Severe Urban Decay and Renewal in Canada

[Mininari]

What is your city's*WORST*, most-decayed, neighbourhood?
Is there any hope for renewal?
What is being done to bring it back from the brink?
Is urban-renewal purely driven by economics first, or policy?

There are many great national-level threads here, but I thought of one that is missing -- severe urban decay. I'm not talking about areas that a little dirty, or have an abandoned building or two... I'm referring to areas that are blighted. Example; multiple abandoned, boarded up industrial buildings, neighbourhoods where every 2nd or 3rd house has some form of plywood covering windows, neglected parks, abandoned schools.

Or worse.

The reason I bring this up, is that I have recently become fascinated with the ever-intensifying decline of the city of Detroit. Some of the you-tube videos (just type "Detroit Ghetto" or "Abandoned Detroit buildings") are shocking. It is such a contrast within a nation where one can shop at a store that sells $500 neck ties, or $3,000 handbags. Of course just about every major American city has some REALLY bad areas (e.g. South Bronx in NYC), but Detroit takes the cake (owing to a car industry that keeps getting hammered by one thing or the other...).

So, are there any comparable areas in any Canadian Cities, and if so, what is being done to turn them around? I can vouch for the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver as being a particularly bad area, and is being "tackled" so to say by developers and the city.

I realize there is a huge social aspect to this type of thread, but I was hoping to focus mainly on the neighbourhoods themselves... the history of the area (what it used to be to the city), and what is being done to reverse it. There are already plenty of regional-city-level threads that deal with the social problems within these areas.

[ue]

Canadian and American urban decay seem to be very different. The postcards of American decay come from cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. These cities actually have areas that have decayed away or partially with huge swaths of open urban prairie and random little 1920s houses. They're very empty. Canada's worst neighbourhoods (the postcards of Canadian decay in the urban) are different. They are lived in by the low income, the homeless, etc. They have issues, yes, but are at least lived in and aren't filled with urban prairie. Obviously in each country there is some of the other type, but predominantly I wouldn't say Canada's pictures of decay are actually decay, they're just more run down and lower income with social issues. The big key is many people still actually live in for example the DTES. Not many do in Poletown, Detroit.

That being said, Canada has been pretty spared from a lot of decay than our neighbours to the South I'd say. I can only think of two not so hot areas: the DTES in Vancouver and North End in Winnipeg, but even at that I think there's worse in the US and elsewhere.

Here's some decay in Edmonton. A little sketchy, but a lot better than Detroit (your example) ...













Rougher? Some abandonment? Sure. But much of the neighbourhood is kept up with people living in it. A few boarded up spots and empty lots but otherwise at least it is lived in.

[-Harlington-]

Ill add shannon park for halifax, its an abondoned military housing area in the norhren part of dartmouth and was a possible staidum site when the commonwelth games were gonna be bidded on and possible housing, there is lots of fighting about it now and what to do with it, personally i think a stadium would be nice anyway and theres nothing happing with it now exept random homeles being chased out.



In the background you can see the A. Murry Mackay bridge which was constructed there in place of a commuinity called africville an entire black neibourhood and was basicly taken from them in the name of ''urban renewal''.

[mike474]

This link was posted in the Saskatoon thread, but it applies here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordonc...7623721605104/

Like the Halifax example, McNab Park was a military (RCAF) barracks near Saskatoon airport converted into social housing. The neighbourhood has been mostly dismantled with the houses still in good shape being moved and refurbished. The neighbourhood is visible from the major access road to the airport so it has always been a bit of a an eyesore to welcome visitors. The photos on the link are the few remaining structures that will soon be gone to make way for a new business park.

[duper]

Originally Posted by -Harlington-

Ill add shannon park for halifax, its an abondoned military housing area in the norhren part of dartmouth and was a possible staidum site when the commonwelth games were gonna be bidded on and possible housing.

Cool. Talk about a flashback for me. I remember visiting a friend of my parents on that complex in 1990. How long has it been abandoned?

[flar]

Residential abandonment is fairly rare in Canada's cities. A house here, a house there, but not really entire neighbourhoods. There are neighbourhoods that are rundown or have high concentrations of poverty.


There are plenty of commercial areas that are abandoned. Streets like Kenilworth, Barton or King East in Hamilton have very long stretches of abandoned storefronts. Downtown Brantford and Downtown Niagara Falls also have a lot of abandonment.

A few examples of Hamilton abandonment, unfortunately there's a lot, and historic buildings regularly collapse due to neglect:

[-Harlington-]

Originally Posted by duper

Cool. Talk about a flashback for me. I remember visiting a friend of my parents on that complex in 1990. How long has it been abandoned?

It was disbanded in 2004 due to naval cut backs and has been abandoned ever since,
here is some info if your interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Park,_Nova_Scotia

[raggedy13]

The worst neighbourhood in this respect in Vancouver is the Downtown Eastside (DTES). It is the historic downtown core of Vancouver which steadily declined over time before hitting rock bottom in the last couple decades. The city's poor, mentally ill, and drug addicted are concentrated here, in no small part thanks to the concentration of social services in the area.

There is hope for renewal as the area is seeing the most significant wave of redevelopment and renovations since... well... ever. This may have slowed slightly with the economy but is an established trend that is sure to continue over the next decade. The trend may have been jump started by the City committing to the massive Woodwards development (and further aided by other City projects such as the Carrall Street Greenway and City and Provincial investment in social housing construction/renovation), but at this point renewal seems much more driven by the market/economics than public policy.

[1ajs]

winnipegs selkirk avenue would be the most decayed strip with decay eminating from that though the area of decay (the north end) around the strip has shrunk it still has a long ways to go though...




though some in this city would also mention higgins avenue as a decayed strip as its mostly old industrial the area is just caught up in zoneing crap witch is a shame because of its river front properties and small cluster of homes off it is ripe for developement

downtown winnipeg has pockets of decay here and there couple buildings here and they've slowly been dealing with them as they can but 2 of the biggest eye sores of sorts are curently both undergoing work to bring them back to life

the 108yr old royal bank building (new culinary arts school and student residents)



and the avenue block also know as the pink beast witch has beutifull red brick under that pink paint



now to just take care of the little buildings here downtown and the other shrinking pokets of decay in the city

[flar]

A couple Hamilton streets with bad decay

Kenilworth Ave: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=168229

Barton St: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=119700

Kenilworth is a mess, with no prospects. Barton St is very long, some sections of it might have hope, but nothing happening at the moment.

[rousseau]

To basically sum up: Hamilton wins.

[flar]

Not a contest you want to win. Hamilton has big problems that are unique among cities in Canada.

[manny_santos]

In London, Ont., the Old East area along Dundas Street had a number of abandoned buildings a few years ago. That area is slowly being revitalized, and although I don't go out there very often, there's still a few abandoned buildings.

I'm just glad abandoned buildings in general don't normally look like the abandoned buildings in SimCity 2000. Now those are ugly.

[Traynor]

Originally Posted by flar

Not a contest you want to win. Hamilton has big problems that are unique among cities in Canada.

I think Windsor would have a thing or two to say to that statement.

[WhipperSnapper]

There's a fair amount of abandonment in Southern Ontario but not to any degree found in the US. Luckily, Southern Ontario is as far south as a Canadian can get.

[someone123]

Gottingen Street in Halifax is a nice example of an area that used to be very run down but started doing much better.

Here are some old photos of the street:




Up until the 1960s or so it was in a poor area but was a busy street with lots of major retailers including a department store, theatres, etc:



Around 5-6 years ago there were a lot of renovation projects. Many of the old wooden buildings in the area (many from the early 1800s, some going as far back as the 1750s) were restored:



Recently there has been more and more new construction:



The last year or two there have been a couple of small (4-6 storey) condo buildings constructed and there's another townhouse project that is supposed to start soon:


Source

Google Streetview is a little dated but gives a good impression of what the street is like: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...48.49,,0,-4.77

[Wishblade]

Here is some of the decay in Dartmouh, accross from Halifax. IMO its probably the worst case of urban decay in the Halifax area:

[flar]

Originally Posted by Traynor

I think Windsor would have a thing or to to say to that statement.

No. (I'm quite familiar with Windsor)

[alps]

Here's another shot to show the scale of Shannon Park -- all the buildings in this photo are abandoned and there are several others up the road to the left, out of view. There was a fire at the church at the bottom last month.


(Source: Bing Maps)

It's a big shame they just let it rot. IMO it should have been used as civilian housing like at Wallis Heights (another old PMQ neighbourhood in Dartmouth), at least in the short term until they'd decided on something else to do with it.

Some tiny photos from construction

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

The worst neighbourhood in this respect in Vancouver is the Downtown Eastside (DTES). It is the historic downtown core of Vancouver which steadily declined over time before hitting rock bottom in the last couple decades. The city's poor, mentally ill, and drug addicted are concentrated here, in no small part thanks to the concentration of social services in the area.

There is hope for renewal as the area is seeing the most significant wave of redevelopment and renovations since... well... ever. This may have slowed slightly with the economy but is an established trend that is sure to continue over the next decade. The trend may have been jump started by the City committing to the massive Woodwards development (and further aided by other City projects such as the Carrall Street Greenway and City and Provincial investment in social housing construction/renovation), but at this point renewal seems much more driven by the market/economics than public policy.

but its always been occupied and livable its not abandoned or dead like these other places