Charlie West (Charles & Gaukel) | 31 fl | Complete

[tomh009]

A licence plate camera system can be very fast and reliable: think of the speeds on the 407 on- and off-ramps, for example. Public garages in Europe (including northern parts, which do see snow) often use licence plate recognition, too.

But an unreliable or excessively slow system could indeed prove to be a disaster.

Ah, I've only used the 407 a handful of times so my memory might be a little fuzzy, but I believe that they use overhead cameras and not tollgates, right? This would give the system a lot more time to process the images instead of having to do them in real time, and it can always fall back to human verification if it fails to automatically read a license plate. I can't really speak about the public garages in Europe as most European countries I've travelled to I've just taken transit, but I don't recall such technology being used when I was taking a road trip across Spain.

Yes, overhead cameras on the 407. But the cars can be only a few seconds apart, so there is less time for reading than at a residential garage. (And, no, they don't send the photos to humans unless someone appeals a charge.)

The company claims to be successful elsewhere so possibly there is an issue with this particular installation that can be addressed.

They are actually a local company so one hopes that at least the tech support will be good.
https://parkco.com/residential/

[taylortbb]

The company claims to be successful elsewhere so possibly there is an issue with this particular installation that can be addressed.

They are actually a local company so one hopes that at least the tech support will be good.
https://parkco.com/residential/

They're basically another arm of Momentum, https://parkco.com/company/ . All the other projects are Momentum buildings, and all their leadership are the same people as Momentum.

[KevinL]

The 407 has the advantage that they don't have to process in real time - the photo is taken immediately but post-processing to read the number clearly can wait for a bit. This camera needs to read the plate and quickly respond as to whether it's valid to open the door ASAP.

[hellocharliewest]

The 407 has the advantage that they don't have to process in real time - the photo is taken immediately but post-processing to read the number clearly can wait for a bit. This camera needs to read the plate and quickly respond as to whether it's valid to open the door ASAP.

That's what I was trying to say in my previous post - thank you for putting it more eloquently. I still question whether it is the right decision to use this technology but according to their website, it looks like it has been in use at 1 Victoria for a bit as well and I don't see any complaints from 1 Victoria owners. Maybe someone who lives there or has used the parking garage there could jump in and comment.

I hope that they can either make improvements to it to the point where it's as fast as a regular RFID sensor, or add a fallback RFID sensor for owners, but the way it works right now is quite sub optimal. My expectations aren't high though as looking through their website and LinkedIn, they appear to only have a single software developer who's either still in school or fresh out of school, and no hardware people? I also find it very funny that the ratio of leadership to non-leadership is 1:1

[tomh009]

I haven't parked at 1 Victoria. But I did park at the Ratina shopping centre in Finland this past summer. It was maybe a few seconds' delay for licence plate recognition at entry, and then again at exit (so that it could tell you how much you owed). It can definitely work.

But I have also seen some spectacular software implementation failures during my career.

[Lens]

Charlie West by Matt, on Flickr

[CP42]

Just had lunch at 271 West and the owner told me the restaurant will be moving to Charlie West in January.

[CP42]

Looking at photos of this at night, or even driving by and seeing work be done - are they occupying this building one side at a time? I would have assumed they would have gone up by entire floors at a time.

[taylortbb]

Occupancy has been bottom-up, except for the corner by where the construction elevator was. That corner is delayed on all floors, for obvious reasons.

[hellocharliewest]

Just had lunch at 271 West and the owner told me the restaurant will be moving to Charlie West in January.

Interesting! Do you know why? Are they looking for more space perhaps? I desperately wish Kinkaku would find a bigger space to lessen the queue for their lunch/dinner rush.

[CP42]

Interesting! Do you know why? Are they looking for more space perhaps? I desperately wish Kinkaku would find a bigger space to lessen the queue for their lunch/dinner rush.

Although I don’t know for sure, I assume so. Their space isn’t too large and is rather outdated.
I would also love Kinkaku to find a bigger space, but then again the small space is also part of its charm!

[taylortbb]

Just had lunch at 271 West and the owner told me the restaurant will be moving to Charlie West in January.

Interesting! Do you know why? Are they looking for more space perhaps?

271 West purchased their unit at Charlie West, but they're leasing in their current location. So I expect it's mostly about future certainty in the face of the gentrification of DTK.

I desperately wish Kinkaku would find a bigger space to lessen the queue for their lunch/dinner rush.

Never gonna happen. I'm friends with the owner, and have made this point, but the current business is profitable and they don't want to risk anything. Worst fear is going bigger causing a drop in quality, and a decline of the business. Same reason they don't do delivery apps (temporary pandemic exception aside).

Right now, like all restaurants, they're mostly focused on survival. But any future expansion will be additional locations, like Jinzakaya was, or a different format in DTK (i.e. not a sushi restaurant).

[tomh009]

Never gonna happen. I'm friends with the owner, and have made this point, but the current business is profitable and they don't want to risk anything. Worst fear is going bigger causing a drop in quality, and a decline of the business. Same reason they don't do delivery apps (temporary pandemic exception aside).

Right now, like all restaurants, they're mostly focused on survival. But any future expansion will be additional locations, like Jinzakaya was, or a different format in DTK (i.e. not a sushi restaurant).

I love hanging out in izakayas in Japan. And I live a 10-minute walk away from Kinkaku. And yet I've only been there maybe two or three times. I would love to see something closer to a traditional izakaya (really, a pub) in Kitchener, where you can hang out a longer time, consume alcoholic beverages and order some small plates of high-quality food from time to time.

AYCE flies in the face of that with large quantities of food consumed in a short amount of time. But admittedly it may be much more profitable.

Anyway, this doesn't have anything to do with Charlie West ...

[ac3r]

Someone recently asked how the parking podium looks at night. You'll have to excuse the angle of the photograph, but here's an image below. I don't think it looks that good. You definitely can't make out any sort of map, though there is supposedly one on there. The fact you can see the lights on the ceilings also makes it look pretty awkward. The original proposal definitely looked a lot better. This just looks like random shotgun holes in the metal.

[Spokes]

That looks brutal. Even if you know there's a map there you can barely see it. And most people won't know.