The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by Wolkenkratzerliebhab

The link below, from Cities Journal, says that Saint John is one of the top cities in Canada that one should MOVE AWAY FROM! Personally, I think they are full of you-know-what? Further, they list Saint John in another post as being one of the best cities in Canada, as the other links show, , only it seems to be describing St. Andrews, again... .what-in-hell-gives?

http://www.citiesjournal.com/top-15-cities-and-towns-to-move-away-from-in-canada/14/

http://www.citiesjournal.com/top-13-small-cities-in-canada/12/

That "Cities Journal" website is completely incompetent at conducting urban affairs research/journalism, as even a brief scan of either of those articles will tell you. Never in my life have I seen such lazy fact-checking, unclear and inconsistent evaluation criteria, and just generally sloppy reporting. Their credibility isn't just zero, I'd even characterize it as negative.

I've been in school for 5 years studying urban geography, so I feel fairly qualified in imparting this judgment. My suggestion is to forget that this sorry excuse for a publication exists at all.

[theshark]

What a bunch of ..... having waisted my time to read all the non sense written about each cities. It shows that who ever wrote those articles (if you can call it that) has never set foot outside his office and visited those area before writing this garbage!

[Walk then Run]

I think it's safe to say that we all strongly disagree with the citiesjournal write up. The unfortunate thing is people will read this and without knowing any different will start to create an image of our city which is not flattering.

The only way to combat this is to continue to educate people about our home town, when we're traveling or talking to non-Saint Johners. I feel I'm working for NB tourism when I travel and just last week I was providing details about our city and area to someone in Houston during casual conversation. I almost always break the ice with a quick YouTube video on just how powerful and amazing our tides are. From there they are usually very interested and want to know more. Typically their first question is "where exactly are you guys?"

We just got to keep up the positive talk!

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by Walk then Run

I think it's safe to say that we all strongly disagree with the citiesjournal write up. The unfortunate thing is people will read this and without knowing any different will start to create an image of our city which is not flattering.

The only way to combat this is to continue to educate people about our home town, when we're traveling or talking to non-Saint Johners. I feel I'm working for NB tourism when I travel and just last week I was providing details about our city and area to someone in Houston during casual conversation. I almost always break the ice with a quick YouTube video on just how powerful and amazing our tides are. From there they are usually very interested and want to know more. Typically their first question is "where exactly are you guys?"

We just got to keep up the positive talk!

Your right. I have also talked to numerous people who are in town for the curling tournament this week from all over the world who have loved the city. We are very fortunate to have the Uptown connection to allow people to navigate the city when weather is bad and such an interesting core.

[Walk then Run]

I've entertained people from Vancouver, Montreal, Hamilton, Chicago, New York, Houston, Philadelphia and even Australia!

They are all impressed with our city (especially our restaurants) and always enjoy coming here. For some reason, and I don't know when this happened, it seems Saint John fell off the face of the Earth to Canadians! I can give the Americans a break on this, but our education system / curriculum has failed us.

Let's all hope the curlers, and those fans who visited our city over the past week will educate their friends / family to come and see what they are missing...

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by Wolkenkratzerliebhab

The link below, from Cities Journal, says that Saint John is one of the top cities in Canada that one should MOVE AWAY FROM! Personally, I think they are full of you-know-what? Further, they list Saint John in another post as being one of the best cities in Canada, as the other links show, , only it seems to be describing St. Andrews, again... .what-in-hell-gives?

http://www.citiesjournal.com/top-15-cities-and-towns-to-move-away-from-in-canada/14/

http://www.citiesjournal.com/top-13-small-cities-in-canada/12/

I wouldn't think those sorry waste-of-time pubs get much serious consideration. Their three lines of subjective commentary are mostly uninformed bulldung and sub-high school level thought.

I see they rated Ottawa and Gatineau high on the favourable side. I can speak from 16 years of experience that these are really two of the deadest towns in the country for their size and would not even exist as they do today if it weren't for the federal government influx of cash. Anybody who wants proof of that just needs to look at how many 'good' non-government jobs exist in the area. Even the high tech sector here got it's start with government connections and keeps pretty close with them to this day.

Gatineau is the cheap-housing bedroom community for those who either can't afford the taxpayer enhanced economy of Ottawa, or just want to save some bucks on accommodation. Other than that, I guess people who were born there might like it...

They roll up the sidewalks here on weeknights and weekends. Government bureaucrats and the types they socialize with are really a pretty routine boring bunch. Even the two universities can't make much of a dent in the night life scene here.

There...I've equalized things a little bit.

Don't even waste a second worrying about this stupid stuff.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

They roll up the sidewalks here on weeknights and weekends. Government bureaucrats and the types they socialize with are really a pretty routine boring bunch. Even the two universities can't make much of a dent in the night life scene here..

There's a pretty decent music and art scene in Ottawa if you're willing to look for it, as well as an active urban nightlife scene in the Market. I'm not sure where you're looking but it's not difficult to find it if you do take a quick look. Is Ottawa's vibrancy lower than other cities of equal size? Of course. Government towns are always quieter. I'm not going to sit here and pretend as though Saint John has more things to do than Ottawa because that would be flat out wrong, but both cities perform adequately well given their sizes.

It all just depends on what you're looking for in a community. Saint John is a great town with lots to do and so is Ottawa.

[Southpaw78]

Are things in SJ these days really that dead that we haven't seen any posts in 2 weeks?

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Southpaw78

Are things in SJ these days really that dead that we haven't seen any posts in 2 weeks?

From what I can tell from afar the City recently approved plans for the revitalization of Prince Edward Street (the southern end). I suppose this means street and sidewalk work, although I haven't seen any renderings.

I'm only assuming shovels will be in the ground soon for Shannex in Millidgeville and for the Y in the North End.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by JHikka

From what I can tell from afar the City recently approved plans for the revitalization of Prince Edward Street (the southern end). I suppose this means street and sidewalk work, although I haven't seen any renderings.

I'm only assuming shovels will be in the ground soon for Shannex in Millidgeville and for the Y in the North End.

The Shannex in Millidgeville is about 25% complete. I think the revitalization is of Prince William Street, not Prince Edward but I could be wrong.

[thefishingnut]

Originally Posted by JHikka

From what I can tell from afar the City recently approved plans for the revitalization of Prince Edward Street (the southern end). I suppose this means street and sidewalk work, although I haven't seen any renderings.

I'm only assuming shovels will be in the ground soon for Shannex in Millidgeville and for the Y in the North End.

The groundbreaking for the Y was a couple of weeks ago.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

The Shannex in Millidgeville is about 25% complete. I think the revitalization is of Prince William Street, not Prince Edward but I could be wrong.

True, it is Prince William Street between Duke and Princess that is being completely overhauled with granite curbs, brick sidewalk medians, buried utility lines, etc. But Prince Edward St. did see a development proposal announced last week as well:

[JHikka]

Yeah, you guys will have to forgive me. Haven't spent more than a few days in SJ in over a year now. Starting to lose my wits.

The Prince William street makeover should be good. Losing the utility lines on Union was welcome.

[nwalbert]

Was pleased to see that government injected $4.5M into the New Brunswick Heart Center at the Saint John Regional Hospital for upgrades.

[KnoxfordGuy]

So Prince William is putting the wires bellow ground as part of the project? Sweet! The street will look so much better with that alone!

Edit: I know there aren't a lot, but still.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by KnoxfordGuy

So Prince William is putting the wires bellow ground as part of the project? Sweet! The street will look so much better with that alone!

Edit: I know there aren't a lot, but still.

The new curbs and sidewalks will make a bug improvement as well. Uptown is becoming a very nice place to spend time.

[ThomasG]

Originally Posted by Southpaw78

Are things in SJ these days really that dead that we haven't seen any posts in 2 weeks?

We must be way overdue for a new call centre announcement of some obscure I.T. company getting government money because they promise to hire 1 or 2 people sometime in the next decade.

[WharfRat]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

We must be way overdue for a new call centre announcement of some obscure I.T. company getting government money because they promise to hire 1 or 2 people sometime in the next decade.

Introhive to create 60 new IT jobs in Fredericton, Saint John
Alward government investing $480K over five years
CBC
April 02, 2014
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunsw...s-in-fredericton-saint-john-1.2595836The

Alward government will be spending up to $480,000 to create 60 new tech jobs in the province over the next five years.
Introhive, a data analytics company, plans to expand its operations in Fredericton and Saint John, more than doubling its existing staf

[kwajo]

Haha Except IntroHive isn't obscure, they're a solid company around here

[Helladog]

More about Shannex...


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