Ugly Gatineau?
 

What is with all of the empty ugly parking lots all over Gatineau? It's really pathetic. Besides going to Gatineau Park there really isn't much going on there. And Tache must be the most ugly main throughway in the entire Ottawa Gatineau area. And old downtown Hull is just a series of dusty parking lots. It's weird

Those are heritage parking lots, meant to be preserved!:yes:

A former Bloc MP said, truthfully, that the Portage Complex was built to hide the ugliness of downtown Gatineau.

Well this story demonstrates everything that is wrong with Gatineau

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...useum-district

The Heritage Parking Lot District.

It's really sad how many of these parking lots exists all over Hull and Gatineau and we are talking about massive lots in some cases and abandoned commercial space all over the place. It really needs development to happen soon

Do I need a train avatar to participate?

Taché isn't the worst thoroughfare, that prize goes to Greber - Gatineau's answer to Merivale road.

A lot of those parking lots are going to disappear.. I assume you are talking about the ugly stretch behind les Terrasses?

As I stated in another thread Gatineau does NOT have a surplus of surface parking. It has very little surface parking compared to most CBD's in Canada. This is such a weird conversation. I will post google satellite images highlighting the very few surface parking lots in Gatineau's CBD if necessary but I hope to avoid the effort.

Also, referring to the first post in this thread, Tache starts as a wide boulevard between the stone buildings of the old old EB Eddy and Terraces de la Chaudiere, then after a single block it passes a lovely creek and becomes a beautiful green thoroughfare that extends through forests and pleasant neighbourhoods until St. Raymond where it becomes Chemin d'Aylmer.

I hope you are right, the differences between the Ottawa development skyline and the empty dusty ugly parking lots in Gatineau is astonishing. And no, you don't need a train avatar

Kind of weird thread. Gatineau is essentially a suburb of Ottawa. It is also poorer than Ottawa. Despite that it seems nicer and certainly has more dense future development planned than Orleans or even Kanata.

Medium term tax rates seem likely to converge in Ontario and Quebec and they could grow faster than Ottawa.

The issue is not the future, the issue is now. Come across the bridges from Gatineau to Ottawa and the skyline and development is clear for all to see.

Now do the opposite from Ottawa to Gatineau - you see a lot of run down neighborhoods, almost no towers, and an over abundance of empty parking lots and boarded up buildings all over Tache and St Joseph and streets surrounding both of those

The stretch behind les Terrasses? Ugly...

St-Joseph is arguably worse than Gréber at this point. The streetscape on Gréber has been refreshed and yes it's still suburban strip mall-style but the buildings are in better shape and are basically all occupied whereas St-Joseph has some pretty bad stretches in terms of vacant, ugly properties.

Am I missing something? Did this forum merge with Cities: Skylines or SimCity forum recently?

As you say, Taché is actually pretty nice going west all the way until you reach where the entrance to Gatineau Park is (ironically). That short stretch has a few crappy buildings (especially on the north side) but it's only maybe 500 m or so.

Then on the right side you have the castle-like Conservatoire du musique, and after that it's more "normal" looking than anything.

Then when it becomes the Aylmer road it's more of a golf course and manor-like setting.

Not really. I know people on here fetishize skyscrapers almost obsessively but the area that was desginated as "heritage" is one of the only parts of Vieux-Hull with a concentration of nice old houses.

(I actually wasn't necessarily against the tower project myself. Just pointing out the rationale for the decision.)

You're complaining about the abundance of parking in Gatineau, but that particular project would have cleared a city block that's mostly built-up. Personally, I was opposed to the project in that location because its a low scale area of mostly heritage houses. Would it have been proposed in the giant parking lot one block south-west, behind Terrace or at Guertin, I would have been supportive.

Hull is not particularly nice, with a few exceptions (Vieux Hull), but it's certainly not the worst offender in terms of surface parking. Prairie cities are far worse (though improving), as Acajack pointed out.

Many of those large surface parking lots in Hull have proposals, so they should be mostly gone within 10 years.

Otherwise, I don't think Alexandre Tâché is particularly bad. St-Joseph needs work, but has potential (and the current rebuilding effort might help). Gréber is pretty terrible with its motels, strip clubs, fast food restaurants and crappy 70s apartment buildings, though it somehow has its charms thanks to the lack of big box stores for most of its length.

Hull is a little rough, but the Pednaud-Jobin administration has been cleaning it up nicely over the last 10 years.

The Gatineau sector is classic suburbia; not much worse of better than any other suburb.

The tower really stood out and wasn't in line with the neighbourhood. That said, Gatineau blocks almost all development, and the downtown is riddled with parking lots.

If you and your friend hate parking lots so much you should pull for mid-rise developments, not skyscrapers and skylines.
This is not a video game. People won't drop from the sky to live/work in those towers. For a small city like Gatineau it's a choice between a tower surrounded by parking lots for the foreseeable future, and a mid-rise block without impressive skylines.
Glad Gatineau didn't approve those monstrosities. Best case scenario, they would've turned into boring concrete pumpkins after the next design review, extending the life of Hull parking lots for another 10+ years.