Quote:
Originally Posted by officedweller
I'm thinking of the isolationist view they take on transportation.
It doesn't seem like they want to be part of the region,
and I don't see significant office growth in its downtown core (other than this tower, which is tied to the cultural / convention centre).
The Brewery District and the Sapperton Lands (@ Braid) are being built away from downtown on large [former] light industrial sites (already consolidated) that were to be redeveloped anyways (being next to SkyTrain stations) - which is no different than development trends in other muncipalities. Build it where it won't upset the neighbours, because condos and office are "nicer" to look at than an industrial site.
On New West's waterfront, I would have preferred to see Larco's original proposal which allowed a roadway under a waterfront deck (with park and promenade) -i.e. thinking for the future. The current scheme has the park and the condos at the level of Front Street - which is bound to create conflicts with the railways and Front St. traffic in the future.
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I think the characterization of "isolationist" is somewhat unfair. New West has an awesome amount of traffic pouring through the city everyday without the infrastructure to really deal with it. Short of building a freeway through the heart of the city a la Seattle (which would 🞵🞵🞵🞵) or unrealistic dreams of running an express tunnel under Royal Avenue, traffic is always going to clog the city. From an actually living in New West perspective, it would be great if Royal wasn't a roaring expressway (especially bad after the Portmann tolls) and if Front Street was pedestrian oriented instead of a raging truck route. As bad as it already is, is it a wonder that New West council and residents are not keen on adding to the traffic burden? Do you really expect council to be keen on projects that will make live better in other municipalities at the expense of making a problem worse? From my perspective it's realistic behaviour, or at least very in tune with their constituents.
(Fun story: the mayor of coquitlam strongly supports a 6 lane patullo bridge, but rejects the proposed realignment of the bridge that would deposit traffic in coquitlam.)
I also really like the smaller scale Larco development. Train traffic isn't especially heavy along that route, and I think the longterm goal is to advocate for truck traffic to not travel through downtown (in this case the extra inconvenience of stopping and proposed lower speed limits would drive truckers elsewhere, unfortunately, probably along Royal).
I guess what it comes down to, is what you consider more important, liveability or traffic expediency. Also: I really hate the tolls on the Portmann for how they have affected traffic patterns in New West.
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