Post some pictures of your city! II - Page 364

Robinsons red cliffs by Bailey Parsons, on Flickr

Quidi Vidi Village, part of St. John's but geographically separated from it by a few hills. It's only a 5-minute drive to downtown. Green house on the far right is no longer in my family but it is where my mother grew up, and where I spent a lot of my childhood.

Quidi Vidi Village by vanessa violet, on Flickr

Just a little farther down, an aerial to show it perfectly. Main harbour at bottom is St. John's. The very next one above with houses is Quidi Vidi:

The Narrows by Karen Chappell, on Flickr

Duckworth Street.

2191 by ontario photo connection, on Flickr

The Sergeant's Memorial. Used to be the centre of a roundabout, now the streets are just weird all around it.

3191 by ontario photo connection, on Flickr

This one doesn't say where it is, but I think it's new development in Trinity.

Abandon Row Boats by Dave Williams, on Flickr

Cochrane Street Church.

Downtown St. John's by Karen Chappell, on Flickr

View of the Basilica from Quidi Vidi Lake during the Royal St. John's Regatta.

24274c-regatta by Ritche Perez, on Flickr

The Battery neighbourhood back before it was gentrified.

61874c-TheBattery-StJohns by Ritche Perez, on Flickr

The Portuguese White Fleet, perhaps the most beloved and frequent European visits to St. John's Harbour (they were the main attraction at the city's first gay-friendly bars in the 1960s, and they held processions through downtown gifting statues and the like to churches, and they played soccer on the harbourfront with locals, etc.).

waterfront by Ritche Perez, on Flickr

isaidso · #**7274** Posted **May 18, 2019, 2:40 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rousseau

Quote:

https://www.imgrumweb.com/tayrontoo

This is what great urbanity is made of. It doesn't get any better than this.

It's decent urbanity but wouldn't give it any higher than a 6.5/10. The sidewalk is concrete, the sidewalk is extremely narrow, there's no greenery between the sidewalk and road, there's no bike path, there's overhead wiring (even wiring on the facade), there are no places to sit, the buildings are undersized for a downtown of a big city, and the buildings are shabby and extremely modest.

Sure it could be a ton worse but this isn't the urban template we should be striving for.

Nouvellecosse · #**7275** Posted **May 18, 2019, 3:04 AM**

In my observation the things that urban enthusiasts often value the most are a human scale, good street interface (few gaps between buildings and entrances built to sidewalk), and character/sense of place. That's likely why gritty and/or historic spaces are so highly valued. Not only can having lots of polished, creature comfort type elements exist without these core basics, but it could be argued that high levels of polish can actually erode them.

kool maudit · #**7276** Posted **May 18, 2019, 1:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaidso

It's decent urbanity but wouldn't give it any higher than a 6.5/10. The sidewalk is concrete, the sidewalk is extremely narrow, there's no greenery between the sidewalk and road, there's no bike path, there's overhead wiring (even wiring on the facade), there are no places to sit, the buildings are undersized for a downtown of a big city, and the buildings are shabby and extremely modest.

Sure it could be a ton worse but this isn't the urban template we should be striving for.

I see what you are saying and agree with the individual elements, but there is such a thing as 'more than the sum of its parts'.

Toronto has a visual 'anything goes' aesthetic that is worth something. In Copenhagen and Stockholm, for instance, you see a perfected urbanity that can almost get fussy. Everything is in its right place, bike paths and well-tiled sidewalks and buried wires beside Baroque apartment blocks... but it lacks that noir feel Toronto can have.

Maldive · #**7277** Posted **May 18, 2019, 4:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I see what you are saying and agree with the individual elements, but there is such a thing as 'more than the sum of its parts'.

Toronto has a visual 'anything goes' aesthetic that is worth something. In Copenhagen and Stockholm, for instance, you see a perfected urbanity that can almost get fussy. Everything is in its right place, bike paths and well-tiled sidewalks and buried wires beside Baroque apartment blocks... but it lacks that noir feel Toronto can have.

^I agree. Toronto can't remotely compete with postcards of many European cities (have visited many).

The heart of the city remains its cornucopia of diverse neighbourhoods... built, grown and maintained by proud locals from around the world.

As a skyscraper geek I am enjoying the mayhem of skyline change too ... most of it is of course .. not well received (in town and elsewhere), but there are some gem projects (some rather massive-The Well, Don River) that makes it fun to watch and dream. Better than TV.

Toronto: the mayhem highrise construction capital of the continent.. with too many overhead wires ;-)

isaidso · #**7278** Posted **May 19, 2019, 3:48 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I see what you are saying and agree with the individual elements, but there is such a thing as 'more than the sum of its parts'.

Toronto has a visual 'anything goes' aesthetic that is worth something. In Copenhagen and Stockholm, for instance, you see a perfected urbanity that can almost get fussy. Everything is in its right place, bike paths and well-tiled sidewalks and buried wires beside Baroque apartment blocks... but it lacks that noir feel Toronto can have.

The messy mish mash of Toronto is preferable to the homogeneity of much of Europe. It's actually a quality that I wouldn't trade. That said, I take issue with such a lofty rating of a typical Queen West streetscape. It works but it's not the pinnacle of urbanity.

Europe (and Vancouver) can feel over designed and orderly but we're guilty of going too far in the other direction. I'm curious as to what you think of that stretch of Front just west of St. Lawrence market. It's prettier with a better public realm but is it less interesting at the same time?

rousseau · #**7279** Posted **May 19, 2019, 4:27 AM**

For a neighbourhood 3 km away from the CBD? You've got brick buildings with narrow shopfronts and two storeys of residential over top of them providing an intimate, organically developed and still thriving streetscape that is a rare commodity in North America, so I figure my little hyperbole is warranted. Sure, you can nitpick: Toronto's sidewalks are universally way too small (why is that?), the ornamentation of the buildings themselves is lacking, etc, etc.

But these are details. In North America we have to take what we can get, and most often the takings are paltry, so we cherish the good stuff. As the great Hillel said regarding the ultimate meaning of the Torah: "Love thy neighbour; the rest is commentary."

On this side of the Atlantic, once you've got what's in that picture you're golden. Improvements are nice, but they're not the central point of all this urbanity stuff, per the rabbinical analogy.

lio45 · #**7280** Posted **May 19, 2019, 4:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

https://www.imgrumweb.com/tayrontoo

This one (the foreground) gives me the same vibe as the one rousseau singled out: the kind of real urbanity where every single building has some kind of retail business at street level, some of them obscure and weird ("Golden Shine Trading"?), and nothing's tourist-oriented, fake, or excessively polished.

I agree some European cities are too "polished" / not "organic" enough.

For a good example of the contrast, look no further than the Calgary pics that were posted on this very page. Calgary looks sterile and plain in comparison. (If any Calgarian is about to get offended by this comment, consider that I just compared Calgary to Copenhagen/Stockholm, while Toronto would be NYC.)