsula, including the Lower West. There's many streets throughout the Lower West with multiple old salt boxes should be torn town and replaced with 6 storey apartment buildings and even taller residential developments... and the same thing can be said about many parts of the Central Peninsula.
There should be far more support for policing and solutions to deal with troublesome spots in the Lower West and the troublesome spots throughout the Central Peninsula. There's far too much nuisance crime going on both sides of the harbour, but I've not yet heard about people being bear maced by meth heads at the Tim Horton's on King Street West.
I really do hope the city comes up with a good neighbourhood plan for the Lower West Side as mentioned, as the area has a lot of potential, but it needs a lot of investment to make it a more desirable place to visit and live. Ambitious mixed used developments and embracing height could drastically increase the population of the Lower West, and change the conversation about the neighbourhood. The Lower West truly is a naturally beautiful area, with so much potential. However, there's no use denying that there's a lot of unsightly buildings and homes that are beyond disrepair that need to be torn down and replaced with far more dense and desirable housing developments.
The most dense 3km radius in Moncton and Saint John, NB.
Using the metric of a 3km population radius, the Lower West is within the most dense part of Saint John... yet, it was more densely populated 100 years ago.
Moncton now has a far denser population living within a 3km radius than Saint John has. I think it's time to build big in Saint John, on both sides of the Harbour, in the most central and historic parts of our city. The Province of NB and City of Saint John should be embracing policies and strategies that will increase height and density throughout core and core adjacent areas, like the Lower West Side. We need to think bigger, and build bigger.
Speaking of
building big, I'm reminded of this video put out by Saint John Harbour MLA and NB's Minister of Housing, David Hickey in Moncton where he has a montage of high rise development in Moncton and says now is the time to build big in New Brunswick:
• Video Link
I think it would sure be nice if someday soon Minister Hickey could be able to take some photo ops in front of residential high rise developments that truly exemplify the idea of "building big" within his riding of Saint John Harbour, which includes the Lower West Side... instead of all these photo ops in front of tiny little projects around the province as seen below on his instagram:
I agree with Minister Hickey that we need to "build big" to get out of this "housing crisis" in New Brunswick. However, I think NB Housing could be supporting much bigger ideas designed to get NB out of this housing crisis
and help breath new life into some older neighbourhoods that have fallen by the wayside over the years. It seems the provincial government is mainly interested in providing funding for small scale residential developments for people who quality for social housing and seniors... but I think they could be doing lot bigger things.
Personally, I've always thought it would be a good idea for the province to fund the construction of mid rise and high rise affordable housing developments that the public will own, and that middle and lower income people will rent. Areas like the Lower West Side, Old North End, Waterloo Village, and the South End would all be good locations for such developments, and then no one in Saint John could complain and say the government wasn't doing enough to deal with the housing crisis. Although, who am I kidding, some people will still complain no matter what's proposed.
I think we have a lot of potential here in Saint John, and it's been nice to see more development momentum and steady population growth over the past few years. Still, we've go a long, long way to go to make this a more livable and desirable place to live... especially in areas like the Lower West, North End, and South End. For those areas, and even more troublesome areas like Waterloo Village, it's truly big and optimistic solutions that are needed!
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