Markham to Become a City?

[unimaginative2]

Is it time to call town a city?

yorkregion.com
Editorials
June 25, 2009 11:57 AM

In the end, the change may not make much of a difference, but residents ought to accept the proposal that Markham upgrade its status, so to speak, from town to city.

From just about any perspective, Markham ceased being a town quite a while ago - perhaps when the population topped 100,000 residents. We're now closing in on 300,000 people calling Markham home and it continues to grow fast.

There's no doubt there is some alarm being experienced on the part of people already living here, who see massive towers going up along Hwy. 7 and just about anywhere south of there. Plans that have been in the works for decades are finally bearing fruit and, in some cases, appear far larger than the public had anticipated.

And more plans seem to be announced every week, such as a vision for the replacement of the Market Village near Steeles Avenue and Kennedy Road with a building that looks to be right out of the Jetsons. Add some little space ships to the artist's drawings and they would not look out of place.

To present itself to the rest of the GTA, the province, Canada or indeed the world as a "town" is like we've got rose-coloured glasses and would hope someone visiting or considering moving here wouldn't notice all these buildings touching the sky. Let alone the cars, big box stores, transit and so on.

The law has changed in the past decade, so that making the switch to city status is simple and costs little. â?¨The municipality's powers don't change.

It may help the city boost the urban hubs developers are constructing by attracting a new business or two. People need to work and if they can work close to home, there's nothing wrong with that.

If the change is made, we still need to do what we can to protect the small-town feel of those parts of Markham outside of these growth pockets, let the different villages of Markham be villages, because that's what makes the place great.

Acknowledging we live in a city and having a good quality of life where neighbours know each other, need not be mutually exclusive.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Markham tries quite hard to be old-timey and cute, so why not stay a town?

 

[PukeGreen]

"Small-town feel"? "Villages"? Wow, either I've missed some major parts of Markham or there's some serious delusions going on there. I worked in Markham for years and the commute in and out was a nightmare. Highway 7, Warden, Steeles: those roads are wider and more harrowing than any I've come across downtown. It used to take 15 minutes to drive from my office building to the plaza across the street due to all the light cycles. Heck, I prefer driving on the 401... at least everyone's going the same direction and there aren't so many turn lanes.

For the most part, Markham is a sea of monstrous box stores and monstrous homes trying to out-monster each other. I'm sure there are a few nice nooks and crannies here and there, but on the whole, there is nothing town-like about it. Like Torontonians, Markhamites will soon have to come to terms with the fact that they can't grow outwards anymore, so if they want to continue growing, they will have to grow upwards.

 

[jks]

I always found it weird that Markham is a town, while Vaughan, with much lower density and population, is officially a city

 

[wyliepoon]

For the most part, Markham is a sea of monstrous box stores and monstrous homes trying to out-monster each other. I'm sure there are a few nice nooks and crannies here and there, but on the whole, there is nothing town-like about it. Like Torontonians, Markhamites will soon have to come to terms with the fact that they can't grow outwards anymore, so if they want to continue growing, they will have to grow upwards.

In a way Markham has already come to terms with that. On the edge of Markham's sprawl you aren't seeing McMansions being constructed, but rather whole subdivisions of townhouses, with laneway garages in the back. Markham is, arguably along with Mississauga, the GTA suburb with the most high-rise residential construction.

Markham, in my opinion, is well on its way to becoming a city. Compared to the dysfunctional "City Above Toronto" that is Vaughan, or the western archrival of Mississauga, Markham is probably the City of Toronto's nicest neighbour. Perhaps it's time Markham be rewarded by the City of Toronto... a subway to Markham Centre instead of one to Vaughan Corporate Centre?

 

[adma]

I always found it weird that Markham is a town, while Vaughan, with much lower density and population, is officially a city

Affluentish "imaging", perhaps. Ditto for that other significant GTA "megatown", Oakville.

 

[Transportfan]

More megatowns to add the list to change to cities: Richmond Hill, Whitby, Ajax, Aurora and Newmarket. The last 3 aren't that big but they are still too big to be towns and would certainly be cities elsewhere in the province. The maximum size for a town should be 25,000.

 

[kEiThZ]

I say that as soon as your urban area grows to a size that cannot be covered by foot in a reasonable amount of time, you are no longer a town. It's ridiculous that Markham calls itself a town but Trenton refers to itself as a city (even before it became Quinte West).

 

[Transportfan]

I would consider Trenton a city. Most people could'nt walk across it easily. I would say once a place becomes big enough not to feel like a "country" settlement, it's a city. Places like Collingwood or Orangeville would be a sort of grey area.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

"Small-town feel"? "Villages"? Wow, either I've missed some major parts of Markham or there's some serious delusions going on there. I worked in Markham for years and the commute in and out was a nightmare. Highway 7, Warden, Steeles: those roads are wider and more harrowing than any I've come across downtown. It used to take 15 minutes to drive from my office building to the plaza across the street due to all the light cycles. Heck, I prefer driving on the 401... at least everyone's going the same direction and there aren't so many turn lanes.

For the most part, Markham is a sea of monstrous box stores and monstrous homes trying to out-monster each other. I'm sure there are a few nice nooks and crannies here and there, but on the whole, there is nothing town-like about it. Like Torontonians, Markhamites will soon have to come to terms with the fact that they can't grow outwards anymore, so if they want to continue growing, they will have to grow upwards.

It's the town with the Heritage Estates...that surely qualifies as a nook and/or cranny of delusional townness. I don't know if they still do it, but Markham used to have flower baskets hanging along Denison - easily one of the blandest and most oppressive suburban areas imaginable - as if it was some quaint main street throbbing with more than 6 pedestrians a day. Maybe the backyards fences appreciated the flower baskets, even if they did absolutely nothing to diminish the cheap cartoon-like character of the area with the same scenery scrolling by over and over and over.

 

[wyliepoon]

If Markham is in Quebec, we wouldn't have this discussion...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town#Canada

The province of Quebec is unique in that it makes no distinction under law between towns and cities. There is no intermediate level in French between village and ville (municipalité is an administrative term usually applied to a legal, not geographical entity), so both are combined under the single legal status of ville. While an informal preference may exist among English speakers as to whether any individual ville is commonly referred to as a city or as a town, no distinction and no objective legal criteria exist to make such a distinction under law.

Ville de Markham, anyone?

 

[Disparishun]

I always found it weird that Markham is a town, while Vaughan, with much lower density and population, is officially a city

"Much" lower density and population -- really? Population-wise, in 2006 Markham was about 260,000 and Vaughan about 240,000, with Vaughan growing faster than Markham to get there. Density-wise, Markham was about a third denser (1231 vs 873 people/km2), but I wonder whether this has more to do with the amount of the muni that is developed than with the nature of the development itself.

 

[master_t]

Does the nomenclature have any impact on politics or policies?

 

[adma]

Density-wise, Markham was about a third denser (1231 vs 873 people/km2), but I wonder whether this has more to do with the amount of the muni that is developed than with the nature of the development itself.

Given how eagerly Markham has bought into New Urbanist cant (at least superficially), the nature of the development might play a greater and greater part...

 

[Disparishun]

Given how eagerly Markham has bought into New Urbanist cant (at least superficially), the nature of the development might play a greater and greater part...

Let's hope!