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Stampede Park/Victoria Park is a whole story on it's own - but central to the answer of the question "why is it the way it is" is decades of subsidy-driven interference by the municipal/provincial governments and the Stampede organization. Interference had specific, destabilizing outcomes for the community surrounding the area largely through taxpayer-funded land acquisition of much of Victoria Park.

Over time, the city and the Stampede gobbled up more and more land under the guise of big events and projects (Olympics, Expo bids etc.) dwindling the stakeholders to only city departments and a few politically connected organizations like the Stampede, CSEC etc. The community emptied, it's location value continued to decline while other inner neighbourhoods started to revitalize by the 1990s and 2000s through incremental redevelopment. With no stakeholders remaining offering a counter point and not much of a dynamic land market (as it was all bought and held for imaginary future mega-projects), it became a sandbox only for the politicians, the city and the Stampede. Parking became the default use and all stakeholders agreed because it's "not permanent" so one day their redevelopment dreams can come true here (for 40+ years and counting), and in the meantime we all make money on the parking, and use the parking 10 days a year for a festival.

I agree this is all true, but I might challenge the timeline and what the 'path-not-taken' would have actually looked like.

Walking through Vic Park to hockey games in the mid-late 90's I recall seeing hookers and drug-deals. If left to evolve organically, isn't there a strong risk of a Vancouver-eastside-light scenario?

There were 11 residential(ish) blocks south of 11th/east of Macleod - (excluding the block that was pretty much entirely for Victoria School). Looking back at aerial imagery:
2004 - 2 empty; 6 had fewer than ~five dwellings; 2 blocks ~half full; 1 mostly full
1999 - 2 nearly empty; 7 ~half full; 2 mostly full
1995 - 2 nearly empty; 7 ~half full; 2 mostly full (only noticed about 3 total dwellings different from '99)
1988 - 2 nearly empty; 7 ~50-75% full; 2 mostly full (extra 0-3 dwellings on most half-full blocks compared to '95)
1982 - All blocks mostly full (a few empty lots here and there)

Having seen the longitudinal evolution I might have structured the above differently, but I think it shows the trend.
It appears the biggest 'extinction-events' happened leading up to '88 and again at the turn of the century. The 2 nearly empty lots are in the SW corner (now Casino parking and half of Halls DEF) - they both went from full to empty between 1982-1984.

I guess like many things in this city, the die were cast in the 80s...Vic Park definitely didn't get the low-mid-rise redevelopment we've seen in most of the other 'inner-donut' around DT, but it's probably the high-rise leader (albeit between Macleod Trails + 3 north of the Stampede casino; I'll have to look at West Vic Park evolution later).


Bringing it back to 17 Ave v. Stampede Park - while the dynamics are a bit different about large scale events, fundamentally Stampede the boss-level land use outcome if you have a popular destination everyone wants to go to, but you assume everyone should be able to drive there. That land use outcome is a few large event facilities, and 50 hectares of almost always empty parking lots. Ironically, despite being empty, there's no room for anything else in Stampede Park - we have to save all that land for 10 days a year and the occasional event where 10,000 cars show up.

Despite no where near the amount of giant parking lots, I wouldn't be surprised if 17 Ave regularly accommodates more people in a night than Stampede Park on all but the busiest days. Such is the benefits of a more efficient transportation system to a destination that doesn't solely rely on cars.

The interesting thing is that the two paradigms may be closer to converging than we might think:

Before: https://goo.gl/maps/SpYBZtfPGyZXmG3eA

After??
d-zULIAw-1-scaled-e1591380765636.jpeg



The natural instinct has been that the Stampede/entertainment district needs to connect/blend with DT arts district to the north...this is true, but it hasn't happened for myriad reasons (plus CPR common denominator which seems to prevent any sustained N-S vibrancy). I think my Remington arena location would essentially bridge that final gap, but I don't trust either Stampede or CSEC to facilitate vibrant retail (which has been the hope for Olympic Way--north).

I'm a lot more optimistic that fixing Stampede Station (and extending 17 ave) will do more than anything catalyze the eastern beltline...if only we could do something about the funeral homes and wacky religious stuff we'd be set! The next question will be how much of a negative impact Macleod Trails will have - which prompts a lot of fun fantasy ideas, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out in reality.

Most hilarious is that even in Stampede Park the bias towards vehicle capacity *also* doesn't reflect reality of how people access the destination - many thousands of people on game-days walk or take the LRT. So many people do this in fact, that this sidewalk is often overflowing onto the street after a game - we are so car-centric in planning Stampede Park, we didn't even give a wide enough sidewalk for people to walk efficiently back to their parked cars :)

View attachment 398754

The Olympic Way sidewalks are particularly perplexing. I think the idea was that they'd be totally redone as soon as Stampede Trail development kicked off (I'm still looking for my shaker of salt...). It's hard to tell from satellites, but it looks like those trees have been there since the early 2000s or earlier. The fences went in around 2010 and it's baffling that they wouldn't set them back further (god forbid some blades of grass get trampled).
 
I'm a lot more optimistic that fixing Stampede Station (and extending 17 ave) will do more than anything catalyze the eastern beltline...if only we could do something about the funeral homes and wacky religious stuff we'd be set! The next question will be how much of a negative impact Macleod Trails will have - which prompts a lot of fun fantasy ideas, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out in reality.
I think you're right about fixing Stampede Station and having the entrance to the grounds off of 17th being the biggest single improvement factor for that part of the Beltline. Having the piss ramp torn done and adding an entrance to 17th ave looks to be paying off already as there are signs of improvement for the section of 17th between Macleod Trail and 2nd Street SW. This funeral home is closed and is a prime location for a good mixed-use development. Let's hope something happens there.
 
Just a comment on the Stephen Ave. discussion:
The last time they did a major overhaul (1990s?) they added the traffic lane to try to create some “vibrancy” in the evening hours.
 
Wouldn't the easiest answer be to make sure each N-S road has space for taxis/ubers? Especially on the north side of the block, to help bridge any gap to a ghost-town feeling on 7 ave...

April 1-Nov. 1: Closed to vehicles 22/7 (delivery vehicles 5-7am)
 
Yes, this will be huge from what I have seen. I have been regularly checking DMap to see if drawings get posted, will definitely warrant its own thread when enough information is available to create one.
DP2022-02927
Still no documents uploaded.
Can’t wait to see what 900+ units looks like!
 
Design submitted for DP of townhouses on the former Sunnyside Grocery property. 2nd Ave & 7th Street NW. DP2022-02875. Titled Sunnyside Village.

Screenshot 2022-05-09 103117.png
 

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