The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

Huh. Apparently The Creek closed.

Mediocre food, bad location.

[@Champlain]

The rent might be high at Champlain, but we've got the traffic!

[BlackYear]

Too bad about The Creek. I live within 6 blocks and I haven't had a chance to go and I'm not sure why. Either the location, the name, the menu or simply may be just one of those places you never think about going.

Champlain Mall. The only time I ever go to the mall is Christmas time or whenever I have a craving for those giant soft pretzels. I prefer to shop at specialty shops all around town.

Railway through the city. I've lived in downtown Moncton all my life and I would love nothing more than having the railway rerouted out of town. Why it was ever designed that was in the first place is beyond me. But then again, back in the early 1900s, Moncton was a railroad town. Still though, as the city grew and expanded throughout the decades, you would think that the city and the railroad company would foresee some problems down the road.

Rerouting the railway out of the city wouldn't be too difficult. You could create a junction at Berry Mills, run a new line along the TCH # 2, reconnect to an another junction between Elmwood & Shediac Rd. You could also build a new VIA Rail station near Magnetic Hill along this new railway. All of the rails currently in the industrial parks wouldn't be affected. You would only cut off the vein from West Main street traffic circle to Mill Road.

Rerouting the rail would allow the city to completely redevelop the West Main street traffic circle. You could remove the West Main rail bridge and completely flatten this area level which would create a great opportunity to develop a brand new traffic circle with a great view from all angles...with no flooding.

You could do the same for the subway. Take away the old ugly subway and level off Main street and redo and new "T" intersection. No trucks allowed, but tourist with motorcoaches and motorhomes would be a welcomed. No more restrictions on Santa Claus parade floats.

The rest of the downtown railway could be redeveloped into a trail system with small parks and benches. The corner of St-George/Church/O'Brian (that little 50' side street) would go through a make-over. The Deluxe French Fries block would allow for prime apartment buildings to be built.
Robinson & Queen would open for parking. Lutz/Queen/McMonagle corner would open more parking spaces. And of course behind the subway block would completely be open for new development.

I'll stop for now.

[mmmatt]

Great to hear the good news about Champlain...nice to see new stores...I was in there today and it was packed out as usual.

Awesome news about ABU, its a small university, but its a very good asset to our higher education system in Moncton...Im glad to see they are doing so well. Hopefully the expansion will be soon

Never went to the Creek, but I always thought it looked really out of place...that whole street needs a lot of work.

heres an interesting article from the airport today:

Greater Moncton International Airport Receives Airport of Entry/225 Designation

2/24/2009

Moncton -- Greater Moncton International Airport (GMIA) is pleased to announce that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has recently upgraded the GMIA’s designation for Airport of Entry (AOE) to AOE/225 passengers from AOE/75 passengers.

This new designation will inform international airlines that the GMIA has a facility wherein 225 passengers can be processed through customs without a staged offload, rather than the previous number of 75, which represents the capacity of a regional sized jet and did not meet GMIA’s requirements for international arrivals. This adjusted published number represents the equivalent capacity of larger passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 757 narrow-bodied aircraft.

“We are extremely grateful for all the support that we received from the CBSA officers and offices in the region and from CBSA’s new President & CEO in Ottawa”, states Rob Robichaud, President and CEO of the Greater Moncton International Airport Authority. “In addition, the Greater Moncton community, Councils and the various business-oriented agencies must be recognized for their unfailing collaboration.”

In these very competitive times in the aviation industry, particularly in this region, tools such as the increased AOE designation help the GMIA stand out and market itself more effectively to international carriers. At this time, among all New Brunswick and PEI airports, GMIA is the only one that has the AOE/225 designation, which means more international passengers can be accommodated upon arrival.

[MonctonRad]

The AOE225 designation is actually a huge thing for the GMIA. There are only two (now three) airports in Atlantic Canada with this designation. It allows large jets to disembark all their passengers at the same time for customs services. This and the expansion of customs services to 16 hours/day will really boost the airports competitiveness for the international travel market.

Congratulations!

[P Unit]

I've never really understood the majority of Monctonians' opposition to the tracks running through town. I think it's such an incredible asset, and moving the tracks to the north of town would be a mistake on par with the causeway or putting the dump next to the river. Who knows how long gas is going to stay cheap, and there will come a day when it's more economically viable to take the train between Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John and Halifax than it will be to fly or to drive. Having a downtown rail station will become a huge advantage. With the same economic eventuality, LRT will eventually become more common in smaller centers in Canada (we're talking decades here, but still). Having an existing right-of-way is too valuable a resource to throw away, as most cities have a hell of a time when they have to expropriate land for transit projects. It's a little bit of an inconvenience now (and even then, the line is not that busy at all), but it could become a gold mine in the future.

[mylesmalley]

Originally Posted by P Unit

I've never really understood the majority of Monctonians' opposition to the tracks running through town. I think it's such an incredible asset, and moving the tracks to the north of town would be a mistake on par with the causeway or putting the dump next to the river. Who knows how long gas is going to stay cheap, and there will come a day when it's more economically viable to take the train between Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John and Halifax than it will be to fly or to drive. Having a downtown rail station will become a huge advantage. With the same economic eventuality, LRT will eventually become more common in smaller centers in Canada (we're talking decades here, but still). Having an existing right-of-way is too valuable a resource to throw away, as most cities have a hell of a time when they have to expropriate land for transit projects. It's a little bit of an inconvenience now (and even then, the line is not that busy at all), but it could become a gold mine in the future.

Amen, P Unit!

I'd add to that

• The railroad companies are pretty much broke. More importantly, there'd be no economic benefit to them moving the tracts as the trains get right-of-way anyway. A new rail line across the edge of town wouldn't save any time
• Funding would have to come from some or all levels of government...which would never fly for a purely cosmetic project
• Via charters busses to take people to towns not serviced by trains. Having the bus station so close by makes this a lot more convenient.
• As I've said before, tearing down the subway would be wiping away one of the most architecturally distinctive parts of downtown
• Putting the train station out at Magnetic Hill would mean that everyone would have to commute to it. That, and you all know how I feel about developments at the edge of town
• It'd really ignore the railroad heritage the city has worked hard to preserve.
• Having the tracks run through town gives the city an interesting feature to plan around. Meaning, we get more interesting building shapes, blocks, etc.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

It's good to see ABU getting a 'campus' sort of feel to it. I hope they don't make the mistake that UdeM made by building things so far apart.

I don't really think UdeM 'dropped the ball' per se. It was always my understanding that it was intended to be the province's primary French university while UNB would be the main English school. From what I've heard though you can take a good number of English courses at UdeM. And lest we forget Mount Allison which is only a half hour drive from town.

Re: ABU expansion

This is a positive development for higher education in greater Moncton. This will see the ABU "campus" increasing from two building to five buildings. Expanded course offerings and increased student capacity (to 1200 students) will be most welcome. $24M is nothing to sneeze at.

Having said this, I firmly believe that it is a travesty of near epic proportions that there is no real UNB Moncton. There should be one, just as there is a UNB Saint John and a UNB Fredericton. This to me is an indication of the contempt that the province has for the anglophone population of greater Moncton. It, to me, shows a complete abrogation of provincial responsibility for the higher educational needs of 2/3rds of the population of our city.

The university choices that we do have here in Moncton are patchy and inadequate for the anglophone population:

- U de M offers only a smattering of English language courses and, beyond their English MBA program, it is impossible for any anglophone to graduate from that university unless they are a high functioning early immersion student. I'm sure that no more than 2% of the student body is a native anglophone.

- ABU is a small university with only limited course offerings. It is also a religious based university demanding daily chapel attendance and active involvement in extracurricular church activities. There are big problems re: inclusiveness at this institution if you are not already a fundamentalist protestant. I wonder if they have any Jewish or Muslim students at ABU?

- UNB Moncton (yes Virginia, there is a UNB Moncton), exists as a small health sciences campus at The Moncton Hospital. You can get training there in nursing and medical X-ray technology. Surely the province can do better than this!

- Mount Allison University is an absolutely wonderful institution that we should all be proud of. It is consistently ranked as the best undergraduate university in the entire country.

The main problem with Mt. A is that it is located a half hour out of town. This is too far to commute for many students, especially in the wintertime and the relationship of Mt. A to Moncton is, in many ways, similar to the relationship of Acadia University to Halifax. It's a great university if you want to live away from home for the first time but yet be able to get home on the weekends.

The other "problem" with Mt. A. is that because of its stellar reputation, it is in many ways a small "national" university, with many students hailing from across the country and around the world. Admission standards are thus so high that many Moncton high school graduates would not be able to get acceptance there. Mount Allison thus fails to be the "city" university that Moncton needs.

So what is there to be done about this? Probably nothing. I have resigned myself to the fact that the province will never build a real UNB Moncton campus. Probably the best we will ever have is ABU. Hopefully, over time, as this university slowly grows and increases course offerings it will become less fundamentalist and more inclusive. ABU also has to develop a relationship to the MPHEC so that it will become more recognized as a legitimate centre of higher education. Unless this is done, it will remain on the fringes of academia and thus a borderline irrelevant institution.

Thus ends my rant. I welcome comments.

[MonctonRad]

Mapleton Road work to be completed by fall
Published Wednesday February 25th, 2009

Project will expand road on either side of Trinity Drive
By Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff

The City of Moncton's director of design and construction says everything's in place to get the Mapleton Road project completed by late this year.

Meanwhile, the designs are all drawn, the paperwork's ready, the utility poles are all moved and the culverts are in place.

By late October, motorists should be using six lanes from a point north of Hopper Street near Skipper Jack's restaurant to Trinity Drive, and five lanes from Trinity north to Highway 2, the Trans-Canada Highway.

The segment from Hopper to Trinity includes the overpass straddling Wheeler Boulevard, which the Province of New Brunswick is on track to widen.

"The work will start this summer on the overpass," said provincial Department of Transportation spokesman Andrew Holland. "It has not been tendered yet but the work is scheduled on the work plan for this summer."

Construction is, of course, always subject to unforeseen problems, but Richard is hopeful the worst-case scenario for the project is that the final coat of pavement may not get laid before the snow flies.

Speaking of unforeseen problems, the settling of land beneath the sidewalk that appeared last December won't affect road construction regardless of the outcome of efforts to fix it.

Though the settling caused the city to initially close off part of Mapleton Road as a precaution, it was not connected to road construction. Rather, it was connected to the building of a retaining wall at the Mapleton Fashion Centre and problems with backfilling.

Even if attempts to resolve the backfill issue are not immediately successful, "it won't affect the road. It may affect the sidewalk," Richard said.

Mapleton will have sidewalks on both sides, so at worst, pedestrians might have to walk only on the west side until the Mapleton Fashion Centre's problem can be remedied. As well, because it's not connected to the road work, none of that will affect the budget or taxpayers.

Richard said the only real issues left to be resolved are a watercourse alteration permit for work near the Trans-Canada end and some maintenance the province had planned for the existing Wheeler Boulevard overpass.

In the case of the watercourse permit, Richard said the city's work is done.

In the case of the overpass, the province had wanted to do the maintenance a few weeks before Christmas, but the city asked that the work be held off because of the heavy holiday shopping traffic.

Now the province will either get the work done as the bridge gets widened or perhaps leave it until the spring of 2010.

[curious]

To liven it up downtown it would be great to put another business college or art and design college. I don't think there is an art and design collage like NSCAD in Halifax is there?

[mylesmalley]

There's at least one private art school in town. Te one I know of is called MacKenzie College, but I don't know where it's located.

[David_99]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

There's at least one private art school in town. Te one I know of is called MacKenzie College, but I don't know where it's located.

Cameron st.

Let's just say, it's no NASCAD.

[David_99]

Originally Posted by curious

To liven it up downtown it would be great to put another business college or art and design college.

There used to be half a dozen schools that taught Design in Moncton as recent as 8 years ago. Then they realized there's only a handful of jobs available each year in this limited market. 6 schools x 20 graduated design students each = lots a creative Call Centre Representatives per year.

Each school closed one by one. I'm not even sure if NBCC Dieppe teaches it anymore. At one point McKenzie merged with CompuCollege, then they cancelled the course and finally each school separated again.

I had to move to Vancouver for a year to find another school to teach at.

[MonctonRad]

This was posted by Myles in the Canadian stadiums thread. I have taken the liberty of reposting it here. It's a rough render of the World Track & Field Stadium at U de M.



I presume the 10,000 permanent seats are on the sidelines and that the 10,000 temporary seats are in the end zones.

Looking at this, if they built a "bowl" of seating completely around the field, I strongly suspect that they would have no difficulty in meeting the 28,000 seat minimum for a CFL franchise.

This will be the only stadium of it's kind in Atlantic Canada that could potentially be expanded to CFL standards.

[ErickMontreal]

Here's another rendering of it :

[stephan.richard]

Originally Posted by @Champlain

H&M
La Vie en Rose
Aqua
Koodo
Sirens
Costa Blanca
New concept & moving-Guest Services Centre
Remodeled-Rickis
Remodeled-Hallmark
Remodeled & moving-Fairweather
Expansion-Spring
Expansion-Stokes
and more to come

Are we going to see stores like Aeropostale, Hollister, A & F or Lids...
As per an article in the TJ Aeropostale and Lidsare going to McAlister Place in Saint John. Hope you have more insights in this.

[benvui]

Looking at those renders, the seats seem pretty fare away from the field, kind of like at Rockey Stone. It would make for a lot better atmosphere if the seating was right up on the track, but I'm guess its a little late in the game to be changing that! LOL. Anyway, as someone who has traveled all across Nova Scotia to watch college football, I can't wait for them to have a CFL game there, I'll be one of the first ones to get tickets! And I'm also hoping that the stadium will convince U de M to get a team in the league.

[@Champlain]

Originally Posted by stephan.richard

Are we going to see stores like Aeropostale, Hollister, A & F or Lids...
As per an article in the TJ Aeropostale and Lidsare going to McAlister Place in Saint John. Hope you have more insights in this.

Time will tell regarding Lids & Aero, A&F is considered upscale and there is only 3 stores in Canada; 1 in Edmonton and 2 stores in Toronto. Hollister has 5 stores in Canada. Moncton is probably NOT next on the list...Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, probably. I would expect Halifax to get Abercrombie & Fitch before Moncton, they already have more upscale stores than us; Birks, Talbots, Banana Republic, Club Monaco, Esprit, Lush, just to name a few. Don't expect those brands to go to Trinity either, upscale retailers don't do bigbox/strip malls, they locate primarily in large, upscale malls. Some rumors were saying that A&F, Aero, Hollister, etc... were going to the new mall [sic]... strip mall next to the Costco, they are not.

[@Champlain]

Originally Posted by benvui

Looking at those renders, the seats seem pretty fare away from the field, kind of like at Rockey Stone. It would make for a lot better atmosphere if the seating was right up on the track, but I'm guess its a little late in the game to be changing that! LOL. Anyway, as someone who has traveled all across Nova Scotia to watch college football, I can't wait for them to have a CFL game there, I'll be one of the first ones to get tickets! And I'm also hoping that the stadium will convince U de M to get a team in the league.

We could expect a few games here per season, however we are not getting a CFL franchise in Moncton.

[BlackYear]

The City of Moncton has a live streaming cam pointing at the new stadium. Things are quiet now, but you can see some of the bleacher seats already assembled on the north side.

http://www.moncton.ca/Visitors/Web_Cameras.htm

I wonder if anyone ever thought about spray painting their logo on the snow in front of the cam for free advertising!