There are three downtowns. Downtown Port Arthur (aka Waterfront District aka North Core) is the one with the marina on the lake, that's the thriving downtown the above picture is from. The second is the south one, (aka Downtown Fort William, Victoriaville, or South Core) which is probably being flagged by Google as "the downtown" because it's got city hall and the court house. It's main street is actually Victoria Avenue, but since that is blocked by the mall, May Street is now its de facto main street.
The Victoria Avenue CIBC burned down in early 2007, and
is on the market for only $39,900, which is essentially the cost of the land. Anyone who manages to actually redevelop that into something other than the ruin it currently is would be hailed as a community hero, in case you're looking to expand your portfolio.
The last downtown is tiny Westfort Village, centered on Frederica and Brown. It was the first real downtown in the area, but was abandoned not long after it was developed due to the railway terminus being moved to the east to the current south downtown core.
Thunder Bay is very spread out and polycentric, we have one of the highest amounts of lane kilometers per person in Canada. The developed area of the city has nearly doubled in size since the 1960s, but the population has been stagnant since.
The only real downtown in Northern Ontario is in Sault Ste. Marie. And if you haven't checked out Duluth yet, it's worth it. Duluth was building some of America's earliest skyscrapers back when Thunder Bay was a trading post and some fields. Ten years after the first skyscraper in the world was built in Chicago, Duluth built one just as tall,
and it's still standing today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
Hopefully that Thai place's food is of higher quality than its architecture.....
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It's a very good restaurant. Not as good as what I have in Vancouver, but much better than you might think for this city. The building it's in is over 110 years old, it was originally a bank, but I can't recall the company that operated it. One of the banks that has long been merged into another bank.