The Great Canadian Towns and Villages Thread

[TownGuy]

Some real estate drone shots of Cobourg, primarily of the central waterfront.





The blue-roofed building at the base of the pier is a new Coast Guard building that is U/C. The pier itself is poised for rehabilitation.




Interesting to note. Mostly all of that waterfront is former brownfield. Oil drums and coal piles.

[MolsonExport]

love the historic enclaves sans mcmansions and snouthouses

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

love the historic enclaves sans mcmansions and snouthouses

Same

[MolsonExport]

Is Cobourg growing fast? Looks like it, from those photos. I guess it is becoming a Toronto bedroom community. Nice looking beach.

[TownGuy]

Steadily but not fast, about 5% every 5 years. Could definitely be growing quicker that's for sure. I think it's been a warranted effort to not grow too quick.

[Metro-One]

So I was just in what I would call Canada's most true "desert town," Aschcroft, BC, in the Thompson Valley.

It was 39 degrees out while taking these pics, so I had to take regular breaks in the shade and drink lots of water!

It has the wide streets that all the towns I was working at in Nevada have

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Lots of cute shops and cafes in the town core.

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Very very dry

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Always somewhere to get sushi in BC!

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Big Truck by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Living by Ian, on Flickr

The Band must play on!

Ashcroft The Band! by Ian, on Flickr

The Thompson River

Ashcroft Bridge by Ian, on Flickr

The life lines of the town, the railroads.

Ashcroft Railroad by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft, BC, Canada by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Train 1 by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Train 2 by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Train 3 by Ian, on Flickr

Ashcroft Train Station by Ian, on Flickr

And the perfect desert motel!

Ashcroft Desert Motel by Ian, on Flickr

I love Ashcroft and it's setting and built form is a unique flair in Canada.

[MolsonExport]

Desert communities? Check out Cawston, Osoyoos, and Keremeos.

[Denscity]

Does Ashcroft have the least rainfall of the 4 communities mentioned?

[Wigs]

Now I know where they can film Fallout, the movie

In all seriousness it's fascinating to see towns like this in Canada. Very American Southwest looking
Thanks for sharing the photos.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Desert communities? Check out Cawston, Osoyoos, and Keremeos.

Actually, despite the tourist ads, none of the places are a true desert. They get around 11 to 11.5 of precipitation a year {only 3 inches less than Calgary} and the threshold for a desert is 10 inches. They certainly have the flora and fauna of deserts but deserts they are not. Another metric is evaporation rates and again they don't qualify. The SO is also not the sunniest place in BC but rather UVIC station in Victoria.

Density is quite correct in that Ashcroft BC is the only true desert in Canada except for the extreme arctic. S.OK has several weather stations and hence gets the title to our driest place and Ashcroft's station closed years ago so the closest station is Spences Bridge.

Ashcroft is in a steep valley and hence microclimate and the only road from there is from Cashe Creek and the road is straight down to the Ashcroft Valley. Independent studies have shown that it is the driest {under 10 inches}, sunniest, and has the highest evaporation rate in the country.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Actually, despite the tourist ads, none of the places are a true desert. They get around 11 to 11.5 of precipitation a year {only 3 inches less than Calgary} and the threshold for a desert is 10 inches. They certainly have the flora and fauna of deserts but deserts they are not. Another metric is evaporation rates and again they don't qualify. The SO is also not the sunniest place in BC but rather UVIC station in Victoria.

Density is quite correct in that Ashcroft BC is the only true desert in Canada except for the extreme arctic. S.OK has several weather stations and hence gets the title to our driest place and Ashcroft's station closed years ago so the closest station is Spences Bridge.

Ashcroft is in a steep valley and hence microclimate and the only road from there is from Cashe Creek and the road is straight down to the Ashcroft Valley. Independent studies have shown that it is the driest {under 10 inches}, sunniest, and has the highest evaporation rate in the country.

Well yes, according to the accepted definitions for desert, we haven't any true deserts in Canada (I lived in Osoyoos and Kelowna for periods in the 90s and 00s), except parts of the arctic. Appearance wise, the southern Okanagan, and Similkameen Valleys have parts (the non-irrigated parts) that look very much like sagebrush desert, which wouldn't be out of place in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah or Southern California.

Nearby Osoyoos:

[Architype]

Here's a desert-like landscape in Newfoundland, it may be the most desert-like in Eastern Canada, sub-Arctic.



Google Maps link:
https://goo.gl/maps/ZxqtuA9t7byGJbjP6

[Truenorth00]

Jason Slaughter at Not Just Bikes recently made a video about the quality of transit and active transport infrastructure in the Netherlands that he hadn't covered in his other videos. What was interesting was the infrastructure he pointed out in small Dutch towns towards the end.

• Video Link

This honestly is something I noticed about small towns in Canada in my travels during my career. Small towns in Canada are mostly terrible. The rare exceptions in this thread appeal more to aesthetics than actual form. Do we have any small towns that are genuinely walkable and bikeable? I'd love to learn more about the places where everybody isn't just driving thru Tim's in an F150. I absolutely fell in love with Oberammergau in Germany on a course at the NATO School. Would love to find something like that in Canada.

[ssiguy]

The thing I like most about Jason Slaughter is that he loves the Netherlands so much that he will never return to Canada which is wonderful because we are far better off without his sanctimonious attitudes....Netherland's lost, Canada's gain.

I love in this video how he exclaims it's amazing to be able to cross the country and reach every small town on a train. The fact that Canada has provincial parks bigger than the Netherlands seems to allude him. Curious that many more Dutch move to Canada every year than the opposite. Odd, because according to him Canada is just one notch above the slums of Calcutta. Naturally he never mentions that as that would contradict his narrative so he has never brought it up.

Jason's entire mantra seems to be "if it's good for me than it's good for everyone". I do find his videos interesting and informative but he is exceptionally narcissistic.

[Truenorth00]

I love his tone. It's how I have felt about our shitty cities long before I discovered urbanism and forums like this.

As for the usual crap about, "XYZ place is so small.", it's the lovely excuse that Canadians use to excuse mediocrity in all the settled regions of this country. Sure, our country is too big to cross by rail. But you can't even cross the Quebec-Windsor or CalEd Corridors or the Lower Mainland faster than a car. He's right to call that out. He literally made a video about the geography excuse.

• Video Link

On topic, I know exactly the intersection he used in Moose Jaw for his small town comparison. And I thought it was a shitty town when I was posted there 20 years ago. So glad to see somebody else confirm my opinion.

Canada could have charming small towns. Instead, for the most part they're so shitty and depressing. Dying strip malls. And the hive of social activity is the Tim Hortons drive thru usually.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Desert communities? Check out Cawston, Osoyoos, and Keremeos.

That’s why I said “most true.” There are many desert like towns in BC and the Prairies (they are all technically “semi-arid” climate zones) but Ashcroft is the driest of them all. In fact it is the driest place in Canada south of 60 degrees.

The build form of the town is also the most “Nevada like” IMO of all the warm dry towns I have visited (and I know you know that I frequent the dry interior often).

[megadude]

There was at one point two trailer parks in Mississauga. One closed in 2011 and the other was slated as of 2017 to also be redeveloped. Been about three years since I drove past that second one so not sure if it's still there.

They are/were both right smack dab in the middle of residential/commercial/industrial developments so they seemed completely out of place. And neither was obvious when passing by due to being tucked back or even behind other buildings. And both were on Dundas, which is a high volume major commercial road. They could both be described as enclaves.

The older one was more like TPB's Sunnyvale. Dirt/gravel road with old, small trailers. The other one had a mix and some looked like modular homes. And the roads paved. I must admit, I drove through both out of curiosity.


JIM WILKES / TORONTO STAR


STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR


https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/05/...cing-eviction/


Richard Lautens / TORONTO STAR file photo


Tina Mackenzie/CBC


https://vikpahwa.com/tag/trailer-park/

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Canada could have charming small towns. Instead, for the most part they're so shitty and depressing. Dying strip malls. And the hive of social activity is the Tim Hortons drive thru usually.

That is pretty typical for small towns in North America unless a significant portion of the economy is tourism-based or it is within a not very far drive to a major urban centre.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

The thing I like most about Jason Slaughter is that he loves the Netherlands so much that he will never return to Canada which is wonderful because we are far better off without his sanctimonious attitudes....Netherland's lost, Canada's gain.

I love in this video how he exclaims it's amazing to be able to cross the country and reach every small town on a train. The fact that Canada has provincial parks bigger than the Netherlands seems to allude him. Curious that many more Dutch move to Canada every year than the opposite. Odd, because according to him Canada is just one notch above the slums of Calcutta. Naturally he never mentions that as that would contradict his narrative so he has never brought it up.

Jason's entire mantra seems to be "if it's good for me than it's good for everyone". I do find his videos interesting and informative but he is exceptionally narcissistic.

Elude. And I think you've expressed that video maker's point quite nicely.

Socially and politically we've made very different decisions about urban growth/change in Canada. Were they smart? Up for debate, but I think they've been very wasteful. Perhaps we are finally beginning to understand that, and the costs associated with the way we've "grown"

Perhaps.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Loco101

That is pretty typical for small towns in North America unless a significant portion of the economy is tourism-based or it is within a not very far drive to a major urban centre.

Long before I discovered urbanism or forums like this, I knew something was wrong when I would go to Europe for a course or exercise and walk everywhere in a small town and love it. Then I'd get back to Canada and be grossed out by what I saw.

There's nothing that says our small towns have to be as bad as they are. That they choose to be is what is so depressing. The pockets of walkability they build are dramatically in demand. For example, I was back in Trenton after a very long time, for a course, and discovered a small waterfront block they made. The previous main hangout in that part of Trenton? A Tim Hortons.

What's sad to me is how much potential these towns squander. Places like Trenton should have large walkable downtowns, with parking at the periphery of the main Street. They should have good bike infrastructure. You should be able to get around town without a car. It would make these places very enjoyable. But Trenton couldn't even support proper taxi service because everybody drives. One of my coursemates walked back 5km to the base with his luggage after taking the late VIA back from Ottawa. And not just Trenton, I see places like Kingston with nice old cores, get overrun by butt ugly suburbs that are just spread out and far enough that every adult in the house needs a car.