Quote:
Originally Posted by le calmar
Oh yeah, parts of Toronto and Vancouver have similar characteristics, of course. I am not saying this is unique to Montreal. I am just expressing my opinion - I feel like those very urban parts of Montreal have more of a special touch - at least in a Canadian context. It has to do with the built form I think. I didn’t intend to start a comparison game. (To be fair I should probably not have said there’s nothing like it in Canada)
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In downtown Vancouver, not really. Within 5km you usually hit the seawall, suburbia Kitsilano or Shaughnessy, or worst still, the very scary part of town: the Downtown Eastside (DTES). Even within the 5km inside the city centre, there are parts which spell urban blight, such as Granville Street and East Pender. Chinatown used to be nice, but is now heading towards the direction of urban decay not unlike its neighbour, the DTES. Beyond these areas, other than Mount Pleasant, the rest of Vancouver does not fare much better, and typically feels more suburbia than the dense, organic-growing neighbourhoods we find so much delight in well-loved cities. Vancouver used to be avant garde with the creation of Granville Island, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, etc. But during the 2000s it started running out of ideas. The city is still beautiful, but mostly because it is surrounded by the best of nature in this country. The urban built form, however, leaves much to be desired. Other Canadian cities learned so much from Vancouver's experience and have grown beyond what this westcoast city used to lead in: the success of reintroducing people to live in the city centre.
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