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Interesting and strange downtowns...

Aaron Bradley

Aaron Bradley

TRIBE Promoter
I've noticed it more this year than any year before, but there are some interesting downtowns in some of the cities I visit and work in often.

I currently work in St Catharines. The downtown is such a beautiful place with lots of shops, parks and natural areas. The interesting part is that is also very sketchy all the time and very desolate during the weekends.

Every single road, corner, alley way, bar, variety store has a lot of homeless people around them. I can't believe how many I see. I work in the gov't building so obviously I see a lot, but they're everywhere else too.

On the weekends this city downtown can be scene in a movie where everyone has been killed and/or pushed out of area. It is so strange how desolate it is.

The other interesting city I've noticed is Montreal. I can't believe how nice their downtown is too, but there are homeless people everywhere also. It is way worse than Toronto and the Hammer for sure. When I was down there in February and July this year I was lucky enough to meet other friends down there by chance and they said the same thing too. The homeless don't even care there... they walk around during the day drinking in public and smoking and shooting crack - it's nuts!

There is this one park just north of the mini china town downtown where they all seem to hang out and do their stuff. This park is like 1.5 blocks from the cop station and they go on with their business like the cops are 100 miles away... I don't get it???

I find it very interesting...

I'm sure there are more and I would be interested to hear about them or even see them.

Please share!


AB
 
X

xtcfreak

TRIBE Member
Aaron Bradley said:
I've noticed it more this year than any year before, but there are some interesting downtowns in some of the cities I visit and work in often.

I currently work in St Catharines. The downtown is such a beautiful place with lots of shops, parks and natural areas. The interesting part is that is also very sketchy all the time and very desolate during the weekends.

Every single road, corner, alley way, bar, variety store has a lot of homeless people around them. I can't believe how many I see. I work in the gov't building so obviously I see a lot, but they're everywhere else too.

On the weekends this city downtown can be scene in a movie where everyone has been killed and/or pushed out of area. It is so strange how desolate it is.

The other interesting city I've noticed is Montreal. I can't believe how nice their downtown is too, but there are homeless people everywhere also. It is way worse than Toronto and the Hammer for sure. When I was down there in February and July this year I was lucky enough to meet other friends down there by chance and they said the same thing too. The homeless don't even care there... they walk around during the day drinking in public and smoking and shooting crack - it's nuts!

There is this one park just north of the mini china town downtown where they all seem to hang out and do their stuff. This park is like 1.5 blocks from the cop station and they go on with their business like the cops are 100 miles away... I don't get it???

I find it very interesting...

I'm sure there are more and I would be interested to hear about them or even see them.

Please share!


AB
Click to expand...

East Hastings / Gas Town in Vancouver - It is a different world there, almost unbelievable until you see it for your self.

Jay
 
S

Snuffy

TRIBE Member
I was actually impressed with Hamilton's downtown. They had a bar, Chesters, with beers from around the world. Interesting people and places. Quite unpretentious and fun.
 
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C

cosmosuave

TRIBE Member
stir-fry said:
The amount of homeless in London Ontario blew my mind.
Click to expand...

Yep London is bad was just there in July... Gone downhill... Was in Port Huron during the week and they have a cool dowtown with art deco and victorian architecture... One irish bar there was family owned for a 100 yrs...
 
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M

mudbunny

TRIBE Member
Downtown Dallas is a highrise ghosttown. No restaurants or shops
Just suburban malls and pickup trucks with gun racks
 
el presidente Highsteppa

el presidente Highsteppa

TRIBE Member
cosmosuave said:
Yep London is bad was just there in July... Gone downhill... Was in Port Huron during the week and they have a cool dowtown with art deco and victorian architecture... One irish bar there was family owned for a 100 yrs...
Click to expand...

I noticed this as well in London last year when my wife and I stayed in a hotel downtown. They were trying to get some events going to make the downtown core interesting, but the decay was showing - and the homelessness and poverty was starting to show. There's a few pockets of nice places in the London downtown core, but the rot was starting to show as early as last year.
 
T

TRO

TRIBE Member
Downtown Cleveland (and Cleveland in general sucks balls) I went there for weekend to see an NFL game. Man, it sucked.

It's a ghost town except for this Casino right in the middle of downtown which draws in all the riffraff. The streets around the casino have bars and some restaurants but they are full of Casino people.
 
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ravinjunkie

ravinjunkie

TRIBE Member
You've not been to Cleveland until you've had Hot Sauce Williams. Delicious. Its a bit ghetto, but I crave it so badly.
 
Aaron Bradley

Aaron Bradley

TRIBE Promoter
TRO said:
Downtown Cleveland (and Cleveland in general sucks balls) I went there for weekend to see an NFL game. Man, it sucked.

It's a ghost town except for this Casino right in the middle of downtown which draws in all the riffraff. The streets around the casino have bars and some restaurants but they are full of Casino people.
Click to expand...

I think I want to hit this up. How did you get there?
 
djcheezwhiz

djcheezwhiz

TRIBE Member
It's a shame about London - I had been travelling there for work over the past 4 years about once a week and I was always surprised how the downtown core felt so worn out. I enjoyed walking over to Grooves, but the tunnel that you have to walk through covering a main roadway is so pedestrian unfriendly. Absolutely nothing to see or do, just loading docks for the mall and brick walls.

The trend of hollowed out downtowns after 5pm was always the case in Calgary and Edmonton (going back 10 years).

Simcoe is also quite similar. There is a lot going on to try and keep people downtown, but still a really sketchy feeling.

I guess the bigger question is what has led to this change? The move of people to the suburbs with all of the Wal-Marts and other associated box stores makes people not want to venture downtown.

Toronto can be sketchy after dark, but still has life almost 24 hours a day.
 
praktik

praktik

TRIBE Member
I kinda like downtown Galt, kinda quaint with not much but there's a few nice bars and restaurants...

Pretty though with the river and some old buildings!
 
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B

Blysspluss

TRIBE Member
Saskatoon downtown.

It's nice enough, but poorly planned...and very few live there(as compared to how many should). There's no major grocery store in the core, either...and other than the farmers market(which is just outside the core), there are no fresh fruit/vegetable markets, either.

Makes me wish that at least some cues were taken from TO.(especially transit...you really don't know how good you have it in Toronto. I still use it when partying...that and when it's done at midnight[!!], cabs. But cabbies don't know the city so it's always an overly expensive adventure.(Assuming you can even get a cab.) Most just drive intoxicated, it seems...and I sort of understand why.
 
S

Snuffy

TRIBE Member
Blysspluss said:
But cabbies don't know the city so it's always an overly expensive adventure.(Assuming you can even get a cab.) Most just drive intoxicated, it seems...and I sort of understand why.
Click to expand...

In Sudbury after the bar closed, I went outside expecting a flotilla of cabs. I ended up walking for about two hours trying to find one. Then I tried calling one. After another 45 minutes of waiting, the Homeless Rescue Van pulled up and insisted on taking me home.

It was minus 35 plus windchill.
 
B

Blysspluss

TRIBE Member
Snuffy said:
In Sudbury after the bar closed, I went outside expecting a flotilla of cabs. I ended up walking for about two hours trying to find one. Then I tried calling one. After another 45 minutes of waiting, the Homeless Rescue Van pulled up and insisted on taking me home.

It was minus 35 plus windchill.
Click to expand...

It's for this reason that I base whether or not I'm going to a show on weather in winter. If it's more than 35 below, I don't go.
 
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