The Great Canadian Parking Lot Thread!

[Cyro]

Seems to be quite a few similarities between Hamiliton and Winnipeg.

Although the Construction of the Red River Floodway, "Duff's Ditch" completed in 1968 and upgraded to a higher standard of flood prevention, and completed around 2012 iirc, pretty much insured Winnipeg's core area, downtown and environs would be well protected .

Before 1950, yes the core of the City would flood, today, a 1 in 700 year flood would be needed to affect Winnipeg. A very different story from the emtpy lot syndrome that the city has experienced which can be attributed in a large part to a combination of economics and geography.

[VIce]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Calgary has traditionally had three main offenders.

1) the blocks at the north end of downtown ( a decade ago the white topped towers didn't exist, so there were 3 1/2 full city blocks of parking lots all together).

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=calga...a,+Canada&z=18

Thankfully, as if a few weeks ago all of the empty lots you see have plans to develop

2) the lots around the tracks at the south end of downtown

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=calga...a,+Canada&z=16

This is former rail industrial land that is only being developed at a glacial pace

3) The East Village

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=calga...a,+Canada&z=17

Many of the vacant blocks which don't have cars in this view did a few years ago.
Luckily the city has been working on developing the entire area, with planned or in progress projects being several towers, a new central library, and the National Music Centre. Every lot here is expected to be developed in the new couple or few decades.

So really #2 is the one shameful area without a lot of plans.

Would that not be a good location for a commuter / intercity rail station / intermodal hub? Being the old Via station is basically a few surface-level slabs of concrete and falling apart.

[roccerfeller]

I find Winnipeg to be pretty bad when it comes to parking lots in the core, though Hamilton seems to be pretty bad as well (worse than I thought)

But thankfully some of the worst lots in Winnipeg are being dealt with. At one point, that was unthinkable but here we are....already one of the worst lots is getting the convention centre expansion, currently U/C.

If the city's new tallest ends up becoming reality, then another of the worst lots will get filled up

there's a lot more to get filled but those two projects would be huge in terms of changing the "feel" of that part of downtown


Calgary has some bad parts too, as has already been mentioned but nothing glaringly as shameful as Winnipeg. I guess Winnipeg's downtown area is larger though, technically speaking (I think its more than twice as spread out), and it doesn't have the same development boom Calgary had (and arguably still has) so those are some other factors to consider regarding the sheer number of offensive lots

Ottawa has a fantastic core relative to what I was used to seeing....I remember seeing Ottawa's core for the first time and thinking "wow there are no lots, and it feels wonderfully dense" ... great stuff.

On the plus side, at least Winnipeg is moving forward in some significant ways.

[MolsonExport]

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Resigns from Cabinet

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I think Vancouver wins for surface parking coverage in Canada - or lack thereof, rather. Map I did a few years ago, for this thread: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=191539. I may have missed a few, but a number of these have also been accounted for since then.

Just did a quick update off of the top of my head.



Yellow dots equal redeveloped or under construction.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Resigns from Cabinet

To become a parking lot attendant?

[Nouvellecosse]

To spend lots of time in the park, I'd imagine.

[SFUVancouver]

I think it was to get back to the private sector career he parked to enter politics.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

To become a parking lot attendant?

Haha! Wrong thread, evidently. I don't know how I messed up.

[alps]

Here's one I made for Halifax ages ago. I guess the legend was:

• Green - development planned/under construction
• Blue - rumoured development plans
• Red - no known plans

It's outdated now. Some of the green lots now have buildings nearing completion, and some concrete proposals have been made for the blue and red lots. Most notably, construction is well underway on much of the two large green clusters near the centre of the image. The Halifax Central Library will open this year on the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street, and the Nova Centre convention centre is being built on the green square to the right of the Citadel.

[Beedok]

I'm not certain, but I think Hamilton allows less on street parking, which might help explain why it has so many parking lots.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Beedok

I'm not certain, but I think Hamilton allows less on street parking, which might help explain why it has so many parking lots.

I always parked on the street in Hamilton, no shortage of spots. No way I will give any of my money to those parking lots.

Hamilton has a lot of parking lots because it's the best way to make money with your property downtown.

[Coldrsx]

Lamphier: Downtown arena, condo developments gobbling up parking lots

Rates to go up as number of surface lots go down

BY GARY LAMPHIER, EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON - Edmonton’s downtown skyline will be radically transformed over the next few years.

With a forest of new highrise condo and office towers springing up, and the sprawling new downtown arena project underway, Edmonton is about to finally ditch its dreary Deadmonton reputation for good.

Like many local hockey fans, Darren Matwichuk, an investment adviser at Canaccord Genuity, is eager to watch the Oilers play in their spiffy new home, a short five-minute walk from his office at Manulife Place.

In the meantime, Matwichuk has a serious gripe, however. Along with thousands of downtown office workers, he’s finding it increasingly difficult to find easy, affordable parking near his workplace.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/busin...770/story.html

[Chadillaccc]

Another entire block of Calgary's shameful rail-side parking is about to disappear. An excavator just arrived on the site of Place 10 in the Beltline. The development will be two 14 storey, 60 meter towers covering an entire block. It appears both will be going ahead at the same time, and will be built on spec.

[Coldrsx]

Only New York tops Calgary in downtown parking rates, but Edmonton not far behind

Direct response to low supply and high demand

BY MARIO TONEGUZZI, CALGARY HERALD

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/busin...577/story.html

[MolsonExport]

I don't think it needs explanation. Let's see them. Everybody's favorite landscape of the 21st century, parking lots! There are lots of parking, and lots of parking lots. Thus lots of parking lots of parking lots of parking lots of parking lots of parking.

I can think of no better place to start this thread than Laval.

smartcentres.com

The miltonization of the universe:

stupidcentres.com

[MolsonExport]

bclocalnews

[stevanford1]

Someone needs to hit these things with their car:

[MolsonExport]

Corndoggerland

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Corndoggerland

Complete with Micheal's.