[ikerrin]

I think its time to finally recognize that ubranites form a distinct people within Canada. Just as Rome was occupied by the Goths and the Visigoths, so too our we - the downtown dwellers occupied by suburban hordes. They flock into our cities each day devouring parking spaces that we would otherwise use for patio furniture and BBQ's, they devour our food forcing us to serve them their foreign diets of fast food and ignoring our own natural diet of yummy ethnic cusine.

They cart off our women folk - taking them out to the suburbs, often at the very moment when they begin to have children, robbing us of future generations to carry out our urban ways.


They tax us and carry our wealth out too the provinces (Suburbia) to build shrines to their foreign Gods - Walmart, Costco, and Best Buy and to carry out their campaigns of destruction against our natural allies - the rural folk.

Who will join me in our campaign to politely ask the suburbanites if they wouldn't mind terribly not using our downtowns as parking lots so that we can get on with forming a distinct society:notacrook:

[Cambridgite]

James Kunstler, is that you? :haha:

[raisethehammer]

I'm WITH YA!

[vid]

Lets invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to urbanity!!

[Cambridgite]

Lets invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to urbanity!!

Yay, it's just like George Bush's version of "freedom"!

[adam-machiavelli]

There is actually a correlation between suburban councillors on a city council and downtown parking rates. See Ottawa as the prime example.

[Doady]

They flock into our cities each day devouring parking spaces that we would otherwise use for patio furniture and BBQ's, they devour our food forcing us to serve them their foreign diets of fast food and ignoring our own natural diet of yummy ethnic cusine.

These days, the suburbs are more "ethnic" than downtown so this thread could therefore be considered a continuation of the outrage over "unreasonable accomodations."

[ikerrin]

These days, the suburbs are more "ethnic" than downtown so this thread could therefore be considered a continuation of the outrage over "unreasonable accomodations."

Speaking for myself alone, if the suburbs had more than 5000 people per square kilometer living in mixed-use communities I would feel different about them. If they only inched their way from city boundaries and protected vital greenspace and built innovative destinations that I could get to easily by public transport, I would welcome them with open arms. I think urbanites and suburbanites just have a whole different set of values, and because there are more of them than us, they impose their values on us which makes it "feel" like an occupation.

[jeicow]

I gotta admit, it has been a while since people were waving the whole "If they're different, get rid of them mentality".

[Cambridgite]

I gotta admit, it has been a while since people were waving the whole "If they're different, get rid of them mentality".

Well I guess the KKK of urbanism is back in town. :haha:

[miketoronto]

Except the health of our downtowns and core cities are tied just as much to suburban visitors as downtown residents :)

Suburbanites coming downtown are not some bad group of people we should want to stop. They are just as much city residents as people who live downtown :)

Hell, I know people in the suburbs who use and support downtown way more, then some downtown residents I know, who never partake in anything downtown offers. :)

And a funny thing I have noticed. All my suburban friends use public transit. My two downtown friends drive everywhere(eventhough all they do is commute to work and school right downtown). :)

[ikerrin]

Except the health of our downtowns and core cities are tied just as much to suburban visitors as downtown residents :)

Suburbanites coming downtown are not some bad group of people we should want to stop. They are just as much city residents as people who live downtown :)

Hell, I know people in the suburbs who use and support downtown way more, then some downtown residents I know, who never partake in anything downtown offers. :)

And a funny thing I have noticed. All my suburban friends use public transit. My two downtown friends drive everywhere(eventhough all they do is commute to work and school right downtown). :)

Ok, the thing to remember is the the threadt is intended to be tongue in cheek:jester: , but also to point to a deep truth that in many of our cities it is suburban issues rather than urban issues which dominate.

I live right in the downtown and its true that I don't bus as much as suburbans. Its because I walk and bike everywhere - so why do I pay the high transit taxes? Also, my roads and streets are clogged everyday by surburbanites driving into the city. With all the traffic, the downtown is not a safe place to raise young children. When you think of it, if a pedestrian gets run down by a suburban commuter, its the pedestrian who often gets blamed when in fact she was just walking through her community while the commuter was driving through from another community.

[Jon Dalton]

This is an actual quote from someone I work with: "I like living in Guelph because you can just get in your car and go to the corner store. Living in Toronto, you know, people walk everywhere"

I don't buy the argument about suburbanites causing problems by increasing traffic through downtown. A good downtown has always had alot of traffic, whether it be people, horses or streetcars. I've seen some pictures of New York in one of the transit books I read where streetcars hadn't yet come into play and entire streets were congested with pedestrians.

The problem is what happens when we try to accommodate everyone's car with cheap or free parking, under the mistaken impression that the space we take for parking will have a net positive effect after its value as a potential destination is taken away.

[vid]

That quote doesn't make any sense to me? :shrug:

"I like living in Toronto because you can just get up and go to the corner store. In Guelph, you have to drive to the corner store! :yuck:"

[softee]

That guy is a nut, Guelph has plenty of people who enjoy walking to their neighbourhood corner stores.

[LordMandeep]

i think he meant Vaughan...

[vid]

Is it even physically possible to walk to a corner store in Vaughn?

Does Vaughn even have a corner store to walk to??

[Cambridgite]

That guy is a nut, Guelph has plenty of people who enjoy walking to their neighbourhood corner stores.

He's probably from the south end...the commuter area. There's not much in walking distance if you live there. And people from the North end of Guelph hate the South end.

[vid]

I recall someone mentioning that once. It was the south end that wanted the walmart, but only if it was built in the north end.