# Suburbs Want Downtowns of Their Own



## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/realestate/30nati.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
*Suburbs Want Downtowns of Their Own*

By KEVIN MALER
Published: April 30, 2006









_Ben Garvin for The New York Times

Excelsior & Grand, a development in St. Louis Park, on the Minneapolis border._









_Ben Garvin for The New York Times

The foundation for a new condo in Burnsville, Minn._









_Ben Garvin for The New York Times

Pat and Jeff Jerde, who moved from a larger home into a condo in a new area called Heart of the City._

BURNSVILLE, Minn.

PAT AND JEFF JERDE raised their two sons in a 6,000-square-foot home in this booming suburb about 20 miles south of downtown Minneapolis. After the boys moved out, the Jerdes were ready for the big move downtown.

Downtown Burnsville, that is.

The latest thing in suburban development is something very old: city living. For a variety of reasons, a handful of suburban areas around Minneapolis-St. Paul have begun ambitious plans to create town centers, with pedestrian friendly sidewalks, condos, restaurants and shops. If it looks like a city, well, it is supposed to.

"We've always been intrigued by the urban environment, but I didn't want to raise my children in that," said Pat Jerde, a painter who has run a private art school with her husband for 15 years. "I wanted them to have a yard."

Yet a loft in the artists' enclaves of St. Paul or Minneapolis was not a real option, in part because their art school in Burnsville would lose students if they moved it downtown.

The mixed-use project in Burnsville called Heart of the City gave the Jerdes the chance to have an urban home in the suburbs, and in late 2004 they became the first to buy a unit in the development. Their new 2,500-square-foot, three-level unit cost $342,000.

For city officials, Heart of the City is a response to concerns of its citizens that Burnsville lacked a community gathering place. The land had been slated for a downtown since the early 1970's, but the development of a regional mall, Burnsville Center, in 1977 shifted the retail center of gravity away, said Jenni Faulkner, the city's community development director.

The city has currently approved some 628 units, and about 196 have been completed. Another 191 are under construction. (Some of the units in the project are rentals, including some that are subsidized.)

The growing residential population makes the retail space — a big part of the project — more viable.

There is space in Heart of the City for an upscale restaurant, although it remains vacant. A proposed 1,000-seat arts and theater center, if approved by the City Council, might be the catalyst that brings a top restaurant, Ms. Faulkner said.

Other so-called outer-ring suburbs — about a half dozen around the Twin Cities — have undertaken development projects.

In nearby Apple Valley, for example, a swath of some 70 acres is slated for high-density housing, restaurants and a hotel, according to Tom Lawell, Apple Valley's city administrator. The city has planned for some 1,300 rental and condominium units in its Central Village; about 105 town homes have already been completed and are selling well, he said.

Downtown developments are not confined to the suburbs that took off in the 1960's and 70's, however. Like Burnsville, St. Louis Park first began the long process of creating its downtown by holding community meetings in the mid-1990's. But St. Louis Park, a first-ring suburb that shares a border with the city of Minneapolis, faced different issues.

"At the time, Excelsior Boulevard was an aging corridor that didn't look very good," said Jeff Jacobs, an attorney who is also the mayor of St. Louis Park. "It was a boulevard on the cusp. It wasn't blighted, but it was tired." The project, called Excelsior & Grand, has sparked both spin-off development and a remodeling boom.

While the risk that the project could falter was real, the risk of not doing anything was also great, according to Tom Harmening, the city manager for St. Louis Park.

"First-ring suburbs really have to fight to stay relevant and to stay vital," Mr. Harmening said. "There has to be constant attention to renewal to compete in a rigorous market. Cities like St. Louis Park have to do things to give people a reason to live and do business in our community."

One factor that is common to all the projects is demographics: empty-nesters who are tired of maintaining their suburban homes and do not need all that space anymore.

Phil Finkelstein and Barbara Bank raised three children in St. Louis Park in a large house next to wetlands and a yard that generated dozens of bags of leaves each fall. Their children were leaving the house (their youngest daughter, a high school senior, still lives with them), and they decided to move too.

"My wife and I would rather spend time with people and not dealing with weeds," Mr. Finkelstein said. He works as an attorney for the Minnesota Nurses Association, and his wife is a doctor.

They bought a corner unit in the Excelsior & Grand project in the new St. Louis Park downtown. The unit has 1,600 square feet, with three bathrooms and two bedrooms. "Our suburb was in search of a soul, and they wanted a downtown," said Mr. Finkelstein, who is also a City Council member.

He admits that he gets some ribbing from his children. "My son teases me and calls it instant urbanism," he said.

Nonetheless, he and his wife say they find themselves walking more, to restaurants, coffee shops and movies. "It's hard to be stressed when you're walking."

Both city officials and developers emphasize that community backing is essential to a successful redevelopment. Both St. Louis Park and Burnsville spent years listening to residents about what they wanted and what they did not want before ground ever broke.

"When I say we had a hundred meetings, I mean we had more than 100 meetings," said Mr. Jacobs, the St. Louis Park mayor. That kind of participation makes the use of sometimes unpopular powers, like the threat or use of eminent domain, more palatable.

Both cities also had a bit of good luck: They were well positioned when the condominium market began to boom.

Indeed, the St. Louis Park project was reconfigured to greatly increase the number of owner-occupied units as trends shifted, said Bob Cunningham, principal of the TOLD Development Company, the lead developer.

Developers have also learned a thing or two about the urban-suburban condo market: Buyers generally want units that are all on one level. In one phase, for example, TOLD was marketing four units that had two levels, despite the advice against it by a national marketing firm.

"None were reserved; none were purchased," said Mr. Cunningham. The developer split them into eight units, each on one level.

It is also important for developers to price the units so that homeowners nearby — particularly empty-nesters — can buy them with the equity they have built up in their houses, said Wallace Johnson, president of the Stonebridge Companies in Apple Valley, which is developing units in Burnsville.

Indeed, Stonebridge came into the project after a previous developer pulled out — the firm had ambitious plans for a very upscale project. "You have to price where people are selling," he said. "I don't think Burnsville is ready for $700,000 condo units."

Although the Twin Cities condo market is showing clear signs of a glut, other suburban cities will probably follow the path set by cities like Burnsville and St. Louis Park, developers say.

"We are the poster child of this new urbanism," Mr. Cunningham said. "We're proving it's doable. You'll see more and more communities" doing it.


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## DonQui (Jan 10, 2005)

^^ :|

Nice to see America jumping onto a bandwagon that has already been invented in Europe say, oh a few centuries.


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## doady (May 23, 2004)

Happiness=Contagious said:


> the fact is that suburbs are just that, suburbs. they are sprawling masses of residences. if you truly want a downtown move into a city ofr godsakes.



The ideal of suburbia being just residential is not true anymore even in America.

Don't be so skeptical that suburbs can be different because, the fact is, suburbs in other parts of the world ARE a lot different from each other and from suburbs in America. There is not just one type of suburb.


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## KGB (Sep 12, 2002)

"the fact is that suburbs are just that, suburbs. they are sprawling masses of residences."


For the most part, you are probably right. But Mississauga is sure giving it the old college try.






KGB


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## Third of a kind (Jun 20, 2004)

I'd say it depends on how old these suburbs are, If they were around long before wwI, then they should have had a downtown or some centralized area already


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

I'm glad that the scared masses are starting to turn to a more urban model, or at least a noticeable minority of them. 

The implications are different in every city. If your inner city is starving for residents it might seem like a wasted opportunity. But that assumes that the residents would otherwise choose inner city. What if they'd otherwise choose typical sprawl or parking-lot apartments, as I'm guessing they most-often would? 

In a prosperous city running out of room in the core and on the edges, these villages are at least efficient use of land. Sometimes they're even well-planned and integrated with their communities. Personally I'm thrilled as hell that greater Seattle is developing or reinvigorating dozens of centers with varying degrees of size and urbanity.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

It's almost everywhere especially here in Asia. Like in HK for example, lot of New Towns are sprouting mini CBDs just like what's happening in Tsuen Wan.

Manila as well, alot of suburbs are building CBDs.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

The overwhelming majority of parisian suburbs already have dowtowns.

Concerning the US, inner DC suburbs such as Bethesda, Silver Spring or Arlington already have important downtowns


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## tablemtn (May 2, 2006)

Manila is an interesting case, since the city of Manila is very small compared to the overall size of the metro area. The government tried to channel development into Makati, Ortigas, Pasig, Mandaluyong, etc. Sometimes, I think, at the expense of Manila proper, especially north of the Pasig River.


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

Why do suburbs want a downtown? Sort of defeats the purpose of being a suburb. 
We have a suburb here, Mississauga, that is trying very hard to have a 'downtown'.


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## sarflonlad (May 13, 2005)

Europe, Asia etc. have older cities with sprawled cores that engulfed already exisiting self-sufficient towns and villages which retained their 'downtowns'. 

American suburbs seem more planned and centric around a central CBD core.

Some examples of Downtown Suburban London and proposed regeneration projects:

Stratford:









Croydon









Bromley









Tacky Urban Style Apartments in Kingston


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## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

^ Yep. The largest suburban downtowns in south-London have a a sizeable amount of office space, and have a large bus and train hub eg. Bromley, Lewisham etc.


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## Jue (Mar 28, 2003)

Suburban downtowns make engineering sense. They help decentralise traffic flows, i.e. ideally allow *both sides* of motorways to be used during peak times.


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## Bikkel (Jun 8, 2005)

DonQui said:


> ^^ :|
> 
> Nice to see America jumping onto a bandwagon that has already been invented in Europe say, oh a few centuries.


 You beat me to it.
It's good for the environment and one's health. Just cycle to your shops. And tear down those awful shopping malls. 

Here's from the Freedom country:


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

tablemtn said:


> Manila is an interesting case, since the city of Manila is very small compared to the overall size of the metro area. The government tried to channel development into Makati, Ortigas, Pasig, Mandaluyong, etc. Sometimes, I think, at the expense of Manila proper, especially north of the Pasig River.


But if you look at Metro Manila as a whole. The main downtown is not in The City of Manila itself but in Makati. In fact Makati is more the centre of Metro Manila than Manila. 

Also, the cities and municipalities within this metro are forming downtowns of their own. Quezon City has one, Muntinglupa also has and so on.


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## i_am_hydrogen (Dec 9, 2004)

So will these suburbanites eventually abandon their suburban downtowns, too?


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## Cloudship (Jun 8, 2005)

Probably. Because after all, they are simply zombies led by the car and oil industries. :| 

Towns are towns. A lot of times people think that there are only two places - cities, and sprawling housing developments. The fact is that there are lots of places that do not have the density or height to be a city, yet still have a downtown area. These are not usually what you see from the highway, you have to get off and explore to find them. But yes, small town suburbs do have downtown shopping districts, have local stores, and have community, too. It's not just endless rows of lookalike houses and people.


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## Sen (Nov 13, 2004)

Taller said:


> Why do suburbs want a downtown? Sort of defeats the purpose of being a suburb.
> We have a suburb here, Mississauga, that is trying very hard to have a 'downtown'.


and markham too.


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## Metropolitan (Sep 21, 2004)

virtual said:


> The overwhelming majority of parisian suburbs already have dowtowns.
> 
> Concerning the US, inner DC suburbs such as Bethesda, Silver Spring or Arlington already have important downtowns


Don't forget that a considerable amount of Parisian suburbs wouldn't be suburbs in most other cities in the world. 

The Hauts-de-Seine departement is as much suburban as is the Queens in New York City. Actually, knowing that La Défense is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine, it's actually even less suburban than is the Queens. There are no less than 4 of Paris "suburbs" in which there are more employees working than inhabitants living (Courbevoie, Puteaux, Levallois, Issy).


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

yeah, even the outer 92 cities such as Antony are dense and have important downtowns


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Can LA be an example of this. Each city within LA, Orange, San Bernardino or Ventura counties have their own downtowns.


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## invincible (Sep 13, 2002)

And don't forget that there can be different definitions of suburb.

In Australia, there is no negative connotation associated with the word "suburb" and people will refer to all of these divisions that way, be it the Melbourne CBD, a trendy inner city suburb, the "leafy eastern suburbs" or the typical boring housing estate in the outer suburbs.

It's all about decentralisation really. It's easier to move people to various suburban centres instead of trying to get everyone into the city. The pattern in Australia is that these suburban CBDs only exist around railway stations and usually have many bus routes radiating away from the station.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

invincible said:


> And don't forget that there can be different definitions of suburb.
> 
> In Australia, there is no negative connotation associated with the word "suburb" and people will refer to all of these divisions that way, be it the Melbourne CBD, a trendy inner city suburb, the "leafy eastern suburbs" or the typical boring housing estate in the outer suburbs.
> 
> It's all about decentralisation really. It's easier to move people to various suburban centres instead of trying to get everyone into the city. The pattern in Australia is that these suburban CBDs only exist around railway stations and usually have many bus routes radiating away from the station.


I'm not familiar with Australian cities but I know there's a mini CBD in the suburbs of Sydney (Chatswood)


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## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

When these suburbs' downtown growing larger, the suburbs would eventually become a part of greater downtown. I think in the last century, most inner ring suburbs of Chicago is actually considered as far-flung suburbs or a separate town--- and some parts which now considered as downtown were once inner suburbs.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Xäntårx said:


> When these suburbs' downtown growing larger, the suburbs would eventually become a part of greater downtown. I think in the last century, most inner ring suburbs of Chicago is actually considered as far-flung suburbs or a separate town--- and some parts which now considered as downtown were once inner suburbs.


It's the case with Metro Manila. Take Makati for example. It used to be a suburb now its the city centre.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

The purpose of building downtowns in the suburbs was to reduce the amount of commuting local residents would make since they are far from the city centre. However, the failure in that logic was not everyone can live in the same suburb as the suburb that they work.


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## Randwicked (Jan 29, 2004)

invincible said:


> And don't forget that there can be different definitions of suburb.
> 
> In Australia, there is no negative connotation associated with the word "suburb" and people will refer to all of these divisions that way, be it the Melbourne CBD, a trendy inner city suburb, the "leafy eastern suburbs" or the typical boring housing estate in the outer suburbs.


Yes Aussies don't say 'neighbourhood' to mean a specific geographical district of a city, they just say 'suburb'. To an Australian, Tribeca, Soho and the Upper East Side would be suburbs of New York for example.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Most of the suburbs here are old enough to have their own downtowns...

West Hartford has a trendier and more pedestrian-friendly downtown than Hartford does.


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## Bertez (Jul 9, 2005)

Many suburbs in Toronto have a downtown core.....


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## Zaki (Apr 16, 2005)

Xäntårx said:


> When these suburbs' downtown growing larger, the suburbs would eventually become a part of greater downtown. I think in the last century, most inner ring suburbs of Chicago is actually considered as far-flung suburbs or a separate town--- and some parts which now considered as downtown were once inner suburbs.


ya that happened in Toronto too. A lot of what is now considered city proper toronto was a suburb just a few years ago. One good thing about this though (or atleast i find it good) is that this creates multiple city centres for Toronto.


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## invincible (Sep 13, 2002)

This plan is for Caulfield, which is the location of a railway interchange and a university campus, about 10km from the city: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=8402861&postcount=147

Originally posted by Aussie Steve


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## Nick in Atlanta (Nov 5, 2003)

Some suburbs in metro Atlanta have "downtowns", but they aren't usually business centers. Business centers tend to be clusters of 20-30 story tall office buildings with some hotels nearby. The Cumberland/Galleria area and Perimeter Center area come to mind. They are two of the biggest business clusters, and the Perimeter Center area has over 100,000 employees that work in the area.

Suburban downtowns are fairly new and are usually replacements for strip malls. They have restaurants, coffe shops, ballet schools for kids, etc. They also usually have the suburban city's courts and administrative buildings. Often the second floors of these stores have condos or apartments that have back entrances and give these suburban downtowns one source of customers.


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## LosAngelesSportsFan (Oct 20, 2004)

i think LA is the king of this kind of development in America. The metro was basically layed out like this with Numerous Downtown areas from Downtown LA, to Wilshire to Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Century City, Westwood, Beverly Hills, the South Bay, Bretwood, etc etc all having thier own Downtowns with sizable CBD's and office space. Now the challenge is to connect each with transit which is happenening.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

LosAngelesSportsFan said:


> i think LA is the king of this kind of development in America. The metro was basically layed out like this with Numerous Downtown areas from Downtown LA, to Wilshire to Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Century City, Westwood, Beverly Hills, the South Bay, Bretwood, etc etc all having thier own Downtowns with sizable CBD's and office space. Now the challenge is to connect each with transit which is happenening.


I think it's not just LA but also The Bay Area, Houston and Dallas. 

As for LA, public transportation is a challenge but I want to see is a large metro line


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

Pleasantville does sort of have a downtown of its own. The only thing is that there are no highrises here. Despite that, the Metro-North station is near and it gives entrances to several streets that include Wheeler Ave, Memorial Plaza, and Bedford Rd. Over the years, Pleasantville has became home to a number of major franchises such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, 7-Eleven, and other places. Although Pleasantville is part of the Mt Pleasant Dist, it has its own distinction whereas Hawthorne and Thronwood are interconnected with each other.


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## thryve (Mar 5, 2005)

Toronto's suburbs are getting some pretty big dowtowns of their own. They are quite interesting, because their streets are wider than traditional downtowns and they have massive condos everywhere... it's quite exciting.

-thryve


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## Cloudship (Jun 8, 2005)

Almost every town in New England with enough people in it has some kind of downtown. It may only hold a market and a few banks, maybe a Friendly's or some kind of food place, and the town hall. But they all have a focal point to them. Perhaps it is wrong to think in terms of "Downtown" as much as a focal point of the town or city, at least from a design standpoint.


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## Silver Springer (Feb 25, 2006)

I'm reading alot of conflicting information. Some people seem to be putting open air centers that look like main streets with mostly retail in the same category as real downtowns that have major corporate and private firms, retail and residential in a dense pedestrian oriented environment.


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

I think this is a good idea. A town right next to Macon called Centerville is building a main street and downtown. There will be banks, restaurants, parks, specialty shops, and maybe a information center.


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## ncik (Nov 12, 2004)

Some of Sydney's mini CBDs (Central Business Districts - aka downtowns). Take into account that these pics are a couple of years old.

*North Sydney*









*St Leonards*
with Sydney & North Sydney in the background









*Chatswood*
with Sydney, North Sydney & St Leonards in the background









*Bondi Junction*









*Parramatta*









Here's a bonus of a suburb called... *Sydney*


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## Cloudship (Jun 8, 2005)

Silver Springer said:


> I'm reading alot of conflicting information. Some people seem to be putting open air centers that look like main streets with mostly retail in the same category as real downtowns that have major corporate and private firms, retail and residential in a dense pedestrian oriented environment.


I guess that then depends upon how you want to define dense, corporate, and mixed use. By those deifnitions, heck there are many cities that don't have a good mix of residential and commercial.

If you are trying to define downtwon as something with big buildings, then no, you obviously won't find that in a suburb because it wouldn't BE a suburb. Fact is we live in a retail world. Big business doesn't usually fit ain a small area, but there are often smaller businesses that you overlook hiding on the second floors and behind the solid doors. I am defining Downtwon as a centralized business district, with a density proportional to its size. I guess downtown is one of those things based more upon what you have experienced in your own life versus a set size and shape.


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## KGB (Sep 12, 2002)

"Aussies don't say 'neighbourhood' to mean a specific geographical district of a city, they just say 'suburb'. To an Australian, Tribeca, Soho and the Upper East Side would be suburbs of New York for example."


Yes, I agree that Aussies use the words "neighbourhood" and "suburb" as the same thing, whereas in NA, the two are completely diffeent.

But this makes sense, as the "city" structure in NA and Az are also completely different.

In Australia (in general, as it is a bit different depending on state), there is no "city" in the municipal sense...there is the CBD and then there is generaly all suburban sprawl development around it. The state performs most of the services that would generally be done by municipal governments in NA cities.

Australian cities are generally all "metro", as opposed to "city proper" as generally an independent separate political entity, surrounded by various other political entities, generally in the form of post-war, suburbs, which have a built form very different from the older inner cities which followed the european model.

This is why Australian "public transit" is so heavy on the commuter side, while a city like Toronto, is very heavy on the inner-city mass transit side.






KGB


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## Randwicked (Jan 29, 2004)

KGB said:


> "Aussies don't say 'neighbourhood' to mean a specific geographical district of a city, they just say 'suburb'. To an Australian, Tribeca, Soho and the Upper East Side would be suburbs of New York for example."
> 
> 
> Yes, I agree that Aussies use the words "neighbourhood" and "suburb" as the same thing, whereas in NA, the two are completely diffeent.
> ...


Actually my point was that even the most urban of pre-war Australian neighbourhoods are called 'suburbs', not just the sprawled out ones. Also the terms 'Urban' and 'Suburban' are pretty much interchangable in Australian English. No distinction is made, although 'Inner Suburbs' are known to share all the characteristics of pre-war development such as attached housing and/or apartments and mixed land use. 'Outer Suburbs' are the sprawly ones.

This is Darlinghurst, regarded as an 'Inner Suburb' of Sydney:


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

Haut De Seine 92 Paris suburbs


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

I don't think this type of development should be encouraged especially in a North American setting. Planners have failed to figure out how to cater for the reverse commute, and traffic congestion is the next big nightmare for these supposedly quiet bedroom communities.


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## miamicanes (Oct 31, 2002)

> Planners have failed to figure out how to cater for the reverse commute, and traffic congestion is the next big nightmare for these supposedly quiet bedroom communities.


Actually, reverse-commuting convenience is part of the reason why downtown Miami residential construction is booming. It's faster and easier to live downtown and commute 10 miles west to offices west of the airport, than it is to live 3 or 4 miles north, south, or further west of the same area. The hardest part of my drive home is the half mile north of the Dolphin Expressway/SR836 on NW 87th Avenue, because I have to share that road with everyone. Once I hit 836, it's fairly smooth. As soon as I'm east of the Palmetto Expressway (SR826), I can literally do 60mph all the way downtown (feeling sorry for the unfortunate souls stuck in the utter gridlock, doing *maybe* 15mph on the westbound side of the road).


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## hamiltonguyo (May 17, 2006)

Missauga wants a downtown

Oakville, Burlington, and Hamilton all have downtowns

Hamilton has a few

the Main One as well as the downtowns of Dundas, Stoney Creek, and Ancaster


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

White Plains is known for having downtown, though its mainly of malls and multimillionare business.


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## liat91 (Apr 11, 2005)

I know of a few suburbs planning to make instant downtowns.
1. Princeton Junc. NJ
2. Hillsborough township NJ
3. Lynnwood WA
4. Lincolnshire IL
5. Highland Village TX
6. Palm Beach Gardens FL
To name a few...


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## cazswell (Apr 13, 2006)

hamiltonguyo said:


> Missauga wants a downtown
> 
> Oakville, Burlington, and Hamilton all have downtowns
> 
> ...


Mississauga acctually does have a few downtowns.... Port Credit, Streetsville, etc.

What they're trying to get is a large central business district/downtown in the very centre of the city.


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## Silver Springer (Feb 25, 2006)

Yeah, White Plains is the kind of urban district I'm talking about that many will call a suburb. It looks alot like Silver Spring. I just don't see how you can use the same word for a place like White plains and tract housing as well. It's characteristics are far closer to urban and is quasi independent of NY. It even has more corporate business that would put some major cities to shame.


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## bayviews (Mar 3, 2006)

There are a number of suburban downtowns in the San Francisco Bay Area. Walnut Creek, CA is the probably the biggest. Here's an article on the subject: 

Suburban downtowns add dash of urban liveliness 
- John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer
Sunday, August 18, 2002 


Considering its location, the newest building in downtown San Rafael is revolutionary: six stories tall, with 113 apartments above shops and restaurants. 

Across the bay in Walnut Creek, they've also done the unthinkable, blocking a typical shopping center so that downtown could add two pedestrian-friendly blocks. 

What's taking shape is the next stage of suburbia -- a scenario where forward-thinking cities take cues from urban tradition to create more complex downtowns. Nor do such cities trust the future to fate or developers. Instead, they figure out how they want to grow and take advantage of opportunities that come their way. 

Granted, neither project is likely to change the cavalier way in which boosters of "real" cities view the 'burbs. To some residents of San Francisco, San Rafael is clutter on the way to Point Reyes and Walnut Creek might as well be in Iowa. 

As New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp once told a Chicago panel to laughter and applause: "I know it's important to be aware of what's going on in suburban America, but you know, who cares?" 

The problem with such parochialism is that suburbia is where most growth is taking place. It's where the future is being forged. And if it can evolve without relying on the cookie-cutter mold of big projects on big plots of land with big roads in between, the entire region will benefit. 

The Rafael Town Center project, in Marin County's largest city, is an example of "smart growth" -- the notion that new housing and jobs should fold back into existing communities. You see the trend in places like San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, where high-density housing is now encouraged near rail transit stations. 

What sets apart Rafael Town Center is the process by which a city wary of growth and heights cleared the way for both to occur. 

The Town Center complex covers nearly an acre on Fourth Street, San Rafael's main drag. Besides the 113 apartments, it includes eight retail spaces and, along Fifth Street, 40,000 square feet of office space. Thirty- eight apartments are reserved for low-income families. 

The site was occupied until 1991 by Macy's. But the land was tied up in a squabble between the department store and the building owner until San Rafael's redevelopment agency stepped in and bought the site for $2 million in 1997. 

"The city could hope for the best, or the city could intervene," explains City Manager Rod Gould. "That land was screaming for something to happen." 

One reason San Rafael could be so bold is that the affluent Marin County city had deep enough pockets. But it also had a plan -- "Our Vision of Downtown," crafted by residents and city officials and adopted in 1993. 

The main thrust was that people wanted a center of town that lived up to its name. Equally important, downtown was the one San Rafael neighborhood where new housing was seen as a plus. 

Among other changes, the plan loosened downtown's three-story height limit, which had been put in place after an outcry over the building of a 104-foot- tall office tower in the late 1960s. That tower sits just one block west of Rafael Town Center. 

The city put "Our Vision" to the test by asking developers to propose large projects for the Macy's site that included housing. It chose Samuelson Schafer, 

a Mill Valley firm that has built three smaller apartment projects in central San Rafael. 

The project didn't come without controversy; public meetings were held to iron out design details, which explains the play-it-safe architecture of the design by Fisher-Friedman Associates of San Francisco and Marin's Daniel McDonald. 

"The citizenry made it clear they wanted something soft," with echoes of nearby Mission San Rafael, says developer Jim Schafer. "They even got down to selecting the colors." 

When the steel went up on the six-story structure, not everyone was prepared for the sight of what "Our Vision" actually meant. 

"It did represent a substantial change, and change comes hard in Marin," Gould concedes. "There were people convinced the developers had snuck in an extra floor." 

Where Rafael Town Center has vertical impact, Walnut Creek's Plaza Escuela makes a horizontal mark by adding five acres to the East Bay's busiest downtown. 

The site was occupied for decades by a hardware store in a squat box surrounded by parking. When the store closed in 1998, the building owner sought to plug the empty space with Andronico's Market and a drugstore. 

Smart business, from his perspective. But the city looked at the map and saw something different: while the property was aligned to the southwest, along California Boulevard, the pedestrian downtown was bursting its seams to the north. One lively street, Locust, actually hit a dead end at the property line. 

The owner wasn't interested when city officials urged him to look north rather than south. So the approval process slowed to a crawl -- and the city hired San Francisco's BCV Architects to map out how the parcel could be redone to let Locust cut through. 

"It all started with the realization that unless we did something, the building would be there for the next 40 years," says Don Blubaugh, Walnut Creek's former city manager. He retired in June after 14 years in the post. "We finally decided to take charge of the project by spending money." 

The result is called Plaza Escuela. Developer Blake Hunt Ventures added a block to Locust and then lined it with 165,000 square feet of mostly retail space, with parking hidden inside each of the two structures. 

The design by Johnson Lyman Architects of Walnut Creek is nothing if not grandiose; the Andronico's at the corner of Locust Street and Olympic Boulevard may be the only supermarket in America announced by a portico and four Doric columns. 

But what's important is how Plaza Escuela redraws the map. Not only does this expand the pedestrian zone, it connects downtown to California Boulevard, where 284 housing units now are being built. With luck, there will be more, especially if Walnut Creek follows San Rafael's lead and allows tall buildings on blocks where extra height wouldn't be overwhelming. 

In essence, Walnut Creek is saying that streets and blocks are still the best way to grow -- just as San Rafael is saying that downtown housing is a priority that deserves extra effort. 

In his new book "The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea," Thomas Bender argues that "the gift of urbanism is thickness, texture . . . the overlapping of activities and uses, the conjuncture of types of people and the multiplicity of purposes." 

Nobody would describe a typical suburb in such terms. If the experiments in places like Walnut Creek and San Rafael mature, perhaps someday they will.


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## datilguy (Jan 18, 2006)

Several Albuquerque suburbs were alreayd established cities or villages with downtowns. But Rio Rancho (the largest suburb) is building one from scratch. Complete with architectural gems such as a new City Hall, a massive Public LIbrary, a $100 Million Arena, and tons of office space and new condos.


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## elkram (Apr 1, 2006)

Now absorbed by the City of Montreal for the past three years, the City of Verdun, an inner-city suburb seems to have had its downtown in its greater-than 100 years' of existence. Triplexes, quadplexes, stores and civic bldgs are found in its blocks and blocks of downtown, whereas its outer areas dwindle down to duplexes, semi-detacheds and detacheds with (gasp!) lawns. (Verdun could've demerged from the City about a year ago, but most Verdunites didn't bother voting in the referendum.)

Cheers,
Chris


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