Let's do the new building at Franklyn and Wallace a favour...

More people living more compactly downtown has many benefits, from a lower carbon footprint per capita to a lower per capita cost to deliver City services.  For our increasingly medium-density downtown to succeed to everyone's benefit, we need to devote more resources to the public realm.

Here's a couple of suggestions that could be immediately prioritized by the City of Nanaimo to improve the public realm around the new building at Franklyn and Wallace Streets, which will bring 46 new multi-family housing units to the Old City neighbourhood. The redesign of both Franklyn and Wallace Streets and the creation of a new urban square at the City Hall grounds across the street.

Here's Streetmix sketches of Franklyn and Wallace. Specs from the 2008 Downtown Urban Design Plan and Guidelines. I've moved the bike lanes away from the vehicle realm and placed them snug to the sidewalk. This has proven to be a safer alignment, avoiding cyclist injuries caused by "dooring." These safer, more inclusive street design specs have been in place now for almost 10 years but none have been enacted. Nanaimo needs downtown demonstration projects to show how a "complete street" benefits all users.

Next time you get a chance and are near City Hall on Wallace, walk to the edge of what is now a small parking lot on the City Hall grounds, facing the grounds' carefully maintained landscaping and gardens. You'll see a dramatic panoramic view of downtown across to the harbour. It's past time to eliminate this parking, and restore the Dunsmuir St. sidewalk it claimed, and create here a new public square. An important neighbourhood enhancement and a more appropriate use of our City Hall grounds than the parking of a few cars.

And here is the New High Street - the sidewalks will be about 3m pic.twitter.com/9aVcZYP2oe

— Dale Bracewell (@Dale_Bracewell) June 14, 2017

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