"Urban" vs. "suburban"

[Eug]

The uninteresting downtown cores aren't necessarily "down on their luck". They're just uninteresting. Active during business hours, but completely dead at night.

 

[Benjamin Hemric]

Proposed Urban to Rural Taxonomy

Benjamin Hemric originally wrote (in part)

But I think the issue in general here is the one brought up previously by both Scarberiankhatru and myself. There are some downtowns that are just temporarily "down on their luck" and thus not the downtowns that they originally were. But such areas are still basically urban because they retain some urbanity and the ABILITY to regenerate themselves; and then there are other downtowns that have actually been rebuilt so dramatically (and are under such strict zoning regulations, etc.) that they are effectively no longer truly urban, but are now more accurately understood as "quasi-urban."

Eug then wrote:

The uninteresting downtown cores aren't necessarily "down on their luck". They're just uninteresting. Active during business hours, but completely dead at night.

Benjamin Hemric writes:

For some downtowns, being uninteresting either day or night (or both) is only a temporary condition. Just look at all those formerly dead downtown areas -- NYC alone has plenty of them -- that have come back (are "comeback" cities). For others, for a variety of reasons (e.g., given what's been done to them, the way they've been rebuilt orthe misguided laws that govern their development, etc.), it's likely that being uninteresting is, more or less, a permanent condition.

The downtowns that still have good potential for regeneration (and the potential to become more interesting once again), are the ones that are "down on their luck."

Sat., March 6, 2010, 7:13 p.m.

 

[Abdur_16]

The term semisuburban not does make sense. After all, suburban already means semi-urban.

The way I see it, suburban and urban are not two distinct terms. After all, the word "suburban" has "urban" in it, does it not? All suburbs do have certain urban qualities. If they were completely lacking in any urban qualities, they would not be suburbs. So you can't say that inner city Toronto is urban while Markham is not urban. It is more accurate to say that inner-city Toronto is more urban and Markham is less urban. After all, inner-city Toronto and Markham are quite varied within each of themselves, so I am not sure why so many people believe that there is a clear line between urban and suburban.

I consider density to be the primary attribute of urbanity. After all, what is the complete opposite of urban? What is non-urban? Non-urban is rural. And extreme low density, i.e. the lack of people and settlement, is the primary characteristic of rural areas. On the other side of the spectrum, all the most urban places in the world are also the densest. Higher density equals reduced distances, which means more mixed use, more transit, more walking, etc.

BTW, old Toronto is not as dense as old Montreal. All the old housing in Montreal was designed as apartments for multiple families. Toronto's single family houses cannot compete.

This is it ! You got it !
By the way i just want to share my experience after moving to Toronto (North America in general) that cities here suck.

the reason is the whole downtown and suburb thing ,you have either crazy density (in case of downtown) or no density (suburbs)

my point is when i am downtown i feel like theres no room to breathe , driving is so frustrating (slow speeds , no parking etc. ) and on the other hand suburbs look like a jungle , no store , no person walking till as far as you can see , just series of houses and a road. Without a car , you’re noone in the middle of nowhere. So , you knowfor these reasons its hard to feel comfortable in either downtown or in suburbs.

there should be equal density(more or less obviously) throughout the city , so many advantages of that.

where i used to live , on one side of my house , it was a quite peaceful residential street (refer to picture) and on the orher hand , a busy road with shops somewhat like spadina ave which is nicee and its the same throughout the city.