The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by RR Drummer

I believe Northups owns it all (land, park, & sales).

I believe they do. That's why I always kind of wondered if there was something fishy going on when the city allowed Retail Drive to meet Rothesay Ave in such a stupid place. Coming from the East Point area(Northrup) without disturbing Westmoreland homes (also Northrup).

If not exactly "fishy" then at least poor negotiation/incompetence on the part of the city.

[TitleRequired]

Cliff Street woes. Six serious incidents threatening 35 cliff street project.

In the letter, what's this about an injection site?

https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/word...nd-council.pdf

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by TitleRequired

Cliff Street woes. Six serious incidents threatening 35 cliff street project.

In the letter, what's this about an injection site?

https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/word...nd-council.pdf

Avenue B on Waterloo...... isn't it one? I see street people lining up outside early mornings EDIT: According to their website they pass out clean needles among other services but I don't think they are an actual safe injection site.

No surprise about the Steepleview issues really. If you concentrate the homeless you will also concentrate the issues that become more prevalent with homelessness. Makes an area highly undesirable as a place to develop or to live......Area 911 indeed.

But it's not just Waterloo. We recently had family from the US in town staying at the Hilton. They had dogs with them and one weekday morning around 7:30 or so the wife decided to walk the dogs up King St. She had intended to walk down King St east to where our grandparents former house was but only got as far as just past King Sq by the Loyalist burial ground. People in the area made her uneasy enough that she turned around and beat a hasty retreat.

I think I told the story here earlier of a young (30-ish) couple we know who had a place in the Harbourfront condos down by the Three Sisters. They have a small dog and she had several bad experiences while walking the dog in the evening. The final straw was being chased down Prince William by a street person screaming he was going to kill the dog. They now live in Millidgeville.

Yes, I know this issue is hardly unique to Saint John but unlike other larger urban centers people here have other, fairly easily accessible alternatives to living uptown.

We are empty nesters and some years ago thought it might be nice to have a place uptown..........that idea is no longer under consideration.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Heard a rumour the name of the TBL professional basketball team coming to Saint John will be the Port City Power


Not a terrible moniker.

At least they won’t be confused with St. John’s

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Heard a rumour the name of the TBL professional basketball team coming to Saint John will be the Port City Power


Not a terrible moniker.

At least they won’t be confused with St. John’s

Bring back the Mill Rats!

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by bridgeoftea

Bring back the Mill Rats!

Best/worst team name, haha

[gtsoc]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Heard a rumour the name of the TBL professional basketball team coming to Saint John will be the Port City Power


Not a terrible moniker.

At least they won’t be confused with St. John’s

They will be playing out of the LBR as opposed to TD Station.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by gtsoc

They will be playing out of the LBR as opposed to TD Station.

I guess that will at least be cheaper and be easier to get a full crowd. Not sure about it tho, tbh.

Regardless, it’s good to have a pro team back. Wonder where the other teams in Atlantic Canada will be.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by gtsoc

They will be playing out of the LBR as opposed to TD Station.

I have seen this from the team and the Mayor, however I cannot imagine how this is possible.

The LBR does not have a basketball floor nor anyplace to store a basketball court !? TD Station has zero interest in sharing their floor. The investment needed to make this work at the LBR would be $250K+ which would seem absurd without any serious financial backers associated to this. I could be way off base, but will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[CharlotteCountyLogan]

I see the tool library has released their proposal for the old Belyea arena. Here's the link for anyone curious.
https://sjtl.ca/better-belyea?fbclid...bb3XT45g71LJdA

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by CharlotteCountyLogan

I see the tool library has released their proposal for the old Belyea arena. Here's the link for anyone curious.
https://sjtl.ca/better-belyea?fbclid...bb3XT45g71LJdA

Terrible plan. Brent Harris is a truly toxic figure in Saint John politics.

He claimed the neighbourhood would be opposed to residential development at this property, and framed it as a NIMBY issue… yet, he’s proposing for a gigantic soccer dome to fill up almost the entire property instead , which will literally block out many people’s view of the Bay of Fundy.

The Belyea Arena never should have been shut down in the first place… I think the city chose to shut down the Belyea instead of the Gorman, because they saw it as an opportunity to offload some of Uptown’s homeless problem onto the West Side. They succeeded in doing so temporarily with the winter homeless shelter at the mothballed Belyea Arena, but the Fire Marshall rightly shut it down.

The arena should either be reopened, or demolished. It’s a site with far more development potential than Brent Harris’s myopic vision for the property. 36-46 units pale in comparison to hundreds of new housing units in the form of townhouses, apartments, or condo towers.

If anyone on here has some ideas on how to effectively oppose this proposal without being labelled “anti homeless” by the bleeding hearts… the people of the surrounding neighbourhood would greatly appreciate the advice.

There’s already support for a petition among west Siders, but perhaps there’s even better options.

[sailor734]

The city held an invitation only meeting about plans to put trailers intended to house approx. 25 homeless people in Crescent Valley. Apparently the doors were locked, media excluded and people from the area were refused entry if they weren't on the list.

Doesn't sound like the city and groups pushing this plan (Fresh Start) have much interest in winning friends and support. A couple of area residents who had been invited told the TJ it seemed like a done deal and they felt they were being told what was going to happen rather than being consulted

TJ story (sorry, paywall as always)

https://tj.news/saint-john-south/cit...-end-residents

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by sailor734

The city held an invitation only meeting about plans to put trailers intended to house approx. 25 homeless people in Crescent Valley. Apparently the doors were locked, media excluded and people from the area were refused entry if they weren't on the list.

Doesn't sound like the city and groups pushing this plan (Fresh Start) have much interest in winning friends and support. A couple of area residents who had been invited told the TJ it seemed like a done deal and they felt they were being told what was going to happen rather than being consulted

TJ story (sorry, paywall as always)

https://tj.news/saint-john-south/cit...-end-residents

No wonder people have moved to the bedroom communities in droves, Saint John is an amazing city, but our city councils have been utterly woeful.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

No wonder people have moved to the bedroom communities in droves, Saint John is an amazing city, but our city councils have been utterly woeful.

I've always thought Cedar Point/Anchorage and everything north of a line running along Woodward Ave, University Ave, Sandy Point, Foster Thurston, Ashburn Lake and the Rothesay Rd should secede from Saint John and petition to join Rothesay.

That's a separatist movement I could get behind!

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by sailor734

I've always thought Cedar Point/Anchorage and everything north of a line running along Woodward Ave, University Ave, Sandy Point, Foster Thurston, Ashburn Lake and the Rothesay Rd should secede from Saint John and petition to join Rothesay.

That's a separatist movement I could get behind!

So signing up to have fewer municipal services, less robust governance policies, restrictive zoning and planning, reduced multi-lingual services, fewer/no transit routes, higher electricity rates, et cetera, as well as taking on a forecasted increase in infrastructure cost burden in the future?

Yeah I'm sure people would love that.

[TitleRequired]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

So signing up to have fewer municipal services, less robust governance policies, restrictive zoning and planning, reduced multi-lingual services, fewer/no transit routes, higher electricity rates, et cetera, as well as taking on a forecasted increase in infrastructure cost burden in the future?

Yeah I'm sure people would love that.

People do so all the time; provided the opportunity. I know I have my search on realtor.ca on Rothesay.

[TitleRequired]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Terrible plan. Brent Harris is a truly toxic figure in Saint John politics.

He claimed the neighbourhood would be opposed to residential development at this property, and framed it as a NIMBY issue… yet, he’s proposing for a gigantic soccer dome to fill up almost the entire property instead , which will literally block out many people’s view of the Bay of Fundy.

The Belyea Arena never should have been shut down in the first place… I think the city chose to shut down the Belyea instead of the Gorman, because they saw it as an opportunity to offload some of Uptown’s homeless problem onto the West Side. They succeeded in doing so temporarily with the winter homeless shelter at the mothballed Belyea Arena, but the Fire Marshall rightly shut it down.

The arena should either be reopened, or demolished. It’s a site with far more development potential than Brent Harris’s myopic vision for the property. 36-46 units pale in comparison to hundreds of new housing units in the form of townhouses, apartments, or condo towers.

If anyone on here has some ideas on how to effectively oppose this proposal without being labelled “anti homeless” by the bleeding hearts… the people of the surrounding neighbourhood would greatly appreciate the advice.

There’s already support for a petition among west Siders, but perhaps there’s even better options.

This.

I do wish there was something I could suggest for opposing this; but I can't think of anything other than reaching out to possible councilors that could be friendly -- Gary Sullivan, Barry Ogden, Greg Norton to get a lay of the land of if its even worthwhile to oppose.

I'm reminded of Japanese zoning: https://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001050453.pdf page 4; where each zone is higher nuisance than the last. From residential catagory 1 low rise where this would not be permitted to quasi-industrial where this could be a better fit.

Its all about managing nuisance -- and the unfortunate problem is I wouldn't consider taking my child to a combo "transitional housing/soccer field" under any circumstances.

[sailor734]

"I wouldn't consider taking my child to a combo "transitional housing/soccer field" under any circumstances."

THIS^ X10

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

So signing up to have fewer municipal services, less robust governance policies, restrictive zoning and planning, reduced multi-lingual services, fewer/no transit routes, higher electricity rates, et cetera, as well as taking on a forecasted increase in infrastructure cost burden in the future?

Yeah I'm sure people would love that.

Well, many thousands have done just that.....voting with their feet (and their chequebooks)

[adamuptownsj]

"I'm at the homeless shelter, I'm at the soccer field, I'm at the combination homeless shelter and soccer field"

Council needs to be forcibly removed from office. All of them. They're more concerned with crackheads than everyone else combined. Buy a warehouse in an industrial park, put a 12' high electrified fence around it, and keep them all there. No 'day passes'. Any urban camping, you're immediately dumped there and your tent is destroyed. Any drugs, jail. Antisocial behaviour, jail. Make this city unappealing to be a drug addicted street dwelling criminal in.

Comical list too:

fewer municipal services (Saint John barely delivers any services of value to taxpayers)

less robust governance policies (great!)

restrictive zoning and planning (great!)

reduced multi-lingual services (great!)

fewer/no transit routes (irrelevant to almost all suburbanites)

higher electricity rates (why would SJ Energy not negotiate a rate?)

taking on a forecasted increase in infrastructure cost burden (seems like a good trade)