The Kensington Thread

[Bigtime]

This is latte land, we'd demand the fancy retractable bollards.

[timun]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

This is latte land, we'd demand the fancy retractable bollards.

This is Calgary; best we can do is swing gates. Maybe paint 'em green or something.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

100%, if there is any road that should fully pedestrianized that is it. Heck the patios for the restaurants along it have been allowed to get even larger over the last couple of years, why can't we just go all the way and fully close it?

If they made it like Bear Street in Banff that’d be amazing. Cars are allowed but pedestrians are prioritized.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by timun

This is Calgary; best we can do is swing gates. Maybe paint 'em green or something.

Texas gates!

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

If they made it like Bear Street in Banff that’d be amazing. Cars are allowed but pedestrians are prioritized.

Nah, shut it right down to cars. It's such a short distance there is no reason to keep it open for vehicle access (non-emergency).

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Nah, shut it right down to cars. It's such a short distance there is no reason to keep it open for vehicle access (non-emergency).

I think they need to keep it open as there is a underground parking garage for one of the building and an additional parking lot. I guess you could shut the road down to cars down to about side street, but then you would have to reconfigure some things so the people can enter from the other side to park.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Robbob

I think they need to keep it open as there is a underground parking garage for one of the building and an additional parking lot. I guess you could shut the road down to cars down to about side street, but then you would have to reconfigure some things so the people can enter from the other side to park.

Exactly, just keep that far west section open and make it a 2-way road there. This is low hanging fruit and we still get all Cargary on it.

[DownInFlames]

Looks like Four20 has closed. It lasted quite awhile considering the location.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Looks like Four20 has closed. It lasted quite awhile considering the location.

The most cursed location.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

The most cursed location.

What was the longest surviving store there?

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What was the longest surviving store there?

Probably Four20...

[timun]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Looks like Four20 has closed. It lasted quite awhile considering the location.

Had to think about where this is, because the name was super-familiar...

Originally Posted by Bigtime

The most cursed location.

... and then Bigtime chimed in with all the context I needed. Memorial and 10th NW!



From a Google Streetview review, that location has been home to:

• Four20 since at least April 2021,
• Lot 102 from at very least September 2015 through May 2017,
• The Bottlehouse from at the very least April 2012 through April 2015,
• Robbie Stewart's Sports Pub in at the very least the summer of 2009 (July; was "coming soon" as of April 2009)
• a "now open" sign was up in October 2007 for.. I think it was just called "Ten"? The Streetview imagery is blurry.

[troutman]

I think there was a seafood restaurant there for a while. Trawlers?

[Johnny Makarov]

From optics it looks like the worst place to find parking in the city.

[Sainters7]

Dang too bad, that's the nicest Four20 I had ever been in. I've lived downtown since 2021, so I only knew that spot as a Four20. Hopefully they do something else with it, great view with that glass, river-facing wall.

Also, what's going on with The Rocket, across the street from it? Been wanting to get a shirt done there recently, but noticed their hours are now only 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM every day? The heck kind of hours are those?? I feel like that's a bad sign..

[timun]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

From optics it looks like the worst place to find parking in the city.

Eh, I mean, there're lots of places around there with little or no usable parking in front. I think there are a few especially bad things about that location that make it challenging to operate a business there:

• it's at the very southeast corner of the retail areas along Kensington Road and 10th Street; the majority of the pedestrian traffic in the area is concentrated north and west of there, so little walk-in traffic,
• being right on Memorial makes that corner too busy. E.g. the last time I went there was when it was a bar—maybe "The Bottlehouse"...? Can't remember exactly anymore...—and the patio along the south side of the building was essentially useless. It was all the worst things about patios along 17th Ave: narrow, cramped, super-noisy...
• what parking there is immediately nearby is hard to get to! There's a CPA lot just behind the building, $2 for the entire evening, but you can only get to it from westbound Memorial. Except 4:00-6:00pm—primetime for people going out for dinner, e.g.—when you can't turn into that alley from Memorial! You have to go all the way around the block and enter the alley from 2nd Ave! There's the parkade in the condo building across that Julio's was in, but if you've gone that far west you might as well venture west on foot down Kensington Road/Crescent (the entrance to/exit from that parkade is only 10A Street anyway). There's also parking at the old fire hall on Memorial, kitty-corner from the Four20 location, which is only accessible from eastbound Memorial, and is annoying to use because it's farther from everywhere you'd want to go anyway, so it mostly sits empty.
• the building itself is long and skinny on the inside; it makes any business in there have to do some awkward space planning

[topfiverecords]

The only survivable use for a property like that is a very low client count business, that requires no walk-in traffic. Even then, it's hard to see anyone wanting to work next to constant traffic sitting at a red light. Exhaust, mufflers, blaring music, panhandlers hanging around.

[Shazam]

Brothel.