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Kenneth Allen's avatar

This article is critical to counter the fear-mongering about “Vacant Landlords” building four units with potentially 25 occupants that destroy established neighborhoods. Well done!

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Elizabeth's avatar

Thanks for your note, and for responding to my email.

My first two points are intertwined. It is illegal to park on the street during 8 months of the year in Fredericton as it impedes snow plows. When people choose to do so anyway, the streets become inadequately plowed, narrowing the streets and driveways in the process. This further limits parking options and can become a safety hazard.

With respect to emissions, achieving density in housing does not automatically equate to achieving density in traffic patterns. The vast majority of people in Fredericton drive to their workplace and would do so regardless of the distance between their residence and their workplace. Can this be improved upon? Absolutely! But in the meantime, adding more vehicles to individual streets and subdivisions, adds more vehicle emissions to those spaces.

Unless you have lived next to a multi-unit development, you may not be familiar with the ‘traffic jams‘ created by waste management trolleys and other garbage receptacles every week. They inevitably end up blocking driveways or coasting into the street. Both create visual hazards for drivers and pedestrians. If the proposed multi unit developments had to arrange for private waste collection this would solve that issue, but encourage more rodents. (it is a commonplace occurrence).

As to your point about friendly neighbourhoods, it takes considerable effort in an era of increasing isolation for strangers on a given city block, or street within a subdivision to get to know and establish a rapport with neighbours. The benefit, especially for seniors and new Canadians, is that it can make people feel like they belong, co-supported, and safer in their neighbourhoods. Again, unless you have experienced having police cruisers turn up at neighbouring homes on a regular basis because an absentee landlord has not appropriately screened tenants, I would caution against dismissing this as some form of xenophobia or hyper-sensitivity.

Thanks for listening,

Elizabeth

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