So after reading Ian’s post about the issue of gravel parking lots downtown, I was inspired to map out all the gravel parking lots and empty lots in the core of the city, as well as large paved parking lots and parkades. There’s another section called “Upcoming Developments” that is still a work in progress, and note that because the Google’s satellite imagery of Downtown is quite outdated, there might be a few mistakes.
Downtown Parking Lots
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PbQbgwqFbBkUPuHk8?g_st=ic
The map encompasses a large area of central Edmonton that goes beyond Downtown Proper (including Oliver and Boyle Street), and while I initially split up the core (kind of arbitrarily) into districts for my convenience while making the map, I decided to keep them there because they highlight some interesting patterns. Here’s what I noticed:
The Good:
- The actual Central Business District isn’t faring too badly in terms of empty lots and and paved parking. The main area of improvement would be street activation by increasing street-fronting retail. The parkades (especially by the mall) pose a challenge here, but they’re alright for now and do a key job of attracting suburbanites until we can improve the image of the LRT. The problem areas are mainly the north and south fringes, particularly Ice District Phase II and Stationlands, but at least there are promising proposals for these areas, especially now that Ice District has made this area much more lively.
- The Oliver area south of 104th Ave doesn’t have many gravel/undeveloped lots (those which exist are mostly off the main roads), and there are many projects underway here (which I didn’t get to map). There are a lot of asphalt lots though, particularly along Jasper Ave, which should be eventually be developed.
- In contrast to Oliver, the Brewery District north of 104th Ave has a lot of empty/gravel lots north of MacEwan, and large paved parking lots along 104th Ave. At least the architecture is nicer in the Brewery District, and there are a lot of developments underway here as well. Especially once the Valley Line is done, this area will see a lot of improvements.
The Bad:
- The Warehouse District just west of the CBD has a lot of gravel lots that are also prominently located by major roadways, on top of large paved parking lots. Warehouse Park and developments like the Parks Towers will dramatically transform the area, but there is still a lot of work to do here.
- The Government District/River crossing has a lot of empty grass lots, as opposed to gravel lots (although there’s one prominently in front of the Treasury building). This area is the first impression of downtown for many visitors, and it’s not a good one with these empty lots (and that’s on top of most of the buildings here being ugly concrete blocks). There aren’t many upcoming projects here either, despite this being a priority area to improve.
The Ugly:
- Chinatown is really bad. Lots of gravel lots here and the alleys are in horrible shape. There are also lots of vagrants in this area. The silver lining is that there are more businesses here (great restaurants and stuff) and it would be a nice cultural asset if we could clean up the drug and homeless crisis in this area.
- Alberta has the highest HDI in North America, but Boyle Street is literally a third-world slum. Mapping this area was just depressing. I’d say ~75% of it is giant gravel parking lots, and with most of the remainder being asphalt lots or rundown properties. And of course, these lots are full of unstable drug-addicts and vagrants, encampments, open fires and gang activity. I don’t know if there will ever be enough development in this area to replace these giant dead-zones, so I think we should consider building Warehouse Park 2.0 to help spur things along, but we’ll see no progress if we don’t address the drug and gang crisis. Honestly, I’m not too hopeful about the prospects of Boyle Street. It’s been a bad area for most of the city’s history and it has to compete with a lot of other areas in the core, TOD sites, and the suburbs to attract businesses and residents. It may evolve somewhat, but this will continue to be the epicentre of poverty and urban blight in Edmonton for the rest of the century.
