Tired of looking at these tired, old, shabby railway-era industrial buildings?

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Pretty soon you won’t be. If this passes council, and the developer is actually able to build it, it will soon look like this:

But wait, there’s more. Phase 2 will include a row of townhouses which will fill in the rest of the lot:

The apartment building will also have 64 units of underground parking (1 per unit), and four penthouse suites. This is a high-quality development that will add density to the area and will hopefully reduce some of the issues in the nearby “student ghetto”. Hopefully the city will ignore the NIMBYs and allow this to be built.

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Many people have been tired of looking at the old TRA building on Queen St. which currently looks like this: (that picture was from 2 years ago, it actually looks much worse now)

One group hopes to replace it with this:

TC Land Holdings (who are somehow related to PlazaCorp, the strip-mall developer) have filed an application to build this 32 unit apartment building on that site. Some might say that 32 units is a bit small, but the actual lot isn’t that big:

As you can see, it pretty much fills the entire lot, leaving only enough space for 14 parking spaces. There will be another 26 spaces located on the first floor of the building. Due to flooding concerns, there won’t be a basement.

Hopefully the project won’t get derailed by soil conditions (or the fact that it’s built on an old dump). This will be a great addition to the downtown and will bring in some much-needed residents. Some density advocates would wish for a larger building, but considering the technical issues, I think this is the best anyone could do.

Planning Advisory Council members will be voting on this on Wednesday, April 20th. It will then have to pass council at a later date, probably in May.

Update: Building is under construction. Here is the website that has some leasing information: http://www.westpointebytheriver.ca/ The prices aren’t listed, but the extra “e” on “pointe” implies that it will be expensive.

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After losing 35 pounds myself, I thought I’d offer up some quick tips on whether or not the weight loss plan is a scam:

• If you have to take an “herbal” supplement, it’s a scam. There is no evidence that the supplements do anything. The CBC busted one such operation recently.
• If you don’t have to adjust the amount of food you eat, it’s a scam.
• If you don’t have to keep track of what you eat, it’s a scam.
• If it’s only available within the next 10 minutes on this special TV offer, it’s a scam.
• If you see an ad on a mailbox or a telephone pole, it’s a scam.
• If you can make money signing other people up on the program, it’s a scam.
• If it involves the purchase of some gadget, it’s a scam.
• If you have to buy the food from the weight loss provider, it isn’t necessarily a scam, but it does lock you in with them.

The key to proper weight loss is a combination of major lifestyle change and discipline. Some programs will help you out with guiding you to making better choices, but the discipline must come from within.

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Why don’t younger people care about the federal election? I’ll give you a quick example:

The CRTC.

We hear of politicians being tough on crime, poverty, and the deficit. Nobody wants to be tough on large Canadian companies that use their legislated near-monopoly status to rip off Canadians. The CRTC is set up to keep foreign players out of Canada. This gives Canadians high prices, poor service, and missed opportunities when services aren’t available here. Sure, those companies provide jobs to Canadians, but so will the foreign ones.

To many people, this is a major issue. Canadians want to be able to enjoy the telecommunications options that are available in other countries. They want to be able to use the Internet without having to worry about overage charges. They want to be able to check their e-mail on their cellphone without having to pay thousands of dollars in data transfer fees.

Without presenting this as a major issue to young people, our parties are missing the boat. Old people vote Conservative, young people don’t vote, therefore the Conservatives get elected. Spend some $$ on targeted web ads, get some new people to vote for your party.

P.S. Yes, I know that the NDP has it in their platform, but it’s buried deep within it. Yes, I have heard of the Pirate Party, unfortunately, they aren’t a major party and aren’t running candidates in every riding so they’ll never get in.

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Been a while since anything about Fredericton Transit has shown up on this blog. In August 2008, Dillon Consulting released their report with 18 recommendations to be completed in the next five years. We’re halfway through the 5 years, let’s see how they did:

(from page 117 of report)

1. ADOPT TRANSIT SERVICE STANDARDS – NO
2. New Route to Two Nations Crossing / Cliffe Street – FAILED
3. Service Frequency Improvements to maintain a minimum hourly service on all routes during their normal hours of operation - NO
4. Modification of Route 216 to service Knowledge Park Drive - NO
5. Increase service on Route 11 with introduction of a UNB U-Pass. - NO
6. ESTABLISH NORTH SIDE TRANSFER POINT AT ST. MARY’S STREET AND MAPLE STREET - NO
7. INCREASE AND IMPROVE SHELTERS - NO
8. DEVELOP AN ENHANCED TRANSIT MARKETING PLAN - NO
9. ADJUST FARES – YES
10. EXPAND U-PASS - NO
11. EXPLORE EMPLOYEE TRANSIT PASS PROGRAMS - NO
12. CONSIDER NEW INDUSTRIAL SPECIAL TO ALLISON/GILLIS AREA - NO
13. DEVELOP APPROPRIATE BUS TURNAROUNDS - NO
14. EXPAND AND MODIFY KINGS PLACE TERMINAL - NO
15. RELOCATE REGENT MALL TERMINAL - NO
16. INITIATE REVIEW OF TRANSIT GARAGE/OPERATIONS CENTER – YES
17. INITIATE DIAL-A-BUS REVIEW – YES
18. INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY OF BUS SERVICE - NO

Out of eighteen action items, they successfully did three of them. That’s a grade of 16.67%. Of the three things they did, adjusting the fares actually raised revenue, the new transit garage was mostly Federal stimulus dollars and the dial-a-bus review cost $46,000. They also attempted to remove service to Silverwood, that plan was cancelled after much public outcry.

Fredericton City council has shown that they like to talk about being green and sustainable, yet can’t actually spend money on being green and sustainable. Many of these action items won’t cost much to implement, yet they don’t have the initiative or will to do them. The next municipal election is in 2012.

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