Yeah, I was just thinking that it looked cooler with the netting on. The final product looks like something that would straddle a parking lot in some new community off 52nd St SE. But, agreed that it's much better than an empty lot downtown.
 
The stretch of 14th Street in that area is one of the worst pedestrian streetscapes in Calgary. It's amazing that anyone would want to live in the vicinity!

Less than 10 years ago the City completely ripped up and rebuilt the street but didn't make a single pedestrian improvement nor plant a single tree. They even kept the horrendous power poles.
 
artvandelay said:
The stretch of 14th Street in that area is one of the worst pedestrian streetscapes in Calgary. It's amazing that anyone would want to live in the vicinity!

Less than 10 years ago the City completely ripped up and rebuilt the street but didn't make a single pedestrian improvement nor plant a single tree. They even kept the horrendous power poles.
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I remember that project clearly, it was 2014. I got married in July 2014 in Sacred Heart Church, and being nervous about traffic snarls due to construction on the day. After that drama was avoided, I remember being quite disappointed that such a massive lifecycle project on what was already classified as a Neighbourhood Boulevard was simply a "replace what was there" design, instead of seen as an opportunity to actually improve the street.
 
Aside from maybe putting in nicer sidewalks, not sure what improvements the city could realistically make. The property lines there go right to the back of sidewalk, so any improvements to the streetscape are up to developers to implement as the area gets developed. The Bylaw requires a minimum landscape area, and there are wide setback from the road for the building face to allow wider sidewalks, but that will happen as the sites are developed. I think developers are required to pay for the buried powerlines, the east side of 14th at 10ave no longer has the wooden poles.
 
14 St is the boundary of Sunalta and Beltline. Beltline already has a BIA, but it cover the area well east of 14 St. Sunalta doesn’t have a BIA but I feel like it would be a good candidate to cover 14 St as well as 10 Ave (west of 14 St). A Sunalta BIA could theoretically cover the 14 St/10 Ave intersection and the 14 St/17 Ave intersection.
 
badc0ffee said:
Yeah, I was just thinking that it looked cooler with the netting on. The final product looks like something that would straddle a parking lot in some new community off 52nd St SE. But, agreed that it's much better than an empty lot downtown.
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Agreed. It looks like something from Sage Hill, but I’ll gladly take it over the crap-ass empty lot that was there for the past several decades.
 
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christopherplace said:
I live in the area in fact! It's not too bad. I think there's a ton of potential. In a few years, if Arlington manages to develop The Sentinel, I see no reason it won't be a vibrant main street within 10 years.

It's the classic chicken and the egg. Why would anyone move somewhere with bad main street appeal, why would the city care about a street without much foot traffic.

The good news, urbanists are winning. More and more people have had their eyes opened to the benefits of pedestrian focused street design. We just need to make our opinions known and use tactical urbanist strategies to make them happen.

We get to choose how our cities are built, not traffic engineers from the 60s.
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Don’t get me wrong, I live in the area as well and I’d love to see the improvements you are talking about. I’m just pleasantly surprised to see the investment in multiple towers in the area given the current condition.

The challenge with 14th is that the street network design in Sunalta, Mount Royal, and Bankview (plus the barrier of the CP tracks) funnels a ton of traffic through 14th Street without an alternative for N/S traffic. You might be able to gain some sidewalk space via a lane diet, and off-peak parking might be feasible south of 12th Avenue (but probably not). Connecting 15th Street to 17th Avenue might help take some of the pressure off 14th as well.
 
14St is already a commuter road and will always be a total write-off between 10Ave and Kensington road. There isn't an alternative N-S road in the area that crosses the CPR line and the river, so limiting traffic space won't really solve anything. Off hours parking south of 12th and north of Kensington Rd would help make the road a little nicer to walk down, but it would be minor IMO. There are a ton of streets in the area that we could try and focus more pedestrian activity on, the west side of the Beltline and all of Sunalta are definitely underserved. 10th is coming along nicely, but that's about it.
 
Mountain Man said:
There isn't an alternative N-S road in the area that crosses the CPR line and the river, so limiting traffic space won't really solve anything.
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We just spent $87 million expanding the capacity of Crowchild, which is only 1200m away.

This project and the 3 other towers along the 14th st corridor are enough evidence that 14th st - at least from 17th ave to 10th ave - can become a great main street if we have the vision.
 
Crowchild goes to the far NW, if you live in North Central Calgary it's useless.

As much as the urbanists on this site want everyone to walk or take transit, most people in Calgary just aren't going to do that. I live in an area where I can cycle to work (-20 is my cutoff) so I don't have to join the rat race on 14th or Crowchild. I get your point, but people like me are in the minority, most people will take the big house in the suburbs and happily idle on the freeway for 45 minutes each way.
 
I'm not talking about the far north, I'm talking about areas like Tuxedo, Thorncliffe, North Haven. Once the green line goes to those areas (probably in 20 years) then transit will be a relevant option, but in that time we will have expanded the city further. Urban living is taking off in this city, but suburban areas are still growing faster. I agree that we should try to prioritize a lifestyle where people are closer to their work, but it will be an uphill battle for a long time yet. We are making good progress with bike lanes and other mobility options, but in a city where we have winter for 5 months or more, lots of people will not choose that as their primary option. Transit needs massive expansion, but the inability of the city to get it done will lead to people continuing to drive.
 
Wouldn't the north inner city neighbourhoods have even more options to access the beltline without the need to use 14th (ie. 10th St, Centre St, or Edmonton Tr)? If they're trying to bypass downtown, they would use Crowchild or Deerfoot?
 
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