203 replies to this topic

[aastra]

In Victoria you always see these false comparisons. Methinks a better comparison (should we feel obliged to make one... not sure why we need to do that) would be Lougheed Highway leading out to Brentwood Mall (prior to all the new condo towers).

[Mike K.]

West 4th is a maze of apartments ten blocks thick. It’s once you push further west past Kits the SFDs show up.

If what Saanich has envisioned is reasonable, 4th at Arbutus is more of less the future, no?

[aastra]

 

West 4th is a maze of apartments ten blocks thick.

 

Define "maze". I should have known something was amiss when you said you walked ten blocks from Kits Beach to 4th Avenue.

[Mike K.]

Is this not what Saanich has envisioned and Victoria is pursuing?

 

[RFS]

The comparison to west 4th is so off its actually sad

[Mike K.]

He's not comparing them, he's saying that's the end-game for the Douglas corridor.

[aastra]

I don't see how turning upper Douglas into lower Cook Street could be the plan.

[aastra]

To my point, here's Mayfair area from a few years ago and Brentwood Mall area from the late 1990s (Brentwood area has Skytrain now and many tall towers):

 

pic from http://old.globalairphotos.com

 

pic from http://old.globalairphotos.com

 

[aastra]

A very car-centric area containing an odd mix of uses including a shopping mall and light industrial, but with SFD neighbourhoods (and apartments) right there on the edges of it

Edited by aastra, 05 November 2020 - 01:13 PM.

[Mike K.]

I don't see how turning upper Douglas into lower Cook Street could be the plan.

 

The only thing differentiating Douglas from West 4th is the maturity of trees (which were removed to put up the bus lanes) and the residential density.

 

They're not comparing the areas to each other in the present.

 

 

[RFS]

West 4th to cook is also way off. I lived two blocks from kits beach for a few months couple years ago and there is nothing really comparable to west 4th/kits in vic

[aastra]

I would say they're the equivalent neighbourhoods in their respective cities. There are so many neighbourhood blocks in Victoria and Oak Bay that are all but interchangeable with their equivalent blocks in Vancouver city (Vancouver streets just tend to be more shady owing to more generous tree cover). If Cook Street wasn't a dead end and you had more neighbourhoods to the south of it then the commercial zone would be longer.

 

Just spin around until you're disoriented and you'll forget which street is where:

https://goo.gl/maps/dbmHKSKSwn1Ugat26
https://goo.gl/maps/s4RQdQAJWpb6QNBz5

 

Anyway, Upper Douglas Street is just not a neighbourhood commercial street. It's an auto-centric strip. It has not one but two large shopping centres! The comparison is not apt. Not apt, I say.

 

But that doesn't mean it can't be changed and turned into a better version of itself.

 

In my estimation the highrise visions for upper Douglas/Oak Street are much more in line with what the Brentwood Mall area has become (but sans Skytrain and in much closer proximity to the city centre).

 

 

pic from https://theamazingbrentwood.com

Edited by aastra, 05 November 2020 - 01:53 PM.

[aastra]

 

The comparison is not apt. Not apt, I say.

 

I apologize to everyone for losing my temper like that. Mike K. just knows how to push my buttons.

[aastra]

Re: Mike K.'s pic of the Finlayson intersection, it sure is too bad that Mayfair didn't present a better face on the corner and along Douglas. The potential was there. It's a big missed opportunity.

[Casual Kev]

West 4th to cook is also way off. I lived two blocks from kits beach for a few months couple years ago and there is nothing really comparable to west 4th/kits in vic

 

I agree. Maybe if we stitched Cook together with Fort, Fairfield and Oak Bay, then put it together near a nice beach... 

Edited by Casual Kev, 05 November 2020 - 02:03 PM.

[Nparker]

...it sure is too bad that Mayfair didn't present a better face on the corner and along Douglas. The potential was there. It's a big missed opportunity.

The recent Mayfair renovation was big on hype and small on improvements, especially in regards to the Douglas Street frontage.

[Citified.ca]

Dignitaries celebrated the groundbreaking of Tresah, the region's first mass timber-designed condominium tower now underway between the 600-blocks of Frances and Speed avenues in Victoria's Mayfair District. Mayor Lisa Helps, at left, assisted developer Edward Geric, at right, with a customary first shovel's-worth of moving soil.

 

Construction begins on Tresah, Victoria's first mass timber-designed condominium tower

https://victoria.cit...dominium-tower/

[Brantastic]

The article mentions a transformation of the Starbucks property. What's happening there? I haven't heard anything about that.

And is something about to be revealed with regard to the Loblaws land? I don't know if I would call sitting on vacant land with no formal plans released to public for 10 years an "ambitious plan".

Either way, good to see lots of changed for this area.
 

[Nparker]

... is something about to be revealed with regard to the Loblaws land?...

I believe the first Safeway/IKEA/bowling alley will be built here.

[Mike K.]

The article mentions a transformation of the Starbucks property. What's happening there? I haven't heard anything about that.

And is something about to be revealed with regard to the Loblaws land? I don't know if I would call sitting on vacant land with no formal plans released to public for 10 years an "ambitious plan".

Either way, good to see lots of changed for this area.

As in, it became a Starbucks