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The Riverwalk and Sundial apartments are exciting additions to the city--they're not right downtown, but should bring some more energy to the Rivers Edge area of town and might help tie it to downtown. The conversion of the Citizens Bank building into retail and housing is very exciting. There...

The Goffe Mill Plaza (Whole Foods, apartments, etc.) is going up, and now there are plans for another mixed-use development next door. Macy's has sold their building, which will be demolished and replaced by a combination of retail, office, hotel, entertainment and a parking garage to be called...

With Robert A.M. Stern as the dean of the Yale architecture school, I'd expect nothing more imaginative than a neo-Gothic retread.

It would be great to see the tower of 511 refaced, and the pedestrian plaza and lower-level buildings lining it replaced with something 3-5 stories high to match the rest of the buildings on that stretch of Congress. Could turn the building into something very nice. The lower-level buildings at...

I'm also impressed by the design and siting. The design is fairly conservative, but looks well done for a drugstore. The facade is much nicer, and the entrance much stronger, than you see on most stand-alone retail buildings. The siting, with the store up to the sidewalk and the parking to the...

It's hard to say just from the photos, but the grey doesn't look bleak to me--a bit reminiscent of slate. If the whole city was clad in that material, then it would bleak, but I think it looks good when contrasted with the brick all around it.

I have a Mac at home and Windows 7 at work--any chance you can get some screenshots of Portland and Concord? From the images on the website you linked to, the city models look pretty impressive.

I think you're right--true BRT probably would be more practical on a line like this, as much as I'd love to see light rail. But BRT would allow buses to branch off the line to downtown Derry, other parts of Salem and so forth. The trick would be that it would have to be true BRT, implementing...

Those conservatives lost big in the last election. With overwhelming public support for passenger rail in the state, the governor and a majority of the Executive Council, House and even the Senate I believe all support expanding passenger rail service. The state earlier this year approved...

The thread about a potential Portland-Auburn commuter rail line in Maine got me thinking about the possibilities for a similar line in southern New Hampshire, where there is a greater population density but currently less funding for public transit. The Capitol Corridor commuter rail line is...

Harrington & Company is offering the city $1.3 million for the old police station on Chestnut Street, with the idea of converting the building into student housing, among other options: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8RzQfunU8

You're right on about the balance between taxes and services. Ideally, taxes would be low and services reliable, but I think something needs to change in Manchester (and New Hampshire) when it comes to the tax structure and allocation of funding. I would describe myself as fiscally prudent (I...

Too bad to hear about the liquor store, but I'm not surprised. Huge missed opportunity though. Granite Street is walkable, but it's not enjoyable--it's too wide to ever imagine being a nice place for pedestrians. And that the widening didn't include bike lanes is shamefully short-sighted. Maybe...

I've been following the forums here, but haven't posted anything in awhile. Hopefully they can improve the interchanges at Exit 6 & 7 without gobbling up more land. The sketches I saw awhile back looked promising, but the danger is that it could end up like Exit 5 where the improved interchange...

I'm disappointed that the mayor vetoed selling the land to VMD, but I'm hopefully that this doesn't represent a setback for development on the Pearl Street lot, or worse yet: another high profile property surrendered by the mayor for some suburban-appropriate development. The fact that a number...

The Union Leader is reporting on a study recommending a 500-car parking garage for the Millyard on the city-owned Bedford Street parking lot. This is the same site that could also possibly be used as a transit center, including a train station, MTA bus hub, intercity bus station and a...

I agree, and it always bugs me when I hear people complain about parking in downtown Manchester. There's plenty of parking, as long as people can walk a little bit. Of course, it's tougher during the weekday, when downtown really is pretty packed with professionals and workers, but I never get...

I want to comment more on this later, but just wanted to point out that the scaled down design (which from a purely aesthetic point-of-view, I personally prefer) would hardly be the only mansard-roofed building in downtown Portsmouth. There is a very prominent building right on Congress Street...

That would be huge--having some student housing downtown, especially on this scale, would really transform the feel of the area. I saw last year that the president of SNHU said that ideally he'd like to see some student housing downtown, but that the city would need to offer better (more...

You know, come to think of it, not much. It's built up to the street, walking distance from lots of homes, in the center of town... it provides a place for people to get together, hang out, and form a community. I guess if there was bus service and a building next door instead of a parking lot...