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@1sidewalkballet awesome! 1. what is the surrounding neighborhood like: walk to the market? 2. see Seaside incubators ow.ly/lnTSp
— neil21 (@neil21) May 30, 2013
Thanks for asking @neil21! Thought I'd dedicate more than 140 characters to answer... The original post: A Proposal — A Recycled Shipping Container Public Market for Nanaimo's Pioneer Waterfront Plaza
This illustration of Census tract 0015.00 shows the plaza site (circled). And some demographics: Population 4,565 (Change since 2006 +5.5) Dwellings Total Private Households: 2590 Distribution by dwelling type Single Detached 26.4% Semi-detached 1.9% Row House 1.9% Duplex 6.9% Hi-rise Apt. 20.8% Low-rise Apt. 41.7% Single Attached 0.4% Population by gender Male 2,215 Female 2,355 Median age 48.9.
My Old City neighbourhood is well within a 15 minute walk to the plaza.
Walk time from the western edge of this tract to the plaza: 15 minutes. Adding the households to the north and south, I estimate the population in the catchment area within a 15-20 minute walk to be about 7500.
The plaza could and should be part of what our award winning Downtown Urban Design Plan and Guidelines calls for: "the development of an open space and pathway network throughout the downtown. Existing city owned lands and rights-of-way, combined with private property redevelopment, provide the opportunity for a coordinated park, pathway and open space plan…" (But in Nanaimo this key public pathway on public land is a "driveway" reserved for "tenant parking": Public Path Used as "Driveway" and "Tenant Parking" is Contrary to the Downtown Urban Design Plan, Diminishes The Integrity of the Heritage Restoration) And should seamlessly connect the waterfront to the downtown commercial district. Critically here: Repair the Square!
Currently there's one largish grocery store serving the city centre, any owner-operator bakery or butcher shop or small market have long since fled or become extinct. Seasonally cruise ships drop about 2500 well fed and slaked tourists into downtown Nanaimo for the day and the harbour is popular with boaters. Condo towers nearby and medium density low-rise along the water to the north which all connect to the plaza by a really quite spectacular waterfront promenade — have a stroll. To the south, Nanaimo's original, established neighbourhoods, the reserve lands of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and the newly city-acquired waterfront rail yards: City of Nanaimo to Purchase 26.7 Acre Downtown Waterfront Rail Yards
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