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Originally Posted by Doady
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A more interesting discussion would be: how have these pre-war areas fared over the last 70 years? Which ones have gained population vs lost population, or urbanized vs suburbanized? What are their current population densities and regional economic or cultural weight like? Which ones have preserved the greatest share of their historic built form?
Looking at cities in terms of being "pre-war" vs "post-war" is a reductive argument that ignores the very different ways that cities have developed since. Not all post-war is equal, nor is all pre-war. The current state of a city's urban core - as well as how their post-war suburbs have developed - is more relevant to their modern urbanism than the historic extents of their urban sprawl would indicate.
In the case of Toronto, while it hasn't followed the historical trajectory and urbanism of first-wave East Coast cities or Chicago; it's also just as distinct from that of Sunbelt cities. Toronto occupies a sort of niche within the "genres" of North American urbanism. I'd broadly characterize that one as being: those with healthy, centralized mid-size/intensity pre-war cores and successful post-war transit expansion, infill, and suburban TOD development. I'd probably include DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and maybe a few others in there as being their closest contemporaries in that respect.