The Great Canadian Cities that are never talked about on SSP thread

[Hali87]

Height or no height, I can say with a good amount of confidence that that'll be better than what was there before. Some people would find this interesting, even if you don't. Moncton seems to be at a turning point in terms of downtown development these days - that project's just part of a larger trend.

I agree that Fredericton is a nice city but it just doesn't seem to get much large-scale construction, so it doesn't show up on here very often. I would say that its strengths are its nightlife and arts scene, pleasant downtown and riverfront, and (usually) summertime music festivals. It has a kind of New England college town vibe, and though superficially bilingual (because government) it's very much an Anglo-NB city. Culturally it seems like a pretty laid back place, a lot like Halifax but with less going on, including less "strife", for lack of a better word. It is quite a nice place that flies under the radar (even locally). Part of it is that it's not really touristy, it's just there. It's actually one of the least touristy provincial capitals, now that I think of it.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by Al Ski

So you think this crappy, investor driven, cut and paste garbage makes Moncton attractive because 'height'?
Only on skyscraper nerd sites lol!

Can't tell if sarcastic or proving the point of previous posts... that often the significance of "modest" projects in smaller cities is part of the local narrative (in this case: recent downtown residentialization) that would be easily lost in the "bigger" forum.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Belleville and Brockville. A few weeks ago I drove back along the old highway from Brockville to Port Hope. I hadn't been in downtown Brockville before - they've pedestrianized the entire downtown strip - and enjoyed the meeting of Quebecois and Scottish Canadian culture - a working class version of Ottawa? Belleville reminds me of Galt mixed with St Kitts (I've always called it that.) It has enormous potential to become a great urban centre again. Both have great settings on the water. Brockville especially interests me being close to upstate NY, Ottawa and Montreal regions.

The changes in Belleville are growing on me. I'm really curious to see what happens post-HFR when VIA is able substantially more ex-urban commuter services to Belleville with the Kingston Hub.

My other sleeper on this front is Peterborough (though not a small town). HFR is about to bring them potential they haven't had in decades. 1 hr to Toronto. 2 hrs to Ottawa. That's a very strategic location on a very comfortable mode of travel.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

Can't tell if sarcastic or proving the point of previous posts... that often the significance of "modest" projects in smaller cities is part of the local narrative (in this case: recent downtown residentialization) that would be easily lost in the "bigger" forum.

I think it proves the point.

This development (20 Record Street) is actually going to be transformative for downtown Moncton, not so much for it's architectural merit, but because it's going to help drive the densification of (former) industrial lands south of Main Street.

This is an important development for the future of the city, but on a larger national scale, risks ridicule and derision, hence will not be presented for discussion.

Another good example of this is the new 12 storey proposal for the top of King Street in Saint John. The renders were shown here on the Canada section and were universally mocked (to be truthful, I don't like the design either, but still, why risk ridicule, better to just discuss the proposal on the regional forum).

[esquire]

If only architectural masterpieces were allowed to be posted on this subforum we might see at most a dozen or two buildings posted per year from across the country.

Architectural distinction is only one element of what I'm interested in. The Moncton project that Vorkuta posted will obviously have a significant impact on the urban environment, as will the Saint John building. Even if they aren't stunners, I still want to know about them and about what's going on in those cities.

[Nashe]

They're not skyscrapers by a long-shot, but within the context of the existing SKYLINE, they'll actually be noticeable. A much bigger impact than in a larger city.



They will be the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tallest (occupied floors) buildings in the city.

I'm not trying to "boost" here, but do think it's common to disparage "medium fish, small pond" just because it doesn't "scrape".

[Kilgore Trout]

There was some discussion of Trois-Rivières a few pages back. As it happens, I spent a night there last week. There's a section of downtown that is genuinely very appealing, and some adjacent neighbourhoods like Ste-Cécile have the potential to be something like the Plateau in Montreal or Limoilou in Quebec. There were just enough new third-wave cafés that I got the sense it may be a city on the up and up.

These were taken on a Monday evening when a majority of bars, restaurants and shops were closed, so it was pretty quiet downtown.

[begratto]

Great pics of Trois-Rivières, Kilgore.

I feel Trois-Rivières has "great bones", but it needs a bit more muscle around the bones... The city should work on improving the areas adjacent to downtown; many of them look a bit like central Montreal in the 1970's : rundown, lots of asphalt, not many trees, narrow sidewalks, etc... The city needs to invest in its older neighbourhoods.

Rue Ste-Cécile

Rue du Père-Daniel

[Kilgore Trout]

Yeah, there's a lot of one-way traffic funnels, narrow sidewalks, not many street trees, too many parking lots. It seems like investment has really focused on the rue des Forges but not the streets where people actually live.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by begratto

Great pics of Trois-Rivières, Kilgore.

I feel Trois-Rivières has "great bones", but it needs a bit more muscle around the bones... The city should work on improving the areas adjacent to downtown; many of them look a bit like central Montreal in the 1970's : rundown, lots of asphalt, not many trees, narrow sidewalks, etc... The city needs to invest in its older neighbourhoods.

Rue Ste-Cécile

Rue du Père-Daniel

I was thinking the same thing. They have a lot to work with. There are even some solid looking neighbourhoods across the river that aren't much more than a road diet and some trees away from being really nice.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by begratto

Great pics of Trois-Rivières, Kilgore.

I feel Trois-Rivières has "great bones", but it needs a bit more muscle around the bones... The city should work on improving the areas adjacent to downtown; many of them look a bit like central Montreal in the 1970's : rundown, lots of asphalt, not many trees, narrow sidewalks, etc... The city needs to invest in its older neighbourhoods.

Rue Ste-Cécile

Rue du Père-Daniel

the first reminds me of Rosemont; the second, of St. Leonard.

[MolsonExport]

Fabulous TR shots.

[Rico Rommheim]

Trois-Rivieres really caught me off guard. I took this picture of street in T-R last winter and sent it randomly to some friends.

The responses were all along the lines of: why are you sending me a picture of a random montreal street?

Some were more specific with Verdun being thrown in.


Verdun_but_it's_Trois-Rivieres_Mauricie_Series_04 by Foofoo MacShoe, on Flickr

I totally agree, Verdun is basically Pointe St-Charles circa 1979. Give it a bit of a boost and it could be a fantastic little city.

[Al Ski]

Originally Posted by flar

Sometime I should post some photos from Chatham. It has some impressive bones. It was a well established city in the 1800s that just never grew much.

No offence but Chatham is a rust belt dump, home to rednecks that would put Alabamans to shame.

I almost married into a prominent family from there.

My almost ex? She is happy in Texas now!

[theman23]

Originally Posted by Al Ski

No offence but Chatham is a rust belt dump, home to rednecks that would put Alabamans to shame.

I almost married into a prominent family from there.

My almost ex? She is happy in Texas now!

Is that you Habsmanfan?

[Al Ski]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Trois-Rivieres really caught me off guard. I took this picture of street in T-R last winter and sent it randomly to some friends.

The responses were all along the lines of: why are you sending me a picture of a random montreal street?

Some were more specific with Verdun being thrown in.


Verdun_but_it's_Trois-Rivieres_Mauricie_Series_04 by Foofoo MacShoe, on Flickr

I totally agree, Verdun is basically Pointe St-Charles circa 1979. Give it a bit of a boost and it could be a fantastic little city.

That's interesting because it looks like various neighborhoods in MTL yet you know it's not MTL.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by 905er

nobody talks about Brampton unless it's on 6ixbuzz on instagram. but it's the 9th largest city in the country.

I was at a gas station in Dauphin MB a few weeks ago and a guy gassing up his pickup truck behind me asked me where I live in Ontario. I told him Timmins but he really didn't know what to say as it seemed obvious he knew nothing about my city. But he said that he was originally from Brampton and left the city when its population was 35,000. He then went on a rant (my wife and child could clearly hear him) about how Brampton had become a big shithole and that had been destroyed by immigrants. He was just starting to say some specifically racist things when I finished (pay at the pump) and I couldn't hold my laughter at how much of a moron he was. My wife was laughing too as she couldn't believe that he would say that to a complete stranger and think that I would agree. I quickly said "enjoy Dauphin" and got into the car and took off.

[Loco101]

I have been to almost every city in Canada and have spent a fair amount of time in every city I've been to with the exception of Nanaimo which I've only spent a day and a half at.

My goal this year was to get to Prince George BC as it's the largest Canadian city I haven't been to. But the forest fire smoke made us turn around and head back East.

I'm really happy that some of our forgotten cities and towns are being discussed.

[Al Ski]

Charlottetown is an awesome city!

Wonderful old architecture, great setting, super people..

What else do you need?

In fact, you should all go the PEI, it's fantastic!

(and it's not that f*ucking small!)

And it costs $50 or so to leave so some people say "too much!" and they just stay!

[Hali87]

Prince George actually reminds me a lot of Timmins (and vice versa); the main difference is the lack of a significant Francophone element in PG as well as somewhat more heavy industry within the city itself. It doesn't really feel at all like the Vancouver/Victoria areas or much like the various valley towns further south in the interior, either architecturally or in terms of lifestyle (for one example the "local" ski resort is quite far from town so it tends to lack the ski town atmosphere found in many other parts of the interior). It feels very "northern", "resource-driven" and "industrial", in a similar vein to Timmins, Edmundston NB, or parts of Edmonton.