DanielMar Urbanist Reviews

Oh so you were the one that posted this on Reddit, lol.

Miniature model of future Pickering City Centre

So many 905 neighbourhoods are wasted potential. In the last 20 years, we’ve built “better”/ more compact neighbourhoods than what we built between the 60s and 90s, but many of them are in the middle of no where.

Love my own bike and will be using it more as the weather gets nicer, but Bike Share (Toronto) is a little too good at times!

I’d even go as far to say that they may rival Old Toronto in terms of culture? Or is that pushing it.

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Many suburbs of Toronto are like this. Scarborough, Markham, Richmond Hill, heck even Brampton. To call them cultural wastelands just because they’re car dependent suburbia I think is fundamentally wrong. Of course, their car dependent built form is what’s holding them back.

/1

You gotta give it to most small Ontario towns and even some 905 communities on their older downtowns.

4. Ethnic suburbs (Scarborough, North York, Brampton, etc…). Car centric, but still full of culture (and frequent bus service)

5. Maybe search up the context of the Greenbelt

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1. Ravine system

2. High rise-single detached ratio. On the topic of housing, search up both the Toronto Special and Toronto Slab

3. TTC/general transit: high frequency bus routes, overall integration slow zones on subway, infamous Eglinton situation, meh streetcars

/1

Yup! Allentown as well.

Strong Pennsylvania vibes!

Idk if Waterloo Region has more of these compared to elsewhere in Ontario, but when I was there in November, I was impressed by

Two things Toronto needs to bring back, the slab apartments, and the Toronto Special multiplexes.

YouTube video by DanielMar Reviews Waterloo GRT ION LRT: Willis Way Station to Fairway Station

youtu.be/mgthQvhe_jg?...

The ION in Waterloo Region, while not perfect, is awesome!

To elaborate, much of North York is too car centric, but tbf, that just speaks to the time period it was developed.

…. best after Old Toronto

But if we do this, we’re gonna need to do a feasibility study of a feasibility study to ensure this is feasible /s

Error, I know Peterborough’s not a small town lol.

Provost Lane to Become “Provost Pavilion” in Downtown Fergus this Summer FERGUS - Provost Lane in Downtown Fergus is now closed for the summer. The section of road between St. Andrew ...

Even within Ontario, Kitchener/Waterloo is much better at this than Toronto. Heck, even a few small towns seem to be willing to try things.

Fergus: thegrand101.com/2023/05/01/p...

Peterborough: kawarthanow.com/2023/09/07/b...

Montreal might as well be another planet to Toronto. 😔

Why do I keep thinking this is @rmtransit.bsky.social ?? lol

That section southbound between Yorkdale and Lawrence West 😬😬

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Seemed decent, definitely still has a a LOT to develop.

All the proof you need that cycling is absolutely doable in the winter. This is in the Toronto suburbs (VMC, a development TOD area, still fairly car centric).

A very Ontario site at VMC Station

Grimsby Courtyard. Small town urbanism.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays 2024

Went there in November, and Gaukel Street in Kitchener was enough for me to say this region has better urbanism than Toronto (there’s many other reasons as well). Oh, and signal priority on the ION :)

The City of Toronto and the TTC get the very basic fundamentals of transit right, but do one heck of a job at making sure user experience is the last priority.