SJ Must pursue ROI in city building

The Telegraph Journal Editorials Board has often made statements that suggest we need to do something to be more “fiscally conservative”. A recent statement was “don’t overspend on active transportation”. There is a consistent narrative here from them (in my opinion) that we need to do some comparative analysis on. Is being fiscally conservative and pinching each penny going to get us where we need to go? Or are we so focussed on being frugal that we are undermining our ability to be a competitive city where it counts? It is my position that the city of Saint John must spend money where our return on investment (ROI) is guaranteed. It is not simply about the financial returns but it is about applying evidence based practices to our city building exercise that allow us to achieve our desired outcomes.

The brass tacks of my review of the literature around investments in things like active transportation corridors are that they provide a big bang for the buck. “a 2014 UK government report cited returns of between 2:1 and 35:1.” . Another article by Fast Company Titled “50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets” found that investments in “biking and walking provide an estimated return on investment of $11.80 for every $1 invested.” . One reason for this is obvious, the more people that can walk or bike instead of driving everywhere the more disposable money there is for the local economy. A less obvious outcome of this type of infrastructure is the type of investment it attracts. The majority of businesses in Saint John may currently believe they need to offer parking for the viability of their business but the rest of the world seems to have moved on. In that same article it was found that people without cars spend 65% more than those with cars on local business. The best practices and evidence show us that we are once again playing catch up when it comes to building a competitive city. Now is the right time for major investment. I didn’t even touch on the well documented health and mental health impacts of pedestrian centred design in our cities. Our city is categorically designed for cars and we have important work to do on this file.

As Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, we have identified a number of strategic objectives that are targeted at honing our competitive advantages that we have. At a high level, they are aimed at 4 outcomes (listed on the plan as strategic objectives) which are: to make our city more appealing and supportive of the people who live here and attracting new people to move here (vibrancy), increasing our communal prosperity and environmental sustainability (prosperity), improving the level of service our residents and community receive (Service), and increasing our level of accountability as a city and as a community toward one another (Accountable). These changes and strategic moves will help the city be a better place to live, work and play.

How can we achieve these outcomes? This council, EnvisionSJ, and the strategic plan all have a common goal of growing our population to 85,000 people in the next 10 years. So what are the best practices on growing population? Well it turns out that reducing the property tax rate is not a recommendation you often find in the literature or research around population growth. After all It is the tax bill that most people care about, not the tax rate. Also, having a city with a reputation of fiscal restraint doesn’t seem to register on people’s radar when they are looking for a new city to move to. In fact, the city of Saint John hired 4 outside consultants to help us guide our priorities and strategic planning and not one of them made these recommendations . What we find are calls to action around continuing to revitalize our city core, investing in quality of life (arts, culture, active transportation, recreation, common spaces), and strategic moves to make with our finances to help support those changes. Of course they all recognize the need for regional cost sharing and make note of Saint John’s unique struggle with it’s surrounding communities and industries compared with other cities.

It is crucial that Saint John residents understand that the way for us to build a thriving city is to capitalize on our strategic advantages and at the same time invest in the areas that we are behind in. We have just gone through a major season of austerity with the province pulling the plug on 10 million dollars toward our residents. To our credit, the good people on staff at the city of SJ were able to tackle this in a way that protected core services while having to deal with a major cyber attack and a pandemic. Now that we are once again growing, the time is now to invest new revenue in making our neighbourhoods more livable, investing in affordable housing, and creating a strong culture of recreation. We have a competitive advantage in our arts and culture community compared to other cities in NB to be sure. Supporting things like the Saint John Theatre Company Courthouse project, Area 506, The Imperial Theatre, and a plethora of other unique features in our landscape is important. It will take a steady hand on growth committee, community services, and at the common council table to push this culture shift into the public domain to be sure. Having an engaged community that moves beyond cynicism and status quo thinking will be important to this and that’s on you, the reader.

Cycling Fallacies: Resource page on cycling infrastructure. March 16, 2022. https://cyclingfallacies.com/en/23/it%E2%80%99s-too-expensive-to-provide-for-cycling

Fast Company. “Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets”. Written in 2016 , accessed March 16, 2022. https://www.fastcompany.com/3062989/50-reasons-why-everyone-should-want-more-walkable-streets

https://shapeyourcitysaintjohn.ca/10-year-strategic-plan-2

Four articles are posted on the Strategic Planning Page on Shape Your City Saint John.

https://ehq-production-canada.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/5ce38bc961f949cf4c12c853185c017e7ec57872/original/1647364194/ae780f637b7f9b9697d8a7d4bd1e7532_ED_ConsultantReportsFeb2021.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIBJCUKKD4ZO4WUUA%2F20220317%2Fca-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220317T175935Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=7e39f724fd7a46d56956e78c1b82b4fa41c0281e8e5a7800d771165889ae3526