London Urban Area hits 500K

[MolsonExport]

Yep, according to Stats Can, the London Census Metropolitan Area is half a million strong. And just that.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tabl...emo05a-eng.htm

[kwoldtimer]

Given that urban growth rates ebb and flow over time, I wonder if the London CMA population will ever (re)overtake that of K-C-W?

[haljackey]

Yay finally some news on the London subforum! Nice find Molson!

Reminds me of what happens when you hit 500K on SimCity SNES:

(Skip to 30 seconds in)
• Video Link

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Given that urban growth rates ebb and flow over time, I wonder if the London CMA population will ever (re)overtake that of K-C-W?

doubt it. With GO Train service to Toronto, Kitchener likely will turn to some type of degree a secondary Barrie and will have additional growth from people choosing to move out of the GTA.

I can't ever see London catching up to K/W.

[Simpseatles]

While it's cool to see that we have officially reached the half a million mark I wish there was more to show for it. I know it's been said before but really London's metro is kind of a joke. The ever-sprawling city plus St. Thomas, Strathroy and a host of small rural bedroom communities. You certainly don't get much of a sense that this is a metro area.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

doubt it. With GO Train service to Toronto, Kitchener likely will turn to some type of degree a secondary Barrie and will have additional growth from people choosing to move out of the GTA.

I can't ever see London catching up to K/W.

The GO Train is going to have to do a lot better than the current 2 hour trip to Union Station for that to happen, imo. The lack of fast train service to downtown Toronto is going to become a pressure point on K-W's booming high tech sector in coming years, I suspect.

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The GO Train is going to have to do a lot better than the current 2 hour trip to Union Station for that to happen, imo. The lack of fast train service to downtown Toronto is going to become a pressure point on K-W's booming high tech sector in coming years, I suspect.

Assuming K-W can stay afloat in a post-RIM (Blackberry?) world. I really do like the new Blackberries, I think they're excellent in every way, but Americans don't, because "muh iPhone". And they just recently announced that they were laying off another couple hundred people. Their stocks have tanked (this hurt me actually) and the company looks like it's going into panic mode. Without that sort of talent anchor, I'm not sure what kind of high-tech sector is going to be present in a decade's time. I think K-W is going to slip back to being a mix of a working-class industrial city and a collection of suburbs for skilled workers, a substantial number of whom will commute to Mississauga.

London will putter along like an aging Corolla. Unless something really new and exciting originates here, or unless the banks decide they're fed up with Toronto's high-cost environment and decide to move back-office operations here, it's just going to be mediocre, like it has for the past decade.

[MolsonExport]

without a huge world-beating firm like RIM, KW looks an awful lot like London (without a significant downtown, that is): Heathcare, Education, some manufacturing, farming-related industries. Plus some commuter living, which we don't have here on account of our distance from the centre of the universe.

[haljackey]

Still I doubt London will ever catch up to K/W. It's in Toronto's 'zone of influence' and will grow even faster once Toronto's metro reaches the Greenbelt.

Also Waterloo Region has a good highway network, GO Transit, and will start building LRT (next year?). They're planning for real growth, and they're going to get it regardless of how abysmal RIM/Blackberry is doing.

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Still I doubt London will ever catch up to K/W. It's in Toronto's 'zone of influence' and will grow even faster once Toronto's metro reaches the Greenbelt.

Also Waterloo Region has a good highway network, GO Transit, and will start building LRT (next year?). They're planning for real growth, and they're going to get it regardless of how abysmal RIM/Blackberry is doing.

and in comparison, London has a good highway network on the south side (401/402), and nothing for the rest, not even an express bus route anywhere. VIA rail which has cut frequencies, especially to points further west (Sarnia, Windsor), and no plans for rapid transit.

[ericlewis91]

Isn't 500k enough for Ikea????

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

without a huge world-beating firm like RIM, KW looks an awful lot like London (without a significant downtown, that is): Heathcare, Education, some manufacturing, farming-related industries. Plus some commuter living, which we don't have here on account of our distance from the centre of the universe.

As a born-and-raised Londoner who was displaced to KW (only place I could find a job), I have to disagree with this entirely.

KW’s tech sector is thriving, even with RIM’s decline. There are a number of medium-sized older players (like Open Text, Christie, those types) that employ hundreds, and a huge number of new entries.

The idea that KW does not have a significant downtown is incorrect: it has two that are individually thriving more than London’s. Ion (the LRT) will connect them both with the universities in a little over three years. Kitchener’s downtown in particular has turned a corner and has attracted a lot of new jobs and residents- and great new developments- in the last five years and longer.

Unfortunately, London is not going to catch back up with KW in terms of population. The metaphor of London’s economy chugging along like a Corolla may actually be slightly optimistic…

Oh, and as for Ikea: I’ve heard that Woodstock area has been planned in the past (somewhere near 401/403) to serve London,KW, and Brantford. Neither London nor KW have sufficient population on their own, but apparently a store located between the two can make sense (I’ll try to find a link).

[haljackey]

+1

I love Kitchener's downtown. They did a really good job rebuilding King Street... I wish Dundas Street in London looked like that.

Uptown Waterloo is a good comparison to Richmond Row in London. Great shops and bars.

Don't forget downtown Cambridge either. I love the German architecture there and they did a really good job with the riverfront.

[middeljohn]

Well to be fair, the CMA and the urban area are two different things. But awesome news and great find!