What is Canada's most "urban" suburban municipality?

[Docere]

Westmount? Burnaby?

[GreaterMontréal]

Westmount is not suburbain.

[Capsicum]

Mississauga?

[FFX-ME]

Mississauga?

[FFX-ME]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Mississauga?

lol! Great minds!

[Docere]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

Westmount is not suburbain.

I agree it's more like a little principality. Or perhaps more accurately an enclave that happens to have its own municipal borders. It is a suburb in the sense that it's not part of the central city.

[GlassCity]

Definitely New Westminster or North Vancouver. Dense, gridded streets and a mixing of uses. Mississauga has tall buildings and that's about it. That's not what urbanity is. There's a reason I didn't include Burnaby.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Docere

I agree it's more like a little principality. Or perhaps more accurately an enclave that happens to have its own municipal borders. It is a suburb in the sense that it's not part of the central city.

suburban : Relating to or characteristic of or situated on the outskirts of a city.

in french, a suburb is a banlieue. nobody would call Westmount a banlieue. banlieue = low density, car-oriented neighborhood. Westmount is part of the inner-city, '' the American definition '' - the sections of a large city in or near its center.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

Definitely New Westminster or North Vancouver. Dense, gridded streets and a mixing of uses. Mississauga has tall buildings and that's about it. That's not what urbanity is. There's a reason I didn't include Burnaby.

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."

[GlassCity]

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.

[dleung]

Not sure what most "suburban" is, but for most urban:

1. New Westminster
2. North Vancouver
3. Richmond
4. North York
5. Burnaby Metrotown

Urban but mostly from "before"
6. Ambleside West Vancouver
7. Port Credit
8. Burlington

Puke pile: Burnaby Brentwood, Coquitlam, Surrey, Mississauga, Six Points, Scarborough, Markham, etc

[Rico Rommheim]

Based on my experiences, most definitely North Van and New West. Both of these 'suburbs' look more urban than most Canadian 'cities'.

[GreaterMontréal]

In Laval, there is a neighborhood called Laval-des-Rapides.
3 Metro stations - Orange Line , RTM de la Concorde intermodal station , the A-15
population , +- 40,000 , 9km² , 4444/km²
this is probably the only neighborhood in Laval where you don't need a car.

and you can find Clockzilla in LDR.

[Rico Rommheim]

For the Montreal suburbs, I nominate St-Lambert: a small municipality on Montreal's South Shore, surrounded by Longueuil and Brossard, two thoroughly uninspiring suburbs. Absolutely lovely town with a solid mix of triplexes, apartment towers and cute bungalows with a nice commercial street (Victoria), a commuter train station and a bike lane straddling the riverside and connecting all the way into downtown Montreal. It's a classic streetcar suburb in the same vein as Montreal-west and NDG.

Honestly St-Lambert puts the rest of the wasteland known as the South Shore to absolute shame.

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by Docere

Westmount? Burnaby?

Neither of these qualify in any way, for completely different reasons.

[Doady]

Burnaby had population over 50,000 in 1951. It is an extension of the inner city, like Westmount and New Westminster.

And it's not like Mississauga doesn't have pre-war neighbourhoods either.

Are you looking for the most urban post-war suburbia? Places like Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke, Montreal-Nord have an urban feel. Mississauga isn't exactly Arlington, TX either.

I think the 60s and 70s suburbs in Canada are more urban compared with newer suburbs. A lot more high-rises were built during this time, and strip malls were multiple storeys to emulate traditional main streets, which you won't see anymore.

Suburbs in Canada of any era are also much less car dependent than those of the USA. Even the transit ridership of Laval and Mississauga is superior to most US central cities.

I don't see "urban" as simply a black or white thing, and I don't understand why look at it that way.

[Doady]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

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.

Suburban road network means a strong heirarchy of streets. Wide highways and boulevards contrasted with very small streets. "Dispersed road network" doesn't mean anything. "Dispersed" means lower density. You are saying Mississauga has a lower density of roads? Doesn't make sense. I thought it was the opposite.

Mississauga's road network is suburban because of its strong heirarchy, not because of "dispersal".

New Westminster is mostly pre-war. Overall, it's older than the City of Toronto. It's an extension of the inner city. Like if Yorkville separated from Toronto, it would be most urban suburban municipality. So what?

[logan5]

Well if New West and North Van don't count than this thread is toast.

White Rock ain't bad, and it's way the hell out there.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

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.

Dartmouth, NS is like this, although it's no longer an independent city so maybe it doesn't count by some standards. But it has its own downtown, inner city, etc. I'm not overly familiar with either but I got the impression that Esquimault and parts of Gatineau (Hull?) are like this as well.

Downtown Dartmouth:


Source


Source


Source



The newer and further-flung parts of Dartmouth certainly have a "typical Canadian suburb" vibe and then there's a large middle ground of streetcar suburb-ish/"NS dense small town" areas in between.

[Pinion]

I'll never understand why anyone thinks New West is more urban than the City of North Van. Unless you think more truck traffic makes something urban, CNV beats it in every way.