Your block

[Coldrsx]

McKay Avenue in downtown Edmonton. About a 7 mins walk to the CBD. Dick Mather park and the McKay Avenue school (left) are wonderful parts of my block. I am fortunate to be on our Heritage Trail which has brick and ornamental lighting (left side of block).

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

winnipeg is very unique with its tree canopy. it really changes the feel of things.

The block I live on is similar. However, I'm terrible with cameras soI can<t get a good picture of it.

Edit: let's see if this works.

[SignalHillHiker]

Esquire and I were neighbours when I lived in Winnipeg.

This was my block - that's my little red Civic, same one as the Spencer Street shot in my first reply.



My neighbourhood was Lord Roberts, which is the opposite side of Osborne Street from Esquire's Riverview. Less well-to-do, but provides the same access to surrounding amenities.

[Boris2k7]

My block on 12 Street SW in Lower Mount Royal, Calgary



The lower half of Mount Royal (once called American Hill, for the large population of American settlers in early Calgary), this is a densely-packed neighbourhood comprised primarily of single homes and 3-4 storey walkups. A high proportion of the population are renters. Being wedged between 17th Ave SW and Upper Mount Royal, the community also has great access to both upscale dining and public parks. While Lower Mount Royal is mostly built-out, it is still seeing pockets of midrise condo construction.

And some of the adjacent streets:






Beltline <------------------------------- 17th Ave SW -------------------------------> Lower Mount Royal

[esquire]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Esquire and I were neighbours when I lived in Winnipeg. (...)

My neighbourhood was Lord Roberts, which is the opposite side of Osborne Street from Esquire's Riverview. Less well-to-do, but provides the same access to surrounding amenities.

That's crazy, I'm sure we stood in the same line at Safeway at least once or twice

I didn't grow up near there so I wasn't attuned to the subtle sociological differences in the area when I moved in. Even though most Winnipeggers generally think of it as just "Riverview", there are at least three very distinct sub-neighbourhoods in a relatively small area...

There is the archetypal and somewhat upscale Riverview proper, which has big lots, leafy trees and some fairly grand houses that transition into 1950s suburban styles as you go south... then there is Lord Roberts which has somewhat more modest houses... then there is the northern edge of both neighbourhoods which has a real working class character. You really see that on the western Lord Roberts half which has a lot of small and old almost cottage-like dwellings once occupied by workers at the long-gone CNR shops nearby.

Although the area is gentrifying a bit, the northern part of Lord Roberts has a lot of low-to-mid range rental stock and public low-income housing which prevents that from getting out of hand.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

well, just remember: as nice as rows of 19th-century houses might look, two people can't be in my kitchen at once. if you open the dishwasher, you get trapped between the door and the wall. we only have room for one night table beside the bed, and the shower is about the size of a phone booth.

i bought a watermelon at the market today and it's kind of a situation. i don't know where to put it.

every time i get groceries, i have to walk them up five flights of built-in-1880 stairs.

canadians would think of my fridge as suitable only for camping.

the suburban life exists for a reason!

The thing is that in many suburban areas the density isn't that far off from that of inner city areas of Montreal and Toronto where SFHs predominate. There are streets in my neighbourhood that are as dense or denser than an area like Parkdale in Toronto. And the streets with posher houses are denser than Rosedale or Westmount. But where we've painted ourselves into a corner is with the layout of the newer areas like mine, especially with all those curvy streets.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Some of my neighbourhoods over the years. I move too much. Never again.

Alloway Avenue, Winnipeg, MB

MacLaren Street, Ottawa, ON

Robinson Street, Regina, SK

Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB

West Pine Blvd, St. Louis, MO

Pleasantville, St. John's, NL

South Lakeview, Regina SK

[SignalHillHiker]

Pleasantville must've felt like the middle of nowhere back then.

Although, I do love being able to say:

St. John's: From Pleasantville to Paradise!

Even though it's a lie, and the CMA is more accurately:

St. John's: From Pouch Cove to Conception Bay South. lol

[Trevor3]

Area 13, Stephenville. Best place I could have asked for to grow up in, and it's cool to see some people I went to high school with now buying their own homes in the same neighbourhood. It's standard 1980s suburbia with some great views in one area, lot's of natural forest surrounding it, some lots have a babbling brook behind them, and the whole thing is centered around a high school with a softball diamond, soccer pitch, and running track that are open to everyone. It even used to have the classic small town water tower at the end of Bruce Boulevard, but it was torn down a couple of years ago

100_3701

100_3711

100_3709

But it's a great mix of young families (we have 2 daycares), retirees, and everyone in between.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

i am a real fan of the sort of mid-rise urbanity that exists here in copenhagen, but i'm still canadian, and i do miss a good skyline. copenhagen is not a big city — i think in terms of metropolitan population, it's around the size of ottawa, although the whole øresund/malmö thing complicates that a bit. because of its density, though, it is satisfying in a way that even montreal sometimes strained at. i can walk across the inner city in two hours and that's it, that's all. but the whole time i am doing so, i am in this sea of 5-8 storey buildings and houses that doesn't really let up. it's not linear, or something where you have to choose your route — you're just in it the whole time.

that said, i do miss the sort of views that you get when you are approaching a canadian downtown, like coming into downtown montreal along de la gauchetiere in chinatown, or walking down queen from leslieville into central toronto. i love the layering that you get from those views, and the sense of impending gigantism. copenhagen doesn't have that.

but my neighborhood is pretty analogous, in terms of the lives lived and the shops and restaurants you see, to something like lower outremont in montreal. the funny thing — or maybe it's not so strange, given that montreal is a big city of four million people — is that streets like laurier avenue or parc are every bit as busy, as bustling and as full of life as østerbrogade, but the buildings just sort of end after two, three or four storeys. it's like a wild west kind of town, big sky country. in copenhagen they don't really dip below five or six floors, and it gives it a visual heft.

i suppose i ended up in a decent place given my preferences, but i really think mid-rise urbanity is sometimes overlooked in canada, especially in newer cities where you have these 40 storey condos, but they're sitting on two or three storey podiums. the density is there in spades, but there's an airiness that can be off-putting. i'll be in new york in a few weeks, and i am really looking forward to it. new york is a rare city in that it has these built-up, chunky neighborhoods but in a north american vernacular, and with this amazing skyline always peeking through the gaps. it is a very visually striking city in that sense. sometimes, back in montreal, i wished we had just one or two districts of six- and seven-storey, mansard-roofed quebec tenements surrounding old montreal — a sort of canadian lower east side for the bell and aldred buildings to loom over.

This is a great point about skylines. We often hear criticism from urbanists over "our" fixation on high-rises; that skylines have little more to their existence than of being post-card shots...but, I mean you don't get scenes like this without a few skyscrapers: (nevermind the canyons between those)



https://www.flickr.com/photos/empty_...r/12539011023/



Even from street level, skyscrapers provide a hefty punctuation point, and act as visual reference points looming over the city the way that church spires and monuments once did.

And it's for that same reason that a New York-type (midrise + high-rise) built form is probably my favourite. For a city centre at least. For run-of-the-mill residential areas, I prefer Beacon Hill or Amsterdam, mostly 3-4 storey townhomes and apartments on leafy, narrow streets. Though, everything down to North American streetcar suburbia or pre-war British suburbs are cool too. And there's always room for a tranquil Hoggs Hollow nestled in there. Actually, I also kinda like post-war high-rise suburbs. You know what, just about everything is pretty cool. Except for this shit.

[speedog]

Central NW Calgary, mid-50's bungalows for the most part, some in-fill and two story duplex redevelopment starting to show up. All three levels of public schooling plus some private/charter schools within walking distance, outdoor swimming pool 2 blocks away, community center and outdoor rink two blocks away, local restaurants and various other small businesses within 4 blocks.





Certainly not what many SSP people want but our block above has had only 2 homes turn over in the past 12 years - many younger families with a few original home owners. Prices for knock downs a block away are now running at $380-400k but the does get you a subdividable 60x110 lot with very mature trees - am also starting to see some massive two story single family homes being built on 60' lots.

[matt602]

The current street view imagery on the street in front of my house. Yeah... I wanna move downtown, kinda.

[harls]

My block is very kid friendly. Two years ago, they renamed it from "place" to "rue".

But there have been an increase in kids on bikes, despite the change.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

My block is very kid friendly. Two years ago, they renamed it from "place" to "rue".

But there have been an increase in kids on bikes, despite the change.

I don't understand the relationship between place vs. rue and the number of kids on bikes...

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Pleasantville must've felt like the middle of nowhere back then.

I ended up out in Portugal Cove - St. Philips for a bit too.

Pleasantville was certainly sleepy in comparison to the Central West End in St. Louis. That was some culture shock, but Pleasantville is such a great location. Although I think the move to St. Louis was a bigger culture shock for me. A quick jaunt up the hill into downtown St. John's, a short walk to Quidi Vidi Lake and the Regatta. Great hiking trails into the White Hills. Overall a nice spot to be. No corner store close sucked, although the gas station was there in a pinch.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I don't understand the relationship between place vs. rue and the number of kids on bikes...

It's French. One means "bikes allowed" and the other means "omg dangerous for little Jean-Paul!".

[GlassCity]

Kill me

[Echoes]

My block as of yesterday:


IMG_7455 by echoes320, on Flickr

[shappy]

Interesting to see kool maudit's block in Copenhagen and then scroll down a bit to see SignalHillHiker's in St. John's. The contrast is quite striking.

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Even from street level, skyscrapers provide a hefty punctuation point, and act as visual reference points looming over the city the way that church spires and monuments once did.

And it's for that same reason that a New York-type (midrise + high-rise) built form is probably my favourite. For a city centre at least. For run-of-the-mill residential areas, I prefer Beacon Hill or Amsterdam, mostly 3-4 storey townhomes and apartments on leafy, narrow streets. Though, everything down to North American streetcar suburbia or pre-war British suburbs are cool too. And there's always room for a tranquil Hoggs Hollow nestled in there. Actually, I also kinda like post-war high-rise suburbs. You know what, just about everything is pretty cool. Except for this shit.

I agree with all this.


My block in the St. Clair and Dufferin area


my photo hosted by postimg.org

[Marty_Mcfly]

Time for a tour through non-tourist St. John's.

I live in a pretty non-exciting neighbourhood called Summerville, which is is central/north'ish St. John's. The neighbourhood itself was probably constructed in the early 1960s, sometime shortly after the construction of Churchill Park.



The neighbourhood itself is predominantly what you would call a student ghetto, with many rental apartments. This is due to the proximity of Summerville to Memorial University. Many of the streets also share names with the residence houses on campus. However nestled away off the larger streets are smaller cul-de-cac's which are predominantly inhabited by families.

Cue my street, circled above. Is a medium sized, tree-lined, boring cul-de-sac full of families, (plus myself and my girlfriend ). The street is super quiet, everyone's relatively friendly, and the crime rate is pretty low, minus the occasional car break-in. Sometimes after a long day at work I walk home to find freshly baked cookies waiting on our step from the wonderful lady who lives next door





As nice as it is here, as a young individual I'd much rather be living closer to the downtown core, this is the kind of neighbourhood I could see myself in when I'm older and want lots of yard space for a dog and children to run around in But I really can't complain.....those surprise cookies are a game changer!