Canadian City Proposals

[esquire]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

I've never been west of Ontario, so I can't say what I feel about Calgary except for what I've heard on this website. It doesnt seem rundown based on images posted, although I can imagine it might if COVID-19 stay at homes measures were still a strong factor in having people work from home.

Calgary, Edmonton and especially Winnipeg tend to be heavily weighted towards being 9-5 commuter districts. That's why covid has done such a number on them.

I've been to all the major western Canadian cities, Moncton and Halifax so far this year and I would say that it's the eastern ones on that list that are the most "normal" seeming because their downtowns are more complete, whole neighbourhoods with a fairly large proportion of residents and locally-oriented uses. Maybe Victoria too as like Halifax, they benefit from a large number of downtown residents as well as tourism.

[WhipperSnapper]

Rundown is not a term to describe Calgary. Obviously the huge oil crash in 2018 has left things downtown a little depressed. The neighbourhood Main Streets are still going strong. As to be expected, development is also booming around the city's premier university. Rental is leading the boom. Rental design tends to be more utilitarian in appearance than condos. It's much closer to the level of Toronto than Waterloo.

[Hawrylyshyn]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

The vibe has certainly changed. You feel uneasy now in the core. There's less pedestrian traffic due to all of the office vacancy and a lot more undesirables and crime. There have been quite a few stabbings and assaults occurring at the C-train platforms. Some completely random and unprovoked. It has even spilled into the Beltline. A yoga instructor was murdered on her way to work in an office building near the Mustard Seed a few months ago. Also random and not targeted.

Here's where it occurred: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0432689,...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Is this an area considered as rundown? I'd be curious to see some Google street view images/links for where that is! It's an interesting discussion to make what people living in different regions consider as "rundown"

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Hawrylyshyn

Is this an area considered as rundown? I'd be curious to see some Google street view images/links for where that is! It's an interesting discussion to make what people living in different regions consider as "rundown"

Off the top of my head here are a few examples:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0482656,...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0461975,...skQsARNsAWfec3rznbVkA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0489453,...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

This intersection is a little less grim now with the giant mural on the side of the apartment building. The murder happened half a block down.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0432994,...itch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

A block south is Cash Corner. A place where you can pick up down on their luck labourers to do some work. Not sure how active it still is but it's been there since my childhood. Those two guys loitering there might be looking for a job.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0409275,...XoKJeGGmtIAWuQ4ZpBCIg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The infamous Crack Mac's:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0469267,...yuhxL_DPNcFpmAi-D6frg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Secondary Crack Mac's:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0496279,...VxhrtCwJsduwy4FkKfSgA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[905er]

some of us may have really different definitions of what "run down" means, because I opened each of those google street view links and I don't see an example of that in any of them. All I'm seeing is a very clean large urban centre.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by 905er

some of us may have really different definitions of what "run down" means, because I opened each of those google street view links and I don't see an example of that in any of them. All I'm seeing is a very clean large urban centre.

I wouldn't say rundown, more so ominous / gritty. Most of Calgary's stock of rundown roach motel style old houses near the city centre have been bulldozed. For lio's shacks you need to look in DT adjacent communities. We were talking about the Core though so I included some random examples of rougher areas. Again, some of it doesn't translate well on streetview.

[Maldive]

Originally Posted by 905er

some of us may have really different definitions of what "run down" means, because I opened each of those google street view links and I don't see an example of that in any of them. All I'm seeing is a very clean large urban centre.

I see a clean empty urban no-where-land devoid of any public realm.

[urbandreamer]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Yeah if anything Calgary is more bland than rundown with all the 70's and 80's era towers. In recent years the vibe has changed though with DT vacancy still hovering at 30% and crime skyrocketing in the core.

I guess it depends where he visited. If he went to Stephen Avenue, Inglewood, East Village, Bridgeland or Riverwalk it would be hard to call it rundown. If he only visited the Core or 9th Ave it might appear that way. Curious to know from an outsider's perspective where he was referring to.

When I've driven 17000km across Canada in two months, it's because I went almost everywhere! I walked and drove through 75% of Calgary between Bowness, Forest Lawn, Fish Creek PP and the airport. I slept in my car right downtown by that famous bridge - what a dump lol. Roughly, Calgary's urban areas are comparable to a mix of Hamilton, London, Windsor and Brantford. Kensington being maybe the nicest area overall. I know there's flooding along the Elbow, but the entire "waterfront" is treated like a rural sewage canal. The public washroom below the River Cafe sums up my impression of Calgary: dangerous.

Across Canada, I came to admire Vancouver's neighbourhood parks with clean functioning public washrooms. The Prairie provinces treat their public spaces as well as they treat their FN population ....

[giallo]

Originally Posted by 905er

some of us may have really different definitions of what "run down" means, because I opened each of those google street view links and I don't see an example of that in any of them. All I'm seeing is a very clean large urban centre.

Yeah. Maybe there's a vibe in those areas that don't come across in pictures, but every area shown in those links looks spotless with zero grit - to my eyes anyway.

[WhipperSnapper]

Someone can pass through 75% of Scarborough over a week or two and see nothing but post war tract housing and autocentric strip plaza. That's by and large its physical form. They would miss out on all the cultural offerings in those nondescript, autocentric plazas.

[urbandreamer]

Take Stephen Avenue for example. It's Stampede so there's a party atmosphere, gorgeous friendly blonde clones everywhere (I found the women in Edmonton uglier compared to Calgarians, fatter and with more tattoos), the bars are packed. Yet, there's thousands of homeless milling about, there's abandoned buildings everywhere, parking lots, the shiny new buildings standing like gaudy statues with no street integration, the C-train a noisy clunky segregated mess, the one way streets with traffic moving too quickly. Stephen Avenue is treated as if it's a suburban strip plaza with a few heritage facades thrown in.

Calgary is Toronto c.1995, Montreal c.2002 or Hamilton c.2008.

It's got a gritty scary edge to it that reminds me of the time I mistakenly walked on the wrong side of the Marcy Avenue station in Williamsburg.

[O-tacular]

While I grant you the empty shiny towers with bad street integration and overall high vacancy, I can’t help but feel like your visit was tainted by both Stampede and the areas you visited. Forest Lawn is Calgary’s version of the ghetto and Bowness is another formerly rough area that was once a biker town. No wonder you thought the city is rundown and crime ridden. I gassed up once in Forest Lawn and the cashier froze and went to push the panic button because I entered too quickly. Stampede is a time of drunken buffoonery. I’ll take the compliment about our women vs Edmonton’s but that seems like a gross generalization that is also informed by people playing dressup for Stampede. Come back another time and I’ll give you a tour of actual nice places. Also wtf is with your hatred of the Peace Bridge?

Edit: you’re 100% right about the River Cafe bathroom.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

It's Stampede so there's a party atmosphere, gorgeous friendly blonde clones everywhere (I found the women in Edmonton uglier compared to Calgarians, fatter and with more tattoos),

That was so not necessary. Tell me, how pretty are you yourself? Let us see.

[WhipperSnapper]

I was in Oklahoma last year and the women were generally 35 pounds heavier than the women in Toronto. That's not to say there weren't pretty blondes. Just remember to do an I.D. check. They may look 25 but, are probably 16. I would say it's even worse for those seeking male companionship.

[Innsertnamehere]

lol wtf is going on in this thread

[Maldive]

Not to go off-topic, but this was approved.

2200 Eglinton Avenue East | 152.9m | 46s | Dream | BDP Quadrangle l Approved

The settlement offer, which includes 130 affordable rental units, child-care and 9,000 square metres of parkland/open space, has been approved.

Institutional, office, public space, residential and retail (towers @ 46, 40, 37, 30 and 20 storeys).  A few changes from these renderings below but essentially the same (the revised renderings were posted as huge png files ;-).


UT

UT

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Maldive

2200 Eglinton Avenue East | 152.9m | 46s | Dream | BDP Quadrangle l Approved

Spent a lot of time in this part of town recently. Don't think I have any comment on the siteplan or buildings at this point but I will say that this area is prime for developments like this, and it's exciting to see how Eglinton will transform in the coming years. Tons of potential in the Golden Mile and beyond. There's a lot of low-rise industrial and institutional with vast surface parking seas to be redeveloped into more pleasant areas like what seems to be proposed.

[LikesBikes]

Calgary is run down if you compare it to Geneva, Monaco or Singapore but in the Canadian context though it's pretty damn clean (to a fault imo).

[LikesBikes]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I was in Oklahoma last year and the women were generally 35 pounds heavier than the women in Toronto. That's not to say there weren't pretty blondes. Just remember to do an I.D. check. They may look 25 but, are probably 16. I would say it's even worse for those seeking male companionship.

[ZeDgE]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

When I've driven 17000km across Canada in two months, it's because I went almost everywhere! I walked and drove through 75% of Calgary between Bowness, Forest Lawn, Fish Creek PP and the airport. I slept in my car right downtown by that famous bridge - what a dump lol. Roughly, Calgary's urban areas are comparable to a mix of Hamilton, London, Windsor and Brantford. Kensington being maybe the nicest area overall. I know there's flooding along the Elbow, but the entire "waterfront" is treated like a rural sewage canal. The public washroom below the River Cafe sums up my impression of Calgary: dangerous.

Across Canada, I came to admire Vancouver's neighbourhood parks with clean functioning public washrooms. The Prairie provinces treat their public spaces as well as they treat their FN population ....

I mean you are entitled to your opinion but this sounds like a lot of hyperbole.