Quote:
Originally Posted by Waterlooson
Photographs don't lie... but they certainly can mislead. I saw a photo tour of of downtown Brantford on this forum a few years back... it was very dilapidated so I figured that Brantford must be a depressed city down on its luck in a major way. In fact, when I visited Brantford shortly thereafter, the city was growing nicely and had the air of vitality.... exactly the opposite of what the photos led me to think. I went downtown and laughed because although it was very run down it was only a tiny area. It couldn't have comprised anymore than 1 % of the entire city.
When we only can see a set of photos of one area in a city, we have absolutely no perspective of what is really going on in that city as a whole. I feel the same is true with this photo tour of Niagara Falls, ON. I have visited many times... and have never been able to even locate the "real" downtown. No wonder people don't shop there... it's a terrible location, and unless you really know the city... good luck trying to find it!
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I don't think this tour is misleading, if you were to visit downtown Niagara Falls tomorrow, this is exactly what you would see (if you can find it, it really is tucked away). Virtually every building in downtown Niagara Falls is featured in this tour. That was probably my tour of Brantford that you saw as well. That tour also shows nearly every building in downtown Brantford. Unfortunately, downtown Brantford has little vitality and is largely unloved by its citizens. All my photo tours are comprehensive. I will say unequivocally that Niagara Falls and Brantford have the most decayed and abandoned downtowns that I have ever seen in Canada.
That is no comment on theses cities as a whole, just their downtowns. Brantford has a thriving power center in its north end and Niagara Falls has a thriving tourist area at Fallsview and Clifton Hill, but their downtowns really are that bad. I sincerely hope that both cities can turn things around in their downtown cores.