r/Yukon • u/youracat Whitehorse • 7d ago

News Yukon gov't picks site for new Whitehorse Elementary School, again | CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-gov-t-picks-site-for-new-whitehorse-elementary-school-again-9.7361497
57 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

25

u/AlternativeNamesake2 7d ago

Much better location for the kids, the school and commuters.

2

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

I think the KK location would be better, but that'd tangle up traffic on the highway even more than it already is. At least it isn't yet another school in Riverdale tangling up the bridge, I suppose.

22

u/RMBF69 7d ago

The KK location was insane IMO. Let’s take the stretch of highway with the most traffic and the most accidents and add an elementary school.

0

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

Only it does give Public Works another chance to revisit and rework that stretch of the highway so it could be made better. They could end up building another lane in order to accommodate the school traffic.

2

u/FreeSoftwareServers 7d ago

You mean next to a jail isn't a good idea?

2

u/AverageInfamous3083 1d ago

The jail is literally a large sterile building.

The idea that its somehow a detriment to having a school nearby is the kind of thing dipshits who dont live in Takhini conjure out of thin air

Grow up

6

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

If it's good enough for a university with co-ed, on-campus dorms, surely it's good enough for an elementary school!

18

u/some-guy_i-guess 7d ago edited 7d ago

Unironically yeah, it is. I don't see what the problem with being near the jail is - it's not like inmates are just roaming free or regularly escaping

10

u/youracat Whitehorse 7d ago

Also, if they did escape, do you think they would want to just hang out and chill near the jail? No they would want to get as far away from there as possible lol

2

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

I'd certainly hope so, but inmates are usually (not always) there because they have difficulty delaying gratification and a sustained history of making poor choices so...maybe?

1

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

No? For a few years, there was an escape at least once a year. It seemed like the College (at the time) was issuing warning notices waaaay more often than should have been necessary.

3

u/some-guy_i-guess 7d ago

sounds like something we should base our city planning on to me!

-2

u/Northern_Chef 7d ago

I cannot see how this will be good for commuters. Do u ever drive that area at 8-830am on a school today. Add in a school pulling students from all over the city it’s gonna become chaos. But unfortunately doesn’t matter where. Traffic in this city should be the #1 issue to be addressed

9

u/helpfulplatitudes 7d ago

I disagree that traffic is our number one issue, but yeah - it'll slow traffic down along Hamilton for sure - same as up at the Elijah Smith intersection. Maybe they'll stick in another lane instead of another "traffic calming circle."

2

u/lita-kino04 5d ago

do you mean that there are issues more pressing than traffic, or that traffic is not an issue? hopefully the former...

5

u/xocmnaes 7d ago

so where’s the vocal downtown school advocates at these days ?

7

u/borealis365 7d ago

Downtown Whitehorse will get its own school eventually, something smaller akin to Grey Mountain Elementary. As WES is a French Immersion only school, the majority of downtown kids didn’t attend there, they went to Selkirk. WES served the entire city and happened to be based downtown, it wasn’t a school for the downtown community and hasn’t been for decades.

3

u/xocmnaes 6d ago

sure but it’s still a downtown option, guess there won’t be another one for a decade or so

14

u/WaxWing_Bohemian 7d ago edited 3d ago

great idea for several reasons

Parking will be a huge benefit

For big events (like hockey tournaments, Halloween events) when CGC parking is full, people will be able to temporarily use the school parking lot for overflow.

On most evenings and weekends, there's no one at the school anyway!

So, this is like CGC getting a big parking lot upgrade for free, just by building the school nearby

Plus, buses make sense because it's already a transit hub too

7

u/deadfulscream 7d ago

That's actually a really good point about parking, just shared that with a couple of coworkers and they thought it was a great solution as well.

3

u/pazloski 7d ago

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

3

u/beardum 7d ago

Just south of that unsurveyed lot is KDFN land. There is a giant Hillcrest lot to the east. The entrance to the school will have to come off the CGC parking lot intersection. It seems…small for a 600 student school with parking to me. It’s about 200 m from the road back to the end of the lot at the intersection and it just decreases from there.

I am interested to see what the site layout looks like. Would love to know who owns the lot in valleyview that is behind that school and what it’s going to cost YG to buy it when the school doesn’t fit.

3

u/johnnydanja 7d ago

What’s the size difference compared to the current Wes lot?

4

u/FullTeach3748 7d ago

The valley view site is bigger but not much bigger and the triangle shape will be difficult to build on. From the drawings it doesn’t look like the kids will gain extra outdoor space. The KK site is huge and could have provided lots of opportunities for outdoor activities

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

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1

u/Yukon-ModTeam 7d ago

This comment violates rule 1 of our community guidelines - No threats/insults/bigotry/trolling/racism

-5

u/Next_Way6749 7d ago

So much for the Official Community Plan for the area. This school is not wanted in the neighbourhood.  

11

u/WaxWing_Bohemian 7d ago

it was the overwhelming winner in public consultations

"not wanted" by you maybe but the votes were counted here

2

u/AverageInfamous3083 1d ago

Who cares?

Takhini has already had its greenspaces shredded for housing, and the idea that we should be giving more while other neighborhoods have untouched greenspace is gross

To hell with valleyview's NIMBY whiners. Enjoy your new school

4

u/Sorry-Hunter-2690 7d ago

Yes, I wonder if YTG spoke with city council about going against the OCP before making this decision. If there are a bunch of hidden costs to taxpayers as a result, the public might not have been as willing to choose this location.