Busiest Downtowns in Canada

[Nouvellecosse]

^^ What he's probably implying is, are you sure they weren't trying to emulate the other, more famous George St.? You know, the main drag in Sydney? Since it's Sydney wanting to copy off of Sydney and all the cuteness that would entail?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Dutch Village - The main commercial street for Fairview (immediately west of the Peninsula). Kind of drab and not quite hip but there's been a lot of decent infill lately and I could see it becoming more active in terms of retail/nightlife over the next 5 years or so - it feels a bit like Quinpool did in the 90s. Historically very German (despite the name)

You may know this and I am not sure how interesting it is generally but most/all of the "Dutch"-named stuff in Halifax really means "German" (Deutsch), and was named back in the 1700's or so. Dutch Village was a literal village in the countryside. At one point a lot of the settlers were Foreign Protestants who spoke German, although some of them were from other countries like Switzerland. This population is also why there's a Brunswick Street, Dresden Row, Gottingen Street, and a New Brunswick province.

A lot of Halifax-area names are a bit mangled. Barrington was originally supposed to be Harrington and Hollis was supposed to be Holles (I guess those were famous people circa 1749). Spryfield is Captain Willam Spry's field and Hammonds Plains was associated with Lord Hammond (husband of the Lady Hammond who got a road). Quinpool is supposedly a shortened version of "Quinn's Pool".

Some George Streets would have been named after different Georges. The one for the George Street in Halifax was King George II, who ruled from 1727-1760.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

The local alternative weekly magazine, The Coast, used to have its offices in an impressive Romanesque old bank building in downtown Halifax, and the owners lived in an apartment above it. That gives you a sense of the downtown's decline in the mid-century: by the mid-90s, its most monumental and impressive downtown architecture was home to scrappy twentysomethings running left-leaning news and arts magazines. Which is cool, but a bit Detroit-ish, and not a great sign for the city's economic base.

Today, that same building is occupied by a nightclub, and is slated to soon become part of a major office redevelopment which see it become again hub of commerce.

So, while there's definitely an appeal to having a downtown so inexpensive that it's accessible to anyone doing anything (think of lower Manhattan in the '70s) that era has long since passed.

Didn't they later move from a Portland Place to Maynard Street? That's another similar jump.

I remember when Barrington had businesses like Dooly's, a pool hall, taking up large storefront spaces that would have been built for major retailers way back when. As you say it's kind of interesting and allowed for some quirky spaces that couldn't have otherwise existed but I think the city is way better now. And there are way more businesses in total now. Instead of Barrington being the smaller stuff and Gottingen being a bombed-out wasteland, Gottingen is like what Barrington used to be. And the higher-end retailers like Spring Garden Road clothing chains or the Apple store in HSC simply didn't exist in the city in the 90's.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

^^ What he's probably implying is, are you sure they weren't trying to emulate the other, more famous George St.? You know, the main drag in Sydney? Since it's Sydney wanting to copy off of Sydney and all the cuteness that would entail?

Is there a George Street in Sydney Aus? If there is I think the one in St. John's would be better-known by Canadians. The "Allure, Sydney" was definitely modeled after the one on George Street in St. John's as a sort of second location, and there was some overlap in ownership/management.

edit:

St. John's:


Source


Sydney:


Source

Both are now closed.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

Your impression is that destination streets barely exist outside of Montreal, Toronto and... Hamilton?

That strikes me as a bizarre "impression" to have (I'm just going to ignore the incongruous inclusion of Hamilton in your list).

That you think Hamilton being on the list is incongruous simply means you (and people in general) don't know anything about Hamilton.

The streets/hoods I mentioned are destinations that draw outsiders due to their unique characteristics. They're not just business districts serving local areas, but function as centralized collections of similar businesses, making them a sort of "one-stop shop."

These kinds of "hives" probably exist in many cities when it comes to nightlife or restaurants, but most of them are downtown (i.e. the Exchange District in Winnipeg), and I haven't really seen them or others to have the sort of critical mass that you get in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa, etc., nor is there as much variety beyond the restaurant/nightlife thing (Corydon in Winnipeg comes to mind as a patio destination).

For example, Winnipeg has two universities, but there's no district identifiably functioning as a centre for student life because the students aren't centralized into one area.

I actually made a thread almost ten years ago on the topic: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ttawa+antiques
I don't think it got much traction because this phenomenon isn't very common outside of the usual cities. It certainly is a curiosity that Hamilton has so much of this kind of thing, while London and K-W don't.

Originally Posted by someone123

I will let Rousseau explain what he meant but there's definitely a difference between a smaller city that has a "main street" that is a generic urban destination (maybe the only place in the metro area with a high density of storefronts) and larger cities that have more specialized and differentiated streets like an antiques' row, Greek town, or gay village.

Yeah, this.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Is there a George Street in Sydney Aus? .

There is a George St. in most any city or town in the Commonwealth.

In Sydney Australia it's a fairly major street in the CBD.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I know what you mean and agree, but for argument's sake I would like to point out that George Street, though unknown in Canada (if you're not in Newfoundland, but you've heard it before, it's because of ME personally, so that counts as still unknown),

George St. does have some renown in Canada. I'd heard about it before you and before going to Newfoundland.

Canadiana geeks would know about it. Of course, Canadiana geeks are a small minority in this country so it is not as well known as it might be if your average person was most interested in Canadian stuff.

But if you go to a place like Ottawa which has larger than average share of Canadiana geeks, you'll find a decent number of people know about George St.

They're the types who, upon hearing you are from St John's, will ask you if you go out on George St. to make small talk. The same types who will talk about the Roughriders to people from Saskatchewan or about the wind at Portage and Main to people from Winnipeg.

(My dad is kinda that type. He likes Canadian trivia.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by wave46

A balance between skeets (in your case) and the rest of society is important. Think of them as spice on an otherwise bland dish of city living. Too much and it's unlivable or inedible. Too little and you wonder if you might as well live in the suburbs or be eating plain white rice.

Places like San Francisco are currently finding out the hard way what it's like to have the imbalance tip towards the wrong side of the equation.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There is a George St. in most any city or town in the Commonwealth.

Sherbrooke, QC has

1) a George Street
2) a King-George Street
3) a King Street named after a King George (the fourth one, IIRC)

those three being entirely unrelated and in different parts of town.

I guess that's not even atypical.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

(My dad is kinda that type. He likes Canadian trivia.)

Now I'm wondering what small talk angle he'd choose for someone from Quebec.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

Now I'm wondering what small talk angle he'd choose for someone from Quebec.

Oh, being a francophone and having worked with many Québécois during his career, he's got a gazillion references for regions and towns in Quebec. Maybe more than any other province.

He wouldn't limit himself to generalities about the province.

[lio45]

And now I'm wondering what small talk angle he'd choose for someone from Sherbrooke.



We did give the province Charest, but that's some years ago already.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

And now I'm wondering what small talk angle he'd choose for someone from Sherbrooke.



We did give the province Charest, but that's some years ago already.

Probably Charest. Or some hockey player or Olympic athlete that has been in the news. Or Lac-Mégantic (it's close enough). Or round barns typical of the Eastern Townships. Or something else.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

Didn't they later move from a Portland Place to Maynard Street? That's another similar jump.

Dunno about Portland Place, but they’re on Maynard now, yeah. (Although who knows how long—the paper stopped printing a few weeks ago due to a collapse in advertising and event-sponsorship revenue thanks to Covid. Still publishing online for the time being, but we’ll see if it returns to print.)

[logan5]

Uh, what are the destination streets in Hamilton? Would like to have a look on Street View. Maybe because Toronto overshadows it, but I don't know of any destination streets or neighbourhoods in Hamilton.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by rousseau

My impression is that destination streets barely exist outside of Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton. Probably Vancouver, I'm assuming, too. Not sure about Quebec City.

There is Corydon in Winnipeg for the summer patio thing, but it's interesting to contrast Winnipeg with the more multi-nodal Hamilton, where you have Locke St. for foodie options; Ottawa St. for fabrics and antiques; Hess Village for sedate daytime drinking and/or weekend vomit fests for twenty-year-olds; James St. North for the hipster food and art scene; and Westdale for the student crowd.

Though Hamilton doesn't have any ethnic destinations. James St. North used to be Italian and Portuguese, but there are only a few remnants of the social clubs and restaurants there now.

Locke: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.25592...7i16384!8i8192

Ottawa: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.25037...7i16384!8i8192

Hess Village: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.25809...7i13312!8i6656

James North: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.26293...7i16384!8i8192

Westdale: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.26148...7i13312!8i6656
(By the way, Westdale doesn't look like an American-style "college area," because nowhere in Canada has that kind of thing. It's simply next to McMaster where tons of students live).

[logan5]

[lio45]

Originally Posted by logan5

Uh, what are the destination streets in Hamilton? Would like to have a look on Street View. Maybe because Toronto overshadows it, but I don't know of any destination streets or neighbourhoods in Hamilton.

Same here.

... does it still count as "destination streets" if the only people out there who are aware that they're destination streets are local Hamiltonians?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Probably Charest. Or some hockey player or Olympic athlete that has been in the news. Or Lac-Mégantic (it's close enough). Or round barns typical of the Eastern Townships. Or something else.

Impressive! (For a Nova Scotian. Even a franco one.)

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by logan5

The UDP makes design recommendations all the time. Their name is literally Urban Design Panel. Made up of architects and landscape architects.

What was I talking about? Planners. A UDP is not part of a planning department. They are set up by council and are an extension of a council's powers of discretion. Also, their power varies across municipalities. Some legal experts think they represent an over-reach that could be challenged in court. BUT, have you ever heard of someone taking a city to court?