Quote:
Originally Posted by niwell
North York City Centre has the advantage of working with a pre-war street grid along a major retail street. Even though the area didn't see much development until the 1950s the roads were platted out well before then. On the whole it's quite vibrant, but there are still some negatives - largely to due with the linear fashion of the district. The "ring roads" (Beecroft and Doris) added a few decades ago and still somewhat in progress make for a hard suburban edge to the centre.
I wouldn't be too quick to write Mississauga City Centre off as a failure. It's at a disadvantage due to the pre-existing infrastructure, it's still very much a work in progress. Let's revisit in 20 years and see what's happened.
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I think you've nailed it on the head. I was born and raised in Mississauga and have lived there for 34 yrs right up until my move to downtown Brampton this year. The shortcomings and the planning failures are obvious, but what is also obvious are the efforts to correct this. It will however take several years, and it will be a slow transition from a car oriented environment to one that is more pedestrian. I don't think Mississauga can ever completely shed the car dependency but in light of this fact I think the city has tremendous potential. The developments are happening at a rapid rate and with that it should usher changes to the city centre itself.
Having lived in MCC right up until I moved, I noted a lot more foot traffic than in previous years. The larger Parkside development which I should remind everyone only consists of 3 towers at the moment out of OVER 15 total highrise towers will be the true downtown. The retail at the bottom of these towers are more attractive I'd say than you're typical corner store/nail salon type of businesses.. I would assume the others in the yet to be built towers will follow suit.
The city is working with a giant elephant in the middle of the room, that being Square One. It is currently being renovated and expanded on and the new Square One will also be geared more towards an urban pedestrian kind of feel. Markham and Vaughan are at an advantage as they get to learn from Mississauga and Toronto borough Scarborough's mistakes.
I've seen this place grow from farm fields to a budding city, so I won't throw in the towel on Mississauga. I'd go so far to even say that in 10 years the city will be quite a different place than present day! I think the future is bright.. and I think forums like these are great for healthy discussion and idea sharing.