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Queen city
Jun. 20th, 2012 06:33 amI went to Regina. I was there Sunday evening through yesterday morning for a proposal presentation. It's a rather odd place. It's in a place where no city should be. There's no river crossing (on account of their being no river) and no harbour (on account of lake of sea or lake). It's not even at the intersection of two trade routes. It's reason for existence is a disused rail line. At some point somebody bribed the PtB to locate the capital of the newly created Saskatchewan there on land that he owned rather than in the much more obvious Saskatoon. This artificiality is reinforced by the fake river, actually a long narrow lake, that runs through the nicer part of town.
It's also a rather schizophrenic place. If one approaches from the east it seems very like an insignificant mid western city, say Tulsa. An extensive area of rather scruffy single story residential and industrial suddenly gives way to "downtown"; a daytime only preserve with a few tall buildings (a new one is billed as the tallest building between Winnipeg and Calgary - it's 30 some floors). Apart from a high concentration f Indian restaurants that side of town is not very nice but unremarkable The west side, au contraire, has leafy boulevards, parks and public buildings, such as the legislature, that were built in an era prior to that when ideology demanded that such buildings should look as cheap as possible. Some of the vistas are striking. Even the public schools are handsomely built. It also has a really rather nice rugby club.
If you fund yourself enjoined to visit this part of the world I strongly recommend staying close to the casino (formerly the railway station) as this is the only bit of town that doesn't close at 5pm. It also has a brew pub, Bushwakker's, which has decent food and excellent house ales.
It's also a rather schizophrenic place. If one approaches from the east it seems very like an insignificant mid western city, say Tulsa. An extensive area of rather scruffy single story residential and industrial suddenly gives way to "downtown"; a daytime only preserve with a few tall buildings (a new one is billed as the tallest building between Winnipeg and Calgary - it's 30 some floors). Apart from a high concentration f Indian restaurants that side of town is not very nice but unremarkable The west side, au contraire, has leafy boulevards, parks and public buildings, such as the legislature, that were built in an era prior to that when ideology demanded that such buildings should look as cheap as possible. Some of the vistas are striking. Even the public schools are handsomely built. It also has a really rather nice rugby club.
If you fund yourself enjoined to visit this part of the world I strongly recommend staying close to the casino (formerly the railway station) as this is the only bit of town that doesn't close at 5pm. It also has a brew pub, Bushwakker's, which has decent food and excellent house ales.
