How is that possible that they have not allotted a single place to plant trees? It's literally all asphalt. Even the fucking sidewalk is asphalt instead of cement. Fucking awful!! I think this wins for absolute worst urban realm design of anything on here. Worse than a power centre even.

That's nothing!

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02876...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02875...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02875...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02875...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Is that the front of backs of the houses?

Is this really that bad? The houses themselves shame most suburbia elsewhere in Canada, it just needs a little time to mature.

Most of our beloved old neighbourhoods looked like the one above at some point, they have time on their side is all. Come back to this subdivision in a few decades after the trees and have been planted and matured, so and so does a renovation, landscaping, whatever, they'll all end up with little quirks over time.

Obviously the biggest difference is there would be less amenities within walking distance but even still that subdivision is double sidewalked, looks like they're building some kind of tree lined neighbourhood path, it ain't that bad IMO.

The front.

I think they're all fourplexes. Here's the other side:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02918...2!8i6656?dcr=0

This one tried to hide it's fugly face:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02917...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Mansardlandia:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02905...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Jesus.

http://i65.tinypic.com/bgdze8.gif

Hmm.. Out of those, I think the Mirabel ones are the worst. No density whatsoever, just ugly houses arranged haphazardly.. Not to mention the loss of agricultural land...

At least the ones in Chambly are all approximately aligned, and are somewhat close together. Also no big garage doors.

That stretch of Taschereau in Longueuil is bad, but at the same time it's also ripe for redevelopment. It's old enough and low density enough to demolish and start over.

Density isn't always good. That Chambly one is how not to do density. Soul sucking automaton land!

Cornell is one of the very few subdivisions that will age well IMO. Laneways were built for cars, the streets are in a grid pattern, you won't find a single driveway on any house front. And people are in walking distance to transit, shopping and dining. Come back in a few decades and this will feel more like a mature downtown neighborhood then the vast majority of tract housing we are used to seeing. Remove the garage from the front of a house and a suburb all of a sudden doesn't seem so bad.

[IMG]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2646/...46075bed_o.jpgCornell 5 by Sean_Marshall, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2671/...5a8d1cfb_o.jpgCornell 1 by Sean_Marshall, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5300/...16a4346c_b.jpgSnowmagedden 2011 by aaronjreid, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7212/...045234c4_b.jpgVic-shtick by Loozrboy, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459/...b305abed_b.jpgBeautiful morning after the snow storm by Rodo - Photos, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/440/2...dbdd772b_b.jpgMarkham Cornell Neighbourhood | Quartier Cornell, Markham by MMA | MHO, on Flickr[/IMG]

You'll even find some Coach Houses in the laneways the homeowners can rent out.

[IMG]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2546/...164178dd_b.jpgCornell 7 by Sean_Marshall, on Flickr[/IMG]

I was in Drumheller last week, and didn't even realise there was a mall there. It doesn't look like I missed much.

Pine Bud Avenue was part of the Churchill Park "garden suburb" built in the early 50s. If it's gone downhill that's unfortunate.

Maybe the word "upscale" was not he best description; to say "nicer" areas of the city (which also happen to have higher property values) would have been more accurate. Anyway, the perception of trees as a negative is objectively wrong; the "nicest" areas of any city are the ones with more trees and landscaping. Any of the new areas that you would consider "upscale" today, will also have more mature landscaping as it ages.

I do know of people who have cut down trees to maintain a view, give more space, etc., but this attitude is mostly not present in modern Western culture. Vancouver had to instigate laws to try and prevent this, and cutting mature trees on your own property without a valid reason comes with a high fine.

The real soul sucking aspects of cities in general can be attributed to a number of things, including repetition; miles and miles of relentless suburbs. Newfoundland is still small enough and has enough nature nearby any of these places to mitigate and provide a respite from it, although this is barely a valid excuse. What I do find terrible are the commercial areas with all life centered around over designed roadways and parking lots. I believe this may change however with the further development of autonomous automobiles.

It is nicer, yes, depending on your preferences. But I just can't deal with it.

So this is as shitty as Churchill Park gets:

http://i63.tinypic.com/1z16zkk.png

And this is as shitty as my neighbourhood, the adjacent Rabbittown gets:

http://i67.tinypic.com/97itrc.png

Objectively, I know the Churchill Park one is "nicer". But for my preferences... the Churchill Park one is unacceptable. For me, those houses might as well be tents in the woods. They're so far set back, it's all so green, it's just... rural to me. You could live there 20 years and never know your neighbour.

Whereas in Rabbitown - it doesn't matter how bad it gets, even if the little front lawns are paved parking spots like on this particular stretch, it feels like a city should do. Everyone living in their neighbour's lap. My neighbours have overheard conversations I wouldn't have in front of my parents. I get woken up by the sound of the hot blonde girl's latest hookup puking the morning after. The waitor from Montreal two houses up plays his guitar on the front step and the Sudanese kids play football in the street. These little daily human things never happen in Churchill Park. I've lived there. People might wave on the short walk from their car to their house, but they don't LIVE in the street like they do in Rabbittown.

So that Churchill Park one, for all its green and trees... fuck it. It's meaningless to me. If anything, it suggests to me there is no neighbourhood life there and it's just some isolated existence with no daily human contact beyond whoever is actually INSIDE your house. And I mean, if that's what I wanted, I wouldn't even be emotionally dependent on St. John's. I could be happy in Bedford or Linden Woods or wherever else if that was enough.

But, those opinions are so subjective, I don't defend suburbs by any means, but then Rabbittown isn't the ultimate answer to urban living either or it would exist everywhere. There are so many problems with parking for example, in a city with no alternative to driving, it doesn't work either (maybe crime, fire risk, infrastructure, and noise too?). Most people there will move away as soon as they can afford it. I know people who grew up there. There are nicer older areas in the city, and they actually have a tree here and there, it makes a nicer balance. If anti-gentrification is the great urban solution, then we would all live happily in run down neighborhoods.

Yeah, agreed. :D I know most people would have less of their soul sucked out in Churchill Park but to me... if you're going to live there, why not Clarenville? Or Lower Sackville? Or Mississauga? Or Chilliwack? You're out where there's no sense of place, where your nuclear family unit is almost all of your non-work human interaction... you would be no worse off on the moon, really. Maybe that's why some people can so easily move away and be fine with it.

@SignalHill. Oh you'd know your neighbours on either side. You'd hear every drunken argument they ever have.

I think it's common in suburbs to know your neighbours, at least to some degree. Apartment buildings and condos are actually less sociable, and it's largely because of transience (upward mobility issues?). We have a lot of unresolved social problems in our cities. Maybe hearing and meddling in your neighbour's problems is one solution. But, at the end of the day I like having a tree to look at.

Hey that looks like the Shoppers near my house...or do they all look the same?:cheers::cheers:

My wife lived in that building when she was at Queen's. I didn't know her then. The first time we went to Kingston together I saw that building and said 'wow, what an ugly building. The architect must have got paid very little', not knowing she had lived there.:haha::haha::haha:

Cobourg has a campground mainly for RV vehicles here:

https://goo.gl/maps/gd2ApPWDH1s

in a much nicer setting although the sites right up against the boardwalk near the beach don't get much privacy