Does your city feel significantly busier than it did 10 years ago?

[lrt's friend]

Downtown Ottawa was ticking up, but then we had the pandemic, work from home and the convoy which appears to have permanently closed Wellington Street. While suburban Ottawa is busier than ever, downtown Ottawa is a ghost town. And yes, the homeless issue is more apparent, now that they are more dominant with regular citizens staying away. The average suburban Ottawan does not go downtown anymore and with an unreliable transit system, just another reason.

[cranes]

Kitchener-Waterloo

https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW/status/1671572755160997910

Grand River Transit @GRT_ROW Jun 21, 2023

The difference a decade makes!

ION light rail service launched on this day in 2019. It has transformed not only how we get around, but also the shape of our region.

There have been billions of dollars invested in development along the LRT corridor, starting before construction even began in 2014.

These photos show how our cities and skyline have changed between then and now.

Happy ION anniversary! 🚆🏙️

#wrlrt #wrawesome

This is King Street at Moore Avenue, looking toward downtown Kitchener, in 2013 and today.


This is Central Station in 2013 and today.


The intersection of Frederick and Duke Streets, in 2014 and today.


Duke Street and Kitchener City Hall Station in 2014 and today.


Duke Street looking toward College Street in 2014 and today.


The intersection of Allen and King Streets in 2013 and today.


Caroline Street looking toward Allen Street, in 2014 and today.


And finally, Fairway Station in 2015 before LRT construction started, and what it looks like today.



https://twitter.com/not_taylorx/stat...63526438019072

Justin 🚄🎵🔋🌈 @not_taylorx Jun 21, 2023

I just watched two people get on the newly opened ION with their groceries in uptown waterloo, ride the ion to victoria park, and walk into their newly constructed condo at the newly pedestrianised corner of charles and gaukel
it's all coming together so well!

https://twitter.com/not_taylorx/stat...30904664510467

Justin 🚄🎵🔋🌈 @not_taylorx Jun 21, 2023

The mix of housing appearing in downtown is lovely to see

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by cranes

Kitchener-Waterloo


The intersection of Frederick and Duke Streets, in 2014 and today.

What a terrible loss. A beautiful piece of architecture demolished for a fugly parkade of a generic condo building. The opposite of progress.

[harls]

Damn yes.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by cranes

Kitchener-Waterloo

That street gives me a bit of Spring Garden Road vibe. Never thought I'd be comparing The Kitch to Halifax but there you have it.

[esquire]

^ I can see it.

[Nite]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

What a terrible loss. A beautiful piece of architecture demolished for a fugly parkade of a generic condo building. The opposite of progress.

Cities are not museums, more housing is more useful to the residence than a useless building taking up valuable space.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Architype

I'm not sure about Vancouver, I think I've heard that traffic has become less with better transit. I am sure however, that parking is more difficult since the city keeps gleefully removing parking spaces, and parking lots have disappeared. I had to run into a store the other day and had to put $6.00 in a meter ($7.00 per hour) to cover the time just in case; that always increases the stress levels, just as busier traffic does. I'd say that it depends on the area, some inner city areas are much more built up (i.e. around False Creek), so it's busier, and that goes for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic. Now since the pandemic, more people work at home, so I guess that should reduce traffic overall, especially downtown. I find the gridlocks are still similar to what they used to be, our bridge & road infrastructure hasn't increased for decades; i.e. gridlock traffic on Georgia Street almost all the time. I think the crowds in the entertainment district downtown have probably increased, but it's really hard to say. Conversely to being busier, Transit also just announced reductions on some routes due to lower ridership.

I found this out recently, we were on west 4th, and the parking person checking and giving out tickets, etc told us that we could park in the loading zone for up to 30 minutes, I always thought those spots were more drop-off and go, but she said you can park and you won't get a ticket if you don't overstay the 30 minutes, we only needed 15 or 20 at that time, but we had already paid for a meter a few spaces away.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

What a terrible loss. A beautiful piece of architecture demolished for a fugly parkade of a generic condo building. The opposite of progress.

It covered up the view of the commie block at least
My first reaction was moreso "wtf did they do to that poor Sun Life building?"

Kitchener-Waterloo is definitely better with ION light rail. Hopefully they start construction on the extension to Cambridge ASAP and Waterloo region will feel much more connected. I was in K-W a year ago around this time and it seemed to have a bit of Calgary-esque energy to it. Cranes everywhere, the feeling of newness. A lot of people walking about at night, particularly in Uptown Waterloo. Everyone me and my friend talked to was upbeat and positive about the region, besides crazy housing prices.

[LightingGuy]

KW's growth is impressive. We just moved to Kitchener, it's a really good place to live.

[Denscity]

Yes

[Innsertnamehere]

Kitchener's very high growth rate coupled with it's general lack of a significant pre-war urban fabric has made for some interesting urbanism in the last decade as it has shifted to major intensification.

The next decade is looking like it is going to be even more interesting as the LRT and density really comes into it's own.

In 2010 it felt like a small town which had overgrown itself in a way, not so much any more.

[WhipperSnapper]

Kitchener's skyline growth today and down the road is impressive. The quality and form of the development is boring. It depends on how much of the existing foundation ends up compromised "for progress'. I don't have much faith considering that hall was allowed to be demolished for a mediocre condo tower.

Every 401 downtown will look like a cross between Toronto's Entertainment District, North York Centre and, Humber Bay Shores with this level of sustained development over the next 50 years. I also wonder what the Canadian identity will look like but, that's another thread.

[Nouvellecosse]

I personally think tearing down historic landmarks in the name of housing is a bad idea. Our cities tend to have relatively few buildings of architectural or historic significance given the age of the country and our colonial hinterland history. Yes cities need to change to allow growth and progress but there's so much bland stuff and empty lots that can be replaced that we're far from having to demo buildings of significance. Not saying it would never get to that point if a city got dense enough, but no city in Canada is anywhere near that.

This is an area where you can go too far in either direction. On one hand, people oppose developments out of pure foolishness such as they happen to be close to buildings that are shorter or because it'll affect the neighbourhood character. Or not wanting multi-family development that isn't even very tall. Those are mostly just fancy ways of saying they don't want the area to change. But on the other extreme you get people who don't value any building beyond its pure utilitarian function.

A place like Paris manages to preserve large numbers of low/mid rise historic buildings in the city centre despite being extremely dense while having lots of residential highrises outside the historic core. And Manhattan still has notable lowrise landmarks mixed in with the skyscrapers even right in midtown. Meanwhile, a quick scan of downtown Kitchener shows they still have surface parking lots including one just a block from there. Just poor planning and poor place-making imo.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I personally think tearing down historic landmarks in the name of housing is a bad idea. Our cities tend to have relatively few buildings of architectural or historic significance given the age of the country and our colonial hinterland history. Yes cities need to change to allow growth and progress but there's so much bland stuff and empty lots that can be replaced that we're far from having to demo buildings of significance. Not saying it would never get to that point if a city got dense enough, but no city in Canada is anywhere near that.

This is an area where you can go too far in either direction. On one hand, people oppose developments out of pure foolishness such as they happen to be close to buildings that are shorter or because it'll affect the neighbourhood character. Or not wanting multi-family development that isn't even very tall. Those are mostly just fancy ways of saying they don't want the area to change. But on the other extreme you get people who don't value any building beyond its pure utilitarian function.

A place like Paris manages to preserve large numbers of low/mid rise historic buildings in the city centre despite being extremely dense while having lots of residential highrises outside the historic core. And Manhattan still has notable lowrise landmarks mixed in with the skyscrapers even right in midtown. Meanwhile, a quick scan of downtown Kitchener shows they still have surface parking lots including one just a block from there. Just poor planning and poor place-making imo.

That ship sailed in Kitchener's case back in 1973, when the old City Hall and Cenotaph Square were demolished for a (failed) shopping mall.

[Nouvellecosse]

We lost plenty of historic stuff here too including when a whole block or urban fabric was cleared for the Scotia Square shopping mall and office complex in the same era. But you don't necessarily need to preserve the entire core just to preserve some prominent landmarks. Halifax still has a variety of historic landmarks like City Hall, the historic properties at the waterfront, and several prominent churches Paris famously lost a huge part of its historic core due to the Haussman redesign. But that was long enough ago that the newer buildings constructed then are now themselves historic. Some of the buildings demolished at the time were medieval so they'd be quite ancient today.

[theman23]

https://downtownrecovery.com/dashboa...y_ranking.html

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by theman23

https://downtownrecovery.com/dashboa...y_ranking.html

SLC is crushing it

[Acajack]

Am I the only one who really, really doubts Ottawa is in better shape than Toronto or Montreal?

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Kitchener's skyline growth today and down the road is impressive. The quality and form of the development is boring. It depends on how much of the existing foundation ends up compromised "for progress'. I don't have much faith considering that hall was allowed to be demolished for a mediocre condo tower.

Every 401 downtown will look like a cross between Toronto's Entertainment District, North York Centre and, Humber Bay Shores with this level of sustained development over the next 50 years. I also wonder what the Canadian identity will look like but, that's another thread.

I did a quick google search. It was Trinity United church, that sold the site because they had declining parishioner attendance. A news article from 8-9 years ago stated they were hoping to work with a future developer for church space in the project. This article below states that they changed plans, sold the property unconditionally, and are leasing space from another church downtown.

https://www.therecord.com/news/water...309f780a.html?

It is a loss to destroy a once beautiful 111 year old church, but realistically they cannot all be saved. This one seems like a bigger loss because the new build is just so bad looking and at a prime intersection in downtown Kitchener.

The only upside in this Kitchener development (DTK Condos) is that downtown Kitchener is compact, so those 503 units of housing will make a big impact on overall vibrancy if the residents walk and patronize downtown establishments (which I assume most residents would). Trying to think of an upside