Vieux Quebec City

In this evaluation I consider Vieux Quebec to be the entire old town within the original walled City and Basse Ville, which includes the Old Port area the oldest part of the City. Upper Town is considered the majority of Vieux Quebec elevated from the port and developed a bit later. This holds the majority of sites and landmarks. Lower Town is the Basse Ville along the waterways. Major landmarks in Vieux Quebec include Place Royal (the original Quebec civic bldg constructed in 1608), La Citadelle de Quebec, Le Chateau Frontenac, Notre-Dame de Quebec Cathedral, Gare du Palais, Chapelle des Ursulines, Théâtre Capitole, and Édifice Price.

Vieux Quebec is Quebec’s most walkable and urban district filled with shops, restaurants & bars, and lots of cultural amenities and entertainment. It can also feel overrun by tourism, especially in the summer season, but seems increasingly to be adding year round housing especially in the lofts in the Vieux Port helping it to establish more neighborhood amenities. Other great amenities in Vieux Quebec include its extensive parks, plazas, promenades, well connected bike lanes in Lower Town and many pedestrian only or car light streets. My hope is that Vieux Quebec continues to add more neighborhood amenities and also keep more streets off limits to cars where they don’t really belong given the narrow streets and thick pedestrian activity.”

Click here to view my Vieux Quebec Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Gorgeous architecture spanning the 17th century to the early 20th century. This includes the original ramparts of Vieux Quebec that were preserved and restored in the late 19th century.
* Many wonderful landmarks.
* Tons of shops, boutiques and clothing stores, and gift stores. Also a couple drug stores
* Great array of restaurants, bars, and cafes. Also tons or art galleries especially in Basse Ville, a couple historic theaters, plenty of museums, lots of live music in bars & pubs, and plenty of night clubs.
* Very pedestrian friendly, although I wish they would restrict cars more than they do. Several pedestrian streets including, Corridor du Littoral (waterfront promenade), Terrasse Dufferin (boardwalk over looking Lower Vieux Quebec) Rue du Petit Champlain/Rue Sous-le-Fort, and Rue Saint Jean is often a pedestrian street.
* Great parks and plazas including Place des Canotiers, Parc du Bastion-de-la-Reine, Parc des Gouverneur’s, Place d’Armes, Place D’Youville, Esplanade Park, Le parc du Vieux Port, Place Jean-Pelletier, Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, Moulin Cavalier Park, etc.
* Good amount of for sale housing but generally pretty expensive but some cheaper smaller condos.
* Excellent dedicated bike paths along the waterfronts.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

No major supermarkets or department stores.
Very touristy. Not many locals who live here nor authenticity.
Some apartments in Vieux Quebec but generally very expensive.

Saint Roch- A great urban comeback story for Quebec City

Saint-Roch
was first settled in 1620 by the Recollects (a Franciscan order) who built a
small church dedicated to Saint Roch. The settlement remained mostly rural
until the first half of the 19th century when Saint-Roch became a major
shipbuilding site. From the mid-19th century to the 1960s, rue Saint-Joseph
was the main commercial street in Quebec City but during the second half of
the 20th century, the district fell into decline and was considered the most impoverished district of the City.
Much of the neighborhood was also destroyed with the construction of highway
440 overpass helping open up the City to new suburban development.

Fortunately the fortunates of Saint-Roach have turned around since the late
90s with major investments on rue Saint-Joseph, the creation of Quebec City’s
2nd Dwtn concentrated along Boulevard Charest, and major investment in parks
along the river and Victoria Park. Rue Saint Joseph has regained its status
as one of Quebec’s best commercial districts and is now an in-demand urban
neighborhood of Quebec an the edge of Vieux Quebec City.

Click here to view my Saint Roch album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Lots of mid sized office buildings along Boulevard Charest E. This is probably Quebec City’s secondary Dwtn after the dwtn cluster along Boulevard Honoré-Mercier.
* Wonderful promenade blvd street inside of Bd Langelier.
* Excellent neighborhood biz district along Rue Saint-Joseph
* For sale pricing is reasonable with a good # of 1-bed condos selling btwn 100K-300K, 2-beds 200K-500 and 3 & 4 beds btwn 300K-500 but not much product.
* Access to parks thanks to the riverside parks, Victoria Park, and several smaller parks throughout the neighborhood.
* Great concentration of food and beverage bizs, a couple breweries. Decent cultural amenities including a couple performing arts theaters, several art galleries, and a couple night clubs and music venues. Very convenient access to all the cultural amenities in Vieux Quebec.
* Great retail amenities including lots of local and unique shops along Saint Joseph.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Architecture is so . The modern office towners along Blvd Charest E. are pretty bland and most of the historic rowhouses are without much ornamentation. Some good historic commercial architecture along Boulevard Charest E.
* Tree canopy is so so.
* Modern ADA curb cuts are largely non-existent.
* Rentals are a bit pricy.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste- Quebec City’s best Urban Neighborhood

When the old city wall existed, Saint-Jean was located just west of the Port Saint Louis. Until the early 19th century Saint-Jean-Baptiste was sparsely populated in a semi-rural setting. The neighborhood was also caught up in the Second major Quebec Fire in 1845, which is why buildings before the mid 19th century are pretty limited.

This is arguable Quebec’s City best urban district outside of Vieux Quebec. There is an excellent urban business district that runs along several blocks of Rue Saint-Jean and the iconic restaurant district along Grande Allee with its gorgeous late 19th century rowhouses. Mixture of great 19th century architecture and some quality urban infill. Grande Allee is another great street with stunning rowhouses and Quebec’s iconic restaurant row. Boulevard Honoré-Mercier hosts most Quebec City’s downtown buildings along Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s eastern edge. The neighborhood also hosts great park amenities, a wonderful array of retail and cultural amenities, good amount of moderately priced housing options and sits on the western border of Vieux Quebec City. Some minor areas for improvements that would allow Saint-Jean-Baptiste to become a top notch urban district including more vibrancy along the wide and often cold Bd rene-Levesque, modern ADA curb cuts, and more bike lanes.

Click here to view my album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:“

Grande Allee is another great street with stunning rowhouses and Quebec’s iconic restaurant row.
Excellent urban business district that runs along several blocks of Rue Saint-Jean. Mixture of great 19th century architecture and some quality urban infill.
Boulevard Honoré-Mercier hosts most of Quebec City’s downtown buildings.
Great array of historic architecture from all decades of the 19th century.
Decent tree canopy.
Good park access including lots of small and medium parks and the expansive Plains of Abraham.
For-sale housing is very reasonably priced with 1-bed selling btwn 100K-350K. 2-beds btwn 200K-750K. 3 & 4 beds 300K-900K.
Great array of restaurants, cafes, & bars. Other cultural amenities include a couple community theaters, the Grand Theatre de Quebe where the Symphony plays, and several night clubs & live music venues.
Great retail amenities too including several book stores, plenty of gift stores, boutiques/clothing stores, lots of grocerias, a couple drug stores, tons of banks and lots of other interest stores.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Bd René-Lévesque is very wide although architecture while urban contains some uglier mid-century bldgs. Lots of gov’t buildings here with large grassy set backs that hurts vibrancy on the street.
* Curbs are generally not up to modern ADA standards.
* Rent is a bit pricy.
* Only a handful of bike lanes.

Saint-Sauveur- Quebec City’s Historic Working Class District

Saint-Sauveur gets its namesake from Jean le Sueur who in 1653 was the first secular priest to come to New France. The neighborhood, while initially being considered for the founding of Quebec, remained rural and sparsely populated until the 1840s. The success of the shipyards, timber trade and port activity led to the rapid development of Saint-Sauveur in the mid 19th century. Since then the neighborhood become a hub for poor workers and sadly given the neighborhood’s location outside of Quebec City no building regulations were ever mandated and Saint-Sauveur experienced two devastating fires in 1866 and 1889. The neighborhood also didn’t have access to Quebec’s water distribution network. Thankfully in 1889 Saint-Sauveur was annexed into Quebec and the City authorities greatly improved the neighborhood building sewers, pavements, lighting streets, and of course adding water service. While always being gritty Saint Sauveur never experienced wholesale disinvestment but has seen increased interest and investment in recent decades.

Saint Sauveur is a solid urban district, at least between Verdun and Bd Langelier. West of Verdun the neighborhood gets either industrial or more suburban in character. One can easily feel the working class roots of Saint-Sauveur as most of the housing are rowhouses and modest. But thankfully working class rowhouse fabric lends itself to a compact and walkable district with a solid commercial district running down Rue Saint-Vallier. Housing prices are also very reasonable for both rental and for sale. For Saint-Sauveur to become a top notch urban district it needs to tame a couple wide and autocentric roads (Rue Marie-dl’Incarnation & Bd Charest O). The tree canopy is also very limited , there are no up-to-date ADA curbs, and only a handful of dedicated bike lanes exist.

Click here to view my Saint-Sauveur Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Nice commercial district along Rue Saint-Vallier especially along the eastern edge.
* Pretty good park amenities including the extensive Victoria Park and lots of small parkettes and plazas spread throughout.
* Good cultural amenities including a great array of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a couple art galleries, and several performing arts venues.
* Good retail amenities as well including several super markets, a couple pharmacies, lots of unique and locally owned stores but not high end and some other typically neighborhood stores.
* For sale housing is very reasonable for such a quality urban district close to the center of town. Top of the market is about 500K for a 3 & 4 bedroom.
* Rentals prices are also very reasonable.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Rue Marie-de-incarnation is a very wide road and the northern parts of it get pretty autocentric. Bd Charest O gets very autocentric on its western half.
* West of Verdun St. the urban fabric generally breakdown and there is a lot of more suburban residential areas and industrials sections.
* Tree canopy is limited
* Dense urban architecture but architecture is very striped down working close rowhouses from the turn of the 20th century.
* Very few of the curb cuts are up to modern ADA standards.
* Several dedicated bike stations but only a handfull of bike lanes.

Montcalm, Quebec City- a solid urban district named after the much revered General Montcalm

The district is named after General Montcalm who led the French troops during the famous Battle of the Plains of Abraham (located on the southern edge of the neighborhood) in 1759 defending the French territory against the British army. While the French lost the battle and Montcalm also lost his life, he remains a much revered figure in French Quebec and has several statues of his likeness across the City. Montcalm is a pretty ideal neighborhood for me with its good mix of housing typologies, great commercial district along Cartier Avenue, and consistent medium density. Housing is also pretty affordable here especially for 1 & 2 bedrooms (both rental & for sale) and the district has great access to several great parks and is only a 10 minute bus ride to Vieux Quebec. The only area I see for improvement from an urban perspective would be more commercial and mixed-uses in the western half of the neighborhood which is almost exclusively residential.

Click here to view my Montcalm album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Av. Cartier is an excellent commercial district with gorgeous artistic street lights. The street is often a pedestrian zone in the summer. Also several mixed use blocks along Ch Ste-Foy, Rue Crémazie, Boulevard René-Lévesque
* Boulevard René-Lévesque is a grand boulevard with grand apartment buildings and large trees lining the boulevard.
* Good mix of housing typologies including single family homes, duplexes/triplexes, rowhouses, and apartment buildings ranging from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Decent amount of infill esp. along the western edge.
* Great tree canopy throughout.
* Good array of cultural amenities concentrated mostly along Cartier Av (restaurants, bars, cafes, a boutique theater, and a some performing arts theater. The neighborhood also hosts a couple art galleries and the Musee National des beaux-arts du Quebec.
* Solid retails amenities including a couple supermarkets, several drug stores, tons of boutiques, gift shops, and clothing stores concentrated on Cartier, plenty of banks, and lots of bakeries, dessert shops, and several bookstores.
* 1 & 2 bedroom apartments are very reasonable here leasing in the low 1Ks. 3 & 4 get pretty pricey however.
* For sale prices are very reasonable lots of smaller condos. 1-beds sell btwn 100K-400K, 2-beds sell mostly btwn 200K-500K. 3 & 4 beds start to get expensive starting at 500K.
* Great park access including the expansive Plains of Abraham, Braves Park, and several parks along the ridge adjacent to Saint-Sauveur.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Not much commercial activity in the western half of the district.
No rail access in Quebec City but still decent bus service.
Lots of intersections don’t have modern ADA curbs.