Urban vs Suburban - 2 styles enter, one style leaves!

[freeweed]

Bowness is, by every definition of the word, the EPITOME of "suburban". Hell, it was a commuter town not that many years ago.

If the argument is "new vs old" - then let's have at it. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with urban vs suburban.

[suburbia]

Entertaining article re: New York

8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live

Originally Posted by Article Excerpt

"I always had this perverted sense of pride because I was managing to scrape by here," said Brooklyn resident Andrew McQuade, who, after watching two subway rats gnawing on a third bloody rat carcass, finally determined that New York City was a giant sprawling cancer. "Well, f**k that. I don't need to pay $2,000 a month to share a doghouse-sized apartment with some random Craigslist dipshit to prove my worth. I want to live like a goddamn human being."

[You Need A Thneed]

Entertaining yes, but the Onion is made up.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

... the Onion is made up.

Only the untrue parts

[kw5150]

The sex and the city girls think its great. lol

[Radley77]

I get a crack out of these Avenue Magazine surveys on best neighbourhoods.

Arbour Lake scored 1. Mission scored 25. That is all you need to know.



http://www.avenuecalgary.com/articles/calgarys-best-neighbourhoods-2013

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by Radley77

I get a crack out of these Avenue Magazine surveys on best neighbourhoods.

Arbour Lake scored 1. Mission scored 25. That is all you need to know.



http://www.avenuecalgary.com/articles/calgarys-best-neighbourhoods-2013

All I need to know to throw out the whole thing is:

49 of the top 50 West of Deerfoot
1 of the top 50 East of Deerfoot.

[Radley77]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

All I need to know to throw out the whole thing is:

49 of the top 50 West of Deerfoot
1 of the top 50 East of Deerfoot.

Yup, entirely didn't get that either. It's garbage.

If I remember correctly, the results are based on public surveys and none on actual technical merit. IMO, communities that have a wide number of transportation options like public transit, walking and cycling should rank much higher. Particularly communities like McKenzie Towne and Saddletowne which I think are "suburbs done well". IMO, Mission/Cliff Bungalow IMO should be in the top 3 communities. Sometimes I wonder if they do this so badly as to troll for readership.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by 93JC

It can be done. Build a tank, add pumps, create a force main that regulates outflow. I've never seen or heard of it being done for sanitary sewage but I've done it for storm water, where we were limited to a very small flow rate off a very big roof. We ponded as much water as we could on the roof itself with flow control roof drains and designed a very big tank at the lowest parkade level. (We would have had to have a force main for the storm anyway because of existing site conditions; there were mains in the street that were in the way of the storm pipe, so we had to come at it from below.)

Will it be less expensive than upgrading the existing pipe? Maybe. My gut feeling is probably not.

The Lift Station we built in Mahogany is essentially that. Sanitary pipes flow by gravity into the station, and fall into tanks, then the contents are pumped out to a higher level and pressurized. They could certainly operate it so that the tanks would fill up during the day, and then would pump out at night. They almost certainly do operate it that way (perhaps that should read "almost certainly will operate it that way when it starts being used").

The problem is that building enough stations such as this to solve the problem would cost more than building the sewer main larger. Both might be done eventually.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Radley77

Yup, entirely didn't get that either. It's garbage.

If I remember correctly, the results are based on public surveys and none on actual technical merit. ..... Sometimes I wonder if they do this so badly as to troll for readership.

Troll for readership or create story ideas.

I do know the community associations for both Arbour Lake (#1) and Lake Bonavista (#6) sent out emails and advertised the Avenue Mag survey to their members. This could be considered vote buying but its intention by Avenue Magazine was to drive readership. The winning community (Arbour Lake) got a community BBQ sponsored by Avenue Mag.

Atleast Avenue Mag is very transparent about the survey being from readers and weighted according to reader preferences.

[DizzyEdge]

Often the appeal to me of the innercity is the strips of walkable dense retail. But there are a few tiny areas of that sort of thing in some suburban communities, sure they are contrived, but they have enough shops in a small enough area to give you a similar feel. Some examples I can think of are:

Willow Park Village - 60+ shops in the equivalent of about 2 full blocks
Aspen Landing - ~60 shops mostly in the equivalent of a single block or so.
Mackenzie High Street - 40+ in a block and a half equivalent.

Arguably the Britannia Plaza area with it's ~20 shops in one block will be 1.5x to 2x that in a few years.

Anything else I've missed?

[suburbia]

The core once again in gridlock, public transit crippled, people walking about aimlessly.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1292500/car-crashes-into-c-train-downtown/

[fusili]

Originally Posted by suburbia

The core once again in gridlock, public transit crippled, people walking about aimlessly.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1292500/car-crashes-into-c-train-downtown/

And this belongs in this thread (and not the transit thread) why?

[Chadillaccc]

I was on that train, and it didn't get hit... the driver said the collision was right in front of us. I or the hundreds of other people on board probably would have felt the train get hit. Also, this has nothing to do with urban/suburban other than that the train was heading to the suburbs. I guess one correlation could be that suburban yuppies need to quit their bitching about how disenfranchised they are and allow the inner city to have its fair allotment of tax dollars, so that maybe, you know, we could build a subway so that shit like this won't happen and the suburban commuters (myself included) can be ferried safely and reliably in and out of downtown every day.

[Trans Canada]

I think you're missing the point... The cycle track program was clearly inspired by the light rail tracks that run through our very city, and this problem must be dealt with head-on. A brave tax paying citizen took matters into their own hands and, for a fleeting afternoon, single-handedly stopped public transportation. Rob Ford would be proud.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by fusili

And this belongs in this thread (and not the transit thread) why?

Because the inner city is home to this type of gridlock. Even when everything is working well, it can be a nightmare downtown during the rush hours.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Because the inner city is home to this type of gridlock. Even when everything is working well, it can be a nightmare downtown during the rush hours.

That the inner city has more traffic has nothing to do with urban vs suburban though.

If anything, it's a strike against the suburbs, since you have to go through the core AND the traffic elsewhere.

[Spring2008]

Yeah, those commutes from downtown to the edge of the city are usually brutal. Better to live in the inner city.

Calgary neighbourhoods showcase growing sophistication

BY IJMAL HAID­ER, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD APRIL 25, 2014
The many faces of Calgary can be seen in a very short drive around the city.

This is wit­nessed through the di­vers­ity in archi­tec­ture and de­sign pop­ping up around the city.

As Calgary grows into a hub, we are see­ing people from all cor­ners of Canada and the world mi­grat­ing to our me­trop­olis. It comes as no surprise we are see­ing such dis­tinct archi­tec­ture and de­sign, trends that are in­spired by all walks of life. Each neigh­bour­hood is de­veloping its own feel and style with­in the city, that still keeps true to the ori­gin­al styl­ing and archi­tec­ture.

In cer­tain in­ner-city com­mun­ities, we find more post­mod­ern styl­ing. In others, we find more trad­ition­al with a touch of mod­ern, and even some mod­ern Vic­tor­ian and Geor­gian styles. Calgary had been a blank can­vas for a long time wait­ing to be paint­ed, and now build­ers and de­velop­ers are tak­ing ad­van­tage and get­ting cre­ative as world­ly in­spir­a­tion graces our city.

A pre­mier in­ner-city neigh­bour­hood like Elbow Park show­cas­es many dif­fer­ent styles, but the over­all feel of the homes seems to be an equal bal­ance be­tween trad­ition­al and mod­ern. Driving down Sif­ton Boulevard S.W., you can see some truly in­spir­a­tion­al homes, com­bin­ing old-world charm and adding a con­tem­po­rar­y twist.

The styles in­clude Jaco­bean, Vic­tor­ian, Ed­ward­ian and Tudor re­vivals. Builders in the neigh­bour­hood are adding new fresh homes into the mix and com­bin­ing ele­ments of con­trast­ing stones and mar­bles with tex­tured woods, and adding glass to the clas­sic styl­ing pre­vi­ous­ly found in Elbow Park. These homes are open and bright, adding a lot of in­ter­est with strong curb ap­peal.

Elbow Park has a per­son­al­ity of its own, tucked away from downtown and run­ning par­al­lel to the riv­er. It’s a re­lax­ing re­treat just min­utes from downtown.

Calgary’s neigh­bour­hoods all have very dis­tinct iden­ti­ties. In Kil­lar­ney, Altadore and Rich­mond Hill, to the west of 17th Avenue, we see high­er dens­ity due to slight­ly smaller homes and lots com­pared to Elbow Park. There are plenty of reno­vat­ed, mid-cen­tury bun­ga­lows, but as re­devel­op­ment is hap­pen­ing we are see­ing an in­flux of these beauti­ful mod­ern three-stor­ey, sin­gle-fam­ily homes, du­plex­es and four­plex­es sprouting up.

There seems to be a good mix be­tween mod­ern and a con­tem­po­rar­y take on French or Tudor styl­ing as well, many boxy mod­ern homes with lots of glass but also a lot of new homes with peak­ed roofs and grand­eur ele­va­tions.

These al­low for a lot more crea­tiv­ity in ele­va­tions and we see more di­vers­ity when it comes to de­sign. Builders and home­owners are quite in­di­vid­u­al­is­tic and ad­ven­tur­ous when it comes to their styles.

As Calgary keeps grow­ing and more people mi­grate here, we are see­ing some pre­vi­ous­ly un­touched in­ner-city neigh­bour­hoods shap­ing and tak­ing on a per­son­al­ity of their own, as well. Take St. Andrews Heights, a splen­did north­west lo­ca­tion, perched on a hill with city views, next to Foot­hills Medical Centre and just mo­ments to downtown.

We used to see most­ly just mid-cen­tury ranch-style homes in this area, now it is mov­ing to es­tate-style mod­ern homes, with angu­lar and a­sym­met­ri­cal roof­lines, large win­dows and cre­ative ex­ter­ior styl­ing. As build­ers ap­proach neigh­bour­hoods, they are put­ting a lot of em­pha­sis on staying true to the exist­ing style and archi­tec­ture. Using ma­teri­als that were trad­ition­al­ly seen with­in these neigh­bour­hoods and tak­ing ele­ments from the exist­ing archi­tec­ture, build­ers are as­simi­lat­ing these new styles in with the exist­ing ones. With the in­flux of people mov­ing to Calgary, we are see­ing a lot of styles re­cycled and re­newed to­day.

Ijmal Haider is a sociologist, designer, marketing analyst, writer, blogger and the owner of Bauhaus Design and Renovations.Visit www.bauhausdr.com

http://www.calgaryherald.com/touch/story.html?id=9776293

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Often the appeal to me of the innercity is the strips of walkable dense retail. But there are a few tiny areas of that sort of thing in some suburban communities, sure they are contrived, but they have enough shops in a small enough area to give you a similar feel. Some examples I can think of are:

Willow Park Village - 60+ shops in the equivalent of about 2 full blocks
Aspen Landing - ~60 shops mostly in the equivalent of a single block or so.
Mackenzie High Street - 40+ in a block and a half equivalent.

Arguably the Britannia Plaza area with it's ~20 shops in one block will be 1.5x to 2x that in a few years.

Anything else I've missed?

I don't find much of a distinction between Willow Park Village and something like Glenmore Landing. The layout of the parking is different but they are both relatively isolated from surrounding communities.

McKenzie Towne's High Street and Britannia Plaza provide an interesting comparison. They are both somewhat contrived copies of "ye olde Englishe Towne" but the latter was built in the context of a streetcar suburb. It feels a lot more like a smaller Marda Loop with a level of real urbanity still present. It is immersed in its surroundings in a way that none of the others examples really are. The street feels like a public place that businesses meet as opposed to a private area mimicking the same. The surrounding sixplexs and small apartments help too. This differs from McKenzie Towne, where the urbanity itself feels fake.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

That the inner city has more traffic has nothing to do with urban vs suburban though.

If anything, it's a strike against the suburbs, since you have to go through the core AND the traffic elsewhere.

Actually - no. I'm amazed at how quickly you all forget that only 1/6th of all jobs in Calgary are in the CBD, and the rest are outside of it. I am extremely happy that I do not work or need to go through the CBD. Much better to live close to one's work.