The Ugly Canada Thread

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Asphalt driveways are the suburban norm quite predominantly almost everywhere that I've lived: Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec.

Every house my parents or I or my siblings have owned has had an asphalt driveway. Although my driveway at the moment is a mix of asphalt and interlock pavers.

Here they're all concrete. I wonder if it's cheaper here. Having the Exshaw Cement Plant nearby probably helps. Speaking of ugly that thing has eaten a mountain within my lifetime.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0479422,-...ZbvBghpZ6FCiQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

[niwell]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Here they're all concrete. I wonder if it's cheaper here. Having the Exshaw Cement Plant nearby probably helps. Speaking of ugly that thing has eaten a mountain within my lifetime.

As a kid I always kind of liked driving past that because industrial facilities are fascinating and Calgary doesn't have many big ones (unlike Edmonton). But yeah it's hideous, and eaten away a LOT more of that mountain since I was a child.

It's interesting that every driveway in Calgary is concrete yet the City / developers can't be bothered to pave laneways / alleys in new neighbourhoods. Virtually all of Toronto's laneways are concrete.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by niwell

As a kid I always kind of liked driving past that because industrial facilities are fascinating and Calgary doesn't have many big ones (unlike Edmonton). But yeah it's hideous, and eaten away a LOT more of that mountain since I was a child.

It's interesting that every driveway in Calgary is concrete yet the City / developers can't be bothered to pave laneways / alleys in new neighbourhoods. Virtually all of Toronto's laneways are concrete.

My laneway / back alley is paved and I live in a new area. So is my parent's in Lake Bonavista. I know they all aren't paved but many are starting to be.

Edit: I always found it cool driving past that cement plant as a kid too. As the mountain has disappeared it seems a lot uglier though.

[O-tacular]

This is kinda cool and interesting:







They've built a dome at the cement plant for material storage. They even want the public to help name it. Now it legitimately looks like it could be the lair of a James Bond villain.

Edit: I guess they've already chosen a winning name: the EcoDome. Geez I wonder why they chose that?

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/mobile/lafarge-unveils-winning-name-for-exshaw-dome-1.2813909

[O-tacular]

Looks like the Feds have ordered Canada Post to stop delivering everyone's favourite scumbag's hate mail news letter:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ca...g-controversial-your-ward-news-1.3619554

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Here they're all concrete. I wonder if it's cheaper here. Having the Exshaw Cement Plant nearby probably helps. Speaking of ugly that thing has eaten a mountain within my lifetime.

Doubtful. Plenty of resources here to make concrete too with a large network of facilities. That's just how it's been done in Alberta. Asphalt has been the go to in Ontario.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Interlock pavers. My current and previous homes have them. yeah, they look much nicer, but the fucking upkeep. Weeding. Filling in the cracks (again, and again, and fucking again). dips where your tires typically pass.

owning a home is a major pain in the ass. yard. pool. driveway. maintenance. appliances breaking down. repairs. goddamned fucking property taxes ($7K this year, wtf!!)

It's not the pavers. Lot of installers in the past cheap out on building up the gravel bed. Same would happen to asphalt and concrete would probably crack up. You need to spray for weeds. The spray has the extra benefit of acting as a glue so you won't have to fill the cracks over and over.

Most driveways here are original asphalt or have been upgraded to stone pavers. The joints are usually caulked.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Looks like the Feds have ordered Canada Post to stop delivering everyone's favourite scumbag's hate mail news letter:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ca...g-controversial-your-ward-news-1.3619554

Maybe he can use his dog to bring the rags to people's doorsteps. His newsletters are lower than the excrement that tumbles from his dog's asshole.

a dark place where the sun never shines

What a fucking assclown:

Sears accused Foote of issuing the order to silence criticism of the government.

"We're the top paper that's critical of the Liberal Party in all of Canada," he said.

What a fucking lowlife scumbag

Sears, who has presented himself in the past as pick-up artist Dmitri The Lover and had his licence to practise medicine revoked after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting patients, has also been accused of publishing articles in Your Ward News that demean women and insult the LGBT community.

yourwardnewswatch

sears the crook: http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/about/enforcement/enforcement-online/Documents/2008-4-142-Sears.pdf, https://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncpsd/doc/...AQALamFtZXMgc2VhcnMAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=4

Following criminal charges of sexual assault being laid by two of his patients, Dr. Sears was released with one of the conditions being that he not examine a female patient without the presence of a third party. On January 15, 1992, he attended at a patients home unaccompanied by a third party and conducted a routine assessment and treatment. He thereupon began to make sexual overtures to the patient, Complaining about his wifes lack of interest in sex, he boasted that he ...could do it ten times a day.... The patient declined his request that they have sex. He then went to the washroom where he admits that he may have masturbated.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

It's not the pavers. Lot of installers in the past cheap out on building up the gravel bed. Same would happen to asphalt and concrete would probably crack up. You need to spray for weeds. The spray has the extra benefit of acting as a glue so you won't have to fill the cracks over and over.

Most driveways here are original asphalt or have been upgraded to stone pavers. The joints are usually caulked.

ahh, thanks. mine isn't too bad (I have seen others' with huge depressions and heaved stones). Alas, weed spray is basically banned here in London. What do you use?

[MolsonExport]

ugly: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/kangaroo-petting-zoo-1.3619579

[O-tacular]

Are these the female equivalent of truck balls? I've mostly seen headlight lashes on beetles and girlier cars. Kinda funny to see them on a jeep.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

owning a home is a major pain in the ass. yard. pool. driveway. maintenance. appliances breaking down. repairs. goddamned fucking property taxes ($7K this year, wtf!!)

Yeah, I always figured that whatever you save in condo fees is gobbled up by things like replacing the windows, painting the porch, floodproofing the basement, vacuuming the HVAC ducts, etc., etc.

Pools seem to really be nightmares. I grew up in a house with one (an old one, too), and we didn't use it enough to justify the expense of keeping it maintained.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Yeah, I always figured that whatever you save in condo fees is gobbled up by things like replacing the windows, painting the porch, floodproofing the basement, vacuuming the HVAC ducts, etc., etc.

Pools seem to really be nightmares. I grew up in a house with one (an old one, too), and we didn't use it enough to justify the expense of keeping it maintained.

A pool is especially a pain at the start of the season where you always need something that's broken or worn out in order to get started.

During the year, well now you have a bunch of things that make life easier when it comes to pool maintenance: creepy crawly vacuums that clean the pool by themselves overnight, salt water systems that keep your water balanced all summer with little to no oversight...

It's amazing how some people have pools and don't use them. I am still at the stage in life where it gets a lot of use. It's already been used about 10 days this summer and we started two weeks later than usual due to crappy weather and other obligations.

[MolsonExport]

^yeah, I agree. Although I had to replace my pump last week (set me back $700). I have a salt-water pool, and it is decidedly less maintenance than a chlorine/bromine pool. But I still spend about 30 minutes a day (probably an hour on the weekend days) cleaning out the trap, testing the water, hooking up the vacuum, etc.

I love swimming, and so do my kids. I get in 90% or more days between early May and late September.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by niwell

Ottawa - that neighbourhood was originally part of the experimental farm IIRC and is much newer than the surrounding areas. You had highrises across from farm fields originally!

Exactly...neighbourhood is circa late 90's/early 00's and highrise behind it is circa 80's or maybe older. Neighbourhood was part of federally owned Central Experimental Farm.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Exactly...neighbourhood is circa late 90's/early 00's and highrise behind it is circa 80's or maybe older. Neighbourhood was part of federally owned Central Experimental Farm.

It's called "Central Park".

Street names like Gotham, Gramercy, Delancey, Manhattan if I recall.

[niwell]

My dad and step mom's place just outside Calgary has a pool which they love despite the climate. I have vivid memories of the stupid thing never working properly and spending my summer vacations as a kid doing the vacuuming, maintenance on the filter, chlorine testing and getting bugs out. I wish we had all the modern conveniences Acajack is talking about!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's called "Central Park".

Street names like Gotham, Gramercy, Delancey, Manhattan if I recall.

That Central Park neighbourhood in Ottawa has a street named Trump Ave.!

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Yeah, I always figured that whatever you save in condo fees is gobbled up by things like replacing the windows, painting the porch, floodproofing the basement, vacuuming the HVAC ducts, etc., etc.

I know it's probably somewhat irrational, but I can't help but find condo fees of $500 or more per month daunting and prohibitive. Once there was this one really terrific condo in an old mansion in Hamilton on the market that had fees of $1,100 per month. Per month! With no gym or pool or anything like that, just some nice gardens. And a 150-year-old building requiring upkeep.

It just feels like six, eight or ten thousand dollars per year burned into the ether. At least with stuff you do on your house you are witness to an immediate and tangible benefit. Some years you buy a furnace, some years you replace 40-year-old front and side porches that are falling apart ($20,000+ for us last year), and some years you do some exterior painting, but I have never sat down with a calculator to tally up twelve years' worth of repair costs because...I don't really care about knowing the exact figure.

We're happy with where we live. The intangibles outweigh the accounts. Though I do know we haven't spent anywhere near the equivalent of 12 years of condo fees x $8,000 = $96,000.

[O-tacular]

Here's a shitty gazebo donated as a 'gift' to Calgary from Quebec City. I don't want to sound ungrateful but this has to be the plainest and ugliest gift I can imagine. What's worse is its' location which sits on the Riverwalk by Fort Calgary far from everything else. I can't imagine a less dynamic performance space. How is this thing even newsworthy? If we donated a shed to Quebec City would big announcements be made?




Some large renderings in here:
http://calgarymayor.ca/stories/a-stampede-gift-to-calgarians

It's an even bigger joke to call it a music pavilion considering the National Music Centre at the opposite end of the East Village. To me it's more of a bandstand like they had the oompa-pa band on in Groundhog Day.