Your City, a Few Photos at a Time

[someone123]

Hollis Street in Halifax:


Source


Source

[Martin Mtl]

/\ Great pics. That corner building on the first pic is just gorgeous.

[Martin Mtl]

Place d'Armes by AV Dezign | www.avdezign. on flickr

[Pinion]

I took these today from Lighthouse Park today, about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver

Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver by chrisjohann, on Flickr

Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver by chrisjohann, on Flickr

[Trans Canada]

Originally Posted by Pinion

I took these today from Lighthouse Park today, about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver


Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver by chrisjohann, on Flickr

Squint enough and you can see the famous Mt. Baker skyline shot:

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by Trans Canada

Squint enough and you can see the famous Mt. Baker skyline shot:

Yep, more visible in real life, but phone camera + forest fire haze makes it a bit tough to make out.

[Klazu]

This just in: CHAOS IN VANCOUVER!!

With huge fires approaching the city the streets are empty after thousands of people have fled the city! Those that did not have the time to escape before roadblocks were set to close all roads from Downtown core are now taking shelter from looters in empty glass towers. According to news channels Canadian Armed Forces are expected to be sending search and rescue missions into Downtown to help remaining survivors. At this point there is no word on number of casualties.

Some scientist say that is the beginning of chain of events that will eventually turn British Columbia to Wasteland like seen in the new Mad Max movie.

[Hali87]

^Can't... tell... if... serious? In all honesty, many Canadian cities are very vulnerable to (ie could be completely screwed by) forest fires, Vancouver being a good example.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Hali87

^Can't... tell... if... serious? In all honesty, many Canadian cities are very vulnerable to (ie could be completely screwed by) forest fires, Vancouver being a good example.

The fires aren't near Vancouver. I think we're mostly getting smoke from the ones on Vancouver Island. People are not fleeing the city en masse but the skies do look about that ominous in person.

It is pretty bad this year. We have had almost no rain for 2 months and it is only early July, so it's very likely we'll get another 2-3 dry months. Limited rain in July happens pretty frequently, but in June it's highly unusual and I don't think it's ever happened before in May as it did this year. We have basically been having Northern California weather for all of 2015.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

/\ Great pics. That corner building on the first pic is just gorgeous.

Halifax had a sort of "golden age" around 1830-1870 when it was a major hub for shipping and finance. Lots of buildings like this were constructed around that time. Unfortunately, only 1/3 or so have survived, because the same areas kept getting redeveloped as the city grew. Even the 1920's office buildings replaced some of the nicest 1860's buildings. The same phenomenon is happening today as the exact prime blocks are developed into highrise buildings. The redevelopment creates pretty vibrant areas and an interesting mix of old and new but it is not great for heritage preservation, which seems to be a huge uphill battle in Halifax.

Here are some examples of blocks that were torn down (http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/):




In this one you can see what looks like that same building, but it was a second one on the corner one block north:


There were literally dozens of these buildings extending roughly from Buckingham Street to Salter Street, below Barrington.

[Klazu]

This shocking amateur photograph that was just posted on Twitter shows the dying light that was seen 12 hours ago, before the smoke engulfed whole city. 6 hours later power was lost city wide and all communications to and from Vancouver went black.

Developing story...

[Monolith]

Romancing the Stone ~ West Vancouver, BC by SeaSide Signs ~ Vancouver, BC, on Flickr Taken on July 1, 2015


Seaside Celebration ~ West Vancouver, BC by SeaSide Signs ~ Vancouver, BC, on Flickr Taken on July 1, 2015


Sechelt Fiery Sunset ~ Richmond, BC by SeaSide Signs ~ Vancouver, BC, on Flickr Taken on July 4, 2015

[Klazu]

BREAKING NEWS: there are now SKYSCRAPERS BURNING IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER!

At this point we cannot confirm how many casualties there might be, but there are tweets about people jumping from burning buildings. With no fire fighters left in the city, buildings are burning out of control.





With the thick plume of smoke it has become extremely difficult to move in or out of the city. Only a group of professional smoke divers and local pot heads are able to participate in the search and rescue operations at this point.

Prime Minister of Canada is expected to make a statement on the catastrophy in Vancouver on national television in next hour. There are rumours that Primer Minister Harper will be revealing some details on the cause of this huge firestorm which has been speculated to have started from a group of Liberal hippies having had a evening of sing-along and kumbaya around an open bonfire in Stanley Park on Friday evening.

It is also expected that the evacuation zone will be moved from west of Main Street to cover everything north of Fraser River. The current evacuation center is based in Surrey Center with a temporary lightrail line having been established by the CAF pioneers to help move aid in and out of the city.

[lake of the nations]

Carrefour Frontenac/Dufferin/Marquette by lake of the nations, on Flickr

This is where a new bridge will be built to replace an old one (that was behind me when I took this picture), which is a pure eyesore and ruins the confluence of the Magog and St. Francis rivers, in addition to being terribly antiurban. Note that the building in the previous picture can be seen just behind the city hall.


Le centro by lake of the nations, on Flickr


Le pont Gilbert-Hyatt, au centre-ville de Sherbrooke by lake of the nations, on Flickr

This urban park is located just front of the city hall. In the background, you can see Frontenac street (on the left) and Wellington street (on the right).


Petit spectacle au carré Strathcona by lake of the nations, on Flickr

[Hali87]

Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr

[whatnext]

My shot from a place high in Vancouver's West End yesterday, the North Shore Mountains obscured by smoke.

[IMG][/IMG]

[shappy]

A few photos from the Scarborough Bluffs

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Place d'Armes by AV Dezign | www.avdezign. on flickr

This shot reminds me of a number of east coast US cities as well as Chicago. Montreal was bad ass at the turn of the 20th century. ( It still is today). No other Canadian city has a vista like that.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by shappy

A few photos from the Scarborough Bluffs

The Bluffs are pretty awesome. There should be people swimming on that beach. Lake Ontario has a bad rap but most beaches are cleaner then any resort in the Caribbean. I suppose it will take time for the lake to lose it's bad image. The only dirty lake would be Lake Simcoe from all the farm land around it.

[Innsertnamehere]

Lake Simcoe is also really shallow, not much water for the chemicals to dilute in.