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Calgary's Beltline

Hi AllM
I Know that 17thAve is going through Its OWN Version of Redevelopement from Mcleod West to 14th St. Maybe it should B to 15th St. I haven't had a Chance to Follow it as such, as I Don't Live in the Areas, I will B Interested to See if Ideas On 1st St can B Used going West on 17th Ave, Lets Hope So. Interesting Times on 17th Ave.

Tnx,
Operater.
 
I'd like to see the same thing happen to 8th street....arguably the core's busiest north-south corridor. Very fair comment about the ring road and LRT....it's amazing how much money the city has spent on various infrastructure projects over the years compared to inner city streets. The infrastructure is needed, but so is investing in the inner city, especially now with the amount of new residents in the Beltline, etc..
 
CBBarnett said:
The recent completion of the redo of 1st Street's 10th to 17th Avenue's pedestrian corridor has really elevated the place. Unfortunately it's not much of a competition, but 1st Street is easily Calgary's most continuous, high-quality main street from an pedestrian-focused urban design perspective. Every corner was given attention, wide/consistent sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, reduced vehicle curb radii, transit-first bus stop orientation, minimal alleys/vehicle ramps interfering with the pedestrian realm (by Calgary standards), only one advance-green signal (12th Ave turning northbound on 1st), integration with 13th Avenue Greenway, 17th Avenue rebuild and redone 1st Street underpass.

Every area looking to redo the streetscape should use 1st Street as our best local example, it really highlights the attention to detail required to do these rebuilds right if we want to become a truly urban city. 1st Street has excelled in just about everything - except for project scheduling as it took over a decade to complete the 7 blocks of improvements. We literally built from blueprint to completion of existing 3/4 of the ring road, the West LRT + all other transit projects, and countless other major projects in the time it took to widen some sidewalks.

This being the messy business of city-building it perhaps is not surprising, but wowzers that took a long time. Worth the wait though :)
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There's also the technical issue of the crossfall of sidewalks at the location of driveways. Where driveways and sidewalks meet, the slope or angle or degree of the sidewalk (crossfall) was made pedestrian friendly on the 1 Street reconstruction. While this may seem unimportant or a trifling detail, it matters a lot to the pedestrian walking experience.

Traditionally in Calgary, the driveway/sidewalk interface was designed to cater to vehicles with a crossfall that made it easy for vehicles to enter and exit the driveway. Typically this crossfall was a 2% slope or greater. But pedestrians find this uncomfortable because they have to lean to one side when walking. Even worse for wheelchairs or strollers. A crossfall of 0.5% is more ideal for walking while still allowing for water to drain off sidewalks (which is why sidewalks never have a 0% crossfall)
 
kora said:
There's also the technical issue of the crossfall of sidewalks at the location of driveways. Where driveways and sidewalks meet, the slope or angle or degree of the sidewalk (crossfall) was made pedestrian friendly on the 1 Street reconstruction. While this may seem unimportant or a trifling detail, it matters a lot to the pedestrian walking experience.

Traditionally in Calgary, the driveway/sidewalk interface was designed to cater to vehicles with a crossfall that made it easy for vehicles to enter and exit the driveway. Typically this crossfall was a 2% slope or greater. But pedestrians find this uncomfortable because they have to lean to one side when walking. Even worse for wheelchairs or strollers. A crossfall of 0.5% is more ideal for walking while still allowing for water to drain off sidewalks (which is why sidewalks never have a 0% crossfall)
Click to expand...

This is really interesting, thanks for posting. For the most part, 1st Street succeeds on this I think, most of the ramp portion is either very shallow, or begins on the road-facing side of the sidewalk leaving a minimally sloped main part of the sidewalk right-of-way. Not to mention there is very few alley/parking ramps to begin with (again, by Calgary standards at least). The sheer amount of driveways and laneways that cross our main streets in most areas is remarkable actually. Countless examples of a laneway ramp followed immediately by another parking ramp because..... reasons ... exist along 8th Street, much of downtown, several spots on 17th Avenue. Another favourite is where a lane exists but the building decides garage access should be through another driveway instead.

Don't even get me started on the Fortis Building (17th Avenue SW, between 4th and 2nd Street) which may be the worst offender in the city given its strategic pedestrian-heavy location and amazingly insensitive designs: 3 17th Avenue-facing driveways in the same building, which multiply all the issues you mentioned.
 
kora said:
There's also the technical issue of the crossfall of sidewalks at the location of driveways. Where driveways and sidewalks meet, the slope or angle or degree of the sidewalk (crossfall) was made pedestrian friendly on the 1 Street reconstruction. While this may seem unimportant or a trifling detail, it matters a lot to the pedestrian walking experience.

Traditionally in Calgary, the driveway/sidewalk interface was designed to cater to vehicles with a crossfall that made it easy for vehicles to enter and exit the driveway. Typically this crossfall was a 2% slope or greater. But pedestrians find this uncomfortable because they have to lean to one side when walking. Even worse for wheelchairs or strollers. A crossfall of 0.5% is more ideal for walking while still allowing for water to drain off sidewalks (which is why sidewalks never have a 0% crossfall)
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Something I've never given two seconds of thought to. Thx for pointing that out.
 
Hi All,
Back to 1st St for a bit, How is 1st St doing with the High Rise Apt Towers going In?

Tnx,
Operaer.
 
Operater said:
Hi All,
Back to 1st St for a bit, How is 1st St doing with the High Rise Apt Towers going In?

Tnx,
Operaer.
Click to expand...

I live a couple of blocks from there. There is a little more energy/vitality in that 13 Ave to 12 Ave SW block as you now have 2 pubs, a bar, 4 restaurants, coffee shop, yoga studio, and fitness club to go with the high rise towers.
 
1st Street is amazingly different than it was 10 years ago. It was kind of a nasty area, I remember taking pics of Colors when it was being excavated and being corner by some crack heads who thought I was taking pics of them. the guys wanted my camera, and it got physical. A few years before that I got into an altercation when taking construction pics of Chocolate. Some prostitutes must have thought I was taking pics of them, as some big dude showed up asking me questions about it, and he too wanted my camera. There was no way I was getting past this guy, and I ended up showing him the pics on my camera.

It wasn't a nice area at all. These days are different...I've taken my son to the Park beside Union Square, and we've gone over to Subway to grab a bite. I've would have never considered taking my son around there 10 years ago.
 
Surrealplaces said:
1st Street is amazingly different than it was 10 years ago. It was kind of a nasty area, I remember taking pics of Colors when it was being excavated and being corner by some crack heads who thought I was taking pics of them. the guys wanted my camera, and it got physical. A few years before that I got into an altercation when taking construction pics of Chocolate. Some prostitutes must have thought I was taking pics of them, as some big dude showed up asking me questions about it, and he too wanted my camera. There was no way I was getting past this guy, and I ended up showing him the pics on my camera.

It wasn't a nice area at all. These days are different...I've taken my son to the Park beside Union Square, and we've gone over to Subway to grab a bite. I've would have never considered taking my son around there 10 years ago.
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Wow, it's shocking to hear stories like that. Honestly, I have never once felt truly unsafe anywhere in the Calgary Inner City. That's so interesting. I wonder how much more it will change in the 10 years to come :)
 
I think that 1st street 14th/15th ave, along with the area right around the Cecil Hotel were the last of generally unsafe places to hang around. I still remember the days when Stephen Ave was a place not to be around after dark. These days, you can hang around anywhere, it's not very dangerous.
 
Surrealplaces said:
I think that 1st street 14th/15th ave, along with the area right around the Cecil Hotel were the last of generally unsafe places to hang around. I still remember the days when Stephen Ave was a place not to be around after dark. These days, you can hang around anywhere, it's not very dangerous.
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I've had smaller (skinnier, lighter, whatever you wanna call it) friends tell me they've experienced heckling or whatever around downtown, as recently as within the last two years. Doesn't seem like it amounted to much though. Just drunk college boys thinking they're tough probably.

I find it amazing though that Calgary was a fairly sketchy place as recently as you've experienced though. That's just fascinating, as I've been here 6 years and have never had a thought of that sort of thing nor do I see anywhere around town in that respect. I always laugh when my bros call Forest Lawn "the ghetto"... I'm like, biscuit, you think that's ghetto? That would be the nice cozy middle class part of town in most cities in the midwest. Most of my friends are Calgarian kids that were taught by their parents to avoid downtown, so they don't really have perspective on it, I think.
 
Hi Group,
I'll B Fair in saying I'd like to see More of these Dvlprs Bldg their Planned Projects on the Belt line. Adds to JOBS and would let People know there is a Home/Place for Them to Live. Close to D T and With more People Makes for more Economic Dvlpmnt in the Belt Lie as Well as D T.

Tnx,
Operater.
 
I was down in the Beltline on the weekend chilling and strolling and I can't believe how much better it feels these days. It just seems so much more busier and vibrant than used to be. That area around at Mt Royal Village is exploding, such a nice little area now and once the Royal is done it's gonna be amazing.
 
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