General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

"He believes such a development should be closer to post-secondary institutions and the core area of uptown."

... 1 block of Columbia from UW campus.

I agree with the general thrust of what you are saying, but the distance is actually much more than “1 block”. While it is technically true that UW owns land at Fischer-Hallman and Columbia, only about 250m from the site, “distance to campus” really means at least the distance to South Campus, which starts at Westmount, 1km east of the site; and really one should take an academic building, or the Hagey Boulevard entrance, 2km east of the site.

Unfortunately I also agree with others that the site plan will probably be terrible. It should be a single podium, with an entrance absolutely as close as possible to the Sobey’s mall. Really there should be a continuous portico linking to the Sobey’s mall, but this burg doesn’t do situational awareness in planning (specifically, the situation of being in a location with weather). Better yet, build the towers above the mall and leave the vacant site for the future. Single-story buildings are a ridiculous way of providing shopping.

I agree with all this, and would be totally in support of this kind of advocacy from the neighbourhood.

Sadly, that is not what we are seeing.

This is a huge fundamental problem--when we have such a disconnect that people aren't advocating for better, they're advocating for less.