'A big win for Calgary' - they are getting vancouver's upside down church

[LeftCoaster]

These are always fun... I'm Excited

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

Not really, by North American standards that's quite significant especially in such a small area.

And that justifies that snide, anti-Calgary reaction? It's not like any significant proportion of people in the GVRD live in downtown Vancouver or arguably care any more than Calgarians do about a piece of art.

Originally Posted by Yume-Sama

The largest number I can find for Calgary's Downtown population is from 2006, at 6944, median income of $28,658. A City of Calgary census study from 2007 shows a population decrease between 2006 - 2007 at -1% for the Downtown Core, and between -1 and -5% for each of the following area, Downtown West End, Eau Claire, Chinatown, Downtown East Village. I can't imagine a 700% boom in population between 2007 and 2008.

Duh, it doesn't include the Beltline...

2007 Census summary

Beltline - 17,794
Chinatown - 1,308
Downtown Commercial Core - 7,523
Downtown East Village - 2,201
Downtown West End - 2,635
Eau Claire - 1,645

Total = 33,106

http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/...isonbycomm.pdf

[Yume-sama]

The beltline isn't technically considered "downtown" by what I'm reading. As it's located south of downtown (south of 9th Avenue and the Railway tracks). So yeah, people live there, but I wouldn't say that area has much going for it either besides the Stampede Grounds, some trendy (by Calgary standards) shops, a few second-rate bars, and a new casino.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

The beltline isn't technically considered "downtown" by what I'm reading. As it's located south of downtown (south of 9th Avenue and the Railway tracks). So yeah, people live there, but I wouldn't say that area has much going for it either besides the Stampede Grounds, a few second-rate bars, and a new casino.

The beltline being omitted from the DT population is an error. The beltline IS DT, and should be counted as such.

[LeftCoaster]

Just curious, is the Broadway corridor (Vancouver's beltline equivalent) considered in the downtown population figures?

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Just curious, is the Broadway corridor (Vancouver's beltline equivalent) considered in the downtown population figures?

I could be wrong but I don't think so.

[Calgarian]

In an attempt to save this from becoming a Calgary vs Vancouver thread I will say that Calgary has a lot of work to do in making downtown a more livable place, something Vancouver has done an excellent job of. That being said, our CBD (what most people think of when you say downtown Calgary) is just that, a business district and is extremely successful in that right. Downtown Vancouver is basically a neighborhood and has somewhere around half the office space Calgary has, that doesn't make it better or worse, just different. If you walk down the streets of any major commercial district in any major city in NA at 10pm on a weeknight, there isn't going to be a flurry of activity, it's just the way such areas are. Calgary as a city has recognized this and as a result, all the neighborhoods that surround the CBD are focusing on adding residential and office instead of simply building more office buildings. We are a young city and have a very bright future ahead of us so once again, please don't fall into the old stereotypes the eastern based media loves to use as a representation of this city. If you don't believe me, come and see for yourselves.

Now lets not all get emotional as there is a chance for some actual meaningful discussion on both the vibrancy of the downtowns in both cities, as well as the topic of this sculpture we in Calgary are happy to take off your hands.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Just curious, is the Broadway corridor (Vancouver's beltline equivalent) considered in the downtown population figures?

Nope, we only count the peninsuala....though technically, Central Broadway is part of the metropolitan core.

[Yume-sama]

Well, I'm heading back to Vancouver tomorrow. I'll have to pay my tributes to this and lay a wreath by it or something

RIP Upside Down Church thing.

[jlousa]

I can assure you not everyone in Vancouver is this uneducated about Calgary.

[SpongeG]

the artist probably lives in artsy farsty land on one of the gulf islands and never ventures past boundary road when he hits the lower mainland

i wonder if they will replace it with something else less offensive to the sensitive masses who drove it out of the city - whoever they are

[Yume-sama]

How about something like this, which resides in Kawasaki, Japan

http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Kanam...tival_2007.JPG (NSFW... maybe?)

[mr.x]

^ i prefer these in Amsterdam:

[Boris2k7]

Hahahaha, every CBD should have one of those.

I can just imagine the uproar. We had a giant snow penis erected in a suburban community last winter and it was torn down by some Right-Wing Christians by the following morning. But damn did it get photographed a lot!

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Boris2k7

Hahahaha, every CBD should have one of those.

I can just imagine the uproar. We had a giant snow penis erected in a suburban community last winter and it was torn down by some Right-Wing Christians by the following morning. But damn did it get photographed a lot!

So, by the logic of progression, after a year or two the upside down church will be moving to Saskatoon...then Winnipeg the following year....then most likely to Montreal.

[clooless]

Originally Posted by johnnyc

In an attempt to save this from becoming a Calgary vs Vancouver thread I will say that Calgary has a lot of work to do in making downtown a more livable place, something Vancouver has done an excellent job of. That being said, our CBD (what most people think of when you say downtown Calgary) is just that, a business district and is extremely successful in that right. Downtown Vancouver is basically a neighborhood and has somewhere around half the office space Calgary has, that doesn't make it better or worse, just different. If you walk down the streets of any major commercial district in any major city in NA at 10pm on a weeknight, there isn't going to be a flurry of activity, it's just the way such areas are. Calgary as a city has recognized this and as a result, all the neighborhoods that surround the CBD are focusing on adding residential and office instead of simply building more office buildings. We are a young city and have a very bright future ahead of us so once again, please don't fall into the old stereotypes the eastern based media loves to use as a representation of this city. If you don't believe me, come and see for yourselves.

Now lets not all get emotional as there is a chance for some actual meaningful discussion on both the vibrancy of the downtowns in both cities, as well as the topic of this sculpture we in Calgary are happy to take off your hands.

Well put.

I moved to Calgary from Vancouver about six years ago, and your observations closely echo my own. I like this city, but I do miss the vibrant downtown core of Vancouver.

Anyway, when I was last in Vancouver I made a point of walking from Stanley Park along Coal Harbour to Canada Place so I could observe the changes since I was there last and happened upon the sculpture. I rather like it and I don't see what the big deal is. Notice that residents have come up with all sorts of bullshit reasons to remove the piece over the years; everything from "Think of the children!" to "It's blocking my view." I hope they replace the work with something four times as large and hideously ugly.

[entheosfog]

I'm pretty surprised the parks board favoured the residents moaning about it but being that they live in Coal Harbour I can't say I'm surprised. (ha that made no sense!)
I wonder why they couldn't just couldn't have moved it to a different neighbourhood in Van? My area (Commercial Drive) would probably welcome it with open arms! I guess I'm just bitter cause I never got a pic of it

[mr.x]

couldn't they have relocated the sculpture to the Olympic Village (post-games) or maybe near Science World (there's a park north of it)?

[vanhattan]

Device to root out evil was my favorite sculpture in this city. Hell, it's hard to find any sculpture in this city so I will take and celebrate just about anything that comes here.

Really though. This is just another example of the huge lack of appreciation for the arts in Vancouver, especially any art form that strays too far from the many examples of over polished, mainstream, Disneyfied, beige expressions that engulfs this city. At the end of the day, Vancouver is left with mainly dark clouds and rain and drab, plain, dreary, uninspired architechture with nothing in between to make it even barely tolerable. Is there something in the water here???

[Wooster]

You can think of Calgary's 'Centre City' much like Vancouver in the early 90s. Still lots of vacant and underutilzed land, but near the start of a massive urbanization. Even lots of Vancouver developers and architects (like Anthem, Qualex Landmark, Concord Pacific and previously Bosa with Foad Rafii, James Cheng, Arthur Erickson/Busby) are very active in the residential boom. We have over 12 000 residential units either under construction or proposed in the Centre City. It's very much following in the footsteps of Vancouver. You could think of West Beltine (Connaught), very much like the West End (Older established and more built out), and the East Beltline as very much like Yaletown (started out industrial, warehouse with a lot of vacant land and is getting the lions share of development). Eau Claire has some parallels to Coal harbour - wealthy, waterfront etc (as vancouver developer Anthem likes to point out in its marketing of its 'Waterfront' condo project)...and so on.

You'll notice that Vancouver's downtown penninsula and Calgary's Centre City (which consists of the CBD, West End, Eau Claire, Chinatown, East Village and Beltline) are almost exactly the same size geographically.





Also, keep in mind that Calgary is the same population now as Vancouver was in the early 70s. Calgary is undergoing its rapid urbanization in the core at a smaller population to what Vancouver was when it started after Expo 86. \

Calgary's current Centre City population of 33 000 is roughly 3% of the metro population, while in Vancouver, its 85 000 or so residents in the downtown penninsula comprise about 3.8% of the metro population. Vancouver's downtown population is a fantastic achievement, but it isn't exactly like night and day. Given the incredible amount of development activity happening in Calgary, I'm sure it won't take too long before Calgary catches up in this ratio.

Oh, and I'm sure all these new residents will love their new adopted piece of public art!