The Quarters

[Edmcowboy11]

And you can make that statement because you have an inventory of all the lots in the Quarters and who owns them and when they were acquired? I no longer have access to that information but the last time I did most of the land in the quarters that wasn't owned by the City was owned by businesses or individuals who had owned them for decades and they weren't bought to speculate on land values.

I am still regularly in touch with a number of those owners who would develop their lots or repurpose the buildings on them in a heartbeat if there was sufficient demand at rents that would support the development/redevelopment costs of doing so. It's not their fault the numbers don't work and those numbers won't work any better for anyone else either. Real estate values and development activity is a supply and demand equations and the problem in the Quarters is a lack of demand, not a lack of supply.

I understand and will of course admit that, no I do not have any current list of anything in the Quarters. I will even go so far to appoligize for assumptions of intentions from owners and their properties. Although as you pointed out though, some of those properties have remained the same way for decades. I remember some of the land the same way when I was just a kid visiting my dad at the newly built Canada Place.

Although I think the point I was trying to make, perhaps not in the correct way, was that as far as I'm aware, the city doesn't own a lot of the properties in the Quarters so it isn't just a matter of the city letting go of properties to developers. It is definitely much more on the onus of the businesses and or individuals. I don't think the Quarters could be considered a failed social experiment. The only major work in recent year by the city was the major road rehab of 96st as an effort to encourage developers to come do something in the area, as far as I'm aware.

 

[buildings]

Well, you learn something new everyday. I stand corrected. I thought for sure that the city had purchased most of the land on 96st between 102 and 105ave in order to demolish all those old hotels (NO KNIVES!) and rooming houses.

 

[ADob]

Well, you learn something new everyday. I stand corrected. I thought for sure that the city had purchased most of the land on 96st between 102 and 105ave in order to demolish all those old hotels (NO KNIVES!) and rooming houses.

OMG, I had forgotten about the NO KNIVES! hotel! Memory lane!