Downtown Vancouver Updates

[Valley_Refugee]

Becasue people for the most part don't care. Sidewalks in every city around the world are shit. Even your beloved Paris has tons of just awful sidewlaks. The bottom line is until it becomes dangerous the average tax payer doesnt care. I know I would rather have my money spent on something far more useful.

Also for as nice as Bloor st is here, its sidewalk was horrible for years, and it is one example of a nice sidewalk in a city that has thousands worse than Vancouver's average.

Is there any mundane issue you wont find to nit pick at?

Be thankful he didn't throw in a comment about how small and backwater Vancouver is, with our terrible airport and utter lack of flights...oh, wrong thread.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by Jebby

I'm originally from Mexico City and spend a few months out of the year there and for the most part, Mexico City has vastly superior sidewalks than Vancouver.

I appreciate that you come from there but you must be joking right? The sidewalks in Mexico city are downright dangerous. There are some new neighborhoods built for the wealthy that have new sidewalks, but in time they all fall in to disrepair.

Originally Posted by easy as pie

^ yeah, i agree, mexico city has dream sidewalks

Once again, I cant help but respond, but you must be sarcastic. I may never lived in Mexico City but I spent plenty of time there. Now having said that Mexico City is in much better shape sidewalk and road wise then other cities in Mexico or even Sao Paulo where I have also spent considerable time (as far as large wealth generating cities go in these parts) but the sidewalks are literally a death trap. Not just the shape of most of them but I have seen countless sink holes up to half a meter deep on busy central sidewalks where hundreds of people walk every hour. You could never see that here, simply not possible. Now I don't hold anything against them, the money is limited and much more unevenly distributed to do much about these things outside of the parts of the city that hold the wealth but still...

Im just really surprised I saw these comments. Vancouver sidewalks are good, and not only good but smart as they are easy to maintain. Way too many cities in the world build nice looking sidewalks with granite slabs and tiles and what not only to not have enough money to maintain them, and guess what happens then, it all shifts and falls apart and pieces get loose and kicked out. In Vancouver the sidewalks are nice concrete slabs that stay even with virtually no maintenance unless there are tree roots that lift the slab.

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

The downside is that some developers are Too F*cking Cheap to build the sidewalk properly - as shown by the sidewalk for the new London Drugs at Cambie & Broadway.

The developer used simple 12x12 concrete pavers to make their part of the sidewalk look fancy - along with nice tree plantings.

Within a year the sand base under the pavers settled, causing the pavers to become un-even and 'wobbley'. Building owners solution? Apply asphalt on top of some pavers to try and level them out, and then attach 'caution -- uneven pavement' signs to all the trees.

YUK!

HA glad to see someone else is bothered by that. what a f*ing joke that is. christ at this point pull the 12x12's and pave it over properly. reflects poorly on the developer IMO

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

.
Is there any mundane issue you wont find to nit pick at?

Excuse me, but I don't consider myself a "mundane issue nit-picker." Here I'm talking about the style, ambience, look and feeling of downtown. If you're referring to my former remark about the ugly utilitarian lamp posts here (compared, in that instance, to Houston), I'm not talking abut the entire city. I'm simply referring to the look and feel of the CBD and immediate areas, the part of Vancouver that most tourists - and visiting business people - see. My only idea was to make the CBD crisp and smart-looking, that's all. These things leave more of an impression than one might think.

[Smooth]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

The downside is that some developers are Too F*cking Cheap to build the sidewalk properly - as shown by the sidewalk for the new London Drugs at Cambie & Broadway.

The developer used simple 12x12 concrete pavers to make their part of the sidewalk look fancy - along with nice tree plantings.

Within a year the sand base under the pavers settled, causing the pavers to become un-even and 'wobbley'. Building owners solution? Apply asphalt on top of some pavers to try and level them out, and then attach 'caution -- uneven pavement' signs to all the trees.

YUK!

Funny that right next to the entrance to the London Drugs is the entrance to the City of Vancouver Engineering Department. You'd think all the city staff using that sidewalk would make life difficult on the building owner.

[Porfiry]

Originally Posted by Smooth

Funny that right next to the entrance to the London Drugs is the entrance to the City of Vancouver Engineering Department. You'd think all the city staff using that sidewalk would make life difficult on the building owner.

You'd think it'd be the retailers giving the developer hell. It reflects poorly on them and would seem to be a pretty clear deficiency.

[Metro-One]

I will chime in on the sidewalk issue.

On the grand scale of things Vancouver's sidewalks are actually very good. On average they are better than other cities I have been to in North America and on par with most cities I have been to in Europe.

The only places I have been to with noticeably superior sidewalks are Zurich and Japan.

The main problem with Vancouver's sidewalks IMO is that when ever they are torn up for utility replacements / construction they are never repaired to their original state, instead shitty asphalt slabs are put in place. The biggest example of this is Gastown.

Already on Granville Street there are sections that have been ripped up and replaced with asphalt...honestly, they just rebuilt those sidewalks a couple years ago!

Also, it would be nice to have a little more power washing....

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I will chime in on the sidewalk issue.

On the grand scale of things Vancouver's sidewalks are actually very good. On average they are better than other cities I have been to in North America and on par with most cities I have been to in Europe.

The only places I have been to with noticeably superior sidewalks are Zurich and Japan.

The main problem with Vancouver's sidewalks IMO is that when ever they are torn up for utility replacements / construction they are never repaired to their original state, instead shitty asphalt slabs are put in place. The biggest example of this is Gastown.

Already on Granville Street there are sections that have been ripped up and replaced with asphalt...honestly, they just rebuilt those sidewalks a couple years ago!

Also, it would be nice to have a little more power washing....

I was at Kuala Lumpur last year, and right on the sidewalk just a block away from the Petronas Towers (this is the higher-end city centre) was a 2-metre wide hole, if you didn't see it you would have fallen into the sewer. There weren't any caution signs or anything, it was probably a new hole - if you weren't paying attention, you could have fallen in.

[TwoFace]

They just redid the Bute St sidewalk from W. Cordova south to Robson, and wow, if it was an Olympic event Bute St would get Gold.

[Metro-One]

The best sidewalks in Vancouver IMO is the area around the new Convention centre. There, the quality in cleanliness feels like Japan.

[Sir Conga]

Can we please rename the thread?

I was thinking something along the lines of: Sidewalk City

[TwoFace]

Looks like the Shore Club finally blow up making way for The Keg



The Bay's reconstruction is under way

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I will chime in on the sidewalk issue.

On the grand scale of things Vancouver's sidewalks are actually very good. On average they are better than other cities I have been to in North America and on par with most cities I have been to in Europe.

The only places I have been to with noticeably superior sidewalks are Zurich and Japan.

The main problem with Vancouver's sidewalks IMO is that when ever they are torn up for utility replacements / construction they are never repaired to their original state, instead shitty asphalt slabs are put in place. The biggest example of this is Gastown.

Already on Granville Street there are sections that have been ripped up and replaced with asphalt...honestly, they just rebuilt those sidewalks a couple years ago!

Also, it would be nice to have a little more power washing....

With the lack of rain in the last few weeks, you really get to see what gets spilled on the sidewalk - and is usually ignored because we know it eventually gets washed away.

Some things I just DON'T want to guess what they are!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwww

[Built Form]

This one caught me by surprise. The Central Presbyterian Church at 1155 Thurlow @ Pendrell wants to raze their church and replace it with a 207 ft mixed use 21 storey tower. The top 14 floors would be market units, next 4 fls non-market seniors housing and the first 3 flrs would contain a new church/community space with some retail.
No design or rezoning application yet. They had an open house on June 27th, here's a link to the presentation.

http://www.centralpc.ca/docs/Central-Redevelopment-Presentation.pdf

[phesto]

Originally Posted by TwoFace

They just redid the Bute St sidewalk from W. Cordova south to Robson, and wow, if it was an Olympic event Bute St would get Gold.

The sidewalk is nice indeed, and I have no issue with reducing a lane of traffic on Bute, BUT, the removal of parking in front of Urban Fare (between Cordova and Hastings on the East side of Bute) is just ridiculous because they have just replaced it with a patch of grass.

The City's objective was to make Bute the primary retail street in Coal Harbour and then they signicantly reduce street parking for the only grocery store. Dumb!

Oh well, another nail in the coffin of that urban fare...

[TwoFace]

Originally Posted by phesto

The sidewalk is nice indeed, and I have no issue with reducing a lane of traffic on Bute, BUT, the removal of parking in front of Urban Fare (between Cordova and Hastings on the East side of Bute) is just ridiculous because they have just replaced it with a patch of grass.
The City's objective was to make Bute the primary retail street in Coal Harbour and then they signicantly reduce street parking for the only grocery store. Dumb!
Oh well, another nail in the coffin of that urban fare...

Agree about taking out the meters on that block, having a wider street there only benefits the corner Bistro that seems to change hands a couple times a year, and doesn't use the sidewalk for seating anyway.

The prices at the UF have softened a bit over the last year, with a pretty good "after-work" crowd, although it would appear as the restaurant part seems to be keeping the whole thing viable.

[vannick]

Hey, does anyone know what's going in the old Van East Cinema on Commercial and 6th Ave??

[SpongeG]

its being turned into a theatre, like community theatre space - one of those developer deals with the city

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by vannick

Hey, does anyone know what's going in the old Van East Cinema on Commercial and 6th Ave??

http://www.jjb.com/Client/JJB/JJBNA%20Web%20Listing%20db.nsf/5b1d91a237abc91f852570d800775fbc/0b4b37bc4d10547d85257a240067f711/$FILE/Commercial%20Dr%202250%20DTZ%20RETAIL%20LEASE.pdf

there is a render.

residential vertical expansion and CRUs for ground floor

I'm pretty happy with the project and would love to see more like this along the drive.

[osirisboy]

a new 43 story tower proposed for 1396 Richards. theres a render of it on changingcity.ca its going beside that other 40 something story tower proposed a few months back