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  #3201  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 9:37 PM
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Saint John, NB from the New Brunswick Museum:

Prince William and King 1857:

by James
McGrath
, on Flickr

Germain Street 1860:

by James McGrath, on Flickr
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  #3202  
Old Posted Jan 20, 2021, 6:10 PM
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Too bad Saint John stalled. It has the bones to be a fine Canadian metropolis.
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  #3203  
Old Posted Jan 20, 2021, 7:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim View Post
Too bad Saint John stalled. It has the bones to be a fine Canadian metropolis.
The Maritimes got burned bad in the first 50 years of Confederation. Part of the appeal of unification with Canada was the prospect of being given access to the vast north of Ontario and Quebec; some good that did us.
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  #3204  
Old Posted Jan 20, 2021, 8:07 PM
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Yeah thanks to SSP I'm largely aware of the detrimental effects confederation did to the maritimes.

On top of that, it seems Saint John got burned by Moncton's rise, which has the bones to be a fine 2nd rate city in central Canada. Nevermind a Canadian metropolis.

Comparing the two cities' cores on Google Earth, Moncton doesn't hold a candle to Saint John. But Moncton is growing really fast.

I really feel bad for saint John, it has a great NYC-esque geography, direct access to the sea, great hinterland landscapes and a solid urban core. But there are no indications that it will thrive any time soon.
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  #3205  
Old Posted Jan 20, 2021, 10:34 PM
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Saint John was also quite literally burned in 1877 by a great fire that destroyed the vast majority of the city's core, including everything in both those pictures posted by KnoxfordGuy. While it was largely rebuilt in grand Victorian brick, the fire struck right around the time that Confederation and the decline of wooden shipbuilding were beginning to sap the city's momentum. The geographic advantages that made SJ such a prominent 19th-century city became less relevant as the 20th century unfolded.

Saint John today is in a state of slow growth, but I would characterize the city as holding its own and gradually improving its situation overall. International immigration has saved our bacon as far as population change is concerned, and the bleeding from interprovincial migration has also stopped. The Uptown core has seen a great deal of investment and vibrancy that has accelerated in recent years, with several major multi-unit projects underway and/or on the horizon.

Admittedly, the loss of commercial flights due to Covid-19 represents a major threat to the city's competitiveness, but I think there is enough corporate demand here (believe it or not) to warrant a restoration of service as the pandemic eases. Hopefully the airline oligopoly agrees.

SSP tends to be all about the horse race of population and population growth rates, but there's more to a place than just those attributes. At the end of the day, cities have to make do with cards they're dealt, and the growth and change that has taken place here, however incremental, is a reason for optimism going forward.
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  #3206  
Old Posted Jan 20, 2021, 10:55 PM
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Saint John got the short end of the stick in just about every way possible after 1870 or so.

It's in an okay geographic location but the border makes travel inconvenient. Montreal is 580 km away but over a 9 hour drive if you don't want to leave Canada or 8.5 hours via the US, which does not prioritize connecting Canadian cities with highways. If the infrastructure were set up well, there would be a 3 hour train between Montreal and Saint John. The Fundy waterways used to be relevant to SJ but they're not anymore. The main modern transportation routes do not go through the city anymore.

NB followed an American-style split with a bunch of government stuff being located in a capital built away from the main city, and then Moncton got some of its own public sector goodies due to the Francophone population and location. So despite being the largest historic city in NB, SJ doesn't have unusually strong public institutions like big hospitals and universities. You might expect Saint John to have an old university with ivy-covered stone buildings from the 1800's but UNB SJ was set up in the 60's. Fredericton got the historic university and then Mount Allison is in Sackville NB.

All that being said I still think the city is "underrated", with a lower profile and assumed level of attractiveness in Canada than it should have given what it offers in the old historic core. It will eventually be "discovered" by a wider group of people in Canada I'm sure.
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  #3207  
Old Posted Jan 21, 2021, 2:30 PM
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From Lost Ottawa on Facebook. Ottawa 1969, with the stand along Bank of Canada Building, several years before it was encompassed by Arthur Erickson's addition.



Recent view, with the roof of the Bank of Canada addition at the bottom.


https://twitter.com/OttawaMarriott?r...Ctwgr%5Eauthor
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  #3208  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 5:43 PM
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Halifax 1952, about the latest date when you could take pictures without many modern style buildings popping up. Too bad it's so low resolution.


Source
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  #3209  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 6:43 PM
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Montreal 1880s

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  #3210  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 6:44 PM
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Shacks by the stacks, 1903 (Montreal)

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  #3211  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 6:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123 View Post
Halifax 1952, about the latest date when you could take pictures without many modern style buildings popping up. Too bad it's so low resolution.


Source
There was just so much packed in around Cogswell/Scotia Square. It was like Old Montreal.
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  #3212  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 6:45 PM
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Ste. Catherines street, Montreal, 1901
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  #3213  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 6:48 PM
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British Pavilion, Expo '67, Montreal


USSR, USA pavilions:

natobserverm ctv

Autostade, Montreal, 1966

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  #3214  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2021, 7:27 PM
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Expo 67 seems like it was just the most fascinating thing... those photos are amazing.
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  #3215  
Old Posted Feb 17, 2021, 10:04 PM
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Calgary, 1920s

Provincial Institute of Technology in background right.

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  #3216  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2021, 7:55 PM
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VIA an FB buddy's father. St. John's from Signal Hill in 1957.



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  #3217  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2021, 4:26 AM
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How did St. John's look bigger in 1957 than it does today?

I swear it's the Rooms. Its oversized children's toy architecture belittles all the fine historical fabric around it.
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  #3218  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2021, 5:45 AM
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We have the same taste. That also reads larger to me. One of my buddies scoffs at older pictures because there are no more modern mid rises (“Looks like a village! There’s one around every corner in Europe!”). Well, still bigger to me lol

The scale of a lot of buildings built since had too large a footprint.
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  #3219  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2021, 6:28 AM
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^ The buildings were smaller in scale, with only churches etc. standing out (the faded colours of the photo are also misleading). This is the Nimby's idea of perfection (tiny buildings, no change), resulting in any new construction now having to mostly adhere to this sense of scale. Photos of Vancouver's West End from that era evoke the same comparative reactions to the point of making it totally unrecognisable. In reality modern SJs doesn't actually look smaller in person, but much more impressive.
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  #3220  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2021, 4:44 PM
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I prefer that view of 1957 St. John's to present day St. John's. The office "towers" that exist there now aren't the most attractive.
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