The Great Canadian Skyline thread for CMAs 1 million and under

[lio45]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Yes, I was referring to professional work. I always found it interesting that I was seldom corrected for grammar - the comments were usually along the lines of "in French, we'd say it this way...". That would send me to a second or even third person for their opinion, which would in each case be different in some way. Language, it seems, is as much an art as a science.

Yeah, obviously your own experience was also tainted by your need to use French in a professional setting (where it's way more easy to get away with these slight imperfections in speech, which flies away, than in writing, which stays).

I have just recalled a perfect counter-example to myself and English, though. A Mexican guy who worked for me in Sherbrooke for a while. His spoken English was pretty good, but he couldn't write a word to save his life. He could write Spanish, though. He learned to write at school in Mexico as a kid, then later picked up English orally during his years of working in Texas. That was kind of a shock to see, because here we're used to people who can decipher written English, but have a harder time understanding it when spoken (especially quickly). He was the opposite of that.

So, YMMV. But for English and young Québécois, we're generally all in the same situation -- our exposure to the language has mostly been via the written word.

[GlassCity]

I definitely think I come across better writing in French rather than speaking it. Back in French immersion when I was more comfortable with it, I probably would've considered them even. But now that I've been out for a few years, and opportunities to speak French have basically disappeared, I speak much more slowly and have to think carefully about every word. But in writing, I can go over every word carefully and so it sounds/looks much more fluent than it would've been in speech, because I got to spend so much more time on it than I would have been able to by talking.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

Yeah, obviously your own experience was also tainted by your need to use French in a professional setting (where it's way more easy to get away with these slight imperfections in speech, which flies away, than in writing, which stays).

I have just recalled a perfect counter-example to myself and English, though. A Mexican guy who worked for me in Sherbrooke for a while. His spoken English was pretty good, but he couldn't write a word to save his life. He could write Spanish, though. He learned to write at school in Mexico as a kid, then later picked up English orally during his years of working in Texas. That was kind of a shock to see, because here we're used to people who can decipher written English, but have a harder time understanding it when spoken (especially quickly). He was the opposite of that.

So, YMMV. But for English and young Québécois, we're generally all in the same situation -- our exposure to the language has mostly been via the written word.

My kids are like this too. This in spite of the fact that they have pretty good English teaching at the school they go to (they read stuff like Jane Eyre there), they have uber-bilingual parents, they live in a fairly bilingual metro area with a large anglophone city ten minutes away, they have anglophone relatives they see often enough, they take part in activities that take them to "deep Ontario" sometimes, etc.

Their reading and understanding is very good when it comes to books, movies, etc.

But speaking is still sometimes a bit shaky.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Halifax is such an incredibly beautiful, dense, and urban city for its size. It truly is the Boston of Canada.

It is interesting to compare Halifax to New England cities because they are historically similar and have a similar natural environment. Halifax has been diverging for a long time as a more flexible and pro-growth town, while much of New England seems more heritage- or tradition-oriented and NIMBY.

I wish there were more appreciation for local heritage in Halifax (which is often nationally significant), but it is nice to see the city evolve. I don't know why anyone would want to preserve 2000-era Halifax in amber anyway. Boston is somewhat larger and different but I get the impression places like Portland ME will just be slightly more gentrified in 2020 compared to 2010. Halifax will be dramatically different.

It will be great once the city gets a rail transit system.

I hope this happens but unfortunately I still don't see a lot of direction in this department. More and more people seem to realize that cars and buses alone are not going to work but there isn't a clear plan for something like LRT or streetcars.

I think easy to use, fast, high-frequency transit is the biggest thing missing in Halifax.

[lio45]

Halifax could use more NIMBYism IMO -- that Honda dealership guy comes to mind... (did he get to raze what he was set to raze, in the end?)

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by lio45

On the other hand, another factor which is pretty symmetrical for all languages is that when writing, you can hesitate and think; when speaking, the bar is a lot higher and there's more pressure on the speaker.

I can definitely agree with that. I can read & write in French at an ok-ish level (my grammar sucks, but I can at least make myself understood and I can read French newspapers and such), but in real life conversation with a francophone I'm useless.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by lio45

Halifax could use more NIMBYism IMO -- that Honda dealership guy comes to mind... (did he get to raze what he was set to raze, in the end?)

We probably agree here, but I would be careful to define terms like NIMBY. A lot of NIMBY areas permit almost no new construction and are controlled by homeowners who care about property values (and crime, schools, and various other things depending on the neighbourhood, but usually not economic development). Halifax has a lot of marginal sites that are perfect for development that wouldn't compromise the character of the city. NIMBYs in Halifax oppose this development but have been unsuccessful whereas they have been successful in many other similar cities.

I would like there to be more of an emphasis on preserving quality architecture and the character of the city. But densities also need to go up a lot for Halifax's relatively large inner city to be vibrant. The city needs to encourage adaptive reuse and registration of more heritage buildings while still making it easy to build on good sites.

The car dealership thing was unfortunate. I actually did wander by there at one point. When you see the neighbourhood and put that planning mistake in context the overall change has been hugely positive. It's an area where there are maybe 15 construction sites of various sizes and the car dealership is an outlier. Plus the car dealer guy said he was planning to sit on this land for 10 years and then sell it to a developer.

[Nouvellecosse]

The whole dealership foolishness just makes my blood boil. There shouldn't even be car dealerships in the inner city (at least not in the format of surface lot style) and I've been hoping that the existing ones would be relocated or have their footprints reduced for years. Yet they're actually eating into the urban fabric to expand??

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

The whole dealership foolishness just makes my blood boil. There shouldn't even be car dealerships in the inner city (at least not in the format of surface lot style) and I've been hoping that the existing ones would be relocated or have their footprints reduced for years. Yet they're actually eating into the urban fabric to expand??

My impression is that these suburban buildings with setbacks will be banned once the Centre Plan* is put in place. In commercial areas they are calling for "streetwall character" to be preserved/enhanced and they have a maximum setback of 3 meters (minimum 1.5 m), whereas most of the old rules are minimum setbacks only (and required minimum parking and so on, basically with the goal of eventually turning the old urban core into a suburban area).

The plan talks about how it is good to maintain old character buildings and reuse them when possible but I am not sure how that will translate into actual regulations. I have a feeling the Centre Plan will encourage the construction of nicer medium-density buildings because it will be easier to get those approved. Right now you can easily get a small or suburban style building approved while anything over 4 floors goes through a long and uncertain approval process. It might not be great for the skyline though since it limits buildings in the inner city outside of downtown to 20 storeys (not clear if this is pre-bonus or post-bonus). There are a few proposals right now in the Centre Plan area that are over that limit.

* For others less familiar with Halifax, there is already a modern plan in place for the downtown area. The Centre Plan is meant to extend this out to the rest of the urban core: https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...28+%281%29.pdf

[MonctonRad]

A few photos I took today from around the Blue Cross Centre, on the eastern edge of the downtown core of Moncton NB.

The Blue Cross Centre, location for the head offices of Medavie Blue Cross, the largest provider of Blue Cross health insurance in Canada, with over one million members (in Atlantic Canada and Ontario). Medavie also has other health ventures too, including operating the ambulance service in NB, and curiously also the ambulance service in the state of Massachusetts.







The tall building in the background of the middle photo is the second pillar of the insurance industry in Moncton - Assumption Place, the home of Assumption Mutual Life Insurance. It was actually founded in Massachusetts by members of the Acadian diaspora, but relocated back to Moncton decades ago. Moncton is the insurance capital of Atlantic Canada.

[Laceoflight]

Trois-Rivières

Panorama de Trois-Rivières vu de l'Île St-Quentin by Mario Groleau, sur Flickr

Saguenay (Chicoutimi)

Chicoutimi 2016 by Guy, sur Flickr

Sherbrooke

Nature 884 by André Chivinski, sur Flickr

Rimouski

Rimouski by Denis Martin, sur Flickr

Gatineau

Downtown Gatineau by Michel G., sur Flickr

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

Sans titre by Yves Landry, T'es Johannais, on Facebook.

Shawinigan

pano-180 shawi-est-ouest-lr copyright by Pierre Boisvert, sur Flickr

[Tone]

Rimouski

[1overcosc]

Found this great shot of Kingston at healthierwealthiersmarter.ca, at a page promoting the hospital

Hospital in the foreground (lower centre), university off to the left, and the entire width of the downtown skyline in the back.

[ssiguy]

Kingston is a lovely city.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Halifax from a different angle January 6th, 2017:

from the Chocloate Lake Best Western 8th floor haha

2017-01-10_08-45-51 by James McGrath, on Flickr

[Echoes]

Source

[Brizzy82]

nice shots Echoes!




Winnipeg aerial


source

[esquire]

^ Nice pic! To the unacquainted, pretty much the upper left corner of that pic (north of the big railyard) is Winnipeg's storied North End.

[Brizzy82]

Originally Posted by Brizzy82

nice shots Echoes!




Winnipeg aerial


source

next page

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by lio45

It's one thing to write in English on forums like SSP, it's another to orally live in the language 24/7.

/offtopic

I find that learning a language late (as teenager) is a very long a complicated process. I've been working and living in a mostly English environment this past year, and yes, writting reports in English is totally different than writting a post on SSP. It requires me much more time and the final draft still has its flaws. I would probably be fired if I was not in the Nation's Capital (the fact I am bilingual overcomes the fact that my English is not yet perfect, because being able to speak/write in French is a big asset in Ottawa) My writting skills have come a long way, but sometimes I still ask myself if I should put a "that" in a given sentence and questioning such basic notions feels like going backwards.