I started a reply comment to T-L but it was going too long, so I decided to make it a post.
Who knows if the waterfront revitalization will actually ever take place in our lifetime. If it does happen, it will take years. While LNG is not a cash flow issue (i.e., you can't blame a 25 year LNG deal for the lack of cash available right this minute), it is still in the back of everyone's minds when you think of what else the city needs to spend money on.
Infrastructure is one of the key areas, I believe. If we have shitty roads, that affects tourism, it affects people moving here, and the general impression of outsiders about our city. Our roads suck and suck bad. There is also the much-needed exit from the throughway around Russell St, which should have been put in 30 years ago.
The other major problem is our 100-ish year old water system. I don't know about the rest of you guys on city water, but mine sucks. i.e., I have to make sure I don't add fabric softener to my whites, otherwise I get yellow splotches and gunk all over my clothes. This never happened when I lived at home on well water.
My mother also has a huge problem with her water. Her water makes her whites brown. Literally. When I lived with her last summer, I didn't want to do my laundry, it was gross. Had nothing to do with any appliances etc in her house, that was the way the water was coming in from the outside. She complained to the city multiple times, they gave her some Iron Out (which will start to eat your clothes after a few uses, and bleach is also very hard on fabric with multiple uses). Other than that they flushed some hydrants and haven't really done anything else to help her. She's a nurse who wears white uniforms. They have to be white or else you look extremely unprofessional. Professional laundering services cost money that she doesn't have to throw around. Theoretically you should be able to clean your own laundry in your own home without issue. So why exactly does my mother have to pay the same $608 in taxes as everyone else, for brown water? Doesn't exactly seem fair now, does it?
[ignoring the fact that she does crazy things like disown me. even crazy people deserve clean water. maybe that's why she's crazy]
It's no wonder we had such trouble finding anyone with vision who wanted to be mayor. With all of the issues this city needs to address, it's overwhelming.
9 comments:
OMG!! dont' even get me (or Van) started about the roads in this city - they BROKE my truck!!! I swear to God, there are city officials being bought off by repair shops to keep teh roads bad!! And they are BAD!! The fact that they jsut continually patch them is also a major problem. they will NEVEr have enough money to fully fix the roads properly and it's pissing me off!
Also, I'll be interested to read a response from Van on thsi simply because I've seen this city through news eyes these past couple of months, and it's not pretty. I was just getting tolerated to this city and then I see it from an outsider (tourist's) eyes and it's not appealing to them!
SJ is old - that's part of the charm to some, but a turn off to others as it makes it for the most part look cold and dirty (especially the uptown) the roads are bad and unappealing to the point that you wouldn't want to take a vehicle around town, yet the transit system is sooo pathetic, you NEED a vehicle to get anywhere.
I went to the Waterfront Development announcement, sheesh, two years ago now, and the plans were something else. They've got the Harbour Passage started, but that was just supposed to be the beginning. I guess they did tear down the old sugar refinery, but they are going to have to bust their asses if they're going to meet the 10 year deadline. Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that the Port Authority have backed out on a few things, and the coast guard hasn't moved yet.
I don't drive, and I'm glad. I'm surprised one doesn't end up with whiplash just driving out to the mall.
Yes the roads are bad but that's all of NB. This is by far the dirtiest place I've been and the service sucks. I know that the garbage doesn't generally sit on the curb for two straight weeks!!! but come on walking down the "good part" of town and seeing needles and burnt out joints and broken beer bottles isn't appealing to me. Old buildings are fine as long as they are kept up and the surrounding area is clean. It starts with those that live here have to start caring about the city instead of just their own clique be it West/East or upperclass/lowerclass. There is an extreme amount of animosity (and that's a big word for my brain) toward each other let alone a tourist.
The only thing I can suggest to help make your whites whiter is washing soda, which a lot of folks don't think of. I only use it when I visit my folks and do my laundry there. The rest of the time I do the drop-off at the laundromat, and I wind up with greyish whites.
I wonder what it would take to get this city to take care of the important stuff first.
Do you mean baking soda or are we talking 2 different things?
I think my mom has used everything she can find, it's just THAT BAD. She used to buy baking soda by the Costco-sized box.
as for the water system, my dad will tell you we have pipes in the ground still in use that were laid before the us civil war.
but in this case i don't blame the city. see, the province has toyed with the municipalities act, which has severely limited the money available to the city for such things as infrastructure. if there's anyone to be angry at, it's the province... right now. not saying it's always been that way.
Scary, that. Some of them are wooden pipes, aren't they?
Re: the province... yeah, I see that point. There just always seems to be a tennis match of blame. The city blames the province for not giving them enough grant money. The province tells the city we don't have any more money to give, you have to choose how you want to spend it. In the meantime our water still sucks.
I'm not crazy about the whole province turning Rothesay Ave over to the city to maintain from now on. Sure, it gets us this current upgrade, that had to be done twice on the first section, but what happens next time the swamp that's under it heaves and it becomes a mess again? We already can't afford to fix the roads we have control over, let alone take over RA too. This one scares me.
Wooden box culverts large enough to stand up in and not even have to hunch over... For a very few.
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