Pics from the last University District Night Market for the season on Wednesday:
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Damn! Fantastic job overall! Honestly, I think UD might be the best master planned area in the city. I think it has overtaken East Village which has basically flat lined. This is what Eau Clare and even East Village should have been. It honestly has a Scottsdale sort of vibe to it.
It's a good reminder that there's going to be a ton of intensification in Calgary as we get bigger and bigger, much of it won't be in big, showy towers. That's a good thing - we can create great walkable sufficiently dense areas without towers too.

TOD sites and the park-and-ride areas come most obviously to mind, but also every mall, and every area blighted with acres of surface parking should aim for this kind of development. It's also a very practical way to add new, sufficiently dense and diverse housing types to all our old and decaying 1970s - 2000s suburbs. These areas are very poorly positioned due to their original design limited mixed use, little housing diversity, low density car-orientation.

On TOD sites, park-and-rides, decaying malls and strip malls in these areas, put up short and mid-rise walkable villages like University District at and we got our selves a great city.
 
I'm no McDonald's hater but I am a litter hater. I don't know what it is about that place but all locations are usually surrounded by burger wrappers and cups within a 3 block radius.
The non-drive thru locations are usually pretty good. It’s the drive thru ones that always have garbage. Too many lazy idiots who sit in their cars and toss the wrappers out the window.
 
Think about it this way:

McDonald's provides satisfying late night food, of consistent quality, quickly, for less than $5, & can be ordered ahead via an app. I don't particularly enjoy it, but it's pretty easy to see how that would be appealing for intoxicated university students.

At the very least, it'll improve the vibrancy during evening hours. However I'd much prefer locally owned spots for good street food, like kebab, bao, tacos, etc.
 
On the plus side a McDo will definitely attract people, and with no drive thru option it'll be all foot traffic. After the Forge and Argyle are finished, I won't be surprised to see at least a couple more fast food chains, most likely a Dominos/Little Caesar's and a Subway. I also suspect there will be at least a Shawarma place and a Vietnamese place 👍
 
On the plus side a McDo will definitely attract people, and with no drive thru option it'll be all foot traffic. After the Forge and Argyle are finished, I won't be surprised to see at least a couple more fast food chains, most likely a Dominos/Little Caesar's and a Subway. I also suspect there will be at least a Shawarma place and a Vietnamese place 👍
Sushi place as well I bet.
 

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