Great Canadian Skyline Thread II - Page 735

Coldrsx · #**14681** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 4:08 PM**

Calgary as seen from Springbanks Links GC west of the city.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/x164/coldrsx/DSC00207(1).JPG

PortaPetee · #**14682** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

What? Not in the slightest. I was just drawing relative comparisons. I don't think there's been a Calgary Montreal fight here in years other than the nonsense Lio contrives daily.

I was kidding. Last night was my first time on the thread and I read the last few pages. And then I said downtown Calgary was boring, so I joked that i started a new fight. All good. :-)

PortaPetee · #**14683** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hali87

A big part of this is that Halifax truly does "punch above its weight" when it comes to nightlife and the importance of downtown as a place of leisure.

Yeah downtown Halifax is a business district, the prime entertainment district (although more of those are popping up), a major tourist attraction unto itself, the site of the long and varied waterfront boardwalk, a major festival site, the site of NSCAD and Dal's Architecture & Engineering campus, etc. etc. It's somewhat of a shopping district too I guess.

PortaPetee · #**14684** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

DT St. John is a gem. I have some family members that live right downtown in the old Victorian section.

-not an Idiot.

Saint John has done a far better job of preserving its heritage architecture than Halifax has.

Of course there's no development pressure because Saint John is shrinking rather than growing, and also half the city wasn't destroyed in the early 20th century.

But still, they preserve instead of letting a lot of the stone buildings fall to pieces. The wooden buildings, on the other hand, were terrible slums for decades. Not sure if that's been cleaned up or not.

Acajack · #**14685** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

I would like to go to Istanbul but it seems sketchy so I never really looked into travelling to Turkey. Yet I have been to potentially similar or worse countries. How recently did you go?
.

Istanbul wasn't particularly sketchy 10-20 years ago.

It's gotten progressively sketchier and sketchier recently though.

WhipperSnapper · #**14686** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:22 PM**

Calgary's business district occupied a larger than usual area of the downtown area. It has taken a massive economic hit. Few if any CBDs are lively at peak occupancy so this is not a bad thing providing these ultra conservative, national owners start repurposing in creative manners.

WhipperSnapper · #**14687** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

Istanbul wasn't particularly sketchy 10-20 years ago.

It's gotten progressively sketchier and sketchier recently though.

For sure.

someone123 · #**14688** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PortaPetee

But still, they preserve instead of letting a lot of the stone buildings fall to pieces. The wooden buildings, on the other hand, were terrible slums for decades. Not sure if that's been cleaned up or not.

The demolition that continues to happen in Halifax is unusually bad and people or at least the councillors there don't seem to quite get it. I am thinking of examples like the former Nova Centre office on Blowers, which was clearly left to fall apart for years. Of course the entire north end of downtown was a disaster but after this mistake and the 1970's it all continued with the speculative demolition at Barrington and George, the old brick building next to TD with the 2 storey storefront, BMO on Spring Garden Road, Roy, etc.

I think sometimes the Halifax-SJ comparisons are strained because SJ is so much smaller. In Halifax, everything in an Uptown Saint John sized footprint is part of the commercial core. If you want a nice old neighbourhood you could go to say the Jubilee and Henry area which has a mix of masonry rowhouses and wooden buildings not unlike much of Uptown SJ; but it is 1.5 km away from downtown, a distance that would be suburbia in SJ (the Hydrostone, about 100 years old, would maybe be in the woods). Similarly if you took the historic properties which seems like a little chunk of DT Halifax and put it in SJ it would take up maybe 1/4 of the footprint of the core of old commercial buildings. There are many historic parts of Halifax (Falkland-Maynard or Schmidtville being others) but you kind of need to know about them and it is true that they are often separated by areas with lots of modern construction.

One aspect of Saint John that I like is that it is a very specific time capsule since so much was rebuilt after the 1870's fire. There are so many building styles and intact streetscapes from that exact period. I think the city has a lot of potential and that it should lean into the heritage aspect.

J.OT13 · #**14689** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 5:33 PM**

Rideau Falls and Hull sector of Gatineau.

https://twitter.com/BlacksWeather

J.OT13 · #**14690** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:17 PM**

Hull sector of Gatineau.

https://twitter.com/LeDroitca/status/1309529866077794309

Masoliantekw · #**14691** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:17 PM**

Québec

@francois_pre, sur Instagram

@noortoorabally, sur Instagram

@ericbranover, sur Instagram

esquire · #**14692** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:27 PM**

^ Stunning!

MolsonExport · #**14693** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:31 PM**

I am going to nominate QC as the least boring (i.e., most lively) downtown of all cities with metros <2 million.

rousseau · #**14694** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Hull sector of Gatineau.

Is that near the Forbidden Sector?

https://youtu.be/-zjShM1vllY?t=211

logan5 · #**14695** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I am going to nominate QC as the least boring (i.e., most lively) downtown of all cities with metros <2 million.

Then it’s about a 10 way tie for 2nd - Victoria, Edmonton, Halifax etc.

someone123 · #**14696** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 6:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan5

Then it’s about a 10 way tie for 2nd - Victoria, Edmonton, Halifax etc.

This is a topic that is fraught with danger but I found that Calgary and Halifax were about on par, and busier than Edmonton. I find Victoria less busy than Halifax and it doesn't seem to have the same kind of nightlife. I don't think there is really a 10-way tie with Quebec City being in between say Vancouver and Calgary. And I think that Vancouver is sort of its own tier above say Calgary but below Montreal, which is also a bit below Toronto now.

I haven't been to Quebec City in quite a while. It was unusually nice in the 2000's because it is so well preserved and modern development in Canada was so bad back then. But I could see it falling behind some areas that have higher density modern development or just nicer new buildings than tended to be built in recent decades.

Note that this doesn't make one place better than another. I don't think the old parts of Quebec City should get replaced with condo towers so there are more people walking around or big chain stores. And likewise most of downtown Victoria has a kind of laid back feel rather than business district or crowded feel. It reminds me of say Portland OR. In a lot of ways Victoria is specifically for people who don't want the bigger city that is a ferry ride away. And Portland is an alternative to busier and more business-oriented Seattle or San Francisco or LA.

Peggerino · #**14697** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 7:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I am going to nominate QC as the least boring (i.e., most lively) downtown of all cities with metros <2 million.

Outside of the beautiful though very touristy CBD isn't the rest of the city relatively sleepy and somewhat conservative? That was the perception I got from living in Montreal and meeting people from Quebec City. Also, purely anecdotal, but I've heard the racism and xenophobia there is much worse than say in Montreal or Ottawa/Gatineau.

MolsonExport · #**14698** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 7:05 PM**

suburbs in most cities are boring and conservative. I am talking about downtown.

logan5 · #**14699** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 7:06 PM**

With Victoria you have people more spread out to other streets, as there are lots of good historic retail and restaurant streets to choose from. With Calgary everybody is concentrated on 17th Ave (for the most part) so maybe that makes dt Calgary seem busier. The population density of dt Victoria is on par with Calgary and looks to be larger than Halifax.

someone123 · #**14700** Posted **Sep 25, 2020, 7:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by logan5

The population density of dt Victoria is on par with Calgary and looks to be larger than Halifax.

Downtown Calgary is mostly offices and commercial space, not residents. Halifax has a similar area which is mostly a business district whereas downtown Victoria is more of a mixed neighbourhood with no big office tower developments (maybe that is for the best).

My impressions are based on visits rather than statistics. I don't find that population density statistics or those downtown worker numbers mean a whole lot. Mostly because the area you include is arbitrary and has a huge impact on the numbers, and because a lot of types of activity don't get counted. For example students, tourists, and locals visiting downtown who live in other neighbourhoods tend to get left out.