Port Place Mall renovations?

[kickidee]

I do not think bitching and complaining ever stopped a thing really. I am thinking change for the sake of change, or looking like another city, or pandering to an elite group of people is not so productive.
Making a stucture more earthquake resistant, this makes sense. Not finishing the plazza or the hotel puts us halfway to nowhere.
We could stop complaining when we really need our few little south end services and one mall reachable by foot would be nice for residents who have no cars, but a wait and see attitude is far too passive.
What is the entire plan? Things need to work together so that the needs of the populace are taken care of in a win win situation.
What is the time line the cost and what will be gained? Nanaimo is secretive about costs, never meets a timeline and all the construction done thus far is not improving the number of shoppers downtown.
Hard to know when no one is painting a picture of improvement unless it is only an improvement in the event of an earthquake.
I do not understand why we must continually update instead of remaining unique and special.
Why is an improvement to modernize depersonalize and become as blah as the big boxes North end?
If I am ever fortunate enough to go half way around the world it will not be in search of the same dull stuff we find everywhere.
I am open to seing a nicer looking still friendly downtown but I am not getting my hopes up.
Still, I do hope to be wrong in my reactions to the sounds of it.

[Wyatt Earp]

I too love old buildings and I think you may have mistaken what I was saying. Moreover, the reason why things get half done around here is the lack of vision, planning and proper financial budgets. There are a select few that understand that in this town and to that end, most of those could be said to be "in it for themselves" but I won't go there.

Simply put a city should never be a developer because if something goes wrong, as it does with poor planning and management, there is no one to blame, except an elected official which in turn means those whom elected him or her. I remain critical of that sort of arrangement and to this day wonder how Nanaimo got in bed with a financially unstable company to build fixtures of downtown - only to get half way there.

Also just to hint on the win win situation, understand that this is a form of comprimise. Someone always looses out in this system. This isn't all bad but it isn't all good either.

[kickidee]

I can totally go with this post Wyatt. I think that is what I was trying to say all along really.
There must be a vision, Nanaimo stuctures have been an interesting patch work of structures, not designed for making the most of its beauty that is for sure.
Too many cooks spoil the broth? Does that figure in the city hodge podge too?
Maybe you and some others you respect could come up with a viable unified plan that makes sense and a great presentation?
Something that holds on to the essance of what Nanaimo is, but modernizes the structures enough to make something to be proud of?
You could create your own job, I have a feeling you might have a vision of how things could work.

[Wyatt Earp]

Well you know I could do something but we'd need some serious money to fund the right consultants and deal with / buy out land owners etc.

The guys at Plan Nanaimo were on to something a few years back but it was my opinion that the then current Mayor and the real man in charge were against the vision. I could be wrong but that was the way I saw it.

[queen of the waterfront]

Well you know I could do something but we'd need some serious money to fund the right consultants and deal with / buy out land owners etc.

The guys at Plan Nanaimo were on to something a few years back but it was my opinion that the then current Mayor and the real man in charge were against the vision. I could be wrong but that was the way I saw it.

Wyatt, I was at many of those meetings and I think you are right on the proverbial money.
Sight lines and views and character were supposed to be kept in the vision of the day. I owned a house on Kennedy Street at the time and was very concerned about how development was going to go. Many residents of the Old City Quarter spent a lot of time at those meetings. Now it seems all was for naught.
There is nothing we can do about it now as the deals were done. I truly hope that council and the other decision makers can see a real vision for new development.
I am not against change just totally averse to lack of planning.

[Wyatt Earp]

There is generally nothing wrong with the few buildings we have in our small down town that are taller than 4 stories. What has always got me is the need to place these sorts of things at the bottom of a hill? Why not follow real planning advice (free for the most part) and place them at the top or in places which would therefore gain from the "created" view and not the obstruction of another?

Some years ago whilst in college my civil hwy design course was taught by an x-ministry character whom had this book which I can't find my copy but it clearly showed locations in Nanaimo, one of which the intersection of Bowan and HWY 19 in the chapter of "what not to do" - I thought what is wrong with that? then using the criteria in what everyone else follows you find all sorts of errors, issues and things that really make this city stand out for being unsafe and down right idiotic when it comes to transit, traffic and public safety.

Even as current as 2008 - the Ministry has a requirement to limit left hand turns on any roadway they own, maintain or mandate travel on. The City has the complete opposite. See what I'm getting at?

[mrraulduke]

I am not too sure about the clusters of high buildings on hilltops ...
it certainly makes them stand out.
As for high rises down town ... bring them on. Nanaimo greatly needs urban density in the downtown core ... and yes .. people views will be destroyed, but that is an ongoing battle anyways. more people living in the downtown means more people caring about downtown, with the increase of services to cater to them.

as for 'plan nanaimo' i've read the offical community plan front to back a few times, and it's a great plan for here ... region 'hubs' build them up with 6 - 8 storey buildings, plus the services...who wouldn't want that?

as for our road routing ... i figured city hall always got a kick back from the traffic light companies .. they certainly keep adding them

[Wyatt Earp]

I agree 100% But there are ways to deal with sight lines and living on a hill, not nec. the hill top are ways of sorting that out.

[kickidee]

O.K., foolish question but I must ask. Why do we need urban density downtown? I have a feeling the answer will be embarassingingly simple, but ?
Is this not going to crowd the walkways by the sea and make a real crowded horror show of little downtown?

[Wyatt Earp]

Unfortunately, we need to densify areas like downtown so that we can save money. For 40 years, Nanaimo has spread out and this is NOT good practice.

Think of it as water and sewer pipe - easier to go to a single location than it is to go to several. When your tax dollars go to maintaining all that network it is easy to see which is more cost effective.