Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere
Because Vancouver is such a small core, I guess it makes sense that it has rather urban suburbs. North Van is interesting with the city/district split and New Westminster predating Van itself.
Mississauga's huge population, pretension and tall buildings aside, Burnaby feels more "urban" than Mississauga to me. North Burnaby along Hastings feels streetcar suburb-like, almost like a cross between the Etobicoke lakeshore and the Danforth or something. Though the bulk may be just another "Mississauga."
|
With regards to North Vancouver, I specifically meant the city, though the district is relatively urban to other Canadian suburbs itself.
I agree that Burnaby is more urban than Mississauga.
Honestly, I think aside from Vancouver's, there aren't really any urban suburbs in Canada, aside from maybe some on-island Montreal ones I may just not be familiar with. Places like New Westminster and North Vancouver, and others to a lesser extent, are built on a fairly dense grid with relatively narrow roads and limited highways, and clearly defined city centres.
Meanwhile, places like Mississauga, Vaughan or Markham may be trying to develop downtown cores, but they're still largely composed of sprawl built into a dispersed road network full of 6 lane roads.
In all fairness though, this is because the City of Vancouver is geographically tiny so lots of its "suburbs" are places that function as part of the "city," so to speak, namely Burnaby and New Wesminster. If Toronto hadn't amalgamated, I would have put York and North York in this list of urban suburbs as well.