Category: Streets (Page 3 of 9)

“Hey, you know what you should do? You should go out and shoot a photo that looks like one of those shots from the late 1970’s. You know the ones that are all grainy, underexposed,kind of like they’re from a noir movie? That would be really cool.”

Here you go, the first ‘Commission’ of Sunnyside365.

“There’s poetry in the passage of time, and beauty in watching old give way to the new. But if you look to hard, you won’t find it. If you try to hard to understand it, you never will.

When you get to my age, it seems like everybody is too busy to just shut the fuck up and listen–including me!”

“You know, I’m not going to say that this kind of thing doesn’t occur in other parts of the city, but nobody looks twice when it happens in Sunnyside. It doesn’t surprise me that somebody uses a unicycle as a method of transport, or that they even have a specialized off-road terrain version of one. Hell, it doesn’t matter that they’re unicycling in the winter.

What I am actually surprised about is the fact that they used a shitty lock to chain it up with. C’mon people, bike thefts are at an all-time high.”

The Black-billed Magpie is a member of the Crow family. These birds are synonymous with their urban environments, as they’re known to thrive wherever humans tend to settle. As well, they’re one of very few North American birds that builds domed nests.

Magpies are also known to a habit called ‘Scatter Foraging’ and will often hide excess food in small caches around the vicinity of their homes, poking holes in snow or dirt with their beaks and pushing bits of food down the cavity they make. However, always the opportunistic scavenger, other Magpies keep on the lookout when members of their species are hiding goodies under the snow for them to steal.

In Calgary, Magpies used to be colloquially called ‘Cowpies’ because of their habit of flipping over cow and horse poop to snatch at the grubs and bugs underneath.

Over a hundred years ago, the area of Sunnyside and Hillhurst was a swampy area consisting of run-off sloughs from Hounsfield Heights, North Hill and Crescent Heights. Many parts of what we now call Sunnyside and Hillhurst were difficult to traverse and, as a matter of fact, had to be carefully navigated when navigating the shore of the river to the banks of the bluffs.

However, years later, there’s still evidence of the what the pioneers who settled in the area, and the First Nations that came before them had to deal with.

Take for example the natural dip in the terrain between 10a and 11 Street on 3 Ave. The homes had to be built with a natural descent in their grade to the back alley to allow for drainage.

The seemingly bizarre angle of Gladstone Road is a larger remnant of the topographical history…

The road was originally a part of a trail used by the Blackfoot Nations as a foot path from the bank of the Bow River. They used to bring their canoes to shore at an inlet on the Bow just by the 14th street bridge and walk the trail (now Gladstone Road) to ascend the bluff to hunt game. Even part of 4th avenue, as you cross 10th street is part of this Blackfoot Nations shortcut to the McHugh bluff. Although it probably wasn’t called that when they used to use it.

“It’s really pretty isn’t it? People come and go at their own pace. The cars driving here or there, traffic, construction workers putting up buildings–they all have a hustle and bustle. But the snow falls at it’s own speed. I like that.”

The Winter riders of Sunnyside. Many cyclists take the changing seasons on the chin as they ride all year long.

Is it a bootie for a dog? A bootie from a baby? I suppose it could be for either.

Whoever lost it won’t miss it for long with the chinooks blowing through.

The ‘Walk’ sign indicates more than an instruction in Sunnyside. Over here it’s more of a way of life.

The graffiti, in and around Sunnyside and Hillhurst add a very welcome splash of colour and style to otherwise mundane walls.