The Great Canadian Skyline thread for CMAs 1 million and under

[MonctonRad]

A new apartment building in Moncton North under construction - the building in question will top out at six storeys, nothing special, but I thought this was an interesting drone picture anyway.



Blackyear posts some of his drone photos in the Moncton threads every few months. He does quality work.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

A new apartment building in Moncton North under construction - the building in question will top out at six storeys, nothing special, but I thought this was an interesting drone picture anyway.

Blackyear posts some of his drone photos in the Moncton threads every few months. He does quality work.

For those not familiar with Moncton, that construction is happening in the North-west end of the city, along a major retail/residential corridor, about halfway between the Casino/Magic Mountain tourist cluster, and the downtown.

You can see Downtown Moncton itself in the upper left corner of the picture.

For what its worth, while the building is "only" 6 stories, it certainly feels massive both in that picture and when I saw it personally last winter (when it was a story or two shorter).

With other north end developments happening, Moncton is certainly developing a lot of density, even without having much height yet.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Great shot of Saint John from this summer from the Telegraph Journal (The Saint John news paper)
[/url]20200824_140603 by James McGrath, on Flickr

[RoshanMcG]

Charlottetown

[csbvan]

Kelowna's skyline in the distance with 2020's first touch of smokey skies:

Capture by csbvancouver, on Flickr
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE6sHoBh...=1p5xtrl4wkibl

[Tone]

Rimouski

[Chadillaccc]

Saint John has always been my favourite small skyline in the country. What a stunning and well proportioned city, seriously.



https://www.sjport.com/facilities-an.../facility-map/

[zoomer]

One of my favourite Canadian cities fer sher!

Another interesting view, although not showing as much of the historic core:

Uptown by Bob Zumwalt, on Flickr

When I tell my NB work colleagues that Saint John in my favourite NB city they are all surprised. "Why?! It's old and dirty and the traffic is terrible and confusing!" Lol. Hey, Fredericton is awesome too, reminds me a little of a smaller Victoria, and although Moncton is more sprawling and less historic it has a charming main street with high quality retail and some good restaurants and the people have a can-do positive attitude like people said of Calgary, but in a laid back east coast way. That city seems to run like clock work and the retail service is impeccable and professional, switching seamlessly between French and English. Plus Moncton has several great churches including this one I took a pic of:

CATHÉDRALE NOTRE-DAME DE L’ASSOMPTION in Moncton by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by zoomer

When I tell my NB work colleagues that Saint John in my favourite NB city they are all surprised. "Why?! It's old and dirty and the traffic is terrible and confusing!" Lol.

I've only ever met a couple people who enjoyed living in Saint John, although it's interesting for tourists and (having never lived there) I would say it's also my overall favourite of the NB cities. In terms of overall satisfaction as a place to live, I find that (Anglo) 20-30somethings tend to gravitate toward Fredericton and everyone else seems to gravitate toward Moncton somewhat. Generally there is also outmigration towards NS and possibly even NL and PEI as well, as well as westward.

Saint John is one of those cities that (presently) seems nice in theory but has a lot of drawbacks - it competes with the other NB cities for retail, it's far from any major airport, it's not particularly well-connected to the rest of its province, region, or the ROC, or neighbouring Maine, it has a reputation for being badly polluted (not sure how true this still is), its transit system is likely very underfunded, and there's a lot of poorly-maintained buildings/properties. The student population is much lower than might be expected by those outside the region. There isn't a major military/federal presence like there is in Halifax either. Fredericton is better-regarded in terms of nightlife and Moncton is better-regarded in terms of large-scale events. That said, SJ's architecture and the surrounding landscape are pretty unique and interesting, and AFAIK it's the only large-ish city on the Bay of Fundy. If a critical mass of people were to show up, it could be an interesting place to live.

[Hali87]

Really interesting photo though, with the cliffs looming over the old houses like that. Reminiscent of parts of QC, Hamilton, and St. John's, but also very different from any of those.

[zoomer]

Interesting - it does have a few strikes against it then. Maybe with more people being able to work virtually and the affordable cost of housing, it can draw people again. But like you said, it’s one thing to visit a place, but another to live there and both Fredericton and Moncton seem to have more going for it at this time. There was a quite a bit of heritage restoration and new residential in Saint John when I was there a couple years ago, so can only hope the revitalization continues.

[biguc]

You know what would make St. John better? Rail service to Fredericton and Moncton. You should all start a thread.

[905er]

Saint John does have a very lovely well preserved historic downtown. I'd love to see that pic Chad posted but updated with the recently built Iriving Office included to see what impact it's had.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by biguc

You know what would make St. John better? Rail service to Fredericton and Moncton. You should all start a thread.

Fredericton doesn't have a rail connection to the outside world any more, but there is a class A railway connection between Moncton and SJ. A passenger service here would be a no brainer as far as I'm concerned.

And since we're talking about east coast cities here, this is a nice photo of the recently opened Hyatt Place Hotel in Moncton with the Avenir Centre in the background.


photo by Blackyear from the Moncton threads

[KnoxfordGuy]

Saint John skyline from the Telegraph Journal

by James McGrath, on Flickr

[itom 987]

Best skyline pic I have seen of Saint John.

[The Great Scaper]

Some Victoria skyline photos that I have taken this year...

Victoria B.C. Canada skyline by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Victoria B.C. Canada skyline by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Victoria B.C. Canada skyline by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Victoria B.C. Canada by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Victoria B.C. Canada... Skyline by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

Victoria B.C. Canada by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

[NewIreland]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Saint John is one of those cities that (presently) seems nice in theory but has a lot of drawbacks - it competes with the other NB cities for retail, it's far from any major airport, it's not particularly well-connected to the rest of its province, region, or the ROC, or neighbouring Maine, it has a reputation for being badly polluted (not sure how true this still is), its transit system is likely very underfunded, and there's a lot of poorly-maintained buildings/properties. The student population is much lower than might be expected by those outside the region. There isn't a major military/federal presence like there is in Halifax either. Fredericton is better-regarded in terms of nightlife and Moncton is better-regarded in terms of large-scale events. That said, SJ's architecture and the surrounding landscape are pretty unique and interesting, and AFAIK it's the only large-ish city on the Bay of Fundy. If a critical mass of people were to show up, it could be an interesting place to live.

A couple of points:

- All of NB is far away from a major airport. But - we're closer to Bangor and only 4 hours from Halifax.

- YSJ was doing quite well before the pandemic. Flight options weren't drastically different than what was being offered in Fredericton or Moncton. Also, we're very well connected to NS via the Fundy Rose Ferry, and extremely well connected to the US by one of the most overengineered freeways in Canada (a beautiful drive).

- We're closer to the resort town of St. Andrews and the Fundy Trail Parkway... arguably the only nationally and internationally known tourist destinations in NB.

- We receive far more tourists than Moncton or Frederiction (it's not even close).

- Student population is fairly low at 4k BUT the medical school is expanding.

- As far as nightlife is concerned, I'm sorry, but Saint John is leading the way right now. Uptown Saint John has the highest concentration of bars in all of Canada and the restaurants are incredible. Plus there is currently a building boom uptown with thousands of residential units being added and older buildings being refurbished.

- It remains an industrial city, but it has an emerging tech industry too. The two (would be) biggest polluters (the pulp and paper mill and the oil refinery) have had complete and extremely costly overhauls which have made them EXTREMELY clean.

- Saint John also benefits from being situated on the lower Saint John River, so if living amongst the historic buildings and bustling nightlife of Saint John proper doesn't suit you, you can live in Millidgeville, Grand Bay, or Rothesay Quispamsis and enjoy all the benefits of the city while spending most of your time on or near the river instead of the bay.

- As far as retail is concerned... there's basically no difference between the three cities.

[Innsertnamehere]

Highway 1 to Maine is easily the most overengineered highway in Canada. I once drove the entire stretch from Saint John to the border without seeing a single car in either direction after leaving the St John metro. And it’s an hour long drive.

Saint John has a lot of potential, the problem is that all the city’s investment for decades was sucked out of the city to Rothesay and Quispamsis. My extended family included haha. That seems to be reversing a bit now though with properties downtown starting to get renovated.

It’s a small city at the end of the day too. There’s only so much that can be done in metros of 120,000.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Moncton from Amico Construction:

by James McGrath, on Flickr

by James McGrath, on Flickr