The Soul-Sucking Canada Thread - Page 9

kwoldtimer · #**161** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 1:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lio45

You could've told me this is Russia and I would have had no problems at all accepting it. (I'd have bet on Russia, actually, if you guys hadn't said it was in Markham, Ontario.)

It's actually not that bad, just... could've been better. Also feels abnormal for here, but if I saw it during a visit of Russia I'd be just like "okay, that's just how they do it over there; normal urbanism, nothing special".

Just to note, that's a Slovak Catholic Church. The neighbourhood gained notoriety for a statue of a cow on stilts a while back. I think it was removed after objections from the neighbours.

MonctonRad · #**162** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 2:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Just to note, that's a Slovak Catholic Church. The neighbourhood gained notoriety for a statue of a cow on stilts a while back. I think it was removed after objections from the neighbours.

Doesn't matter. The photo still looks like it was taken somewhere east of the Urals - bleak, austere, sullen, depressing, drab and authoritarian. The scene is devoid of hopefulness and is the perfect epitome of "soul-sucking" as defined by this thread.

Are you sure this photo was taken in Canada???

MolsonExport · #**163** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 4:50 PM**

^it is extraordinarily soul-sucking, and Stalinesque.

lio45 · #**164** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 7:38 PM**

Here's a slightly different version

rlcathedraltown-02.jpg.size-custom-crop.1086x0

O-tacular · #**165** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 8:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

Cathedraltown looks even worse in the winter:

Somehow the lone, hooded pedestrian in the centre of the street combined with the sideways car straddling the yellow line in the background makes it even bleaker / creepier. It's like the Cathedral is a black hole sucking everything around it to its' centre of gravity.

O-tacular · #**166** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 9:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lio45

Here's a slightly different version

rlcathedraltown-02.jpg.size-custom-crop.1086x0

If you wanted to really make it authentically Russian you could add packs of mongrel dogs and Putin signs in the windows.

MolsonExport · #**167** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 9:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If you wanted to really make it authentically Russian you could add packs of mongrel dogs and Putin signs in the windows.

I like that. maybe even some russian signs advertising Trump's P-P party video. in Orange and yellow.

O-tacular · #**168** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 10:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I like that. maybe even some russian signs advertising Trump's P-P party video. in Orange and yellow.

We could also add a yellow toupee to the central steeple.

Doady · #**169** Posted **Mar 27, 2018, 11:23 PM**

You can make any place look depressing in winter with fog and bare trees. But Cathedraltown does look cheap and cookie cutter even compared to normal subdivisions.

I don't like the faux "historic" aspect of Cornell either. That's the thing I don't like about new urbanism (Andres Duany involved with Markham planning). It's not authentic and feels a mockery of history (or reminds people of the wrong kind of history, in the case of Cathedraltown). It highlights fakeness of suburbia.

Cornell looks more "historic" than actual historic places like Port Credit, Downtown Brampton, Toronto...

Cornell is nicer than normal subdivision but it probably could have acheived that without the faux-historic crap.

BradFromTO · #**170** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 4:43 AM**

I grew up in Mississauga, so I feel like I have some expertise on soul-sucking. Here are a few of my favourite examples:

Highway 10 (Hurontario) just north of Dundas. Oh God. The strip malls. The 70's architecure. The mysterious fires. There are some positives though, some pretty good food spots if you know where your going

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58127...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Heartland. This is the worst part of Mississauga, and it's not particularly close. The big box stores, traffic, super wide roads, shitty chain resteraunts, parking lots as far as the eye can see. There is no soul to even be sucked here. It's completley devoid of humanity.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61217...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61021...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61335...2!8i6656?dcr=0

On the last stop on this trip, we'll explore some of "downtown" Mississauga, and it's most soul sucking offerings

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59025...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59032...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59640...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Now, it's not all that bad. There are some things that aren't awful in the "downtown" area. Here or some of the better examples of building an urban core out of nothing and around a mall

Sheridan's Mississauga campus:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59172...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59252...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Celebration Square (a public square with events year around. An actual street was permanently closed as part of this development. Progress!)

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58908...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58841...2!8i6656?dcr=0

And a few random intersections that have some semblance of urbanity

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58719...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58863...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58759...2!8i6656?dcr=0 (bike lanes!!!)

This is really only scratching the surface. Perhaps I will com back tomorrow and contribute some more Mississauga soullessness.

TownGuy · #**171** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 9:18 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradFromTO

I grew up in Mississauga, so I feel like I have some expertise on soul-sucking. Here are a few of my favourite examples:

Highway 10 (Hurontario) just north of Dundas. Oh God. The strip malls. The 70's architecure. The mysterious fires. There are some positives though, some pretty good food spots if you know where your going

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58127...2!8i6656?dcr=0

You know what for such a major arterial road I don't find this all that bad. It has some character, there's no massive parking lots fronting the road, etc.

MolsonExport · #**172** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 1:36 PM**

It has a certain grotty character, but in other ways it is also soul-sucking in its decrepitude. Not as soul-sucking as a "smart centre" (or that wretched Irkutskian Cathedraltown)

The Heartland Centre in Mississauga (along with its analogues in Laval, and the skyline of Longueuil), might be the most soul-sucking places in Canada. Or perhaps the known universe.

MolsonExport · #**173** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 1:38 PM**

Longueuil, Quebec.

wikipedia

osmo · #**174** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 1:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Doesn't matter. The photo still looks like it was taken somewhere east of the Urals - bleak, austere, sullen, depressing, drab and authoritarian. The scene is devoid of hopefulness and is the perfect epitome of "soul-sucking" as defined by this thread.

Are you sure this photo was taken in Canada???

The street widths really don't work well in this context.

Acajack · #**175** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 1:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TownGuy

You know what for such a major arterial road I don't find this all that bad. It has some character, there's no massive parking lots fronting the road, etc.

The main problem is that the road itself is WAY too wide.

O-tacular · #**176** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 2:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradFromTO

I grew up in Mississauga, so I feel like I have some expertise on soul-sucking. Here are a few of my favourite examples:

Highway 10 (Hurontario) just north of Dundas. Oh God. The strip malls. The 70's architecure. The mysterious fires. There are some positives though, some pretty good food spots if you know where your going

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58127...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Heartland. This is the worst part of Mississauga, and it's not particularly close. The big box stores, traffic, super wide roads, shitty chain resteraunts, parking lots as far as the eye can see. There is no soul to even be sucked here. It's completley devoid of humanity.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61217...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61021...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.61335...2!8i6656?dcr=0

On the last stop on this trip, we'll explore some of "downtown" Mississauga, and it's most soul sucking offerings

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59025...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59032...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59640...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Now, it's not all that bad. There are some things that aren't awful in the "downtown" area. Here or some of the better examples of building an urban core out of nothing and around a mall

Sheridan's Mississauga campus:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59172...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.59252...2!8i6656?dcr=0

Celebration Square (a public square with events year around. An actual street was permanently closed as part of this development. Progress!)

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58908...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58841...2!8i6656?dcr=0

And a few random intersections that have some semblance of urbanity

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58719...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58863...2!8i6656?dcr=0

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.58759...2!8i6656?dcr=0 (bike lanes!!!)

This is really only scratching the surface. Perhaps I will com back tomorrow and contribute some more Mississauga soullessness.

That city hall looks worse every time I see it. Also, I'm not sure how but the DT manages to have tall buildings and simultaneously feel like a suburban office park.

I did a photo tour one evening while stuck in the Industrial wastelands of Mississauga on a work trip. I"ll see if I can find my pics as they were hosted on imageshack.

BradFromTO · #**177** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 2:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

The main problem is that the road itself is WAY too wide.

Yup. There is an LRT line about to start construction going up highway 10, and it will be reduced to 4 lanes instead of 6. Hopefully it will be a bit better for pedestrians then.

HomeInMyShoes · #**178** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 3:09 PM**

It will still be wide to cross with little interaction between the two sides. Adding the LRT line is great, but it's still in all its deep-down nature, a stroad. Does anyone have links to plans or concepts. I'm curious what they are envisioning for all of the street-front parking in front of stripmall situations that abound.

lio45 · #**179** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 3:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

The main problem is that the road itself is WAY too wide.

Doesn't seem a problem to me, it's clearly intended as a view corridor on the prominent building of the area. It's quite typical in planned urban design:

Acajack · #**180** Posted **Mar 28, 2018, 3:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lio45

Doesn't seem a problem to me, it's clearly intended as a view corridor on the prominent building of the area. It's quite typical in planned urban design:

You think that Hurontario St. in Mississauga was intentionally built as a view corridor for the most prominent building in the area - which I guess would be the Marilyn Monroe towers?

I doubt that's the case, as Hurontario was built that way several decades before anyone could ever have imagined that there would one day be towers like that in Mississauga.