Sydney is a nice city, really. Thanks for your shots.
Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain.:tup: |
I love how Nova Scotia's smaller communities are so different from ours. Some of them (such as Lunenburg) are very similar, and all of them exhibit many of the same architectural styles - but the urban form is so different. They're so organized and structured.
Great pictures... I'm still not entirely sure if I've ever been to Sydney. I've been to North Sydney dozens of times for the ferry, but I see Sydney is somewhat off the path one would take if they were simply heading to Halifax or deeper into the mainland, right? |
Yes, to get to Sydney one would have to take a longish detour around the harbour.
Personally I rather enjoy Sydney as it has a rough, hearty, industrial kind of vibe to it and there are some very nice neighbourhoods and historic houses etc. But one thing that I noticed of which the true extend is not depicted here is the obscene amount of surface parking which is something I really can't overlook or accept. |
Surface parking is a plague on the city (most empty surface lots on the waterfront are actually on land that was reclaimed long ago). Unfortunately, there's a group of mainly northender's that have been taking notes from Halifax's Heritage Trust group. Of course, some of the developers have to be kept in check, as the pre-fire back-and-forth surrounding the yacht club showed, so there's a very polarized development atmosphere in Sydney at the moment.
I love the industrial vibe Nouvelle-Ecosse speaks of, and I really don't notice the surface parking until someone brings it up...then I remember the huge lot on the Charlotte-Pitt-George-Dorchester block and the large lot behind the CIC buildings on Dorchester and George. North Sydney often gets mistaken for Sydney with people catching the ferry if they've never been or don't remember being to Sydney. It used to drive me nuts, but it's much easier to show the difference nowadays with the ease of access the interwebs bring (ok, I feel like a grandpa now...crap). @Signal - if you ever find yourself back on the south shore of the strait, I would love to see the city through your lens. (actually, that goes for anyone else who finds themselves in the area for whatever reason). Sydney is out of the way a bit, but it's only 20-30 minutes from the ferry terminal to downtown Sydney, and the eastern route (route 4) is actually shorter to get to the mainland. Anyway, thanks all for the comments. Glad you enjoyed the threads. :cheers: |
The city definitely felt very lively when I was there and there was plenty of pedestrian activity and lots of nice businesses downtown. I was a bit surprised by that since urban CB is often thought of as beleaguered and in decline so I somehow expected it to seem depressed and run down but it didn't really feel that way. In fact, it just had a rough enough edge to provide relief from common quaint / cutseyness found in many smaller Maritime centers but it didn't really seem depressed.
The parking and empty lots were the only major issue I had with it, but that's almost as bad in places like Truro, Moncton, and even downtown Dartmouth which don't have the economic issues. |
It has gotten much more lively in the last 10 years.
It's a little deceiving especially if you pay any attention to the media. Not saying Sydney hasn't declined, but it's not nearly as bad in the old Sydney proper as it is in the other urban areas of Glace Bay, New Waterford, and Sydney Mines-North Sydney. In the last census, Sydney's population decline was just under 2.8% whereas the other areas fell between 4 and 7.7% decline, with the rural area having a ~2.2% decline. This will sound odd, but Sydney feels more like a "real city" to me than urban areas of similar size, feeling even slightly larger than it's metro at times, closer to where it was when it was the size that Moncton and Saint John metros are now. Anyhow, thanks again. :) |
Next time your in the area Smevo you should take 2 or 3 hours and stop in Antigonish on your way home. You could get some great urban looking photos from my small hometown! That is.. if you arrive back to the 'homeland' before I do :D
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We actually drove into downtown Antigonish on the way back to Fredericton. I wanted to check it out because I hadn't been downtown since I was around 7 or 8. I was pleasantly surprised, but I didn't stop because the wife was with me...next time though, but that will be a few years at least before we drive past the town again.
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