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Calgary's Downtown Dilemma

It's pretty telling that there are cranes up in nearly ever neighbourhood surrounding the CBD but none in the CBD itself except for the Marriott. And apart from a handful of office conversions and renovations to cultural centres, there isn't even an active proposal on the go.
 
Mountain Man said:
Calgary definitely need to work on adding vibrancy to the core part of downtown. There's Stephen Ave, but really nothing else. 3rd always had potential to be a high street, the City should try to encourage some of the ground floor spaces on the buildings lining 3rd to convert to retail or restaurants. Or close the street and line it with food trucks in the summer.
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I always feel like 3rd ave was maybe a mistake by the city. The only vibrant north south streets seem to be the ones that connect out of the CBD. Centre Street/1St Street SW/5th Street/8th street. 3rd ave is reasonably busy during the day, but dies after 4:00pm whereas the others hang keep relatively busy. Especially 8th street . I've always assumed 3rd sucked was because it has limited north-south connectivity.
 
Surrealplaces said:
I've always assumed 3rd sucked was because it has limited north-south connectivity.
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This connectivity really only speaks to car and bike connectivity. The success of 3rd St. as a gathering place for the area should be separate from its connectivity, that could actually make it easier to just turn vehicle traffic away from it. The ground-level CRUs of the adjacent properties to 3rd is pretty bad. Only 3rd St. between 4th and 5th Ave is anything close to what you would want.

What scares me is we talk about 'improving the street scape and that should help make the CBD better', 3rd St has a fine street scape, its the closest thing to a complete street and yet its an awful street. It could simply be because of the poorly integrated CRUs. If so, take that residential conversion money, put it into those CRUs and you might make it better but really I don't even have faith that would make it better. Take a drive down 3rd and the large flower beds and other elements put in to make it a 'friendly street' really have the opposite affect and break it up and make the street feel very gray and brown, even in the summer.

3rd St. does have a lot going for it though and you could even keep the stale connectivity to the ground-level of buildings... Jack hammer all of that cold concrete and brick, make one pedestrian walkway right up the middle with minimal concrete, plant some native plant species, grasses or whatever (I'm not a landscape architect). Where there are ground-level CRUs integrate them into the urban garden where there aren't run the vegetation right up to the building and in a sense hide the lack of CRUs. Create some small-scale plazas for food trucks and other events and you've given people a reason to go there. Then all you have to do is properly connect it through to Eau Claire and The Prince's island park and you've got yourself a green street. Give the Sheraton access to their lobby via a one-way loop and I'm sure they'd be happy to be located along a green street.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
This connectivity really only speaks to car and bike connectivity. The success of 3rd St. as a gathering place for the area should be separate from its connectivity, that could actually make it easier to just turn vehicle traffic away from it. The ground-level CRUs of the adjacent properties to 3rd is pretty bad. Only 3rd St. between 4th and 5th Ave is anything close to what you would want.

What scares me is we talk about 'improving the street scape and that should help make the CBD better', 3rd St has a fine street scape, its the closest thing to a complete street and yet its an awful street. It could simply be because of the poorly integrated CRUs. If so, take that residential conversion money, put it into those CRUs and you might make it better but really I don't even have faith that would make it better. Take a drive down 3rd and the large flower beds and other elements put in to make it a 'friendly street' really have the opposite affect and break it up and make the street feel very gray and brown, even in the summer.

3rd St. does have a lot going for it though and you could even keep the stale connectivity to the ground-level of buildings... Jack hammer all of that cold concrete and brick, make one pedestrian walkway right up the middle with minimal concrete, plant some native plant species, grasses or whatever (I'm not a landscape architect). Where there are ground-level CRUs integrate them into the urban garden where there aren't run the vegetation right up to the building and in a sense hide the lack of CRUs. Create some small-scale plazas for food trucks and other events and you've given people a reason to go there. Then all you have to do is properly connect it through to Eau Claire and The Prince's island park and you've got yourself a green street. Give the Sheraton access to their lobby via a one-way loop and I'm sure they'd be happy to be located along a green street.
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The connectivity factor speaks just as much to pedestrians if not more I would say. Both 1st and 8th street are the only streets that have pedestrians after business hours and it’s mostly because those streets carry on to the Beltline. 5th street is making strides too, but also another street that causes on through to the Beltline.
3rd is not a lot cause, and can be improved but how much improvement? I’m not sure it’s ever going to be a lot better than it is today. If there’s a way to get more businesses on the street it might help.
 
Atticus said:
The connectivity factor speaks just as much to pedestrians if not more I would say. Both 1st and 8th street are the only streets that have pedestrians after business hours and it’s mostly because those streets carry on to the Beltline. 5th street is making strides too, but also another street that causes on through to the Beltline.
3rd is not a lot cause, and can be improved but how much improvement? I’m not sure it’s ever going to be a lot better than it is today. If there’s a way to get more businesses on the street it might help.
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Completely fair, 3rd does deadend at 9th. And you make a good point about pedestrians coming from the belt line after hours. I was more or less thinking of creating a destination not just moving people through the area.
 
I think the cross corridors like 8th street etc, are already doing well, and can be even better with some tweaking. 3rd can also be improved with some tweaking as it does have a nice connection into Eau Claire and if Eau Claire ever gets redeveloped properly, it could be the anchor for 3rd street.
 
I don’t mean to hijack this thread to the beltline when it’s so obviously titled otherwise, but I love a theoretical cineplex talk. And I’d rather post this where the conversation is already at.

First of all, imagine a 6-8 screen theater on the second or even 3rd floor. While having posters and street signage outside at the pedestal level. Give it a parkade to calm the parking complainers. The building needs to create an atmosphere and experience, somewhere people linger and talk about later in the week. It can’t be a big blank box on the corner, it needs windows to see in and out of. Wrap the main level and 2nd floor in restaurants at opposite ends of the spectrum, meaning fine dining, fast food, and family sitdown places. Give it a grand entrance with an escalator going up the two floors, that are open and visible from it. Ideally, it needs some other retail with at least a few of them being capable of later hours that make sense.

And place it on 17th at 1st st SW. There walking distance to the stampede grounds and the new arena, it activates the east end of 17th, it connects and creates a draw along 1st street to 17th and vice versa.

I've never attached anything to the forum, so excuse my formatting :) I wanted to include two idea photos and of course a map.

theater.jpg
Galaxy-Loveland-WEB.jpg
fit.jpg
 
I think theatres almost anywhere in the Beltline would do well, but close to 17th would be best. A redevelopment of the NE corner of 4th and 17th that included theatres would be great, as would the location mentioned by @choosingurban. Theatres at the London Drugs near Tompkins Park would surely be a guaranteed success.
 
artvandelay said:
1) The first is improving public safety by cracking down on petty crime and disorder. There should be zero-tolerance for harassment and abuse of people who are simply going about their day in the downtown core. This has become a huge problem since the onset of the pandemic and is not an easy fix.
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I know these comments are from Reddit, which can get over the top sometimes, but these are real life experiences for many and it speaks to @Art Vandelay 's point about crime and disorder. It doesn't necessary bother me as much as others because I'm down around the core a lot and I'm probably more used to it, but this is an issue for many and something that is a hurdle for downtown growth.
 
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A few years ago, Calgary police had a Beltline precinct (at 11 Ave & 3rd St SE) in response to downtown crime and disturbance. From there, beat patrols were scheduled and were a regular sight. The precinct closed (I assume for budgetary reasons) and now you rarely see beat patrols but I do see more police on cycles.
 
As I continue to live and work in downtown, I grow more frustrated and impatient of city & council and realize more reasons why Calgary doesn't have the bustling downtown/core many people are seeking. Of course, you can chalk it up to urban sprawl and the fact that we are still catering to the automobile instead of pedestrians even in downtown. Which I find bonkers btw. Given that Calgary has some of the best road infrastructure in the world, it's become clear that smoother traffic doesn't necessarily translate into a better city.

I think the biggest downtown dilemma/catch-22 is that downtown and all its neighbourhoods still are not convenient enough for most people to ditch their car. As a result of this:

almost every new high-rise has to have parkades or some form of parking accommodation. As a result, few downtown residents are walking on the street and in nearby local shops creating more of the same demand for big plazas in suburbs or just off Deerfoot. It results in less demand for public transit resulting in more demand for more roads resulting in less pedestrian-friendly core neighbourhoods resulting in more demand for houses resulting in more urban sprawl and thus resulting in low demand for core living.

So there's the dilemma.

The market demands will stay the same with current policies in place and without a huge organized initiative to solve this big and very obvious dilemma. What further frustrates me is city & council focusing wholeheartedly on climate change or politics in another jurisdiction rather than building our city. Other cities all around the world have and are investing tens of billions into mass infrastructure projects to build their grand vision. What are we doing? We have some of the worst public transit in the developed world, yet, we continue to be a rich province and even richer city. We're pouring our money and attention into the completely wrong things. It's gotten to the point where city or council does one little thing right and they go up in the polls 20 points. That's how sad it has become.
 
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