What's missing from your city?

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by isaidso

We're likely the only species that have a large number who are extremely low functioning. Natural selection would normally have killed off these people long ago; the modern world keeps them safe. By saving these people from themselves we're actually making our species dumber and less resilient over time.

I see where you're coming from but I actually don't believe that that's true. Evolution tends to work over extremely long time frames, such a tens of thousands or millions of years (at least for larger animals with slower reproductive cycles) and modern society has been around for a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. So modern society can still be significantly affecting evolutionary dynamics without us seeing or feeling any of the effects for quite some time.

That being said, I don't believe modern society actually is protecting the stupid. If anything it's giving the bright a much more pronounced advantage than ever before since for much of human history our survival was far more dependant on physical strength and stamina than it is now. Everyone needed to be involved in basics such as food procurement and defense and there was no opportunity to excel through specialized roles that we have today. The fact that these "low functioning" people's genes even made it to our modern era despite the harshness of pre-modern conditions rather than making them too stupid to avoid being eaten means high intelligence must not have been pre-requisite. Yet we now do see a marked difference in lifespans and mortality rates between people in different professions, in different subcultures, with different education/income levels, etc. especially on a global scale and there can be correlations between those things and intelligence. Large numbers of people still die pre-maturely through things such as accidents, crime/conflict, and lifestyle choices.

If you crunch the numbers using exponential growth/decay formula, if there are 100 people with a certain trait that makes them 1/100 less likely to pass on their genes, that trait would die out in about 458 generations which would look like (1>100(1-.01)^x). If we assume the average generation is about 25 years, that would take the trait about 11,450 years to die out. That's pretty quick in evolutionary terms, but still not something we could expect to observe during our lifetimes. So I suspect that even with modern laws and protections, many traits will die out at breakneck speeds due to the rapid evolutionary pressure civilization will exert, but we're still talking in terms of thousand of years.

[DizzyEdge]

For Calgary no pro baseball or basketball teams is probably the main one. It's a little light in the museum/gallery department, the Glenbow Museum covering both although the old planetarium is apparently going to be repurposed as a modern art gallery.

No Chinese/Japanese garden, but we do(did?) have the indoor Devonian gardens. I say it that way because they spent $70 million to turn it from this:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/arnaud...n/photostream/

to this


https://jrstudio.ca

[TorontoDrew]

I always thought Toronto should have a big statue of Superman Cleavland has one and Toronto is technically the birth place of that most iconic super hero. Joe Shuster created the character concept and did all the art, Jerry Siegal wrote the stories. Without Shuster original idea though the stories would have never been written. A massive statue down near the water and the Toronto Star (birth place of Superman) would be great for tourists and fanboys/gals alike. All we have right now is a little street in Parkdale/Liberty with Joe's name on it.

[isaidso]

^^ Canadians are very bad at recognizing their own inventions, accomplishments, and contributions to the modern world. Superman might not be high brow culture but it's relevant nonetheless. A statue of Superman commemorating Shuster's creation in front of the newspaper that inspired The Daily Planet in the city that inspired Superman's Metropolis would be a revelation not just to tourists but to most Canadians.

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I see where you're coming from but I actually don't believe that that's true. Evolution tends to work over extremely long time frames, such a tens of thousands or millions of years (at least for larger animals with slower reproductive cycles) and modern society has been around for a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. So modern society can still be significantly affecting evolutionary dynamics without us seeing or feeling any of the effects for quite some time.

That being said, I don't believe modern society actually is protecting the stupid. If anything it's giving the bright a much more pronounced advantage than ever before since for much of human history our survival was far more dependant on physical strength and stamina than it is now. Everyone needed to be involved in basics such as food procurement and defense and there was no opportunity to excel through specialized roles that we have today. The fact that these "low functioning" people's genes even made it to our modern era despite the harshness of pre-modern conditions rather than making them too stupid to avoid being eaten means high intelligence must not have been pre-requisite. Yet we now do see a marked difference in lifespans and mortality rates between people in different professions, in different subcultures, with different education/income levels, etc. especially on a global scale and there can be correlations between those things and intelligence. Large numbers of people still die pre-maturely through things such as accidents, crime/conflict, and lifestyle choices.

If you crunch the numbers using exponential growth/decay formula, if there are 100 people with a certain trait that makes them 1/100 less likely to pass on their genes, that trait would die out in about 458 generations which would look like (1>100(1-.01)^x). If we assume the average generation is about 25 years, that would take the trait about 11,450 years to die out. That's pretty quick in evolutionary terms, but still not something we could expect to observe during our lifetimes. So I suspect that even with modern laws and protections, many traits will die out at breakneck speeds due to the rapid evolutionary pressure civilization will exert, but we're still talking in terms of thousand of years.

That's very true except I wouldn't classify this as evolution. Stupid humans are surviving when left to their own devices they'd have a high mortality rate. That's an immediate change that means we have a higher proportion of our species in the 'stupid' category than you'd see in the wild.

Mix reproduction into the equation and things speed up considerably. Due to having more stupid people we have a far higher incidence of stupid people pairing with one another and producing genetically stupid offspring. This process might happen in as little as 15-20 years when people start having babies. Do it over and over again and you have stupidity bred into the species. Look what we've done with dogs in just 100 years.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by isaidso

That's very true except I wouldn't classify this as evolution. Stupid humans are surviving when left to their own devices they'd have a high mortality rate. That's an immediate change that means we have a higher proportion of our species in the 'stupid' category than you'd see in the wild.

Mix reproduction into the equation and things speed up considerably. Due to having more stupid people we have a far higher incidence of stupid people pairing with one another and producing genetically stupid offspring. This process might happen in as little as 15-20 years when people start having babies. Do it over and over again and you have stupidity bred into the species. Look what we've done with dogs in just 100 years.

If you wouldn't classify it as evolution, then I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

Although i will point out that humans have always been social animals that work together to ensure the survival of a community, so that's not new. Although if you're talking about people who are mentally disabled then that may be true. Hard to say.

Reminds me of the eugenics movement that was all the rage in the late 19th and early-mid 20th century. There were many prominent doctors, scientists, and other people of influence who advocated for the forced sterilization of those considered genetically inferior to protect the genetic quality of the species.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Municipal control of Wascana Park. Sigh.

[Acajack]

The idea of the Superman statue in Toronto got me thinking that Ottawa could do with more streets and other stuff named for places across Canada and perhaps even prominent Canadians. The latter might be a bit touchier given the current socio-political climate, but in terms of naming stuff for Canada's provinces, cities, regions, physical features, and heritage in general, there are a lot of names that could be used instead of the totally banal toponyms that often show up there like Sangria, Daybreak and Havenlea...

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

If you wouldn't classify it as evolution, then I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

Although i will point out that humans have always been social animals that work together to ensure the survival of a community, so that's not new. Although if you're talking about people who are mentally disabled then that may be true. Hard to say.

Reminds me of the eugenics movement that was all the rage in the late 19th and early-mid 20th century. There were many prominent doctors, scientists, and other people of influence who advocated for the forced sterilization of those considered genetically inferior to protect the genetic quality of the species.

Forced sterilization is a non-starter. The disabled would be an example but my post was more in response to the number of humans that lack basic good judgement. Stepping out of your car with your 6 year old to get up close with a lion suggests that there's something more going on. You don't see rabbits hanging out with packs of wolves. Those that did get eaten along with their offspring.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The idea of the Superman statue in Toronto got me thinking that Ottawa could do with more streets and other stuff named for places across Canada and perhaps even prominent Canadians. The latter might be a bit touchier given the current socio-political climate, but in terms of naming stuff for Canada's provinces, cities, regions, physical features, and heritage in general, there are a lot of names that could be used instead of the totally banal toponyms that often show up there like Sangria, Daybreak and Havenlea...

Developers need to have the power of toponymy ripped away from the hands of their marketing divisions.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Developers need to have the power of toponymy ripped away from the hands of their marketing divisions.

I am fond of bitching about streets named for developers' families like Rue Stéphane, Rue Josée, Rue Berthe, etc.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ru...!4d-75.6875574

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ru...6!4d-73.721772

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Je...!4d-73.8862709

These are now illegal in Quebec.

[esquire]

^ Those are asinine. You see them occasionally in the bedroom community rural municipalities surrounding Winnipeg. I would rather eat my own turds than sign for a $500,000 mortgage to buy a house on "Jayden Way" or some such.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Those are asinine. You see them occasionally in the bedroom community rural municipalities surrounding Winnipeg. I would rather eat my own turds than sign for a $500,000 mortgage to buy a house on "Jayden Way" or some such.

I can totally live with the comments about the "overbearing bureaucracy in Quebec City that approves all street names in cities and towns all over the province".

[someone123]

Not sure where to put this but I thought this article about an emerging Chinatown type neighbourhood in Halifax was interesting: https://globalnews.ca/news/4137211/a...natown-emerge/

(Although it is annoying how articles about Halifax almost always go on tangents using Atlantic Canada wide demographics.)

For those familiar with the city they are talking about Barrington and Inglis, Victoria Road, and Queen Street. It's a small area of a few blocks in the South End that is squarely part of the inner city but not downtown. It's also kind of down at the heels and had no particular focus. It would be more interesting as a Chinese-oriented neighbourhood than as an oddly run down pocket in the old South End (undesirable I guess because it's wedged up against some industrial areas).

Halifax is just at the point where it is getting significant differentiation in the inner city beyond just relatively poor/rich areas and downtown. On the north side, Gottingen has a gay village feel and Gottingen-Agricola in general are hipstery, not just poor. Gottingen reminds me a lot of Commercial Drive now. North End Halifax is a lot like East Vancouver now, but it didn't really feel like that around 2000.

[SaskScraper]

^^ interesting how 'Chinatown' formation in Canada started almost exclusively in country's largest cities & throughout Western Canada early in the last century but it didn't quite make it to Eastern Canada ...until only quite recently.

Saskatchewan has half a dozen communities with Chinatowns of varies sizes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Canada

and more zoo news...

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

With ~1,200 animals including ~300 species, Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg probably is in top Canadian Zoo tier too ranking closely in size, i'd imagine, to the 1,800 animals including 200 species Granby Zoo in Quebec.

Greater Vancouver Zoo's 600 animals in 135 species, Edmonton Valley Zoo 350 animals in 100 species, Saskatoon Forestry Farm Zoo +300 animals in 80 species would represent the next tier for Canada, for Western Canadian Zoos at least...

Saskatoon's Forestry Farm Zoo is expanding and will soon offer the largest bear habitat for a city zoological facility anywhere in the world.

With the park almost doubling in size, Zoo Manager Tim Sinclair-Smith envisions a safari-style habitat where visitors can drive through different animal exhibits. Rather than just putting animals on display, Sinclair-Smith wants the park to transition into more of a “sanctuary-type of environment.”


https://www.ckom.com/2018/11/29/sask...-in-new-plans/

[someone123]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

^^ interesting how 'Chinatown' formation in Canada started almost exclusively in country's largest cities & throughout Western Canada early in the last century but it didn't quite make it to Eastern Canada ...until only quite recently.

All else being equal they were definitely more common in the west. There are also wildly different standards though. People in Halifax say they have no Chinatown because there's nowhere that looks like Spadina and Dundas but the Chinese community there is still much larger than many places in Western Canada that have or had historic Chinatowns, and Halifax has probably had Chinese-oriented businesses for 100 years or more. The new places opening up in Halifax also remind me more of modern Vancouver businesses that cater to recent Chinese immigrants and students.

Either way it's not a competition. It's nice that more neighbourhoods outside of downtown Halifax are filling in with businesses. I feel like that was a big thing the city was lacking. The businesses are also becoming more cosmopolitan, and the "intensity" of commercial development feels more and more like a larger city (multiple storeys of storefront type shops, more stores in small spaces). In the bad old days around 2000, parts of downtown Halifax had almost a small town feel (mom and pop store on the main commercial street, nothing interesting a block away), but that has all but disappeared.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by someone123

Not sure where to put this but I thought this article about an emerging Chinatown type neighbourhood in Halifax was interesting: https://globalnews.ca/news/4137211/a...natown-emerge/

(Although it is annoying how articles about Halifax almost always go on tangents using Atlantic Canada wide demographics.)

For those familiar with the city they are talking about Barrington and Inglis, Victoria Road, and Queen Street. It's a small area of a few blocks in the South End that is squarely part of the inner city but not downtown. It's also kind of down at the heels and had no particular focus. It would be more interesting as a Chinese-oriented neighbourhood than as an oddly run down pocket in the old South End (undesirable I guess because it's wedged up against some industrial areas).

Halifax is just at the point where it is getting significant differentiation in the inner city beyond just relatively poor/rich areas and downtown. On the north side, Gottingen has a gay village feel and Gottingen-Agricola in general are hipstery, not just poor. Gottingen reminds me a lot of Commercial Drive now. North End Halifax is a lot like East Vancouver now, but it didn't really feel like that around 2000.

I've definitely noticed and remarked on the evolution of Halifax's de facto Chinatown over the last 5 years or so. There's been a large-ish Chinese population in this area for as long as I can remember but it was largely transient and seemed to be mostly SMU students. Recently a lot of them have started putting down roots and the area between Spring Garden and Inglis Street has a lot of businesses catering to Mandarin (?) speakers and a lot of contemporary Chinese restaurants (ie. not the classic mom-and-pop "Dragon Garden" or whatever but presumably the type of stuff that is popular in Chinese cities in 2018).

A few examples:

Spring Garden
Spring Garden
Queen Street (Check behind as well)
Barrington near Inglis (check behind as well)
Barrington near Inglis

The article mentions "at least a half-dozen" Asian groceries in the city but that is probably just in the South End alone. The North End skews more Black/Native/Mediterranean/Korean and as you mentioned is still a major cultural hub for the LGBT community, although these groups feel more less concentrated in the North End than the Chinese community does in the South End. The main N-S commercial streets in the North End (Windsor, Robie, Agricola, Gottingen) get less mainstream as you move East towards the water, with Agricola being a solidly hipster kind of street and Gottingen being more countercultural than that, for lack of a better word.

The West End (other than Quinpool) doesn't really have a unifying identity and along with the Mainland North areas and Bedford has sort of Degrassi, some-of-everything demographics. The region has a large Middle Eastern population for example and the community tends to be dispersed across this larger western region. The Eastern side of the Harbour (Dartmouth + Cole Harbour) and most exurbs seem to be mostly White-Anglo with smaller Black populations, and less diverse outside of that. Anecdotally I've noticed more and more French being spoken in public over the last few years and actually the department I work in (private sector) is fully bilingual, but there doesn't seem to be a part of town that's particularly "French".

[someone123]

The Chinese Christian Church has been there for a long time. As you point out that "Zen Q - Wow so Q" place is a good example of the new businesses. There was nothing like that in the city 15 years ago.

Areas like Cole Harbour and Sackville are the more classic "Atlantic" parts of the city where you will find more people who moved from Cape Breton and Newfoundland, etc. and hear more regional accents, which I guess is kind of interesting although those places are very suburban and bland.

I'm not sure the French-speaking community in the Halifax area has any particular focus other than the schools (e.g. Beaubassin makes Bedford more attractive than other similar suburbs if you want to send your kid to a francophone school). It is very similar to the wider population. I would guess that 30% of the population in the metro area has a lot of French ancestry but got anglicized (based on last names mostly). The French-only speakers in rural NS are probably mostly gone now.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'm not sure the French-speaking community in the Halifax area has any particular focus other than the schools (e.g. Beaubassin makes Bedford more attractive than other similar suburbs if you want to send your kid to a francophone school). It is very similar to the wider population. I would guess that 30% of the population in the metro area has a lot of French ancestry but got anglicized (based on last names mostly). The French-only speakers in rural NS are probably mostly gone now.

There are still Acadian townships like Clare and Isle Madame but almost everyone from those places also speaks English and their dialect is considered hard to follow by other Franco-Canadians. Most of the true Francophones (in the sense of not speaking much English) in the area are French-speaking immigrants or students, or are from Quebec or New Brunswick.

[SignalHillHiker]

I don't believe St. John's will ever get an ethnic neighbourhood.

There are pockets where certain things are more likely... i.e. it's common to see a black person on Merrymeeting Road in Rabbittown (my neighbourhood), and a lot of the Muslim community lives in Virginia Park neighbourhood, a lot of the Indians in the East End.

But it's still an uncommon thing.

But it is changing...

The world on a corner

A St. John's barbershop in an old, working-class neighbourhood is a face of how St. John's is changing

The map wouldn’t look out of place in a barbershop in Toronto.

It’s full of pins, each marking the homeland of one of this shop’s customers: Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Mauritius … the list, and the pins, go on and on.

This barbershop with a global clientele isn’t located in Toronto or Montreal, or a large city known for huge immigrant communities.

It’s in St. John’s, in Rabbitown, a working-class neighbourhood with a diverse and rapidly changing population — so diverse, in fact, it might surprise a lot of people who’ve lived in St. John’s all their lives.

All those pins might surprise them, too.

...

St. John’s has a population that is historically largely tied to Britain and Ireland. Canada’s youngest province historically doesn’t attract many newcomers to the country. According to data from Statistics Canada, only 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent of the immigrants who come to Canada each year settle here.

But while there have been some shifts that are small compared to the volume of immigrants who settle in places like Toronto and Vancouver, they are significant in a province with a population of just 528,000.

Temporary workers from countries including the Philippines and Jamaica have arrived to fill gaps, particularly in service sectors like fast food and nursing.

International student applications and admissions have increased in recent years for Memorial University. And the province’s only mosque has a growing membership that no longer fits comfortably into its building.

That means that people from places like Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, both in Rabbittown and throughout the St. John’s area, didn’t have a barbershop to meet their needs, said Valoyes.

The small shop, located on Mayor Avenue, now has a staff of four: Valoyes, who moved from Colombia to Canada in 2003; Antei-Adjei, originally from Ghana; Ricardo Onegas, also from Colombia; and Joana Smits, originally from Angola.

...

Even in his short time in St. John’s, Onegas has noticed Rabbittown become increasingly diverse.

Initially their clientele were largely from Colombia and a few African countries, he said, but now there are more from other places: the Philippines, South Africa, the U.S.

"They come here to study or they come here to live,” Onegas said. “It’s really changed a lot.”

The shop has become something of a gathering place for that growing international community, and people sometimes stop by even if they aren’t looking for a haircut.

A television in the shop often plays soccer or basketball games — Antei-Adjei said that the IIHF World U20 Championship is the only hockey they really watch there. On the speakers, you’ll hear music from around the world. An Xbox console is hooked up, for those who want to play video games.

...

“The people are more friendly,” Smits said. “They are friendly, you know? They make me feel home.”

There are also business advantages that come with being a small salon in a small city.

On that map with all the pins are quite a few from the Goulds, a largely rural area in the south of St. John’s … not exactly walking distance.

Valoyes said they’re the result of a new customer who passed by the shop, popped in, and was happy with the result.

“One guy came here, I guess he was driving by, he come from the car, and he liked it,” Valoyes said. “He went there and then his friends start coming out here and now we have the Goulds, a big clientele from the Goulds.”

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/long...r-shop-stjohns

[lio45]

"Why would they go there of all places?"

(actually, it could be a half-serious question...)