The Ugly Canada Thread

[north 42]

In Windsor, the west end is one of the worst areas of the city, and is always made fun of. Really too bad, because it's one of the oldest and historic parts of the city. Their motto is " the west end is the best end ", but everyone knows that is the furthest from the truth.

[advance62]

These student warehouses (ALL 5 BEDROOM UNITS) are going up everywhere in Waterloo near the two universities. These new student buildings make a skyline multiple times larger and more dense than downtown Waterloo. 95% of them have very poor interaction with the street and 90% are made with junk materials. Also many are near downtown and many are on or near the most prominent arterial road, King st.

Sorry, but I just hate them so much... there are so many already and so many more to come











I couldn't find many more pictures but there are WAY more of these monsters.


This one is old but still disgusting

[north 42]

These student developments are horrible, 5 bedrooms is too much, and who would want to live next to one of these towers? Not me, too many out of control kids.

[SignalHillHiker]

Those student buildings are pretty bad, yes.

I realized I missed the most obvious one for St. John's RE: the neighbourhood everyone makes fun of.

As soon as someone mentioned Transcona for Winnipeg, I thought, "Oh, THAT'S right! It is Transcona. Which means ours is Shea Heights".

Shea Heights is an interesting neighbourhood of St. John's.

It's high atop the Southside Hills opposite from downtown and has, by far, the best views in the city. But has traditionally been a slum/libertarian utopia - far removed from most government services and intrusions.

Still today it looks like most of the houses are fixed-up shacks and most of the streets are just paved walking trails. There are lots of new homes going up to take advantage of the view (and they're starting to dominate the area, actually) - but, like the rural prairies, you can still find homes with cars in the yards, junk outside their garages, etc. It doesn't have the same pristine, prideful appearance as most of St. John's. It's far dirtier, for example, than any of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city proper.

It has a reputation for being unwelcoming to outsiders, backwards in political thought and fashion/style, rowdy, home to criminals and delinquents, etc.

It's also, despite its proximity to downtown, completely separated from it. There's the harbour, the industrial port, and the Waterford River between it and Water Street.

EDIT: It's easy to find thousands of pictures of the view of St. John's FROM Shea Heights, but very hard to find any pictures OF Shea Heights. Here's a view of the newer parts of it from somewhere in the west end of St. John's:


Untitled by ncbeets, on Flickr

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by north 42

These student developments are horrible, 5 bedrooms is too much, and who would want to live next to one of these towers? Not me, too many out of control kids.

Not a problem as most of the families in the area seem to have moved out. Althought there are plans to encourage a more liveable area, the rush by developers to crank out these 5 bedroom highrises and other cheap student apartments (almost none of them with any non-residential component) has left a large swath of Waterloo as perhaps one of Canada's ugliest neighbourhoods, imho. The contrast with the expanding and much improved "Uptown" area just a few blocks south is startling.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by advance62

These student warehouses (ALL 5 BEDROOM UNITS) are going up everywhere in Waterloo near the two universities. These new student buildings make a skyline multiple times larger and more dense than downtown Waterloo. 95% of them have very poor interaction with the street and 90% are made with junk materials. Also many are near downtown and many are on or near the most prominent arterial road, King st.

Sorry, but I just hate them so much... there are so many already and so many more to come











I couldn't find many more pictures but there are WAY more of these monsters.


This one is old but still disgusting

Wow. What is KW trying to do? Become the Longueuil of Ontario?

[Xelebes]

Hm, 5 bedroom units. You don't see many of those here. Those are mostly single-detached houses right on the outskirts. I miss the seven bedroom house we had in Hepburn, SK.

[Architype]

^ Mismatching and inapropriate overuse of colours still doesn't solve a multitude of inadequacies.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Shea Heights is an interesting neighbourhood of St. John's.

You mean it's an interesting location overlooking the city. There is nothing even remotely interesting actually in Shea Heights, even the nicer houses are painfully boring. It would have been better if it had never existied at all. The rest is exactly as you have described it, but it's location has so much potential that someone shoud really do something there.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Wow. What is KW trying to do? Become the Longueuil of Ontario?

Not K. This is a W mess.

[The_Architect]

They're absolutely awful. Glad I'm far away from that area.

[O-tacular]

I agree with MolsonExport, KW is becoming the Longueuil of Ontario.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I agree with MolsonExport, KW is becoming the Longueuil of Ontario.

Soon they will be saving lots of money on haircuts!

[suburbanite]

It's bad, but the fact is it's the only way too accommodate the sheer number of students living in such a small area. They could be made of nicer materials, but what can you expect when people want to pay <$600 month on rent.

The one thing I don't get is the obsession with putting "battlements" on top of many of these buildings. It looks like some monstrous mismatched castle.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

It's bad, but the fact is it's the only way too accommodate the sheer number of students living in such a small area. They could be made of nicer materials, but what can you expect when people want to pay <$600 month on rent.

The one thing I don't get is the obsession with putting "battlements" on top of many of these buildings. It looks like some monstrous mismatched castle.

Word of the day is: merlons.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I agree with MolsonExport, KW is becoming the Longueuil of Ontario.

Again, the blight of ugly five bedroom student apartments is a Waterloo issue, specifically in the University/King/Columbia/Albert area north of Uptown and next to the universities. Kitchener's ugly is all its own.

Assuming $600 per month per bedroom, these units will generate $3,000 per month for the investors. That doesn't justify it, but it does explain why it has happened. Why the City of Waterloo has ALLOWED it to happen is another story......

[MolsonExport]

London Ontario has extraordinarily ugly student housing.

Behold the student barns of London, Ontario (warning: NSFW):

c/o P^2-Paul, towers-of-spite flikr

They cannot be unseen.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

London Ontario has extraordinarily ugly student housing.

Behold the student barns of London, Ontario (warning: NSFW):

c/o P^2-Paul, towers-of-spite flikr

They cannot be unseen.

That photo doesn't do them justice. The fugliness of the Towers of Spite is best experienced up close. They're like missile silos.

There was supposed to be a fourth one built, but I think City Council put a stop to it.

[vid]

What the hell?

[O-tacular]

Wow. That looks like it belongs at a campground or something. Looks like an outhouse. I think these honestly take the cake for the entire thread.