Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:41 on 2019-06-05 Permalink Reply  

• Faiz Imam 10:06 on 2019-06-05 Permalink

  Sigh, I get that this isn’t their primary area of expertise, but I would have hoped for some less simplistic analysis. Or perhaps I just have a problem with the headlines.

  At a fundamental level, they are correct. If you make mobility cheaper (in time, money) more people will move further away as their “budget” increased.

  But there are solutions and mitigations that can manage the manner in which that expansion happens.

  First of all, we just had a wave of contreversy last month over the lack of parking at rem stations. Where are these new ex-urban residents suppose to drive their cars *to*?

  The station design are centered on bus stops, drop off zones and year round bike use. Basically it’s as inhospitable to auto-commuters as possible, in essence to add “costs” back in for users we do not want to promote.

  All to say, with all the high density projects going on inside existing suburbs, “suburban population growth” does not have to mean ” suburban sprawl”.

• Clee 11:31 on 2019-06-05 Permalink

  Nope, house price is.

• DeWolf 12:27 on 2019-06-05 Permalink

  One of the things that always surprises me about Laval is that the older neighbourhoods like Pont-Viau and Laval-des-Rapides, or even Chomedey, are relatively dense with a lot of multi-family housing and a walkable street grid. The same is true in Longueuil.

  With a concerted effort to improve transit, densify these areas even further and make them more pedestrian-friendly, they would end up resembling a city neighbourhood more than a suburb. They’re hardly the irredeemable spaghetti bowl, cul-de-sac, 100% car-oriented kind of suburban areas you see further out.

• Faiz Imam 01:04 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

  Definitely., especially since these inner suburbs don’t have any empty plots left. So the only way they can continue to grow is to build up.

  Some of the best analysis i’ve seen is ones that define urban/suburban/exurban as a factor of their mobility. If there is a lot of active modes, its urban, if its a lot of transit and less active, its inner suburb, if its majority auto, some transit and no active, its ex-urban.

  Under that sort of categorization, I am hoping we see places like St-leonard, St laurent, Longeuil, Brossard etc become urban as they proceed with massive redevelopment plans that are underway.

  And if we are lucky, this will also help urban affordability, since if we have tens of thousands of new people living in high quality spaces outside the core, it means less demand on the existing areas.