What does Manchester need?

[Loughlin]

What does Manchester Need to become New Englands second city? the second city right now is definitly Providence, a city that has alot to offer, nearby ocean, luxury living, Big city atmosphere and alot of culture. Manchester has a 112k Pop that is growing very fast, Providence has 176k pop, but also has less land to work with.

One thing Manchester could do to battle the Metro luxury living Providence has to offer is try to become more intergrated with the Portsmouth and New Castle which can compare to Newport,also a downtown mall would be nice, a new skyscraper and some more downtown resteraunts and stores, the city realy needs a train service. Does anyone else have any suggestions on making Manchester better?

[M. Brown]

There is a mall downtown but it sucks. It's right next the big black tower. I hope they tear that down and put another bigger and better mall there with another tower on top or something. Something has to be done with it. The resturaunt and nightclub scene has improved dramatically. I am very im pressed. Downtown Manch is packed on Friday and Saturday nights with lots of predestrians and lines for blocks outside of clubs and resturaunts. But as I've said before the airport connecter road from the highway is going to give Manchester a huge name for itself in New England. The airport already gives Manchester a huge name as it is right now. I can't wait. Also they are reconstructing all of the highways in Manchester and redoing a downtown highway exit. It's currently and has always been a onesided on ramp. You could only get on it going southbound and you could only get off of it going north. It's annoying to always have to go to the next exit and then get back on the highway to get where you want to go. Also they are going to be redoing the granite street bridge. I believe its going to have an arch similar to the old Notre Dame Bridge and the new pedestrian bridge thats going to be going up that Loughlin posted a pic on in one of his other threads. And one thing that would also help Manchester is if Mass would put one signs to Manchester instead of just Concord on its highways. I know Concord is the next city with a major interstate interchange(I-89 which goes to Vermont) but c'mon. Manchester is so much bigger and more important than Concord. Well a lil' more important . I don't think ppl in Mass are interested in going to Concord anyways. Alot of ppl from Manchester( more than anyother place in NH IMO) because of the airport and other things. If you listen so JAMN 94.5 they heavily advertise the Omega Entertainment Complex in Downtown Manchester saying it is the "Hottest NightClub North of The Border in Downtown Manchester, NH on ELM Street!!!" The Omega is a major Nightclub in Manch. So yeah Manchester is well on its way to becoming a 2nd city of NE. I don't think it will ever happen though unfortunately. Prov. Hart. Worc. have been major players for too long. It might come close though.

[Cotuit]

the city really needs a train service.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the answer, the train is a huge selling point for Providence. New Hampshire is growing much faster than Rhode Island is right now. People want to be there, but many people are moving to suburban areas of New Hampshire. The big boom in Rhode Island now is in urban living in Providence and Pawtucket. Manchester needs to sell itself as an affordable urban alternative to Boston. Give people who want to continue working in Boston a rail line to get there, and people will come in hordes. The city government needs to carefully focus developement in an urban manner, the last thing Manchester needs is to allow itself to become a bigger version of Nashua, which could happen without good zoning.

Even without the train though, I don't see any reason why Manchester shouldn't be having a condo boom similar to what is going on in Providence now. The area around the new ballpark is kind of the new development area for Manchester isn't it?

[M. Brown]

The area around the new ballpark is kind of the new development area for Manchester isn't it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah. Two condo towers behind the ballpark and townhouse rows. The luxury condos on Bridge and Elm are coming along just fine. They are starting to put the brick up. It topped out a while ago.

[Loughlin]

I hope the ballpark does the same thing that the verizon center did, alot of resteraunts poped up right across the street from VWA.

[CoreyPortlandME]

I've never been to Manchester, so I can't speak with any authority, but I think Manchester would benefit some sort of a large scale festival or fair or something. Something to put it on the map and something that gives people a good reason to visit there. How about a music festival comparable to Woodstock or Reading Festival.

[M. Brown]

^That would be good

[Cotuit]

I've never been to Manchester, so I can't speak with any authority, but I think Manchester would benefit some sort of a large scale festival or fair or something. Something to put it on the map and something that gives people a good reason to visit there. How about a music festival comparable to Woodstock or Reading Festival. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Providence gets a lot of international attention for WaterFire, some sort of arts event would certainly help put Manchester on the map.

[CoreyPortlandME]

And something else I forgot to add....

If the city was able to market itself as well as the airport has, then they could find a great deal of success. The Manchester Airport seemed to come out of nowhere a few years back and is now known as THE alternative to traveling to Boston to catch a flight.

[iclyde]

That's the answer, the train is a huge selling point for Providence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I couldn't agree more. If the commuter line ever extens into Nashua it would be great if they could bring it a bit further and into Manchester. These two train stations would significantly reduce the traffic problems on 3 and 93...

[evan d]

in the next 10 years i can tell you that there will be a T stop in manchester and it will take you stright to boston or to hartford or providence

[M. Brown]

Actually they are almost for sure going to be bringing it up when they reconstruct I-93. Look here.

[MadVlad]

It needs to keep growing economically. It seems to be syphoning off business and population from Boston, which is good growth for Manchester (not for Boston, obviously). It's proximity to Boston could be a blessing or a curse though...

[Cotuit]

New Hampshire is doing something right:

New Hampshire has high income, lowest poverty rate, census says

[M. Brown]

New Hampshire is doing something right:

New Hampshire has high income, lowest poverty rate, census says

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NiCe

[P-Land]

What does Manchester Need to become New Englands second city? the second city right now is definitly Providence, a city that has alot to offer, nearby ocean, luxury living, Big city atmosphere and alot of culture. Manchester has a 112k Pop that is growing very fast, Providence has 176k pop, but also has less land to work with.

One thing Manchester could do to battle the Metro luxury living Providence has to offer is try to become more intergrated with the Portsmouth and New Castle which can compare to Newport,also a downtown mall would be nice, a new skyscraper and some more downtown resteraunts and stores, the city realy needs a train service. Does anyone else have any suggestions on making Manchester better?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know I'm going to raise some eyebrows with this one, but I disliked my one and only stay in Providence. i felt like it was just a gigantic portland with more trash. Driving in you see rubbish all over the highway. And then the downtown was full of more trash. Was I in the 'wrong' section of town? It looked nothing like that old T.V. show 'Providence' made it out to be. It was also March and every New England city looks like a dump in March. but are there nice parts or is it like I have described for the most part? I was staying by the central campus of JWU.

[P-Land]

Nice job N.H.! I wonder how much the state median income was influenced by those in the southern part of the state who earned their salaries in Mass. Also, someone mentioned train service in manchester, I think that would be great and it would make Manchester more of a city destination rather than an 'edge city'. I thin Portland has talks on going about bringing train service back, but it would almost certainly be exclusively for tourists (like transportation to ball games etc.) not a mass transit system. Oh well, I guess the bus is all they need anyway.

[evan d]

Manchester land need to gain for value so more and more companies would want to buy it and that means good for manchester and more highrises in the downtown area

[Recchia]

I know I'm going to raise some eyebrows with this one, but I disliked my one and only stay in Providence.  i felt like it was just a gigantic portland with more trash.  Driving in you see rubbish all over the highway.  And then the downtown was full of more trash.  Was I in the 'wrong' section of town?  It looked nothing like that old T.V. show 'Providence' made it out to be.  It was also March and every New England city looks like a dump in March.  but are there nice parts or is it like I have described for the most part?  I was staying by the central campus of JWU.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unfortunately, trash along the highway is a big problem I've always noticed throughout the Providence metro, you're definitely right about this. And that show Providence is the biggest bunch of BS I've ever seen and so completely untrue in so many ways (people driving the wrong way down one-way streets, people pronouncing R's, people being happy, etc., such BS...)

Were you at JWU's downtown campus or the main one at Fields Point? Fields Point is an underutilized highly industrialized area thats kind of separated from the rest of the city, and not a very good representation of the city at all. Check out downtown, the East Side, Federal Hill West Broadway and even Broad St. if you wanna see the "true" Providence.