Quote:
Originally Posted by WBC
Another thing is that this idea that everyone is going to live, work and shop in their own little town center is at best Utopian. Do you know how much people change jobs in this country? So every time I get a new contract or change a job am I supposed to move? Or does this mean that I cannot freely travel from one location to another to shop or to be entertained just because some geek city planner had this fantasy about how we should live our lives? The freedom of movement, travel and trade had made the Western world what it is today. That does not mean that I am saying we should build highways and overpasses over the entire city. But as other posters said, I think that we need great public transit and the best road-network we can afford.
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Brilliantly said.
And what about couples? What happens when one works in a medical clinic in Surrey and the other is middle management downtown? Should one of them quit? Break up? The choice of where to live is up to them, be it downtown, south Surrey anywhere in between. It's up to what they can afford and the sacrifices they chose to make, not up to some social engineer behind a desk.
And the side affect of creating these urban centers is it spreads downtown pricing. Now everywhere is a premium place to live as everywhere is the same. But it's not the same because few people are lucky enough to engineer their lives so perfectly to live and work in the same area and be able to afford it. Most people settle down and buy a home they can afford and be happy in, and then work wherever they can find it.
Removing the viaducts and selling the land as housing will further alienate business from downtown, further spreading the cost of living outwards from the core.