Great Canadian Skyline Thread II

[logan5]

Victoria is freakishly clean. Even by Canadian standards.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by lio45

Victoria is really nice, what sucks is to have to take the ferry as soon as you have to go anywhere. (That probably helped keep it interesting; same way isolation made St. John's what it is, and is therefore both a drawback and an essential quality.)

And apparently the ferry trip to get there is really long as I heard...

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by lio45

Victoria is really nice, what sucks is to have to take the ferry as soon as you have to go anywhere. (That probably helped keep it interesting; same way isolation made St. John's what it is, and is therefore both a drawback and an essential quality.)

Nah. It's part of it's charm. If Victoria was a simple 3 hours drive from Vancouver via highway it wouldn't be the same, it'd be another Surrey, or even worst, a Langley. Fml . I lived in Victoria for 3 years: the island is it's own thing. The mainland, another altogether.

[ssiguy]

It'a not only long due to the inadequate highway connection and ferry lineups but also bloody expensive.

[Marshal]

Many years ago, I enjoyed the odd ferry ride to the Island, and then also on to Saltspring. Then I did three projects in Victoria. I tried to use the ferry: it was easier to take all the stuff I needed for work, and I figured I could get work done during the voyages. It did work out that way for the most part, but it quickly became a life-sucking drain that I came to hate. I switched to the Helijet and all was well again. Otherwise Victoria is a great little city; quite urban with good food, gardens, ocean side, walkable, etc. The core has a very nice street level feel. The projects were completed and I haven't been back.

(A side note: a lot of contractors and construction based businesses were shockingly small town in their practices and attitudes towards things like contracts and project oversight. They explained this away with talk of "we do things more relaxed 'on the island.'" It was like they thought they were in Port Hardy or some other remote small town. Very surprising to us.)

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Nah. It's part of it's charm. If Victoria was a simple 3 hours drive from Vancouver via highway it wouldn't be the same, it'd be another Surrey, or even worst, a Langley. Fml . I lived in Victoria for 3 years: the island is it's own thing. The mainland, another altogether.

Yeah, the beauty of the island network, and the BC ferry system that connects it all together, is one of the intrinsically magical parts of West Coast life and culture.

I pity the person whose living a life where taking a journey on the BC ferries is a chore, not an adventure.

[giallo]

I used to go to Victoria three to four times a year when my grandparents were still alive, and I was living in Canada. As a child, I loved going to Victoria from Kelowna. It was like a different world from what I was used to.


Here'S a recent drone video of the harbour area and downtown.

• Video Link

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by giallo

I used to go to Victoria three to four times a year when my grandparents were still alive, and I was living in Canada. As a child, I loved going to Victoria from Kelowna. It was like a different world from what I was used to.


Here'S a recent drone video of the harbour area and downtown.

• Video Link

Amazing but too short. This place remind me of a city like Dunedin in New Zealand.

[logan5]

I guess all these drone videos are shot in 4K. I just got a 4k monitor, and you can see a difference in sharpness.

As for those ferry trips, they get old fast. For the life of me, I don't know why BC Ferries doesn't have a downtown to downtown foot passenger service. The Victoria trip could be done in 2 hours vs the almost 5 hour journey getting to the ferry terminal, then waiting to load all the vehicles, then reverse the process on the other side. Nanaimo could be done in an hour. That would almost make it a part of Metro Vancouver.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by logan5

I guess all these drone videos are shot in 4K. I just got a 4k monitor, and you can see a difference in sharpness.

As for those ferry trips, they get old fast. For the life of me, I don't know why BC Ferries doesn't have a downtown to downtown foot passenger service. The Victoria trip could be done in 2 hours vs the almost 5 hour journey getting to the ferry terminal, then waiting to load all the vehicles, then reverse the process on the other side. Nanaimo could be done in an hour. That would almost make it a part of Metro Vancouver.

In Norway, they would make it a tunnel

[logan5]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

In Norway, they would make it a tunnel

Which tunnel are you referring to? A tunnel to the island would be awesome, except it would be extremely expensive. The Georgia Straight is likely much deeper than the waters around Norway.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by logan5

Which tunnel are you referring to? A tunnel to the island would be awesome, except it would be extremely expensive. The Georgia Straight is likely much deeper than the waters around Norway.

No tunnel in particular, but there are alot in Norway and some are very long. Was just dreaming.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Proof that it's not necessairly the number of skyscrapers that makes a city feel big or not. IMO, the quality of the street level is very important. I dont know if you will agree with me on this, but even today, I find that Ottawa-Gatineau doesnt feel much bigger than Quebec City...and this is surprising, because when you look at the numbers, they are nearly 600k over! But it's like if the numbers are not reflecting it...when you visit in person.
Btw, when was your last visit here?

I agree (Ottawa-Gatineau 'feels' about the same size, on the ground, as does QC...mind you QC seemingly has a more impressive freeway system (but Ottawa now has rapid transit).

I was last in QC in Summer 2016 (family trip to QC, St Anne de Beaupre, Mt. St. Anne, etc.). I have two cousins and an uncle (and their families: my cousins are in their forties) living in Levis/Lauzon/St. Jean-Chysostome. When I lived in Montreal, I would visit QC every winter for Carnavale d'Hiver.

[lio45]

It's all merged now, so all your relatives live in the City of Lévis these days.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I agree (Ottawa-Gatineau 'feels' about the same size, on the ground, as does QC...mind you QC seemingly has a more impressive freeway system (but Ottawa now has rapid transit).

I was last in QC in Summer 2016 (family trip to QC, St Anne de Beaupre, Mt. St. Anne, etc.). I have two cousins and an uncle (and their families: my cousins are in their forties) living in Levis/Lauzon/St. Jean-Chysostome. When I lived in Montreal, I would visit QC every winter for Carnavale d'Hiver.

Yeah...their Freeway system doesn't seems as developped as ours. I think a ring road around the city would help reduce some traffic because there is only an East/West corridor to cross the city.

I am glad you had a great time here! The winter Carnaval is quite an event, lots of fun

[zoomer]

As per the previous comments, yah, Victoria is freakishly clean, like bizarrely so. Couple more Youtube videos, the first one shows how empty downtown is (starting to get busier again) and you can see how clean it is, which is somewhat surprising in part considering the large homeless population.

4 minutes of downtown by Tyler Cave:

• Video Link

and one pre-pandemic:

• Video Link

Halifax, Victoria and Quebec City are in some ways similar, yet very different as well. They all show that a skyline can be beautiful without being tall because of layers. In some of the pics below you'll see that Victoria has two distinct layers and hopefully moving towards a third away from the harbour, with the historic low rise buildings near the water, moving higher as you get further away.

Victoria is small scale dense, lots of alley with continuous shopping areas. It definitely will feel at street level like a smaller city because of the small scale, but that makes it more walkable, with far fewer parking garages, blank walls and dead streets compared to most major cities across North America.

Some photos from Gary Hoyer on Flickr focusing mainly on the north end of downtown.

DSC08364_DxO
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

That parking lot has been approved for this condo development - pretty soon the main remaining parking left will actually be one by the harbour, but for decades the city hasn't had the courage to see it developed. It's actually below the main street level, so issues there and it's so politically fraught. Plans are to make it like a waterfront park setting, very similar to what Quebec City has done.

Few more by the great Gary Hoyer - the small BC ferry (brand new and intended for smaller community routes was going to the dockyard directly beside the new bridge)

DSC02044_DxO
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

older one when they opened the new bridge before tearing down the old one:

DSC06622
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

Next some super moon shots from Gary Hoyer:

DSC02197_DxO
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

DSC02241_DxO
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

and a few others from Gary.

Victoria's Johnson St. Bridge
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

DSC02382_DxO
by Gary Hoyer, on Flickr

some other glam shots:

Last Supermoon of 2020
by David Axford, on Flickr

Victoria Moonrise April 2020
by David Axford, on Flickr

Victoria Moonrise II

by David Axford, on Flickr
Blue Bridge during Blue Hour
by David Axford, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/RiThx1]Victoria BC Panorama[/url

by Lindsay Mac, on Flickr

and finally a couple by me, to show the aerial perspective:

Leaving Victoria BC October 9, 2019
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

Victoria BC October 10 Harbour Air
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

October 10 Victoria BC by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[north 42]

^

Wow! That last pic!

[FrAnKs]

I like this city...I find this really appealing!

[MolsonExport]

Super set of Victoria, another Canadian gem.

[Coldrsx]

Brilliant angle.


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