Regina Construction IV

[Kegger]

Originally Posted by caveat.doctor

- But the Arcola "main route" though will be a challenge - walking from any of the south-east neighbourhoods to Arcola is not convenient at all. Those subdivisions love those surrounding concrete walls - so no short cuts to walk to Arcola, you have to go the long way around. Say going from Woodland Grove to Arcola/Prince of Wales - no way to get through the wall, best you can do is cut across that church parking lot and through the ditch.

Can totally see how this is a tougher area to service - you could use any of the parallel roads to Arcola that actually go through the neighbourhood (e.g. Assiniboine Av through University Park/Varsity Park) but then you make it worse for the ones on the other side of Arcola. Maybe if you had two routes, one via Assiniboine Av/Wascana Cir (below, blue), the other via Truesdale Dr/Woodhams Dr/Woodland Grove Dr (below, red), every other bus alternating between the two (so, 20 min frequency on those segments). Like this:

Wow thanks for the write up. Really should have read your comment before I did the survey. My quick look at the map had me thinking the local routes would be similar to how they are now. That is wrong. I am impacted by the arcola route and... well I will be negatively impacted by this change. But... you are right it is a very difficult area to service.

If you are going from the Assiniboine route, I would assume to get to downtown you hop on a local route and transfer to the Arcola main route? From what I gather here?

[caveat.doctor]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Love your grid/route number system plan idea.

Thanks. If I were redoing it today I'd (of course) extend the lines to the new areas (lots has changed in 13 years!), extend more lines to the University (e.g. what I have as route 3) and have the main lines terminate at a mall or some other hub, and connect the lines at these terminals. E.g. what I have as routes 2, 6 and 10 would connect at one of the malls in the east end. Glad to see the City's proposal does exactly this.

Originally Posted by HomerSPC

BRT is probably as far away for Regina as your transit plan is for Winnipeg. A large percentage of the main lines run on arterial roads without an easy way to separate them. Really the only part that could be separated is the Arcola stretch, the rest will likely have to just be diamond lanes.

Agree. The recommendations document also highlights bus priority at traffic lights, which will be feasible and necessary if major intersections are also going to be the transfer points for the "Main" routes.

Originally Posted by Kegger

Wow thanks for the write up. Really should have read your comment before I did the survey. My quick look at the map had me thinking the local routes would be similar to how they are now. That is wrong. I am impacted by the arcola route and... well I will be negatively impacted by this change. But... you are right it is a very difficult area to service.

If you are going from the Assiniboine route, I would assume to get to downtown you hop on a local route and transfer to the Arcola main route? From what I gather here?

That's what it looks like to me. Walking/biking to get to a stop on Arcola will be intimidating for many, I think. Or if you're in the on-demand catchment area, maybe you can get a direct drop off to the Arcola route stop. It looks like a pain, but then again the circuitous routes were never fast either. At the promised frequencies you might have a 10 minute wait, but at least it's a straight shot downtown once you're on.

Or perhaps they'll build a park and ride at Arcola/Prince of Wales: definitely plenty of space there. If you could count on service every 10 minutes to get to/from downtown, and there were separate BRT lanes (plenty of space on the shoulder as is), and with traffic what it is often now on Arcola, it's not crazy to drive to a park and ride and take the bus, given how much people think there's "never any parking downtown".

[Kegger]

Originally Posted by caveat.doctor

That's what it looks like to me. Walking/biking to get to a stop on Arcola will be intimidating for many, I think. Or if you're in the on-demand catchment area, maybe you can get a direct drop off to the Arcola route stop. It looks like a pain, but then again the circuitous routes were never fast either. At the promised frequencies you might have a 10 minute wait, but at least it's a straight shot downtown once you're on.

Or perhaps they'll build a park and ride at Arcola/Prince of Wales: definitely plenty of space there. If you could count on service every 10 minutes to get to/from downtown, and there were separate BRT lanes (plenty of space on the shoulder as is), and with traffic what it is often now on Arcola, it's not crazy to drive to a park and ride and take the bus, given how much people think there's "never any parking downtown".

The main express routes having such an improved frequency may make the pros for this change a lot bigger than the cons. For example right now it takes me about 45 mins to get downtown on the bus (less than a 15 min drive). If I had to walk a fair bit more, but the time to get downtown was a lot less and there was no real wait at a bus stop.... in nice weather that is a big improvement overall.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

957 years needed to meet downtown density targets at current rate: Regina mayor
Only 74 new residents have made downtown Regina their home during the first quarter of a 25-year plan to bring 10,000 people into the city centre, according to City of Regina administration.

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-ne...e-regina-mayor

No surprise here. Where are the tax incentives and new residential project announcements? None.

[blacktrojan3921]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

957 years needed to meet downtown density targets at current rate: Regina mayor
Only 74 new residents have made downtown Regina their home during the first quarter of a 25-year plan to bring 10,000 people into the city centre, according to City of Regina administration.

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-ne...e-regina-mayor

No surprise here. Where are the tax incentives and new residential project announcements? None.

Hopefully that'll change with the new mayor

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Hopefully that'll change with the new mayor

I hope so! More residential infill downtown AND tax incentives to get a major grocery chain located there for goodness sakes!

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Zellers Store-in-Store Launches inside of Hudson’s Bay Location

https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...cation-photos/

I actually think this would be smart, as Zeller’s carries different products than HBC. I do miss me some Zellers!!!

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

I hope so! More residential infill downtown AND tax incentives to get a major grocery chain located there for goodness sakes!

Except the city is proposing to increase the costs for infill development because they're brilliant!

[Festivus]

How is that anything like Zellers? It looks like they just shoved their regular HBC CANADA-CANADA-CANADA section into a corner and put some Zellers signs up.

[pappcam]

Originally Posted by Festivus

How is that anything like Zellers? It looks like they just shoved their regular HBC CANADA-CANADA-CANADA section into a corner and put some Zellers signs up.

To truly be like a Zellers they would need some dirt and grime with shit scattered everywhere.

[someguy]

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

Except the city is proposing to increase the costs for infill development because they're brilliant!

It's such a counter intuitive policy. They went from incentivizing densification to taxing it all the same year. Hopefully the politicians can see the light and re-introduce the incentives for densification.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Federated Co-Op looking at selling off assets, but keeping Regina refinery

https://www.620ckrm.com/2021/09/24/f...gina-refinery/

[Festivus]

"Name change for theatre at Conexus Arts Centre | Regina Leader Post"

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-ne...us-arts-centre

It's changing from Conexus Arts Center to... Capital Auto Theatre.

Gross.

[pappcam]

Originally Posted by Festivus

"Name change for theatre at Conexus Arts Centre | Regina Leader Post"

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-ne...us-arts-centre

It's changing from Conexus Arts Center to... Capital Auto Theatre.

Gross.

No.

It's still the Conexus Arts Centre. The main theatre is now the Capital Auto Theatre rather than The Shirley Bell Theatre. Everyone just calls it Conexus Arts Centre or even the Centre of the Arts overall anyway. The individual theatre names are rarely used.

[Udon'tknow]

Interesting development in the old staples centre, particularly if your a racquetball player!

Owner Dean Puffalt has reconstructed the interior of the high-roofed Staples building with four glass racquetball courts that were gifted to Racquetball Regina (from Racquetball Canada) following the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Puffalt plans to also have four squash courts, three pickleball courts, a fitness area, free parking and a restaurant, dubbed “The Bent Bar & Grill,” open early in 2022.

https://leaderpost.com/entertainment...back-in-regina

[StealthGirl]

Sounds like a good re-use for a big building.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Still wish the government had a film tax credit to fill buildings like the former Staples Call Centre with film studios (as well) as sports facilities.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Still wish the government had a film tax credit to fill buildings like the former Staples Call Centre with film studios (as well) as sports facilities.

Don't we have an empty sound stage? Also we have labour shortages. Why would we want heavily subsidized jobs at this time.

[jigglysquishy]

There is not a labour shortage in Saskatchewan. The provincial employment is still lower than it was in 2013. Or 2015. Or 2019.

We have people not working for CERB related reasons.

We have employers who will not bring employees back for more than minimum wage.

We have companies that have permanently contracted their work force for COVID.

We had a genuine labour shortage in 2010-2012. This is far from that scenario.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by Stormer

Don't we have an empty sound stage? Also we have labour shortages. Why would we want heavily subsidized jobs at this time.

Empty because of the Sask Party. Diversifying the economy should be happening at all times.