I keep seeing that article passed around in comments and on blogs:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/16/canadas-best-and-worst-run-cities/

It looks pretty bad for us, but I think some of their methodologies may be a little off. I’m going to question the results in the “Transportation” section in the first column titled “Transportation Costs Per Lane Kilometre of City Road”.  It gives Saint John an A+ while Fredericton gets a B+. Essentially it only measures the cost with no quantification of the actual results. You just need to take a drive on some major Saint John streets to know what the actual results are. The Telegraph Journal did a story on the road repair budget and essentially accuse the city of neglecting the roads:

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/719680

With that one point in question, the rest of the report needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There are definitely areas that need improvement, but that report shouldn’t be used to say that one city is better than another.

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When hanging banners, make sure the English part isn’t hidden by a tree:

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Many organizations and people are using the Internet. Some are better than others, here are some quick reviews:

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside – A+

He’s doing a great job with Twitter and he engaged the citizens with his Facebook group about the Costco (although may not have given him the desired result).

City of Fredericton – D

They have a website, but there’s barely anything on it.

CBC – A+

The CBC have fully embraced Twitter and are using it to post little tidbits of news that aren’t quite worthy of a story. They are also the fastest at getting stories online as they don’t have to wait until it has aired.

The Playhouse – B

They are using new technologies well, but they are missing one key thing. There is little to let you know what shows will have tickets for sale soon. You only get notified of new events after the tickets have been on sale and all the good seats have been taken.

CTV Atlantic – C+

They don’t post stories online, but they do make excellent use of the Facebook group. They regularly read comments from their group on the air.

The Daily Gleaner – B

The good: they post every story to their website. The bad: they wait until the paper has been printed until they post their story.

Astral Radio Stations – C

I’m referring to CapitalFM, The Fox and KHJ here. They post their news on the website, but it’s quite often only posted several hours after it airs. They don’t retain older newscasts, but they do take song requests over Twitter.

RogersTV – F

Local Matters, but only if you have cable.

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Fredericton’s Tannery is known to be the place to be at night, but during the day, it leaves a lot to be desired. With many of the surrounding restaurants offering take-out, you’d think there would be a place where you could sit and eat your lunch. Unfortunately, there isn’t. Much of the space is taken up by parking (in blue). The green areas are flower beds that you can sit on, but due to the narrowness of the driveway, you’re required to stand anytime a minivan or SUV comes in.

The solution is actually quite simple, just remove some of the parking spaces, add some concrete benches and the odd table. Hose off the drunks in the morning and it’ll be ready by lunch.

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As seen on Twitter:

Reference (in case you didn’t get it)

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This building is one of downtown Fredericton’s oddest. It looks like they just filled in an alley with a building. It’s so narrow that the front door is actually in the building next door.

The arch style is also not common in Fredericton, it is more commonly seen in European buildings.

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On July 6th 2009, CTV Atlantic used this as their “viewer photo of the day” for the weather report:

Yes, that’s exactly what you think it is, a bunch of kids dancing around a dead whale that washed up onto the beach.

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Now, this building hasn’t been built yet so it may very well change from this proposal.  Its style is certainly unique, especially for Fredericton.

If you look beyond the the style you’ll notice that the apartments are each on 2 levels. They put the living rooms on top of each other and there will be one whole floor between your bedroom and your up/down stairs neighbour’s living room. This has a great noise control advantage as you won’t hear their TV when you’re trying to sleep.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/730479

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