should our suburbs have city centers

[SENS ROOKIE]

We all complain about our suburb can we turn them in to mini cities like MISSISSAUGA

[citizen j]

Er, perhaps Mississausage isn't such a great example. Sure, there are a lot of tall condos near Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe but their "city centre" is still built around a big mall and its acres of surface parking, and while there are plans for mass transit at some point, the whole thing is still very much auto-centric. If only all that redevelopment energy could have been focused on Port Credit (historic street grid, currently served by GO trains). Anyway, to answer your question, yes. But "mini cities" or "town centres" with mixed zoning -- residences atop commercial space, stores in neighbourhoods not sequestered off in an island of parking, entertainment and workplaces integrated with living space and green space making the option to walk or take transit to work/shop/eat/relax a viable one. Otherwise, the so-called town centre is just a different way to say mall.

[SENS ROOKIE]

if Mississauga is not the great example what about the projects in Brooklyn

not

think of key ideas

and where it should it by in each suburb

[goodthings]

Definitely, Mississauga City Centre is not a model for now because the action is just starting (permanent road closures within the Celebration Square, widening of the sidewalks, roundabout constructions, parking lot infill, etc.). But years from now, it will be a perfect model for suburbs.

[Uhuniau]

Well, we always have Kanata, with its beautiful Centrum, or Orleans, with the drive-through bank!

[Harley613]

centrepointe could be a satellite core. i think that was the original idea anyhow...but not much has happened lately...

[Acajack]

I think Ottawa would be a prime candidate for this type of evolution since its downtown is already very strong (though still needs some improvements) and can withstand the competition that interesting suburban centres would bring. Downtown Ottawa as the capital has a rock-solid raison d'être that will never go away.

However, I would not do this in my home city of Gatineau as the downtown (Vieux-Hull) is still extremely weak and struggling - except when it comes to office space development. To make things worse, Gatineau has a burgeoning rival city centre district in the La Cité/La Gappe area that has few high-rises it is true but is still home to many facilities (library, public square, sports centre, college, cinemas, restaurants, health care, government offices, performing arts centre, etc). This artificial from-scratch city centre plan was a legacy of the old city of Gatineau that wanted to have its "own" downtown, but now that we are merged with Hull and the others it continues to grow in leaps and bounds and this is yet another nail in the coffin of Vieux-Hull, which is the true downtown of all of Gatineau and the only hope for true urbanism on this side of the river.

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by SENS ROOKIE

We all complain about our suburb can we turn them in to mini cities like MISSISSAUGA

In cases such as nepean/glucester there really already there own cities sure there part of ottawa but for a long time they were not so in many ways you could say there more like smaller cities then suburbs.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by reidjr

In cases such as nepean/glucester there really already there own cities sure there part of ottawa but for a long time they were not so in many ways you could say there more like smaller cities then suburbs.

Gloucester is more like a smaller city than a suburb? I'd have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one. I can't see anything more than a massive L-shaped piece of sprawl hugging the old borders of the City of Ottawa with no discernable focus whatsoever.

Certainly the suburbs outside the Greenbelt need to develop city centres. Barrhaven, for the disaster that it is, at least has something it calls a city centre, complete with rapid transit. As for Orleans, there is perhaps some hope around the shopping centre/theatre.

Kanata needs to start over. Melnyk's entertainment centre plan around Scotiabank Place is probably making the best of a bad situation, but with the major high-tech employment areas already well-established up around March Road, it seems unlikely that you will ever have much of a nexus of employment/entertainment/residential by the arena.

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by phil235

Gloucester is more like a smaller city than a suburb? I'd have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one. I can't see anything more than a massive L-shaped piece of sprawl hugging the old borders of the City of Ottawa with no discernable focus whatsoever.

Certainly the suburbs outside the Greenbelt need to develop city centres. Barrhaven, for the disaster that it is, at least has something it calls a city centre, complete with rapid transit. As for Orleans, there is perhaps some hope around the shopping centre/theatre.

Kanata needs to start over. Melnyk's entertainment centre plan around Scotiabank Place is probably making the best of a bad situation, but with the major high-tech employment areas already well-established up around March Road, it seems unlikely that you will ever have much of a nexus of employment/entertainment/residential by the arena.

Well don't forget nepean and gloucester at one point were citys and not suburbs are they perfect of course no works needs to be done but there not all that bad.You really can not say a city is made by a city centre look at nepean which includes barrheaven maybe it does not have a great city centre but you can say its more like a city then a suburb.As for orleans it has come a long ways and sure it needs more work but if you look at the whole picture it is more like a smaller city.

[eternallyme]

Forget using the pre-2001 municipal boundaries for inspiration on satellite centres, as they certainly do not have much meaning anymore. Instead, modern community boundaries - often only portions of (or in some cases, split between) the pre-2001 municipalities form them.

[Kitchissippi]

For Kanata in a fantasy world, I would build an elevated civic core straddling the 417 to mitigate the divisive aspects of the highway. Rapid transit would run underneath of course.

I'd place iconic twins on either side of the highway like gates to the capital, à la Puerta Europa in Madrid:



from josemazcona's flickr photostream

[Harley613]

that's actually a fantastic idea.. you could just sink the 417 under it, no need for elevation....very cool