Biking update for Manchester, I road the Piscataquog Trail through Manchester and followed the Goffstown Rail Trail all the way to their town center (small but nice) then back. The Goffstown rail trail I was disappointing how many out bridges and the trail quality until I looked up the amount of work they have done and planned work on their website. Apparently most of it is new, and the bridge from the Piscataquog trail in Manchester connecting to the Goffstown Rail Trail will be fixed / built next year in 2012. So after reading all of this, I felt better. The one thing that both trails lack are nice benches for breaks. And the Goffstown Rail Trail could feature a nice scenic area look out as it does go by some nice ponds, but it does not. Once connected I bet Goffstown will get a boost of trail goers as the trial in Manchester is VERY VERY busy. I later went on the river walk across the bridge, and although nice, it is VERY short and I was surprised so many people were on such a short trail. It really just needs to be expanded. And the park that the Elliot is supposed to be building (nothing going on yet) should be a very nice addition.
Great to hear about the trail—I still haven’t checked it out personally, though the Hands Across the Merrimack bridge is usually full of people lately. Goffstown’s village is really nice, and I think it feels much farther away from downtown Manchester than the few miles it actually is (it makes me think of the small villages around Monadnock). Once the rail is complete, especially with scenic overlooks and other amenities like you mentioned, it will be a great asset. I believe a lot of people who live around Goffstown village commute into Manchester, so hopefully some will choose the rail trail in good weather. Obviously, a regional transit system that offered at least hourly commuter bus service between places like Goffstown, Bedford, Londonderry and other surrounding towns into downtown would help in getting people to commute into town without a car.
but the Mall of NH destroyed the Bedford Mall and I would hate to then see that mall waste away. I also dislike how these outlets (not a surprise though) seem to be being built in yet again, a nice forest rather than some run down buildings or lots of land.
I’m glad the Bedford Mall is being redeveloped, though I would have preferred something a bit denser—still building up to the road as they’re doing is an improvement over the old mall. That said, there is so much underused land along the older strip corridors in Manchester and the suburbs that should be redeveloped before new malls, outlet centers or “power centers” are built on open space.
Hey, FLMike may know, but I was looking at the city maps (zoning) and the area on Granite Street near the proposed Granite Landing and the controversial liquor store is "general business zoning" which is basically, South Willow Street. If the city wants to basically expand the downtown area, whey not make the zoning more appropriate so everyone is on the same note rather than have it zoned one thing and want another.
Because I thought it was the Economics departments idea to expand the downtown urban feel onto Granite Street there.
Know anything about this FLMike?
IMO Granite Street right now is actually a nice area, it just lacks the purpose for one to walk there. But all the sidewalks are redone, some nice trees and plantings. Now all it needs are some better developments to make more purpose to the area and one way to do this is some more dense, street side development with retail and food on street level.
The way Granite Square (along with the McGregor Street area) is zoned seems like a huge oversight to me. Like you said, the city wants to expand the downtown to the West Side area there (as several planning studies have recommended) and Granite Street has been spruced up quite a bit, and while I wish it hadn’t been widened, I agree that the street itself is quite nice now. It’s just entirely lacking anything to make people want to walk along it—on both sides of the river really. In the 1970s and 80s, the city demolished the great, urban buildings that made Granite Square a sort of downtown for the West Side, while also widening and realigning Granite Street between the river and Elm Street, in the process removing at least a dozen buildings and transforming the street from an urban gateway to more of a commuter-focused one. As you drive or walk up Granite Street from the river now, it’s really an approach to downtown rather than a part of it. This could easily change given the great visibility of land along the street on either side of the river. It just needs to be zoned properly and developers given the proper incentives to add urban-appropriate projects there. What is strange to me is that all the “B-1 Neighborhood Business” districts, which are a great idea, were added in the last few years. I think Granite Square should be zoned CBD (same as downtown), but why it wasn’t included in the new B-1 districts instead of keeping it zoned for largely suburban use is beyond me.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure zoning is ultimately determined by the mayor and aldermen. I’m not sure how much the planning department has pushed for better, more urban zoning, but the 2009 Master Plan is basically all good stuff. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any part of it that has been implemented by the BMA. I wonder if giving the planning department greater control—maybe just giving the BMA more of an up-or-down vote, or giving the Master Plan, once approved by the BMA, the force of law—would help? Of course, it was more powerful planning agencies 40 years ago that gave us many of the problems we’re now trying to solve.
