Great Canadian Neighborhoods

[SignalHillHiker]

Man, I don’t know what I was expecting but holy shit the history of Hochelaga is fascinating. Wikipedia even has a model of the old, fortified Iroquois village that was on the site.

[begratto]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Man, I don’t know what I was expecting but holy shit the history of Hochelaga is fascinating. Wikipedia even has a model of the old, fortified Iroquois village that was on the site.

It is indeed fascinating, but Hochelaga, the Iroquoian 16th century village, wasn't located where the Hochelaga neighbourhood is today. It was closer to the city centre.

[SignalHillHiker]

Close enough

[Masoliantekw]

Here's my list for Québec, the closest city to my village. Those are the places where I go when I want an urban escape :

• Saint-Sauveur (especially along St-Vallier St.) -> the place I go to the most
• Limoilou (3e Avenue)
• Saint-Roch (St-Joseph St.)
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste (St-Jean St.)
• Montcalm (av. Cartier, boul. René-Lévesque)
• Sillery (around av. Maguire)

I have also been (re-)discovering Saint-Sacrement (along ch. Ste-Foy), le Trait-Carré (the old centre of Charlesbourg) and la Basse-Ville / Gare-du-Palais (along St-Paul St.) recently. I also became a fan of the Quai-Paquet area, in Lévis, since its major makeover; one of my favourite things to do is to take the ferry (by foot) and to have a café at Bonté Divine or a craft beer at Le Corsaire. Major plus : the view on Québec from the ferry and the quay.

[begratto]

Originally Posted by Masoliantekw

Here's my list for Québec, the closest city to my village. Those are the places where I go when I want an urban escape :

• Saint-Sauveur (especially along St-Vallier St.) -> the place I go to the most
• Limoilou (3e Avenue)
• Saint-Roch (St-Joseph St.)
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste (St-Jean St.)
• Montcalm (av. Cartier, boul. René-Lévesque)
• Sillery (around av. Maguire)

I have also been (re-)discovering Saint-Sacrement (along ch. Ste-Foy), le Trait-Carré (the old centre of Charlesbourg) and la Basse-Ville / Gare-du-Palais (along St-Paul St.) recently. I also became a fan of the Quai-Paquet area, in Lévis, since its major makeover; one of my favourite things to do is to take the ferry (by foot) and to have a café at Bonté Divine or a craft beer at Le Corsaire. Major plus : the view on Québec from the ferry and the quay.

Great list. Mine would have been exactly the same.

And I agree with you about the Quai Paquet in Lévis. The city of Lévis did an amazing job. What used to be an industrial port area is now a great urban park, always full of people when the temperature is nice. And with the hotel that they will build on rue St-Laurent, facing the park, the area should get even better.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by begratto

Great list. Mine would have been exactly the same.

And I agree with you about the Quai Paquet in Lévis. The city of Lévis did an amazing job. What used to be an industrial port area is now a great urban park, always full of people when the temperature is nice. And with the hotel that they will build on rue St-Laurent, facing the park, the area should get even better.

Isn't that close to where lio lives in Lévis?

[urbandreamer]

In Toronto I increasingly like the idea of living in Rosedale or Summerhill. What I miss about pre-condo Toronto was the sense of community and privacy. Now it feels like a giant Tim Hortons - crowded, dirty and mediocre.

For instahoods, I like the Pan Am Village area. Decent streetscape, restaurants - Souk Tabule is great - and architecture. I wish Liberty Village had similar planning/massing/design.

[samne]

The Beach (es) in East End Toronto. East Queen East. Kingston Rd.

Very unique in a Canadian context. Great density within what was a historical beach town. Direct Streetcar into the city centre. Access to the largest beaches on Lake Ontario.

Pretty laid back and creative hood.

[MolsonExport]

^larger beaches than Sandbanks PP?

[samne]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

^larger beaches than Sandbanks

Id say it is...just anecdotal.

[shappy]

^ was curious so I did an unscientific measurement using google maps. Sandbanks' main beach is about 3.5 km long (!!) while Outlet beach (pictured above in MolsonExport's post) is about 2.8 km - nearly identical to the string of Toronto beaches. The Toronto beaches also tend to be much wider. Also out of curiosity, Vancouver's Spanish Banks - Jericho is about 3 km long.

[Kilgore Trout]

My personal list for the two Canadian cities where I've spent the most time in the past two decades:

Montreal

• Mile End – I live here so obviously I'm biased, but it's extremely lively, very architecturally diverse, there's an interesting cultural mix and although it has gentrified a lot in recent years it still has a pronounced quirky side.
  
• Little Italy/Petite Patrie/Mile Ex – I like it for similar reasons to Mile End. Little Italy still has a strong community feel, Beaubien has become an interesting street, there's the Jean-Talon Market and of course the Plaza Saint-Hubert which has a great mix of cool new businesses, weird tacky stuff and a strong Latin American flavour that is only growing stronger even as the street is gentrified.
  
• Villeray – There's something about the brick duplexes and triplexes here that make this neighbourhood feel very stately and urban, which is all the more unusual because it was developed in the 1920s.
  
• Outremont – The northern parts around Bernard and Van Horne have the same kind of imposing urbanity as Villeray, with a fascinating culture clash between a very large (and very fast growing) Hasidic Jewish community and the francophone bourgeoisie.
  
• Plateau Mont-Royal – The whole thing. It doesn't get more Montreal than this.
  
• Verdun – This used to be its own separate city and it still feels like it. It's remarkably self-contained and its main drag, Wellington, is very busy. The waterfront is also very nice and keeps improving every year.
  
• Westmount – There's nowhere else in Canada that feels quite this elegant. Lower Westmount has an interesting feel that is half Toronto, with little Victorian cottages and bay-and-gable townhouses, and half East Coast USA, with ornate apartment buildings. In Upper Westmount you really feel like you're in the heart of old money, the kind that built the railroads.
  
• Old Montreal – I mean, obviously. It helps that the population has grown to the point where it no longer feels like it's dedicated exclusively to tourists.

Vancouver

• West End – There's nowhere else quite like it. The housing stock is wild, with sturdy prewar apartment buildings, typically West Coast wood-frame houses, streamlined 1950s apartments and post-1960s towers – all of this amidst very lush greenery and enormous trees, and right next to the beach.
  
• Gastown/DTES/Chinatown – This area has remarkably good urban bones. Water Street feels way more imposing than you would expect in a city as young as Vancouver. There's also a lot of classic West Coast neon and signage left in this area. And while there are some pretty horrendous social issues, there's also a really tight-knit community on the DTES. Chinatown is a little more problematic as it is hollowing out with only a veneer of the old Chinese community and a lot of obnoxious new gentrified businesses.
  
• Mount Pleasant/Olympic Village – This is a fairly big hodgepodge of an area but it has such an interesting mix. The Olympic Village already feels very lived-in considering it is only 10 years old, the industrial area next door is transforming in an interesting way, and there are some residential streets like 10th Avenue that are just peak West Coast in terms of their historic architecture mixed with huge trees. All of this with an epic view of the North Shore mountains.
  

I haven't spent a ton of time in Toronto, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention Kensington Market. It's easily one of the top few neighbourhoods in Canada, simply because its mix of small streets with intense commercial activity is so rare in this country. For that matter, I feel like the whole west end of Toronto should be mentioned, because it's similar in size to the Plateau Mont-Royal, and just like the Plateau distills so much of what is great about Montreal, the west end is the quintessential expression of the Toronto atmosphere.

[TorontoDrew]

Lol I had never heard of Time Out until this thread, after going through their truly strange collection of best neighbourhoods I looked into where the website is published. The top 20 cities make sense now as many of them are it's home bases. Cool thread, im going to try to ignore the list part of it though.

[ue]

nevermind

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Lol I had never heard of Time Out until this thread, after going through their truly strange collection of best neighbourhoods I looked into where the website is published. The top 20 cities make sense now as many of them are it's home bases. Cool thread, im going to try to ignore the list part of it though.

Are you actually bragging about not knowing Time Out ? Come on dude, educate yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Out_(magazine)

[urbandreamer]

In Toronto I like nabes like Baby Point, Runnymede and Annette area, Swansea, Dovercourt Park, Little Italy, the Annex, Bellwoods, Mimico, Princess Anne Manor, Leslieville, the Beach, Upper Beach, Pape Village, Rosedale, Summerhill, Lawrence Park, Mount Pleasant, Fashion District, Forest Hill/Lonsdale, Upper Village/Ridge Hill, Birch Cliff and Long Branch. The area I'd probably buy a house: West Bend/Indian Road.

[Architype]

CBC just did a contest for best Vancouver neighborhood; Mt Pleasant, my hood, and the West End, my former hood, were the two finalists for the city proper.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...nals-1.5678354

"It seems like wherever you are, you're no more than a couple of hundred meters from [Stanley Park], or beaches and waterfront, or delicious food. You just have everything," said Rebecca Bolwitt, Miss 604 blogger and West End resident for 15 years.

"From March until July, I didn't pass Burrard Street. I have everything I need in this one little area."
...

Mt. Pleasant started as one of Vancouver's first neighbourhoods geared toward the middle and working class, with streetcars and breweries giving it a distinct feel in the early 20th century.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Are you actually bragging about not knowing Time Out ? Come on dude, educate yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Out_(magazine)

Time Out had a pretty high profile 20+ years ago, it was a pretty big seller in certain cities like London and New York. For a while it was a staple of any of my trips to big cities with their own editions. I don't think I've seen a hard copy in at least a decade, though... I think smartphones and Google really did a number on them. Not sure how old TorontoDrew is, but I wouldn't be surprised that a younger person wouldn't be aware of it.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by esquire

Time Out had a pretty high profile 20+ years ago, it was a pretty big seller in certain cities like London and New York. For a while it was a staple of any of my trips to big cities with their own editions. I don't think I've seen a hard copy in at least a decade, though... I think smartphones and Google really did a number on them. Not sure how old TorontoDrew is, but I wouldn't be surprised that a younger person wouldn't be aware of it.

They still have a strong presence on the net though, including a page on Toronto. They are hard to avoid completely if you have an interest in cities.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

They still have a strong presence on the net though, including a page on Toronto. They are hard to avoid completely if you have an interest in cities.

There are also the popular Time Out Markets in several cities (including one in Montreal).



https://www.campaignlive.com/article...arkets/1579701