A Few Scenes from Downtown

Hello friends, 

 

I hope you had a great start to your week. I had an appointment downtown so thought I'd share a few photos from my journey.  The weather was quite nice and I hope it will continue this week.

 

This old brick building is the north end of the St. Paul's Hospital downtown. A new hospital is being built in another part of the city but it won't be ready for a few years.

This brick building is an old apartment building. I love the older buildings though I realize they are not up to code. As I walked on some of the residential streets (no photos today), I noticed that a number of low rises or 3 storey walk ups are being demolished and high rises are going up. I guess it's inevitable especially since there is a critical housing shortage where I live. By the time all the new buildings are completed in this city there will probably be a glut of places to buy or rent. I hope it will also mean a down turn in prices because things are out of control these days and have been for some time when it comes to housing costs.

This street going toward the sky is called Davie Street. For years it was the hub of the gay community. However I think I read a few years ago that many of them have migrated to a nearby municipality called New Westminster. I believe the exodus was due to exorbitant housing prices. The hotel called Sandman Suites (the tower in the photo) is where I stayed for four months when I had fire damage to my home several years ago. I didn't mind the hotel because it was like an apartment with a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and insuite laundry. Sadly I never used the swimming pool or even ventured out very often. It was in the days of newly diagnosed illness and I was so tired all the time. I am not fully recovered but I have improved considerably.

 

These tall, black towers are a hotel called the Sheraton Wall Centre. I was only in one of them once for a conference many years ago. At the time they were the tallest buildings in the city but they have been overtaken by a place called Shangri-la and possibly by other buildings as well.

 I hope you enjoyed this little tour. Come back again soon.