Canadian City Proposals

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Nicely-scaled community centre & residential development in Parkdale to replace some nondescript buildings & gaps in the urban fabric: https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2023/02/cre...parkdale-hub-mixed-use-development.51317

That's really nice. Parkdale has a bit more of a separate identity and storied history compared to some of the other major Toronto neighbourhoods, and it could help to have a bit of a "village centre".

There are some complaints on Urban Toronto about how the proposal should have incorporated more housing, but I think this strikes a nice balance between institutional, community needs and housing supply. I'm not a NIMBY, but when you put institutional and community-focused uses at the base of towers - even smaller towers of 12-20 stories - it feels like those uses are subordinate to the high-rise residential uses, and the community feel is compromised in some way. I don't think it's worth it for the sake of adding, maybe, 150 additional units.

[someone123]

It's not really a city but there's been a noticeable uptick in projects in Bridgewater, NS lately. They are relatively urban compared to the old norm in towns like this. Many small towns in NS have traditionally been ultra-NIMBY and seemed to only want tourism-oriented faux historic houses or small shops, but they seem to be shifting and accepting medium scale multi-unit.

Originally Posted by hoser111

71 Unit apartment at 388 King Street in Bridgewater approved:



http://www.bridgewater.ca/media/developm...%20reading%20presentation_388%20King.pdf

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

A small restoration project that may become part of a larger development:


Source

The larger development:


Source

They built a park along the river a few years ago:


Source

Bridgewater has a much lower profile than nearby Lunenburg and is a more "normal town" where the largest employer is probably the Michelin plant. I could see it doing well as a town in the future since it's about 1 hour from the city in a beautiful seaside area. It has about 9,000 people and could soon become a census agglomeration. Truro and Kentville/Wolfville are similar but a bit bigger.

This area has been settled by Europeans for almost 400 years. A French town/fort was built a bit farther down the river from Bridgewater in 1632. During that era, Port Royal was briefly controlled by Scotland (before the UK existed).

[Nouvellecosse]

^ I'm glad to see that mall redevelopment proposal. When I was there last summer I was shocked to see an otherwise charming small town have the river immediately across from downtown fronted by the blank wall at the back of a suburban shopping mall. On one side of the river you have this quaint downtown with historic buildings and public space along the water, and just across the water you see that.

https://goo.gl/maps/X2n5NAiTC3eahwC9A

Like... where were all the "character" obsessed NIMBYs when that mall was proposed? Why didn't they make themselves useful and actually block something worth blocking?

[WhipperSnapper]

Parkdale looks good. A few more units here and there wouldn't make a difference from either NIMBY or YIMBY perspective.


Urbantoronto has shifted more towards to a taller is better philosophy, The thread structure and extremely strict moderation doesn't really allow for discussions on design, form and function and the housing crisis is always looming large. Developers will never produce enough units to the benefit of renters or buyers affecting their slim bottom lines. There's a massive glut of 800,000 midrise and above units proposed in the GTA.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

The thread structure and extremely strict moderation doesn't really allow for discussions on design, form and function .

This is because it's more of a Condo Guide First now forum, but they do have all the insider info on most projects.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

This is because it's more of a Condo Guide First now forum, but they do have all the insider info on most projects.

Member "Northern Lights" is indispensable in that regard.

[WhipperSnapper]

Indeed. The SSP database survives on UT's diligence. The forum is boring. Most of the posts are photo updates after a project breaks ground.

Re: Condo Guides

Do they still print those? I religiously picked those up in the early 2000s.

[Innsertnamehere]

Condo Guides are still printed and available at GO stations, etc. last time I checked.

UT has to walk a careful line as their business relies on ads and subscription services from the development industry itself, so their news articles in particular have to really be "fluff pieces" on projects and can't really be critical.

The forums are a bit more open to being honest and critiquing, there is definitely lots of critiques levelled, but still moderated generally tighter than here.

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Indeed. The SSP database survives on UT's diligence. The forum is boring. Most of the posts are photo updates after a project breaks ground.

Re: Condo Guides

Do they still print those? I religiously picked those up in the early 2000s.

After the pandemic, I'm not sure if they still have that magazine in print, but I kept two editions in my bedroom for safe keeping/reference. I'm impressed by the site activation of the community centre in Parkdale. They're a tight knit and diverse community, and seeing this investment made is a great sign of things to come. Gentrification has long been a concern there, but it hasn't come to the heart of the neighbourhood yet. The massing is a nice break from the usual thing we see when there's a community based addition, which is a point tower usually added beside or above the uses meant for local residents.

[Maldive]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

The forum is boring. Most of the posts are photo updates after a project breaks ground.

Yeah photo updates before a project breaks ground are far less boring...

[WhipperSnapper]

Are you having a Don Lemon moment?

the point photos take over the discussion. photos make poor example for thoughts, opinions.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Condo Guides are still printed and available at GO stations, etc. last time I checked.

UT has to walk a careful line as their business relies on ads and subscription services from the development industry itself, so their news articles in particular have to really be "fluff pieces" on projects and can't really be critical.

The forums are a bit more open to being honest and critiquing, there is definitely lots of critiques levelled, but still moderated generally tighter than here.

Anything pertaining to real estate is shifted to another thread. These are real estate developments. The real estate thread should be reserved to owner/investor related discussions. Any slight tangent into general development remarks is also shut down. It's not that they aren't allowing people to express their opinions on a development. I don't feel that's enough to maintain a discussion in a local based forum.

I wouldn't be surprised if UT goes the way of Emporis with the forum shut down to focus on the database. There's value in going through city docs and repackaging all the info into a spreadsheet. However, the subscriptions format will hit a peak followed by a continual decline all the while the data retains or increases its value.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I wouldn't be surprised if UT goes the way of Emporis with the forum shut down to focus on the database. There's value in going through city docs and repackaging all the info into a spreadsheet. However, the subscriptions format will hit a peak followed by a continual decline all the while the data retains or increases its value.

The UT forum still has value because a lot of the content - and, by that, I mean reporting on new submissions fresh out of the gate - is user-generated from forumers rather than from UT staff.

There's also the transportation subform, which is an excellent source of news about transportation infrastructure projects that has its own cult following and wouldn't have any place in a site about development projects.

It all hinges on the work of a few key forumers, though. There's no value in adding subscribers who just post drive-by comments on how spandrel sucks or how a transit line should have been subway vs. LRT.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Do they still print those? I religiously picked those up in the early 2000s.

As did I and my other Urbantoronto Nerd roommate. I noticed when Covid came to Canada that the Condo Guide became less frequent. I think it's Bi-Weekly now but I could be wrong.

The layout of urbantoronto sucks too. They need to reformate the layout and the user interaction. SSP has a much better layout but it might just be because I'm on here like many of you too many times a day. Mostly to see whats new and to bicker with you Whipper.

[trueviking]

^ then why don't people from Toronto post in the Toronto forum?

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^ then why don't people from Toronto post in the Toronto forum?

I guess they got used to Urbantoronto after they moved over. The formatting of that site bothers me as well, but I still post on occasion.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

The UT forum still has value because a lot of the content - and, by that, I mean reporting on new submissions fresh out of the gate - is user-generated from forumers rather than from UT staff.

There's also the transportation subform, which is an excellent source of news about transportation infrastructure projects that has its own cult following and wouldn't have any place in a site about development projects.

It all hinges on the work of a few key forumers, though. There's no value in adding subscribers who just post drive-by comments on how spandrel sucks or how a transit line should have been subway vs. LRT.

Accessing content on new submissions would be more efficient through a database. I thought the research was done by staff though. This revelation changes my opinion on the forum's future if content behind the paywall is being acquired through members posting in the forum.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^ then why don't people from Toronto post in the Toronto forum?

If urbantoronto ever shut down I could see people using the Toronto page here. I never go there because it's very underused.

[WhipperSnapper]

We agree if by format you mean too many threads. UT has exacerbated by allowing threads from Kitchener and Hamilton, etc. in a local Toronto based forum. WaterlooRegionConnected.com is a local development forum for Kitchener/Waterloo. Hamilton has SSP Hamilton.

I'm on UT maybe once a month and usually it's no more than 5 to 10 minutes. Once or twice a year I exhaustively go through every thread to update the SSP database. I have noticed moderation is quite lenient on political points of view.

[mikevbar1]

UT is great for covering the breadth of topics in the GTA (now GTHA and Golden Horseshoe, really) and occasionally has some decent discussion about particular projects besides their physical construction status. I’ve grown to like the site because of the sheer amount of content and active users, but I’ve found I mostly gravitate to stuff outside the building threads. It is quite overwhelming to see many dozens of projects updated daily, and it is a turn-off when they come from every corner of the region (without a clear indication of where they are). The browsing experience is just inferior for buildings. SSP has it beat because there is room for discussion about aesthetics, etc and the compilation threads simplify the vast amount of information posted to UT daily.

With that said, Infrastructure and anything else not related to specific buildings however is really engaging and interesting to browse. There are some very conscious UT posters, and even some which are actual professionals. I will say that by having a “score” system there’s less room for differing opinions. While there’s often a lot of bad takes here, there’s way less dogpiling behind a revered poster for their supposed expertise because they have a really high score. It’s like Reddit in that regard. There are pros and cons to it.