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Old Posted Apr 10, 2012, 8:54 AM
GreatTallNorth2 GreatTallNorth2 is offline
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Join Date: May 2006
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Manny, Bath is exactly like what you are describing. There are probably more stores in Bath city centre than there is in White Oaks and Masonville combined. It is completely focused on pedestrians, not cars. The centre is almost always wall to wall people. Bristol is the same and so is every UK city.

The difference between the UK and Canada is that there has never been a push for the large suburban wastelands in the UK like there has been in Canada. It is more desirable to live close to the city centre than on the fringe of a city in the UK. Everything is in the centre - fast train service to other cities, cultural attractions, shops, everything. North American cities, like London, will have a harder time making their downtowns vibrant, when they have vibrant shopping malls and populations living in the suburbs.

UK cities are also very compact, which makes it very easy to cycle or walk anywhere. Its not even remotely reasonable to think someone from White Oaks area or Masonville will walk to downtown.

On a completely different note, Londoners keep saying they need a big grocery store downtown. Rubbish! In the UK, there are lots of grocery stores in the city centres, but they are very small stores compared to Canadian standards (Tesco Express, Sainsbury's, Iceland, etc) What's funny is that these stores pretty much carry everything everyone needs in a space the size of Blockbuster video store and they are not expensive either. London doesn't need a Loblaws superstore. It maybe needs some small shop to open up.
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