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I've always had medium expectations for the Riff to be honest. Most cool vibrant corridors are streets or lanes that have evolved over the years. It's hard to build a street or laneway with the purpose of being vibrant. I could be wrong, but I think the Riverwalk and the businesses fronting it will ultimately be the cool vibrant part of EV. Even though the Riverwalk is newly built, the river isn't. M2 might be the most important single piece of the puzzle joining up with the Simmons Block to make a destination area. The Riff, Studio Bell and the Library will a decent supporting cast. My two cents.
 
Mountain Man said:
I think the success of the Riff depends on how it connects to Stephen Ave, and I don't think there are any real plans for that yet.
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If Stephen Ave went straight on through at ground level and connected to the Riff, it would make a big difference. I tend to agree with SP in that the River is the key for East Village. It's there and it works well already, and it's got even more potential. I don't know what's planned for the parcel where the EV experience building is, but that needs to have retail and restaurants also.
 
The riverfront is definitely driving a lot of the energy in that part of town...but then again I'm not sure the City is really utilizing it to it's full potential. Every time I bike by the new Parkside condos in Eau Claire, i can't help but think what a missed opportunity they are with just having residential units butted up against the pathways. Those should be lined with river-facing cafes, patios and restaurants. It's one of the few places in town where we can activate the riverfront, and we're not taking advantage.
 
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DiscoStu said:
The riverfront is definitely driving a lot of the energy in that part of town...but then again I'm not sure the City is not really utilizing it to it's full potential. Every time I bike by the new Parkside condos in Eau Claire, i can't help but think what a missed opportunity they are with just having residential units butted up against the pathways. Those should be lined with river-facing cafes, patios and restaurants. It's one of the few places in town where we can activate the riverfront, and we're not taking advantage.
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I agree completely. I have mentioned this before, but the river pathway network is one of the City's most compelling assets which have been very under-utilized. The lack of obvious, super-high quality connections between the pathway and key areas of downtown are a long-standing issue. It boggles my mind how the Riverwalk section east of Centre Street more-or-less ignores the interface with Chinatown, one of the few truly interesting and active areas of downtown proper. It can't even be blamed on "oh we would never do that now, we know better". Chinatown is 120 years old, and that section of the Riverwalk was put in ~2011 ish. No excuses for the lack of integration. Kensington, West Eau Claire, Eau Claire and Chinatown all have disappointing interfaces to the river, with varying levels of success and effort put in to date. (In a city where it takes 5 years post-bridge completion to even install an obviously needed pedestrian-friendly traffic light next to the uber-busy Peace Bridge, I'm sure we can take some educated guesses why integration has traditionally been lacking between the pathway network and surrounding communities).

East Village is really making a great effort towards community-pathway integration which is good to see, but there still could be big improvements that are frustratingly missing (e.g. the much-discussed, yet-to-be-implemented bike lanes/cycletracks in the community to stitch the road and pathway networks obviously together, drawing people between the community and river effortlessly).
 
I think the city is doing much better in EV than in Eau Claire, but I agree that our riverfront is completely underutilized. I'd love it if the Eau Claire park renovations included something for food and retail, but sadly it's still just condos in the area.

The biggest obstacle in integrating Chinatown with the river is Riverfront Ave, and I don't see anything getting developed north of riverfront Ave. Would be nice if they could have a couple places where people could open up some food kiosks or something there.
 
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Mountain Man said:
I think the city is doing much better in EV than in Eau Claire, but I agree that our riverfront is completely underutilized. I'd love it if the Eau Claire park renovations included something for food and retail, but sadly it's still just condos in the area.

The biggest obstacle in integrating Chinatown with the river is Riverfront Ave, and I don't see anything getting developed north of riverfront Ave. Would be nice if they could have a couple places where people could open up some food kiosks or something there.
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I would be happy with full intersection(s) with broad pedestrian approaches, bike racks and high-quality cross walks (e.g. pedestrian bump outs, favourable signal timing to cross Riverfront, direct/wide pathways). If we are looking for better utilizing our pathways and promoting cross-over between communities and the river, we have about 50 restaurants and cafes 200m from the pathway in Chinatown that remain awkwardly inaccessible. If we believe integrating to the river and the communities is a good thing in principle as we celebrate with the East Village's urban design, there is no reason Chinatown shouldn't be thought of in the same light - with the difference being Chinatown already has dozens of businesses, restaurants and cafes, far more than East Village has now (or likely in the medium-term future). A strong, high-quality interface is critical.

For your second point: an update to the pathway bylaw that allows small food kiosks anywhere would be a good start. Our Parks bylaw is firmly set in the 1980s: city parks are for middle-aged families to bike or walk around slowly on weekends to look at green things and all other uses should be discouraged.
 
100% agree. Calgary's river frontage is one of its best assets, but it is lots of unrealized potential. The little of riverfront with Simmons bldg and M2 (when completed) is what more of the river needs to be like. Eu Claire is the biggest of blown opportunities. All the very high end luxury condos should have been frontage with retail and restos.

DiscoStu said:
The riverfront is definitely driving a lot of the energy in that part of town...but then again I'm not sure the City is really utilizing it to it's full potential. Every time I bike by the new Parkside condos in Eau Claire, i can't help but think what a missed opportunity they are with just having residential units butted up against the pathways. Those should be lined with river-facing cafes, patios and restaurants. It's one of the few places in town where we can activate the riverfront, and we're not taking advantage.
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CBBarnett said:
I agree completely. I have mentioned this before, but the river pathway network is one of the City's most compelling assets which have been very under-utilized. The lack of obvious, super-high quality connections between the pathway and key areas of downtown are a long-standing issue. It boggles my mind how the Riverwalk section east of Centre Street more-or-less ignores the interface with Chinatown, one of the few truly interesting and active areas of downtown proper. It can't even be blamed on "oh we would never do that now, we know better". Chinatown is 120 years old, and that section of the Riverwalk was put in ~2011 ish. No excuses for the lack of integration. Kensington, West Eau Claire, Eau Claire and Chinatown all have disappointing interfaces to the river, with varying levels of success and effort put in to date. (In a city where it takes 5 years post-bridge completion to even install an obviously needed pedestrian-friendly traffic light next to the uber-busy Peace Bridge, I'm sure we can take some educated guesses why integration has traditionally been lacking between the pathway network and surrounding communities).

East Village is really making a great effort towards community-pathway integration which is good to see, but there still could be big improvements that are frustratingly missing (e.g. the much-discussed, yet-to-be-implemented bike lanes/cycletracks in the community to stitch the road and pathway networks obviously together, drawing people between the community and river effortlessly).
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Damn, that makes me happy. With a name like Nude I would expect some pretty clear glass. Obviously just speculation.
 
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