Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Transit hub proposed for South Waterfront —
What exactly is that?

From Toronto's Eglington Avenue Crosstown Project: What is a Mobility Hub?
Mobility hubs are major transit stations and the surrounding areas with significant levels of planned transit service and high residential and employment development potential within an approximately 800m radius of the transit station.
They are places of connectivity where different modes of transportation – from walking to rapid transit – come together seamlessly and where there is an intensive concentration of working, living, shopping and/or playing.






Monday, December 7, 2015

Calgary Municipal Land Corporation task — "kick-start Calgary urban renewal"

Today we topped off the LRT enclosure and begin the vertical construction of the New Central Library. We celebrated this...
Posted by East Village Calgary on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Calgary was incorporated in 2007 "to implement and execute the Rivers District Community Revitalization Plan – a public infrastructure program approved by the City of Calgary and the Province of Alberta to kick-start Calgary’s urban renewal.".
An "entrepreneurial group of hands-on doers and place-makers," their mandate is to 
  • Redevelop, implement and activate public infrastructure to meet the needs of the community and the City of Calgary as sole shareholder
  • Manage the investment in land and infrastructure for optimal financial return
  • Demonstrate leading practices for sustainable development
  • Demonstrate innovative and effective operating processes and practice
This is one of many examples in Canada of a municipally owned development corporation mandated to work with senior levels of government and commercial and cultural partners to redevelop urban lands in the commercial and, of critical importance, the social and civic best interests of the community.
This development corporation model was the recommendation of the Nanaimo South Downtown Waterfront Initiative Committee. Because they were unable to get any common agreement between the primary public stakeholders, they requested the City of Nanaimo suspend their activities until such a time as these parties are able to identify shared interests and are prepared to make a commitment to proceeding with the redevelopment of the Nanaimo south downtown waterfront.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Twitter list — Walking, cycling, transit

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From Business in Vancouver —
Traditional infrastructure funding
throws money down the sewer

PETER LADNER Amid all the excitement about the Christmas bounty of infrastructure spending coming at us from our deficit-happy new federal government, it’s a good time to ask how we got ourselves into this infrastructure hole. 
Charles Marohn, the Republican civil engineer behind the U.S. Strong Towns movement, has an answer. He likens traditional suburban development to a Ponzi scheme. Tax revenues from low-density development don’t come near paying for maintenance and depreciation on costly infrastructure. He estimates suburban property taxes bring in only $0.04 to $0.65 for every dollar of liability. So cities embrace new developments to keep their cash flowing, or they go into debt, or both. At every stage, they pile on future liabilities.
“When people say we’re living beyond our means, they’re usually talking about a 40-inch TV instead of a 20-inch TV,” Marohn told Time magazine. “This is like pennies compared to the dollars we’ve spent on the way we’ve arranged ourselves across the landscape.” Municipal servicing costs in low-density sprawl can be 2.5 times those in compact, high-density neighbourhoods. Read more: Traditional infrastructure funding throws money down the sewer | Economy | Business in Vancouver

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Thursday, December 3, 2015

The road to better business starts with a plaza

Senior management posts not filled,
Council fractious, Committee suspended — City of Nanaimo staff proceed with
South Downtown Waterfront Lands
master planning process regardless


The @CityofNanaimo, shortly after the South Downtown Waterfront Committee Chair, VIU VP Dave Witty, in frustration,...
Posted by Nanaimo Commons on Thursday, December 3, 2015


Dave Witty's PP presentation to Council: here.

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