[urbandreamer]

galt is weird. feels like a scottish town that's down and out and gritty--very working class--although not in working class more like "welfare class." has all these cool old buildings but is ultimately dead--everyone shops at these horrible big box stores and strip plazas on hespeler road; guelph in contrast has all the big box stores etc but its old downtown is also very lively with tons of cafes, students, etc and generally middle class in feel.

Galt: interesting but just abit too expensive vs: what it offers (hamilton is the best bargain in the gghs.)

 

[Hipster Duck]

^That's true. Galt is lovely but the rest of Cambridge might take the award for the most unplanned, sprawled monstrosity in Ontario. Giant 6-lane Hespeler road and the area by SportsWorld feels like some of the worst parts of suburban America.

 

[rdaner]

Nice infill in Galt's downtown.

 

[Transportfan]

It's Cambridge now. Galt hasn't existed since 1974. Do people still call Toronto York?

 

[Skeezix]

The community is still called Galt, no?

 

[gabe]

The community is still called Galt, no?

Yes the community is still called Galt, No one says downtown Cambridge.

 

[Skeezix]

So, basically like Forest Hill, Swansea, Yorkville, East York, Scarborough, etc. - municipalities that haven't existed for years, but everyone still refers to those areas as such.

 

[Transportfan]

Large ex-boroughs like Scarborough, yes. But nobody from outside Toronto would say, "Swansea, Ontario". There's a difference between perceiving a place as neighborhood and perceiving a place as a town in its own right. People perceive composite cities as non-entities.

 

[Skeezix]

If you say so.

People I know from Galt seem to call it Galt. I think they must have missed your memo on it being a non-entity and what they perceive.

Regardless, I think whoever started this thread, and people who subsequently contributed to it, are entitled to refer to it as they wish.

 

[wolfewood]

^ Same. Cambridge refers to the greater city (Hespler, Galt and Preston) but no one refers to the component towns as anything other than their old names. Maybe transportfan knows different people than I do but the effect I get is that he's just being pedantic.

 

[Transportfan]

^I'm only saying that in amalgamated cities like Cambridge, local community identity goes deeper than in "normal" cities in that even outsiders often think of them as towns more than just neighborhoods within cities. Hence the thread title.

 

[Goldie]

The last 7 or 8 posts can best be described by this cartoon:

 

[rdaner]

No pix but just a quick update for one of Ontario's best downtowns. The post office conversion into Galt's main library should wrap up this spring as well as an update on the second building for Waterloo's School of Architecture. The link is for an article about the redevelopment of the Southworks complex into a 400 unit condo development.

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-s...of-100-million-coming-to-southworks-property/