Urban vs Suburban - 2 styles enter, one style leaves!

[suburbia]

Several posts from the 'construction' forum that are better placed here:

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Anecdotally....we've lived in Bankview for almost 12 years now. I park my car on the street, just steps from two apartment buildings that are famously problematic here, with police visits all the time, and our house is aside an alley where I've observed people smoking crack on several occasions. So it's not Sunalta but it's every smidgen as unsheltered.

We've never had so much as a coffee cup stolen from our property. Our car was last broken into in 2005. We do see a lot of socially disorganized behaviours, but this hasn't resulted in either my partner or me ever having been more than panhandled. A bottle picker helped push our car in a snowstorm once... my interactions with them have been mostly neutral and sometimes positive.

I cross the street sometimes when I'm alone on a stretch of 17th--this is a problem in the late mornings usually, after the morning commuter crush but well before people are back on the sidewalks for lunch, so around 10am--and there is a group of evidently drunk or high homeless men coming my way as running that gauntlet is always a horrible, disturbing experience. But it is in Vancouver and Toronto too.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except to say that there is a level of discomfort I have with living where I live but it's absolutely, positively not around my own fears of crime and personal victimisation; it's around being in almost daily thrall of people, mostly native men, who have needs that are very difficult to meet.

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I've lived downtown for almost a decade and have only ever felt threatened once, and that was from a big Native guy who I'd seen selling and smoking crack a few times. He was walking down the middle of the sidewalk (on a busy afternoon around 5PM) yelling out "who wants to get fucked up!" not in the drug sense, in the getting beat up sense.

Aside from being propositioned by a few crack whores by my old apartment, or being asked for change by some homeless guys, that's it! I feel more threatened walking by the bars at 2AM than by any vagrant. From my experience, if you ignore them and mind your business, they leave you alone, if they ask for change or something, just say sorry man, and keep going.

Originally Posted by polishavenger

Im not comparing the beltline to the suburbs. The inner city has different issues to deal with, not a contraversial statement in the least. And crime in the inner city might be slightly more visible because there are more people, but on a per capita basis, I would be interested in seeing how it stacks up to the rest of the city. Dont forget, rapes and murders happen in the burbs as well, and there are intoxicated men in parks there as well. Not to mention menacing teenagers.

What Im saying is that the neighborhood has improved since the 90's. You have your own personal experiences to go off of, and I have mine. I remember the downtown and beltine being empty boring places after work hours, with seedy people occupying the alley ways, hookers strolling Eau Claire and Victoria park. When I went to high school at St Mary's, my daily walk from the Vic Park Station included numerous homeless, an empty lot with condoms and needles, a burned out synagogue with squaters and vagrants, and a run down crack house. Now, the empty lot is developed with nice condos, the synagogue is converted to luxury homes, there are far fewer homeless, and the crack house is beautifully restored. Also, the down town is far more vibrant, the difference on the weekends is staggering. A once derelict Eau Claire now has luxury Condos, beautiful parks, new office development, and a large number of residential on the way. 7th Ave is now a respectable street you arent embarassed to have visitors see. These examples are only a few if you look at the rest of the inner city.

Originally Posted by Strongbow

...lol, once I was walked down Stephen Ave and a gnarly older native guy stuck his hand out and in a non-threatening voice said 'can you spare some change? You stole my country you know', then smiled and showed me his three teeth...I laughed and laughed as I dug some coins out of my pocket for him...

Originally Posted by fusili

It would be dishonest of me to say that there are not aspects of urban living, and specifically the Beltline that are a nuisance. Safety to me is a different thing, as I am a 6'4" male, but I do have to admit, if I was a single woman walking at night, there would be quite a few places that would scare me, and honestly there are a few places that I do not feel comfortable for my girlfriend to be walking around alone at night.

The best thing for safety in a neighbourhood is activity. One woman I know who lives in the Beltline, has a mental condition and is on AISH. She always tells me the safest part of the neighbourhood is 17th avenue, because it is full of people. The same goes for my girlfriend. If she is out with friends on 17th (we live on 15th just behind Mount Royal Village), then I am totally comfortable with her walking home, as there are a lot of people out. If she was walking down 15th avenue around 2nd street, I would come escort her.

The other thing that the Beltline can improve on is street lighting. Too often the lighting is sparse, oriented to cars on the street, and does a poor job of illuminating the sidewalk. I also hate the new tall lights on 12th, as they make the place feel like an institution. Proper street lighting can go a long way to making women feel comfortable in the neighbourhood.

Originally Posted by Aegis

I disagree 100% with this. There's been plenty of new development in Beltline since 2007, and the hookers/johns/drug dealers are all in the same locations. They are there because it's an established location, not because it's underdeveloped. I remember the same general comments being made in 06/07 in the forum.

I will grant you that Beltline has improved significantly since 2007, but I think that has more to do with the recession causing transient population to move on, than with any significant changes in the cityscape.