Quote:
Originally Posted by vanman
In Metro Vancouver Burnaby, New West, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey and Richmond all have rapidly growing urban cores that are centred around rapid transit.
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Having transit and high-rise condos mean little when the public realm still looks like
this. Walkable, fine-grained urbanism still seems to be lost on the developers of these areas. New West and North Van are good examples, but they're benefited by having started development before WWII. Coquitlam has potential in slivers like
this, but it lacks human scale and has a sterility to it and the main draw for the area (Coquitlam Centre) is still surrounded by huge parking lots. Burnaby's Metrotown has some good pockets, like
this older stretch of fine-grained urbanism, but turn around and you've got a gaudy, inwardly-focused suburban mall still and a huge arterial road. It's like a further-along Coquitlam, but still leaves a lot to be desired, even if it's shaping up to have a nice skyline. Richmond seems to be doing things the best of the post-war suburbs, with a main road that has a nice central tree median, somewhat shorter blocks, and nicer scale, although it still has way too much auto-centricism to be fully sustainable. Places like Langley, Delta, and Tsawwassen seem to be places of automobility despite things like the ALR. Cloverdale and particularly East Clayton in Surrey is probably a finer example of more sustainable design, despite lack of SkyTrain access.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toaster
Of course, Mississauga City-Centre. It's a matter of time before the huge parking lots of Square One get redeveloped. You'll notice at the most recent-opened expansion, they added what looks like actual city streets between the mall and the parking lot, with spots to parallel park.
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No. Square One has potential, with the increased intensification, but high-rise condos aren't the only thing necessary to make sustainable suburbs. Mississauga's Square One doesn't even have a GO Station like the Vancouver suburbs mentioned above have with SkyTrain. There's Cooksville, but it isn't actually in the environ, just the vague vicinity of it. The road design is still loops and lollipops and major thoroughfares are very pedestrian-hostile. The main attraction, Square One itself, is surrounded by parking lots that may or may not be razed, buried, or otherwise moved, but as it stands, there are no plans that I've seen for this to occur.
This is a far cry from
this, in Markham. The Markham example is far from perfect, but a much better example of sustainable suburban design, even if it's less flashy than the Marilyn Monroe towers.