Your City, a Few Photos at a Time

[Tone]

Ce soir - Le Rocher Blanc (Rimouski)

[MolsonExport]

Est-il trop froid pour se baigner dans le Saint-Laurent à Rimouski?

[MolsonExport]

I wouldn't be surprised if 3 million people WANT to live in and around Victoria. I know I would love to live there, but it is just too damned pricey.

[Tone]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Est-il trop froid pour se baigner dans le Saint-Laurent à Rimouski?

Oui sauf justement à l'endroit de la photo, le Rocher Blanc. Quand les conditions sont bonnes; chaleur, soleil et mer calme, le haut fond de sable de la baie agit un peu comme une loupe et réchauffe l'eau quelques degrés à marée haute.

[zoomer]

Too pricey for me as well MolsonExport - but I've accepted apartment life as the price I must pay. Average house price hit 1 million last month, median was lower at $865,000.

Oh well, at least it's leading to the construction of more apartments and condo, cause what else can young people afford?

A few more pics from the past week - unfortunately some were taken mid day and dealing with the bright sun and just a phone camera, but they turned out ok for an amateur.

[IMG]Pandora Street Bike Lane
by
JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]You’re in luck by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Hudson Bay by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

Additional roadside patio for the Bard and Banker pub - I like the stepped approach being on an incline, plus the effect of a room with the overhead beam and just two tables per section for social distancing.

[IMG]New Bard and Banker patio by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

Built in 1885 as the Bank of BC, and was a bank up until 1985. The two storey interior is gorgeous. Named the Bard and Banker, because famed poet Robert Service once worked here.

Here's the exterior:

[IMG]Bard and Banker by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Government Street by
JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Belmont Building
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]The Falls Condo by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Douglas and Fort Street
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]The Odeon by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Another Roadside Patio by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Chinatown by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Bus Stop by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Jukebox Condo
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

One day I'll have to do a proper tour, this is barely touching on downtown, and not even the inner harbour area. The neighbourhoods on the edge of downtown are a whole world themselves, just a peek for now:

[IMG]Fernwood Square
by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Craigdarroch

by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr[/IMG]

[MolsonExport]

Love Victoria. It has been a decade since I last visited.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Always strikes me as looking like a city out of Tasmania or New Zealand.

That's what I was thinking as well. Between the architecture, new infill, flora, landscaping, and the general pattern in which the city is arranged, Victoria has a decidedly "Pacific British Empire" aesthetic. Whereas even nearby Vancouver and the rest of BC are more typical of North American urban forms.

Originally Posted by Peggerino

It looks like one of those new suburban mall developents that's trying to look all old timey

I can see where you're coming from with that photo - something about the forlorn picnic tables on the wide expanse of concrete. In reality though it seems to be a pretty successful public space. Would have been better if they'd gone for something a bit more traditional like Kingston's Market Square (https://goo.gl/maps/Y4ih5sZvVKU3KW4WA), but still not bad:


https://www.gspgroup.ca/wp-content/u...res-credit.jpg


https://www.facebook.com/StratfordMa...type=3&theater

[someone123]

Halifax Citadel

Source

Dalhousie and King's College

Source

Prince Street

Source

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

https://www.gspgroup.ca/wp-content/u...res-credit.jpg

If there's a more strikingly cute and quaint urban vista in Canada than this aerial image, I don't know it. It looks like a miniature park.

[someone123]

Source


Source

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

. . . something a bit more traditional like Kingston's Market Square (https://goo.gl/maps/Y4ih5sZvVKU3KW4WA), but still not bad:


https://www.gspgroup.ca/wp-content/u...res-credit.jpg

Had no idea. I have only spent 30 minutes in Kingston (I don't count sleeping in my car after getting off the 401 for gas at 4AM and driving in circles until near empty . . . long time ago). Again my country surprises me. How could this not be well known to all of us? Kingston in general should be better known.

What is the kind of retail, restaurants, and other businesses, occupy all those little storefronts. What is the missing leg of the triangle like?

[KnoxfordGuy]

Regarding the orange submarine...wtf? They are identical. Wayyyyy to identical to be coincidence.

[Nouvellecosse]

That is weird. I wonder if that's a common design used by playground equipment manufacturers and the Simpsons were simply depicting it as a normal part of neighbourhood parks?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

https://www.gspgroup.ca/wp-content/u...res-credit.jpg


https://www.facebook.com/StratfordMa...type=3&theater

When I went to a francophone Ontario high school for a few years, the annual "reward" for the best students in English (which I always was, even among anglicized Franco-Ontarians) was a spring trip to Stratford to see a Shakespearean play.

I actually went four years in a row. It was great. I loved the look of the town though as Rousseau has often mentioned, there is a sketchy grungy element to a lot of the young people that you wouldn't necessarily expect on the shores of the River Avon. Even at 17 I noticed it.

[niwell]

Very coincidentally I was just in Stratford this past weekend, for the first time since 2010 or so I think. A friend and his girlfriend are staying there during COVID as his parents have a vacant retirement home there which beats a tiny condo. The square has been redone since my last visit and looks great - not suburban in feel at all from what I could tell. The town didn't seem as busy as it was during real festival season, but lots of pedestrian traffic on the street and it was actually hard to get a table on many patios. Hopefully the establishments there can weather this better than some others.

Last time I was there I noticed a ton of bored older teens who'd glare at tourists walking by but not so much this time - maybe they were all inside! The crowd at one of the breweries slightly outside of downtown had a decidedly more local feel as well (we only got beers to go as they didn't have an outdoor seating area).

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Marshal

Had no idea. I have only spent 30 minutes in Kingston (I don't count sleeping in my car after getting off the 401 for gas at 4AM and driving in circles until near empty . . . long time ago). Again my country surprises me. How could this not be well known to all of us? Kingston in general should be better known.

What is the kind of retail, restaurants, and other businesses, occupy all those little storefronts. What is the missing leg of the triangle like?

That's Stratford, not Kingston. All three sections of the triangle are small commercial businesses. More shots here: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...postcount=7387

[rousseau]

I mean, I hope I didn't overstate how menacing the local nogoodnik kids are. I don't think the Deliverance population here is proportionally higher than in other similarly sized places like Woodstock or what have you. Maybe it's just unexpected because of how "cultured" this place can otherwise appear to be.

The thing about Stratford, though, is that it's not Niagara-on-the-Lake, but rather, it's a mostly self-sufficient city and agricultural hub with a lot of industry that would essentially be Woodstock if the Festival weren't here. It's a pleasant day-trip or weekend getaway for some Shakespeare, but my impression is that some first-time visitors are a bit surprised at how much of this place goes about its own business without caring all that much about tourism.

After all, when you approach from Toronto or Michigan you have to wade through the standard suburban ephemera of interchangeable car lots and fast food joints before you get to downtown.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I mean, I hope I didn't overstate how menacing the local nogoodnik kids are. I don't think the Deliverance population here is proportionally higher than in other similarly sized places like Woodstock or what have you. Maybe it's just unexpected because of how "cultured" this place can otherwise appear to be.

The thing about Stratford, though, is that it's not Niagara-on-the-Lake, but rather, it's a mostly self-sufficient city and agricultural hub with a lot of industry that would essentially be Woodstock if the Festival weren't here. It's a pleasant day-trip or weekend getaway for some Shakespeare, but my impression is that some first-time visitors are a bit surprised at how much of this place goes about its own business without caring all that much about tourism.

After all, when you approach from Toronto or Michigan you have to wade through the standard suburban ephemera of interchangeable car lots and fast food joints before you get to downtown.

It’s the overlay of THEATRE and all the associated touristy prettyfication on what is, at heart, a small, blue collar city that makes Stratford interesting. If THEATRE were to completely dominate, the place would risk becoming something like a theme park, istm.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I mean, I hope I didn't overstate how menacing the local nogoodnik kids are. I don't think the Deliverance population here is proportionally higher than in other similarly sized places like Woodstock or what have you. Maybe it's just unexpected because of how "cultured" this place can otherwise appear to be.
.

That's exactly it. Ultimately, it's not worse than anywhere. And maybe even better than most?

But what the town looks like and its reputation lead you to expect more kids who look like, say, Harry, Hermione and Ron.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by rousseau

The thing about Stratford, though, is that it's not Niagara-on-the-Lake, but rather, it's a mostly self-sufficient city and agricultural hub with a lot of industry that would essentially be Woodstock if the Festival weren't here. It's a pleasant day-trip or weekend getaway for some Shakespeare, but my impression is that some first-time visitors are a bit surprised at how much of this place goes about its own business without caring all that much about tourism.

Yes, it definitely feels more like its own, fulsome city than Niagara-on-the-Lake does.