The Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship Church portal was removed incorrectly as the location still exists and I am not aware of any requests by the church membership to have it removed. This portal was one of the portals i had over 100 keys for.
Hey, does this church also have a K-12 school or kindergarten on the same premises? That’s an often not understood criterion that can make churches ineligible and removable.
The church rents the basement space to a Chinese Language school on occasion. It is not K-12 or kindergarten. This may have been the pretext to get the portal invalidated. They do not lease the space, they rent it per use like many other groups that rent the space.
I agree it’s a valid portal.
This does happen with churches who want to reduce traffic around them. Another church in Royalwood had the same issue; we eventually got it back.
My thought, having recently visited this portal, the access is very peculiar. There is a side street or back lane that you drive through to access the church parking lot.
I could see the church or local residents complaining about increased vehicle traffic.
Just saying.
The amount of Ingress and pogo traffic wont really decrease with there being a portal at the park play structure 60m away. This parking lot is also used for bombers games, and when the place is rented for funerals, weddings and events. Ingress and pogo traffic would be insignificant in comparison. The residents do complain about the regular church traffic use of the back lane, so we have advised the church membership to access the lot via the street and not the lane.
Alternative possibility that the church doesn’t want parishioners to play pogo during service. I’m not particularly into either but the thought occurs.
Is the park portal accessible from the pews?
Hello and welcome @spyderwire ,
It is possible that the church asked for the Wayspot to be removed, and they are allowed to do this. It may now be geoblocked, meaning the area has been set by Niantic, after hearing from the property owner/management, to not allow any further Wayspots in the area in the further. You may not be speaking to the right people at this church, or even the community, who are authorized to make such requests.
This is not uncommon for churches. A Catholic church where I live had several Wayspots, and I think they were getting tired of players just driving into their parking lot and playing at all hours of the day. They did request to have all the Wayspots here removed and a geoblock put in place.
Also, I grew up not far from a very small, rural Mennonite community, and they do tend to keep to themselves.
Actually, looking at the school, it is for those 18 and under mainly. They even list grade levels on their website:
https://manitobachinesestudies.com/cources/
Yes, adult classes are offered, but it’s mainly for those 18 and under @spyderwire.
While the school at this church isn’t K-12, even if there were one, that wouldn’t make the church itself ineligible & removable, but a playground for the school would definitely be removable.
In this case, it’s not even questionable though - the school is explicitly for adults as well, per their website.
If this was removed due to the school and not a property owner request, Niantic should come remove all the dance studios, music studios, and martial arts studios I’ve submitted, since they all offer adult classes in addition to classes for kids.
There are classes for children and adults but the classes are only held for a few hours on a Saturday. So it is a minor aspect in terms of time of the use of the church.
Only the Wayfarer Team can shed light on the actual reason that it has been removed.
If there is a K-12 school in the same building, it will render the church ineligible not just the playground.
I don’t believe this is accurate. While the wording on the tool tip for rejection is
- School - a K12 and under school (preschool, primary/elementary, secondary/high school) or child care/daycare center
the clarification explains that the primary focus of the building is important in determining the status
Having a school at a church does not disqualify the church. Having a church at a school does disqualify the church.
Rejection criteria trump acceptance criteria. Niantic has regularly removed churches if there were schools in the same building.
Thanks for the appeal, @spyderwire. We have taken another look but stand by our decision to retire the Wayspot.
If this was removed due to a property owner request, you should state that. Otherwise , you should clarify why it was removed and will not be restored, since surely it’s not due to a school.
@Mystogan5097 right again? Y’all see school and remove? What happened to the “primarily focused” part of the clarification?
Please explain the reason for this removal and why it was upheld so I don’t vote incorrectly or steer anyone wrong.
Moreover, what happened to the K-12 part?
was this wrong?
Yes.