“It’s really beautiful isn’t it? The snow is so romantic! It’s nice to sit by the window and watch it fall… He’s gonna have to go out and shovel it though!”
“Story of my life!”
Category: Streets (Page 5 of 9)
“Isn’t this nice? The weather is chilly enough where it ‘feels’ like winter, but it’s not so cold that you can’t take take a walk with your family at night and enjoy the decorations on the houses. I guess if this keeps up we’re going to have a brown Christmas.”
“I never question the resiliency of Calgary’s cyclists… they take the seasons right on the chin and keep coming back for more. We started with rain, then sleet, then hail, then snow, now it’s raining again. Dress for the weather, stay for the rush, smile when people give you ‘that look’.”
Sunnyside was settled by homesteaders in the 1880’s, and then incorporated into Calgary in 1904, Hillhurst was established in 1914. There used to be a street car that went down 2nd avenue to pick up CP Rail workers and then head east up to Centre street. The pathway that goes up the bank to the top of hill behind the Curling Club is where the street car used to travel.
This neighbourhood was primarily housing for rail workers, but by the 1920’s, it was a growing neighbourhood that people used to call “The Bridge” – 14th street bridge wasn’t built yet, so there was plenty of commerce and action on 10th Street between Memorial Drive and 2nd Avenue.
By the 1970’s, the City of Calgary decided to develop the neighbourhoods into family-friendly communities, allocating more money for development of parking, playgrounds, new curbs, gutters and lanes, all through the the NIP (Neighbourhood Improvement Program).
It’s funny that I’m shooting more photos at night for this project than I am during the day. There is so much colour and light in the evening!
The annual Kensington Christmas Tree has gone up in front of the Plaza Theatre on Kensington Road.
“Every corner you turn, there’s a splash of colour. There’s decorations on the trees, or houses that have that special ‘Sunnyside Character’. I wish people would realize that they could do this to their houses anywhere in the city, any time of year. Well, maybe not with Christmas decorations… that gets kind of tacky in the spring.”
“The people that live in these houses often say ‘Oh, I love this cute house, it has so much personality!’ I wonder if these houses actually do have personalities, do they miss their friends after they’ve been torn down to be replaced with something new? Can you imagine watching your friends grow old and neglected? Would you miss the trees that used to line your front lawn? Do you think you’d get along with the new in-fill mansions? Would you resist the change or hope to be part of it?”
The colour and warmth of summer is becoming a memory to the residents of Hillhurst and Sunnyside.
“Well, I suppose we’ve had it good so far. It’s coming down pretty hard in the mountains where it belongs. A few inches of snow isn’t bad, especially when you think about how we’ve had the sunniest days where it counts the most.”