The web mapping tool on the City of Saint John website (http://maps.saintjohn.ca/en/) has added 2014 aerial photographs and new topographic information.
The image below is a print screen of the Safe Harbour Shelter that was just getting started when the photo was taken.
The draft zoning map is available at: http://maps.saintjohn.ca/zonesj-en/
The map allows you to compare and contrast the current and proposed zoning.
Also, you can turn off the zoning layers and just look at the high resolution orthophotography from 2012. There are also some measuring and searching capabilities, similar to GeoNB.
As an example of the quality, here’s what the bandstand looked like from above in 2012:
Heritage restoration/redevelopment entrepreneur Keith Brideau (Historica Developments) has launched a video blog series where he will be talking about redevelopment. He will also be talking about the role of optimism as a solution to Saint John’s economic issues.
I just realized you can see some of the work on the Mile One highway exit on Google Maps.
The Next 26 is an interesting affordable housing concept in Fredericton. The backers of the project are working on a project to create affordable housing that will endeavour to fill some of the housing need in Fredericton.
The interesting part of their approach is that they are seeking seed funding through a crowd funding campaign. You can read more and/or contribute at: http://crowdfundchoice.ca/projectDetails.aspx?pid=8
http://www.openstreetmap.org/ is so up to date that Lounsbury Furniture is already market on Rothesay Avenue.
Neat.
I may be a fool for not knowing this before, but Open StreetMap is a pretty awesome highly detail map tool. Look at this section from uptown Saint John:
I realized recently that Google Maps now include certain trails in Saint John when giving cycling directions. Check it out: https://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en
I just found out about the Uptown Saint John “Pick of the Week” video series. Definitely worth checking out some of their videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/uptownsj
This week’s is a reminder about Sunday’s Queen Square Farmer’s Market:
For those of you are avid assessment watchers, or just curious property owners, http://propertize.ca/ has been updated to allow for searches of 2012 assessments. An interesting feature is the comparison of 2011 and 2012 assessments.
Propertize.ca (the tool that lets New Brunswickers search for assessments and property sale prices) has added a new feature.
The Province publishes real estate sales prices for all transactions since 2009. Now Propertize shows all of these sales. This is a great addition for a real estate nerd, or someone working on an assessment appeal (local sale prices of similar homes is the best evidence of your homes actual value).
Congratulations to Shawn Peterson, Propertize designer and engaged citizen, for making his site even better.
I’ve posted about Propertize.ca a few times. This is a great utility that helps you search the provincial assessment database for assessment and sales information.
It seems another computer savvy person with an interest in NB property taxes has endeavoured to make this assessment and sales information easier to search. The site Homes, Ahoy! shows this data on maps which include “macro” data about sections of a real estate market.
Both sites are useful tools to see what sort of property values occur in a given area. I will caution readers though that when it comes to property tax season, that just because your neighbours assessment is unreasonably lower than your assessment, doesn’t mean you have grounds to appeal. If you think your assessment is too low, your best bet is to look at recent sale prices (which both sites allow you to view) for homes similar to your own.
This might be old news to all you internet experts out there, but I just heard about PadMapper.com. It’s a pretty cool tool for apartment searches, that draws in ads from various sources (including Kijiji) and maps them on a Google Map. One neat feature is that the tool compares apartment rents to median rents in the area.
This blog didn’t win a Salty Award for local social media. The Ale House’s video rich blog took the blogging award. Check it out to learn about local events, food and drink.
Also winning tonight was the Hemmings House Facebook page, Anne McShane for her FeelsGoodSJ tweeting, and Mel Norton for his use of Social Media in a campaign.
There was a great turnout at the Ale House for the event. It seems Saint Johners are willing to go offline and have a good time in person.
It’s funny to me that this blog was nominated for a local social media award (I do appreciate it though).
If it were an anti-social media award I could understand (what witty word play) - I’m just one of those internet people yelling things in the corner, quasi-anonymously.
(I know some readers know who I am, but I prefer to not colour the opinions of the several other readers by letting you know me. Believe or not, I’m even less pleasant in person. Also, while its never been told to me, and likely wouldn’t be, I doubt my blog is in perfect alignment with my chosen field.)
Congratulations to all of the nominees, particularly all of you who have courage of your convictions to sign your name to each post (oh wait, that’s every other nominee; perhaps I’m doing this wrong).
Keep being social.
Also, I’m pleased to have discovered Dave Cochrane’s local real estate blog. Cochrane’s video heavy blog was nominated and is well worth a read: http://blog.davecochrane.com/
This may be far from new, but I just came across a website called mysaintjohn.ca/. The site aggregates local news and blogs and also has some local ads, coupons and a discussion forum.
Good luck to those running it. It’s great to see Saint John online.
Oh, and through some techno-voodoo (or human effort, or simple technology I’ve not mastered), this blog is aggregated into their “More Local Blogs” category. How about that.
The City of Saint John web mapping has been updated to include 2010 aerial photograph for the City. Below is a screen shot of the mapping with the justice complex excavation underway.
Urban researcher Kurt Peacock is trying to get a Twitter hash tag category going for Paramount Theatre alternate use ideas. Check out #ParamountIdeas and add your thoughts.
I just noticed that the City’s website has a page with maps for its Historic Walking Tours. The maps go beyond the typical “heritage area” and are similar to the walks put on by the City last spring.
The City of Saint John’s website has been updated with a new design. Check out the new site and see what you think:
http://www.saintjohn.ca/en/home/default.aspx
Hopefully this site is an easy to use tool for those looking for info on Saint John.
