[scryer]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Vancouver has done a very good job at TOD but again none of the ones you have mentioned are pedestrian friendly. Yes it is nice to have more of the community amenities but when it's all said and done these are nothing but glass boxes connected to a mall at a transit station. One very notable exception is NuWest which promoted downtown living but not at the expense of the original district. It has retained it's character.

Incorrect a lot of them are indeed pedestrian friendly.

City of Lougheed is constructing restaurants, shops, cafes, patios, grocery stores, fitness centres, etc all within a walking distance from each of the towers that it encompasses.

Oakridge includes a park, updates and upgrades to the mall, office space, small healthcare facilities, and a community centre all within walking distance to the residential towers in its immediate area. And outside of this development, the Oakridge area surrounding the redevelopment around the station, will include many more towers that will be within a walking distance to the mall and to the skytrain station.

The Coquitlam City Centre plan is also planning on office developments, mixed use buildings, street-retail, and even an entertainment district. I can't seem to find a detailed map of the proposed downtown but these elements are conveying that they are aiming to make this pedestrian friendly and transit oriented.

Brentwood is another example of a mall that is being opened up with a plaza, surrounded by towers. It is again a place to work, live, and enjoy by providing all of the amenities that one could want within their neighbourhood as this project also commands an office development

I can't seem to find a neighbourhood strategy on Burquitlam but I know that it has a lot of towers that are popping up independently that have mixed use podiums. Clarke Road and Como Lake road are very wide roads so I can see how it would impact walkability but the developments around it are certainly allowing for a more mixed use neighbourhood within its vicinity eliminating the need for a vehicle.

The only one that I could maybe throw you a bone for is Metrotown. It is a big mall and Translink really missed the mark on integrating a pedestrian walkway to the mall from the skytrain station. But for all of the people that live in the towers surrounding it, it is actually reasonably walkable. It would just be crossing Kingsway (another wide street) that would be a bit of a pain in the ass. In fact Burnaby has already installed a pedestrian overpass over Kingsway to allow for better access.

Moving out of Burnaby and Coquitlam, Surrey has also done a splendid job of making Surrey Central walkable. The library, new city centre, the plaza, and the immense amount of towers that will be going into Surrey's core will change it for the better and it will become more and more walkable since those residents in the towers will be in close proximity to everything they need. Again, KGB is a wide arterial that cuts the area in half but the King George redevelopment is also introducing a lot of these same elements just across from Surrey Central. And Surrey just has an un-heeded amount of potential in its core that we will see realized starting with the Georgetown development. If I were to compare Surrey to another Canadian city, Mississauga is actually coming to mind since they also have large road infrastructure that fractures their city core.

Just because you view these developments as glass boxes ontop of malls, it doesn't mean that it doesn't provide the residents that live in these glass boxes all of the amenities that one would need in their immediate neighbourhood. I agree that they are a little copy + paste but that doesn't mean that the formula doesn't work. Now what I am not going to do is dive into how most of these projects were sold in China before they were sold to Canadians but I digress...

My point is that your perspective on downtown vibrancy is a little jaded by current architectural and neighbourhood planning trends. You have to remember that in the past we were building wider streets like KGB and Kingsway to accommodate cars and so that does impact walkability. Places like New West and downtown Vancouver were established before the golden age of motorized vehicles and so they don't have wide arterials in their core like Coquitlam, Burnaby, and Surrey does. Vancouver and New West are also much older than all of the other municipalities so you have more natural architectural diversity that makes the cities more visually engaging. Don't get me wrong, I am not against faux heritage developments either as I also need a break in architecture . However the current BIG developments that I have broken down will end up contributing to walkable neighbourhoods in each of their perspective municipalities because they provide everything that a resident needs without the resident having to travel outside of their neighbourhood. And this includes residents that are already living in the areas that these developments are taking place in.

Civic vibrancy doesn't happen overnight either. These projects are amazingly well designed neighbourhoods that are an excellent starting point for other developments to piggy-back off of their success - and take the neighbourhood to the next level. Vancouver and New West were well-established before TOD was even a thing hence all of the heritage buildings in their respective cores. Out of all of these projects that I listed, only Brentwood and Surrey Central are operating. And even at that, Brentwood is still opening stores in its mall so it does indeed take a while for a certain level of vibrancy to be achieved.

To find some more common ground: yes, I agree that all of the projects are indeed cut + paste; and I would even go as far to say that their concepts are now outdated since the pandemic happened. My criticisms with these developments (outside of the fact that they all sold to China before Canadians) is that they do not include spaces for small businesses which I think bring real soul into a neighbourhood. Southern parts of Main Street are very lively and one of those reasons is because it has a bustling small business scene where human creativity can really shine as a way to make a living. A lot of these bigger neighbourhood projects also don't include a higher percentage of rental opportunities either.