Quote:
Originally Posted by sailor734
A stabbing at mid afternoon Monday on the corner of Union and Waterloo followed by a shooting that night in the south end.
https://saintjohnpolice.ca/media-rel...o-street-area/
Not the greatest recommendation for Uptown Saint John.
"A small city with a big heart'? more like "a small city with big city crime"
I fully understand the issues are far from unique to SJ but if we want the Uptown to prosper and see growth as a place to live surely we have to come up with effective answers to these issues.
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I feel like some of the expectations I hear or see online for Uptown are unrealistic for any urban centre. Anyone expecting zero crime, trash-free streets, no poverty, daily all-ages events, free parking next to ever shop, etc. is setting us up to fail, because I have yet to visit or live in a major city that had any of that be the case.
As you said, not only is the issue you pointed out not unique to Saint John, but neither are the responses and expectations I pointed out above. You could go into any urban forum across North America and see the same basic fears and complaints represented, they are bigger systemic issues and partially a result of the increased visibility afforded by social media for example. I'd take the current state of Uptown over any time in the past few decades,
We have real issues with street drugs, I'm very aware of that as someone who walks around Uptown on a daily basis to work, to my home, and to the homes of friends who live on Waterloo and other areas. But steering clear of these areas is not the answer, despite what a few vocal folks might say online. I think the future is bright for the area, but we also need to breed realism within our population and provide more opportunities for those in the other areas of the city and region to spend time in the core and understand its unique issues so that the solutions get supported instead of vilified because they don't have to see it every day.