Saskatoon Construction

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by Temperance

It's called city planning crisis. These kind of decisions are for the betterment of the community as a whole. I've been to cities without much planning and it's not a pretty picture (or a reasonable alternative).

Fair comment. A agree that zoning bylaws should be in place to encourage suitable development. I just don't want government to mandate where businesses must locate.

[radioactive1]

Originally Posted by Crisis

Fair comment. A agree that zoning bylaws should be in place to encourage suitable development. I just don't want government to mandate where businesses must locate.

I don't think I've seen governments mandating where a business should locate. Are you talking about offering gov't incentives to promote development?

[Temperance]

Originally Posted by Crisis

Fair comment. A agree that zoning bylaws should be in place to encourage suitable development. I just don't want government to mandate where businesses must locate.

I get where you`re coming from. I guess it`s not so much about forcing businesses to relocate as it is about providing proper zoning and laws to encourage development in areas that are beneficial to the city in the long-term.

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by radioactive1

I don't think I've seen governments mandating where a business should locate. Are you talking about offering gov't incentives to promote development?

Nope, this is just fallout from a comment on the previous page when someone said "The City of Saskatoon should simply not allow building permits for offices outside the core".

[kgc087]

Do you think the city should try re-branding urbanism to promote downtown development. I think the absolute first step would be to figure out the transit situation, if people had an efficient way to work downtown they would gladly work there.

[Ruckus]

Word cloud from the SP Saskatoon Speaks blog. The tool identifies frequency of a word's usage in an article/document, and upsizes the font of that word the more often it appears in the article. In this case, the source material was a collection of blogs from some Saskatoon thinkers. Is it insightful? Kind of gives off a Google Books Ngram Viewer feel.

Not sure about the font color. I think it's just random assignment.

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by kgc087

Do you think the city should try re-branding urbanism to promote downtown development. I think the absolute first step would be to figure out the transit situation, if people had an efficient way to work downtown they would gladly work there.

Completely agree with the comments about transit. I'm a true car lover and have had nothing but negative experinces with public transit until recently. However, during my last 2 trips to Vancouver, I've taken the Skytrain between the Airport and downtown each time and found it excellent. Far cheaper, quicker & cleaner than a taxi. Not kidding myself that Sasktoon can justify that type of infrastructure, but it did open my eyes to what an efficient public transportation system can do. It would impact the attractiveness of a downtown workplace.

[Ruckus]

Crisis is right in some sense. Employment is widely dispersed in the CMA, and that trend isn't waning (many factors involved). Downtown is important, but I feel the time has come to embrace Saskatoon's polycentric urban form. It's a natural progression if one reflects upon how this region evolved. Saskatoon was polycentric from its inception. The fight isn't worth it.

I too believe the planning process is a vital element of civic health. How our planning tools are introduced and applied matters a great deal. Flexibility is key. Remain mindful of emerging social, cultural, environmental, and economic values. That stuff is bankable. Perceptively, there is too much rigidity with the current regimes approach to statecraft (what stage is the blue box plan at...lol, sorry guys).

Building places in the 21st Century is messy.

(dismiss my political flavour if it bothers you)

[Jerry]

Yorath's vision

By David Hutton, The StarPhoenix February 4, 2011

Christopher Yorath envisioned a ring road in Saskatoon almost 100 years ago and now a community group wants the bridge that completes the circle named in his honour.

The Holiday Park community association has sent a letter petitioning city hall to consider Yorath’s name for the south bridge.

Yorath, a pivotal figure in Saskatoon’s early history as the first city commissioner, imagined an “encircling boulevard” and “ring road” in a 1913 plan, a precursor to what eventually become Circle Drive. [...]

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Yorath+vision/4227854/story.html#ixzz1D5pVzsIu

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.....and a little history to start your Sat. morning


Yorath, Christopher (1879–1932)

[dsim249]

^ Interesting. I hope they do name the bridge after someone/something.

Yorath Island Bridge has a nice ring to it, I think.

[c@taract_soulj@h]

From an outsiders pov, this is what I've conjured so far...

Only time and the right amount of planning (and funding) will tell when the plans for a strong downtown core will come to fruition. Everything else seems to be falling into place for Saskatoon.

- Fastest growing CMA and well on your way to 300,000 people
- Low low low office vacancy downtown along a scenic riverfront
- Great plans for the airport expansion (and increased passenger numbers too)
- Completion of Circle Drive = development along it's corridors

You can always turn these negatives into a positive too:

- The need for better public transit = Revamped transit terminal/LRT = encouraging people to want to work downtown from the outlying areas and vice-versa
- More suburban offices being built than downtown = demand will eventually come with River Landing being the catalyst?

Mind you this isn't Alberta or a capital city so the demand for downtown office space doesn't seem to be immanent like Regina's or the city simply doesn't want to jump ahead of itself just yet but current construction is a start. A couple of 20-storey projects would be great! The approval for RL however is a hell of a start and numbers don't lie because your population isn't getting any smaller.

Heads are going to turn over the next few years outside of your boundaries if they haven't already. RL was from a Calgary developer (even though he couldn't hold a promise) and much of the recent population growth was from outside of Canada. Give it time and you'll see a more developers wanting to make a mark in the city/downtown. Stay positive!

- Now if only some kinda big-time football or hockey team to wants to move in

[jigglysquishy]

There's no reason Saskatoon can't launch on a campaign promoting urbanism. Things like being able to live car-free, being able to walk to work/shopping. The excellent views.

If other cities can have huge and dense downtowns, than so can Saskatoon.

[circle33]

We're partly hindered by that large portion of the population that feels a 3 story 800 sq ft pick up is an appropriate vehicle for getting about town.

[Devon]

Originally Posted by circle33

We're partly hindered by that large portion of the population that feels a 3 story 800 sq ft pick up is an appropriate vehicle for getting about town.

This is a sad truth. I know way to many teenagers who feel the need to own pickups or SUVs for no real reason. As far as the other comments above go, one way to look at this is that it is really just the start in the grand scheme of things. Momentum will pick up, with no doubt in my mind! Also, as far as city planning goes, there are a lot of things that can be done. Like the citys develpmont, it is also a slow movement. In my eyes, getting new younger people with fresh and intelligent ideas on city council is a great start. On that note, anyone living in ward 7 get out and vote this upcoming Wednesday! Go Mairin loewen!

[WoodlandCritter]

I have to admit that I am a person that owns a truck. I love it, but I don't think its my right to drive it wherever i want, its a privilege to have one and have that freedom. I live in Edmonton now for a work term and I decided to leave my truck in ontario and rely soley on public transit here and my own two feet. To tell you the truth I don't really miss my truck. I live close to downtown, a few blocks from the office, i'm about the same distance to an LRT station, and everything i need is within walking distance or one or two stops via public transit. In short, I planned my lifestyle here around my work and the ammenities that were provided in the area. If options like this were made more attractive and available in stoon then more people would take advantage of them.

[circle33]

It's not so much trucks per se, but the size of trucks that are so popular locally that grinds my gears. When traveling about the country it's really striking how few of these enormous trucks that are so common in Saskatoon one sees.

[WoodlandCritter]

I know what you mean. talking about the rigger trucks that dominate the landscape and are ginormous.

[kgc087]

When the second blog gets going I'm going write about promoting urbanism. I'm the mean while I think I'm going to mail city hall about this idea. The people of Saskatoon are pretty easy to sway when something is offered to them that is logical. They just need some education. I think Saskatoon is in an excellent position to promote density. In response to the few 20 storey towers. It would be nice, but I doubt it will happen, Saskatoon is not a highrise city. That's one of the unique characteristics about it.

[kgc087]

http://www.saskatoon.ca/DEPARTMENTS/Comm...nDesign/CityCentrePlan/Pages/Phase3.aspx is this going to happen?

[kgc087]

I can't find the threads discussing satellite development vs. core development but basically I don't think Saskatoon's downtown is strong enough to compete with multiple "supercentre" developments around it. These centres just promote suburbanism and urban sprawl which when multiplied by many will create some major planning problems for the city. I think the city really needs to focus on core development and selling an urban family life style to its residence.