Quote:
Originally Posted by softee
Most of the "single family" houses in the inner core of Toronto that are in the shadow of the skyscrapers are rowhouses, attached or semi-detached homes, and those neighbourhoods are quite dense -- up to 40,000 ppsm, which is remarkable for low-rise residential neighbourhoods compared to most other North American cities (NYC excepted). Those neighbourhoods are very urban & walkable and are not detracting from Toronto's big city feel whatsoever. The pre-war single family detached neighbourhoods further out from the core are upwards of 20,000 ppsm and are often on very small lots and also are very walkable and urban feeling.
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Oh I strongly disagree on that front. While those areas are obviously more urban than the SFH nabes in the suburbs, they feel strikingly less urban and "big-city" to me than residential dominated by low and midrise apartment buildings or Montreal-style walkups. While I don't think this ruins the city by any means, no city is perfect and that aspect does definitely detract from it for me.
I also have to question the "up to 40,000 ppsm" claim. I suspect that it's either not entirely true or if true, not very relevant. It may not be entirely true in the sense that places in the shadow of skyscrapers often include highrises and other multi-unit buildings within the census tracts thus bolstering their density stats. Or it may not be relevant in the sense that in those areas the houses are often highly subdivided making the units much smaller than you'd see in most house dominated areas. So yes, lowrise areas achieving that density without including nearby highrises is remarkable, meaning it isn't typical of what you'll find in such areas. Achieving that in other house areas would require changes to zoning just as allowing other building types would.
I do agree that tightly packed houses can still make for an urban setting and should still be a part of major cities, but it's still a lower form of urbanism compared to multi-unit buildings and should only dominate areas further out. Not that all houses close to downtown should be replaced, but they just shouldn't be the prevailing structure type.
For instance, a street with buildings set back from the sidewalk like
this, while beautiful, just doesn't feel as urban or big city as
this,
this or
this one where the buildings meet the sidewalk. And those don't feel as big city or urban as an area filled with low and midrise multi-unit on a scale like like
this.
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