North American cities haven’t been the pinnacle of urban design. They have been plagued with a virus that warps policies and planning, making it so that hiding in your home is the preferred state.
People who live in the Americas love to visit Europe. Somehow we can’t quite put our finger on what makes European cities great. We think it’s probably due to the fact that we are on vacation and surrounded by old buildings and beautiful people. But it is something much more specific.
The virus I refer to above is the automobile. When cities are shaped around the car, they become parking lots. When they are designed for people, they become an oasis. That is what much of Europe has gotten right (and no, they weren’t always a pedestrian’s paradise).
Toronto is the focal point of this article with a focus on the city centre. Toronto, with its density and mixed-use neighbourhoods, could be one of the great cities of the world with a few changes to who the city is designed for. I’ll mainly cover the downtown core, but the suburbs of Scarborough, Mississauga, Etobicoke, and North York have hope as well — they just have a lot further to go. They would be better off if they stopped calling themselves Toronto as well, but that’s another can of snakes.
