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I would lik to see condos, apartments, retail, a park, and office space to get built at the MASSIVE sit of the old grace. lots of room, no ruining of anybody's view, minimal impact on skyline. also, it would simply get rid of an eyesore, instead of getting rid of beauty and history. To me, that's a simple solution to this problem. If fortis are building a huge project like that, let 'em have the land for a deal as long as they spruce up their older buildins on water street. Thoughts?
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Begin informing people about the upcoming recycling and composting programs and encourage them to follow them. Make it a community effort
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It can be expensive to retrofit and renovate older buildings. The city should have an incentive program to reward companies who decide to renovate buildings in heritage areas for use as office space
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Whoever is planning our city should be communicating with the public. Help us understand how you make your decisions and see if we have any ideas!
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A downtown library.
The public library system in St. John's is appalling. Many cities I've lived in, both smaller and larger, have nicer, centrally located libraries that add provide character, services, and real public space to their communities. Libraries house not only information, but provides spaces of real interaction and inclusion (go to any downtown library's bank of internet computers and reading rooms to see for yourself). Libraries are true civic spaces (unlike, say, convention centres, office building plazas or arenas) and symbolize access to information and knowledge central to democratic societies.
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Encourage and explain the maintenance of the city's historic look and feel and finds ways to growth within that.
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Promote healthy lifestyle choices by having the city remain pedestrian-friendly throughout the winter. Keep all of the sidewalks downtown and those of major arteries throughout the city totally clear all winter. As a measure the sidewalks should be clear when roads are clear.
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Tall buildings should be built at the west end of downtown, toward Pitts Memorial Drive. That way the increased traffic the buildings generate won't clog up downtown.
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Widen the sidewalks in some places. Allow cafes and restaurants to set out tables in the wider space. Have more places where people can stop and gather. The heart of a city is really about people.
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How many commuters from CBS going downtown? What about investigating LRT from CBS to west end of downtown? Put bigger offices there too. Then we won't need excessive parking, and we reduce car emissions, too. BTW, make it standard gauge rail this time, just in case.
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A lot of people commute from Mount Pearl into the city every day for work, and traffic congestion can be bad on Commonwealth/Mount Carson Avenue, Kenmount Road and Topsail Road because of this. Metrobus runs through Mount Pearl only once an hour (last time I checked anyway), and that's definitely not encouraging to residents of the city who would just jump in their cars and get to St. John's in 10 or 15 minutes.
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Water street (downtown) should be a one-way street, heading east to west. This would provide better traffic circulation. Most cities have to do this type of thing as they grow.
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Residents of St. John's living in apartments on Water Street, Duckworth Street, and adjoining areas are not protected by the same laws as other residents of St. John's simply because their apartments exist in a designated Commercial area.
Noise pollution by-laws, parking privileges, and other related benefits of paying civic taxes should be extended to such citizens, while still offering business owners the benefits they retain by operating in Commercial areas.
Re-classifying the Downtown Core as Dual-Purpose, (Residential and Commercial) would help offer the people who choose to live in these areas the full benefit of the rights and privileges which other citizens already enjoy.
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With the rich history and connection St. John's has with the sea, it seems a natural idea to establish a maritime museum downtown, near the water. This would be a great reason to bring both residents, and tourists to downtown.
There would be benefits for downtown business owners, as well as the cultural preservation of our provinces history.
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I would like to see more small parks and green areas downtown. When I walk around downtown I see many empty spaces that could be converted into small parks with a few trees and flowers and park benches. The only green space in our neighborhood is a small area on Tessier Place, which is only a drinking spot after dark and is often cluttered with garbage and broken beer bottles. There is not one park bench there. There is Murphy's Meadow, why not a park there? Maybe a few more dog parks in the city, and definitely one needed in the central/downtown area. Perhaps then the streets wouldn't be covered in dog feces by irresponsible pet owners. There are not enough garbage containers around our city. A lot of changes need to be made to make downtown clean and beautiful.
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Tall commercial buildings in industrial areas, downtown maintaining heritage nature. Have a look at Lunenburg NS, World Heritage Site. The historic downtown attracts masses of tourists.
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Modern distric and Historic districts could solve alot of problems ... idealy we should have a modern district say in the west end of downtown where height is encouraged and high density is ncouraged in order to stimulate creative buildings and put as many as needed in that end ... that end of the city could have a few of the buildings declared as heritage and cannot be altered but the rest of that area should be up for tall modern buildings ... also then in the historic district which would obviously be most of downtown... it should have VERY strict regulations like in european cities and because a few areas such as the block that the fortis building is on is already out of touch historicaly they could be either retrofitted in a historic look that way reclaiming a definate historic district ... or have strict special areas which would alow modern updates to such areas to change it form the eyesore it is today ... also the modern district could have regulations for being creative and ultra modern .. this would make the city even more unique and tourists would come to see how we have ultramodern and historic all in our funcional downtown
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I would love to see a library in St. John's Central. There still are many families and people with no cars that live here. It could do a lot towards literacy and encourage people who otherwise don't want to travel to MUN.
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A simple suggestion! The area surrounding Scotia Bank is an empty slate. A great opportunity to provide a public space for people to take a moment to pause, to enjoy a lunch or coffee break, to come together. Transformation of that space seems like it could be very easy. Just a matter of installing some planter boxes and park benches. The only time I ever see people using that space is during the Busker's fest. A centrally located outdoor space would be good for us and good for business. Look at the crowd! |
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I'd really like to see the Colonial Building better utilized as a public space. Further to the comment about a downtown library, this building would make a dynamite space for a library...possibly an interactive kid's museum as well. The Rooms is great and all, but it's no place for kids with sticky fingers and inquiring minds! The Colonial Building's location adjacent to Bannerman Park is an easy walk (even with kids) from the downtown core and is smack dab on the Grand Concourse route as well as steps from a bus stop. I don't know what it's being used for now but it seems mostly empty and is an absolute magnet for beer drinking, broken glass and lame graffiti. Imagine those wide steps and big doors welcoming people of all ages into a multi-faceted, educational experience which could include a library, kid's museum, space for classes of various sorts indoors and out. This is a place that can function as an historical hub for the surrounding communities, including GeorgeTown, Rabbittown and the downtown core, as well as a magnet for tourists from home and abroad. If the City actually gets around to implementing the changes it has proposed to Bannerman Park, what a centerpiece this location could be to our city and our downtown! Such a beautiful building and such a shame that it seems to be falling into neglect and disrepair.
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The city could give a small tax break to businesses which would designate walls of their buildings to be public art walls. This would serve to both beautify the city, as well as directing graffiti to certian legal areas.
Increasing public art space was a recommendation of the cities municipal art plan, and this is an easy way to work with what we already have in this city to achieve that for a nominal cost.
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Hello there,
I am please to see this initiative, and while I unfortunately can’t make it to the meeting tonight, I would like to provide a few thoughts:
The plans recently published by Fortis for the new building on Water Street made me
think more broadly about what sustainable development downtown might look like. I have moved to the city a couple of years ago from Europe and I very much value the sense of the cities long and colourful history that can be felt when walking through downtown.
Therefore, I feel that any new development must to the greatest extent possible preserve the character and heritage of the city. To be clear, I am by no means opposing development in the downtown. I do think however, that this is possible without having to tear down historic buildings and replacing them with generic structures.
Why not make more use of architectural design competitions, both in the public and private sector? Such processes can be tailored to the needs of the developers, and can include specific requirements for the preservation of the old structures.
I have seen some very inspiring works of architecture in different citys where old and new was successfully combined into something special and unique. This would certainly be possible in some of the discussed developments in St. John’s, and would be for the benefit of both the city and developers…
Thanks,
Tobias Längle
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There are lots of ways to encourage public transit. The bus simply doesn't appeal to people, and this can change with appropriate messaging. For example, make it easier to find the route you want on the metrobus website by hiring an expert to advise or by making use of Google Transit.
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Council should hire an architect and look at designing their own plans for what they would like to see the downtown look like. They should design the types of buildings they would like to see go on certain lots, then work with contractors to have these buildings either constructed or re-developed.
They could look at using something similar to Google Earth and have 3D buildings constructed. Having it avaiable online would allow for anyone to see it and have input. Council should take the initiative themselves to show developers what they would like to see instead of having them guess.
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Encourage local business and public health at the same time by promoting a walkable/bike-able downtown centre (with a nice underground parking lot), and more reliable bus service! Parking seems to be an issue for promoting the downtown core, and it can be completely circumvented with a plan that adapts to the idea of people moving through the city without having to find a place to put a large piece of machinery while they work and shop! This could be very simple... with more buses running more frequently between major hubs of the city, combined with better upkeep of sidewalks and better planning for where to put crosswalks to coincide with the flow of pedestrian traffic, for example. Better access to local business would help provide citizens with better choices than just the 'big-box' stores that only funnel money out of the province in the long run.
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I agree!
I disagree!
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