Looking for the ultimate destination to celebrate Irish culture this March 17? The best cities to celebrate St Patrick’s Day have been revealed.
Our friends at Casino.com have taken the guesswork out of it, calculating the number of Irish bars in the biggest North American cities. By analyzing the number of Irish pubs and the population in each city, the best cities to grab a Guinness this St Patrick’s Day have been ranked.
The best cities to celebrate St Patrick’s Day☘️
Rank
City
State/ Province
Country
Number of Irish bars per 1 million people
1
Boston
Massachusetts
United States
41.5
2
St. John’s
Newfoundland and Labrador
Canada
32.3
3
San Francisco
California
United States
19.8
4
Kelowna
British Columbia
Canada
16.5
5
Seattle
Washington
United States
16.0
6
Washington City
District of Columbia
United States
13.4
7
Baltimore
Maryland
United States
12.3
8
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
United States
10.2
9
Regina
Saskatchewan
Canada
8.9
10
Kitchener
Ontario
Canada
7.6
Boston, Massachusetts, is the best city to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, with 41.5 Irish bars per 1 million people. Boston has a longstanding Irish heritage, with Irish immigrants arriving in the city as early as 1654 and many more following suit during the Great Irish Famine in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Unsurprisingly, Boston is the ultimate St Patrick’s Day destination, with 41.5 Irish bars per one million people, including Solas Irish Pub and Mr. Dooley’s, which are both open until late.
Celebrate the luck of the Irish in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, with 32.3 Irish bars to choose from per 1 million people. Newfoundland is a hub for Irish culture, often dubbed the ‘most Irish island in the world’, with many Irish settlers choosing to live in the province’s most populous city, St. John’s. With such a prominent Irish community in the city, St. John’s ranks second as one of the best cities to spend St Patrick’s Day in. There are 32.3 Irish bars per one million population.
San Francisco is the third-best city to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, with 19.8 Irish bars per 1 million people. San Francisco’s Irish community was largely established during the late 1840s and early 1850s, at the time of the Great Irish Famine. It is often thought that by the 1880s, around a third of the city’s population identified with Irish heritage. San Francisco is, therefore, one of the best cities for Irish culture and a top destination for St Patrick’s Day, with 19.8 Irish bars for every one million people. For the Silo, Grace Burton.
Earning it the nickname ‘Canada’s Silicon Valley’, Kitchener, Ontario, is a technology powerhouse with numerous tech companies, start-ups, and research institutions. It achieved first place for broadband speed at 287 Mbps.
Toronto follows closely behind, with 283 Mbps. As the country’s largest city and financial hub, boasting a thriving economy and a diverse range of industries, the demand for the Internet is high, and providers have clearly delivered.
Neighbouring Brampton scored similarly, with 277 Mbps. Home to a growing business sector, particularly in industries such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology, the city has the third-highest connectivity speed in Canada.
The only city in the top five that isn’t in Ontario is Surrey, landing in fourth place. Renowned for its beautiful natural surroundings, including parks, green spaces, and the stunning Fraser River, Surrey achieved an internet download speed of 271 Mbps. London, Ontario, follows closely behind with a broadband speed of 270 Mbps.
It makes sense to see Ontario cities landing in the top 5 as recently the governments of Canada and Ontario invested over $54 million to make the Internet accessible to more than 20,000 homes. This not only will bring a necessary Internet connection to rural Ontario but bring reliable high-speed Internet access to the whole of the country.
Methodology:
BonusFinder Canada wanted to reveal the best Canadian cities for gamers to live in.
In order to achieve that, they created a seed list of the 20 most populated cities in Canada using Data Commons.
Fixed download speeds were obtained from the Ookla dataset with gridded worldwide internet speed data. The data was spatially joined with the coordinates of the cities in Canada using the Geopandas package in Python, which allowed for an average download speed (in megabits per second (Mbps)) per city to be obtained. The coordinates for Canada were obtained from the GADM geospatial data set, (except for Quebec and Montreal which were obtained from the overpass api).
Data was also collected on the number of gaming conventions in each city in 2023 using Video Games Con for gaming conventions and Board Game Geek for board games conventions.
TripAdvisor was then used to count the number of ‘game and entertainment centres.
The number of gaming jobs in each city was found using Indeed, using the search term ‘video game’ as well as each city included in the seed list.
All data was then combined into a definitive ranking which was equally weighted. BonusFinder Canada was then able to assign a final score out of 10 to each city and determine which is best and worst for gamers.
Data is correct as of July 6th, 2023.
For the Silo, Marissa Pysarczuk.
Here is a link to our friends at https://bonus.ca/ who commissioned this data.
There are a number of reasons why you might want to replace your windows and doors in the winter. Either you’ve just moved in and want to upgrade them because they are old, or maybe you feel like they aren’t performing well, or perhaps even you may just feel like they are out-dated and that your home needs a new look.
Windows and doors are an essential part of any home. They allow us to enter and exit our home, to let air and light in, but they are also designed to protect us from the elements and intruders when necessary. When they aren’t performing optimally, windows and doors can be the cause of heat loss in a home which can in turn make your furnace overwork – meaning you will be paying more on your energy bills.
When considering window replacement, it’s important that you find a window and door company in Kitchener that manufactures their products according to the highest energy standards. Look for a company that can offer you ENERGY STAR® certified windows that can help you lower your household energy bills by an average of 12 percent. Bonus: by lowering your energy consumption you are also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Best Time to Replace Windows and Doors
You might be thinking that the middle of winter isn’t the most ideal time to contact your local window installer. Not only may it seem like it would be difficult for them to work in bad weather, but you’re probably also worried about the snow and cold getting into your home while they work.
Despite your worries, professional, certified window installers are typically able to install your units in one day. They also take precautions to ensure that your home is protected while they work, like by putting up plastic sheeting to keep the elements out and your things protected.
You can trust a window company that takes the time to assess your home and give you a quote before beginning work. The best ones will even do the measurements and check the work being done twice before starting – this ensures that everything is exactly to your specifications.
Once a day has been selected, your window and/or door installation team will likely ask you to move items at least two feet away from the areas being worked on. They’ll also ask if there is anything outdoors that they need to be careful of – like a favourite bush or flower bed.
By providing them with the information they need upfront, they’ll be able to prepare properly to make sure that nothing gets damaged in the process. If it’s just a straight replacement, things generally go smoothly and quickly, and as already noted can typically be finished in a day.
With the right windows and doors, you can protect your home from heat loss this winter, lower your energy bills, and also beautify the inside and outside of your home.
TORONTO- Five years ago, a Group of provincial Masonry experts selected its top masonry heritage buildings in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge region in conjunction with the North Waterloo Region Branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. These buildings that define Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W) and Cambridge are known for their distinctive beauty, history and longevity.
The Walper Hotel- stopping point for Lady Gaga and in the past Eleanor Roosevelt, Louis Armstrong. photo: Nick Stanley
With an enduring presence that shapes the landscapes on which they were built, these heritage buildings were selected by industry experts as the finest examples of masonry design in the tri-cities of southern Ontario. “Heritage buildings made of brick, block or stone are the longest lasting and most architecturally significant designs in any community,“ says Jack Prazeres, President of MasonryWorx. “Landmarks like these move people with their iconic beauty.”
Prazeres went on to say, “Often built with locally quarried stone and clay for brick, many of these buildings not only define their communities through their design but also their material – they are true reflections of the geography on which they stand.”
The yellow-hued brick for example is a hallmark of this region that creates a sense of place like no other part of Ontario. The yellow-coloured brick comes from calcium rich clay mixed with limestone from the Niagara escarpment.
“Although none of our top masonry heritage buildings used the yellow brick, because in the past it was not considered as high quality as red brick, the yellow brick deserves honourable mention for the regional distinctiveness it has created,” Prazeres says. “There is no doubt however that this regional brick has stood the test of time and has helped define Waterloo Region.”
Jack Prazeres, President of MasonryWorx- photo courtesy Ministry of Citizenship
The criteria used to choose the top buildings included: durability, aesthetic appeal, craftsmanship, and the best use of masonry products in their architectural design.
After a panel discussion by masonry professionals working with brick, block and stone, MasonryWorx selected the following five Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge buildings to honour for their masonry heritage value:
Galt Collegiate Institute – This Cambridge landmark was founded in 1852, when it was known as the Galt Grammar School, a highly reputable private school for boys. Today, the symmetrical building designed in the Scottish Baronial style houses a public secondary school. The building, which is constructed from fossilized limestone quarried from on-site riverbanks, underwent several additions between 1859 and 1923.
Gore Mutual Insurance Company head office — The 1935 Neoclassical Revival head office of the historic Gore Mutual Insurance Company in Cambridge features impressive exterior fieldstone walls and a beautiful interior finished in at least four types of marble and locally supplied granite. Stunning features of marble and fieldstone also grace the 1955 addition to the building.
Wilfrid Laurier University, Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work– First known as St. Jerome’s College, the two buildings on this property in Kitchener were built in 1907 and 1909. The buildings are handsome and well-preserved examples of Neo-Classical architecture. The features of the 1907 Duke St. building include the monumental central pavilion with pediment, coupled columns, front entrance, window openings and brickwork. Features of the 1909 College St. building include the brickwork and window openings.
Walper Hotel – A parade of notable guests from Eleanor Roosevelt and Louis Armstrong to Pierre Trudeau and Lady Gaga have dined and slept at this hotel at King and Queen Streets in Kitchener. Established in 1893, the building cost just $75,000 to build. Guests could have a room, three meals a day, a pitcher of water, gas lamp lighting, a spot to hitch their horse and use of one of the hotel’s common area bathrooms for just $4.50 per week. With its delicate brickwork over the arched windows and elegant cornices, it is the city’s best example of hotel architecture.
Wissler-Cascaden House The simple Mennonite Georgian style popular with Pennsylvanian settlers inspired the design of his two-storey house in Waterloo. It was built in 1842 by John Wissler, a pioneer from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He helped establish the hamlet of Lexington thanks to his tannery and the many businesses and trades that sprouted up to support it. The current owners have given a great deal of time, effort and care to the extensive restoration of the house which portrays a faithful representation of early Waterloo. For the Silo, Vickie Fagan.
The Georgian Style: Constructed in 1842, Waterloo’s Wissler-Cascaden House.
Supplemental- MasonryWorx is the trade association of brick, block and stone masonry industry professionals. Its membership includes product manufacturers, suppliers and skilled professionals from across Ontario, and the organization is committed to providing home buyers, homeowners, architects, engineers, builders and government leaders with accurate, timely information about the use and benefits of brick, block and stone products.
