When I was running for a seat on city council in 2001, one of the most common issues I heard brought up was the fact Lethbridgians wanted the downtown revitalised. I think that is all and good and could go a long way to improving the city.<\/p>\n
Another thing I noticed based on focus groups and committee meetings I attended regarding the revitalising the downtown was that residents did not want high-density development.<\/p>\n
This makes no sense to me. why would you not be in favour for the thing that would be the most helpful to revitalising the downtown?<\/p>\n
What the downtown needs to be revitalised is people. Plain and simple. Building bigger roads to bring more cars downtown isn’t the answer; nor is building more parking spaces. The easiest way to get more people downtown on a permanent basis is to build more housing; in particular to build more housing using the same amount of existing space.<\/p>\n
High-density housing will bring many more people downtown on a permanent basis, providing more consumers, more entertainment patrons, and more transit users. As a result, the downtown will attract higher-end retail and hospitality establishments, result in better (and more frequent) entertainment options, and create improved transit options.<\/p>\n
In addition, such housing will reduce (or at least slow down) the spread of urban sprawl\u00e2\u20ac\u201da plague in the open prairies surrounding the city. The city will spend less money on roads, sewer and the delivery of services (such as gas, water and electricity).<\/p>\n
One would think that after 20 years, it would be time for Lethbridge to see at least one more high rise apartment building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was running for a seat on city council in 2001, one of the most common issues I heard brought up was the fact Lethbridgians wanted the downtown revitalised. I think that is all and good and could go a long way to improving the city. Another thing I noticed based on focus groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lethbridge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-2Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":193,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2007\/01\/30\/rising-property-values-in-lethbridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":0},"title":"Rising property values in Lethbridge","author":"Kim Siever","date":"30 January 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In this morning's issue of the Lethbridge Herald: . . . the typical Lethbridge home\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s value [will] rise nearly $25,000 over the year . . . pushing the average resale price to $210,000 by year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end. Yet another reason to build high-density downtown. In fact, Due to investors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reluctance to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lethbridge"","block_context":{"text":"Lethbridge","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/lethbridge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":205,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2007\/06\/29\/lethbridge-growth-management-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":1},"title":"Lethbridge Growth Management Review","author":"Kim Siever","date":"29 June 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently the City of Lethbridge requested public comments regarding their Growth Management review. I missed it, so I sent the following letter to Tom Wickersham, who was acting mayor at the time. Dear Mr. Wickersham, I apologise for the lateness of me message. I heard about the request for comments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lethbridge"","block_context":{"text":"Lethbridge","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/lethbridge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":206,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2007\/07\/08\/lethbridge-rezoning\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":2},"title":"Lethbridge Rezoning","author":"Kim Siever","date":"8 July 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A property developer in Lethbridge has applied for a bylaw amendment in order to rewrite the Hardieville\/Legacy Ridge\/Uplands Area Structure Plan. They intend to rezone some undeveloped commercial property to direct control in order to build multi-family housing. This would allow them to avoid the hassle of dealing with public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lethbridge"","block_context":{"text":"Lethbridge","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/lethbridge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2007\/01\/15\/lethbridge-vacancy-rate\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":3},"title":"Lethbridge Vacancy Rate","author":"Kim Siever","date":"15 January 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"According to the Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser, CMHC is reporting Lethbridge's rental vacancy rate is at less than 1%. Lethbridge is seeing its vacancy rate tighten 2.1 percentage points from 2.7 per cent in 2005 to 0.6 per cent in 2006. Yet one more reason why high-density residential development should be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lethbridge"","block_context":{"text":"Lethbridge","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/lethbridge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3777,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2019\/09\/17\/my-email-to-the-scs-review-committee\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":4},"title":"My email to the SCS Review Committee","author":"Kim Siever","date":"17 September 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Alberta government established a Supervised Consumption Services Review Committee to evaluate the social and economic impacts of current and proposed supervised consumption sites. This committee is touring the province, and receiving in-person feedback from public engagement sessions. They held two in Lethbridge, and although I attended one, I didn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-05.12.28.png?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-05.12.28.png?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-05.12.28.png?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-05.12.28.png?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-05.12.28.png?fit=1200%2C845&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":575,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2009\/05\/21\/spring-is-in-lethbridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":5},"title":"Spring is in Lethbridge","author":"Kim Siever","date":"21 May 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Spring is in Lethbridge. The buds are opening, flowers are coming up, and the grass is green. The apple trees on 5 Avenue South downtown are blossoming; they look beautiful and smell great. I don't walk home down that block often, but I've noticed the blossoms lately, and I would've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"344\/365 Blossoms","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2469\/3547144471_f19be72418_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}