The development at Vaughan SmartCentres, er, Metropolitan Centre is fairly minimal – which doesn’t help the existing weak economic case for the Vaughan portion
Gawd you really are the biggest boob on these boards.
As much as your GoogleMaps research is appreciated EVERYONE KNOWS there is hardly any development there right now. There was also hardly any development at Yonge and Finch in 1970 and fairly low level development (compared to what's there now) at Yonge and Empress in 1980.
Did they teach you about time in kindergarten?
Some of the SmartCentres land can't be developed until the subway (and bus terminal) is done though there are already 2 condo towers and one office tower going up (as pictured). I've seen the detailed Smart Centres plan (which isn't as impressive as Langstaff but I know you hate renderings so I won't bother) and it's not bad; with a finder street grid, a mix of uses and heights and all the other things you'd generally want to see. the vast majority of this is not there now, because it is the present, not the future. Aren't you the one who looks at Langstaff and tells me how plans change etc. etc.? Well a decade ago there weren't any plans at all for this area.
If you think KPMG is building an office tower, and the biggest big box developer in the country is doing a mixed-use neighborhood because it's a weak economic case, well I have a case of phone pagers I want to sell you; they beep if someone wants to call you and you're not by a landline. Wave of the future, Northy!
To reiterate: No one disputes Vaughan is building a "downtown from scratch." Your picture supports the existing reality of which we are all aware, so bully for you. (Also, Smart Centres is only about 1/2 the land and the Toromont site isn't even that advanced. They haven't moved out yet; also not a newsflash.)
One would think that with a UGC designation, anti-sprawl legislation, proximity to TO, not to mention the public’s shelling out of almost a Billion Dollars for heavy rail subway infrastructure (that’s supposed to have opened by now) – development in Vaughan would be farther along. Or that we’d at least see something resembling an urban environment.
You continue to demonstrate the most amazingly inept understanding of planning, it blows my mind. The UGC was designated in 2006. The new OP and secondary plan were approved....I forget, 2010-11? The subway wasn't funded until 2008 and won't open until 2017. do you think this is rural China, where cities just spring up overnight? Did you look at the Canadian Tire lands on Sheppard in 2000 and talk about what a bad investment development there would be? Are you actually a bot?
All things considered, I’d say it’s a bad investment.
Right - you know better than Mitch Goldhar. I'm going to DM you offline about those beepers.
I was up there a couple days ago to buy a new roller for a sliding door (because that’s what people do in a thronging high-density metropolitan centre)
I can't decide what's funnier: "thronging" or your idea that big cities don't have "sliding door" stores. But, really, if you don't understand the concept of time, I know a few really good Star Trek episodes. The film, Boyhood is also really good.
- and I wasn’t surprised at the lack of activity, or pedestrians, or anything resembling an area necessitating the costliest of all transportation infrastructure. It’s pretty quiet.
Again, everyone knows this. I was just up there last week and what I find FASCINATING is that you didn't mention the massive construction going on there. The second Expo tower is going up. The KPMG tower is going up. Obviously there is a huge amount of work on the subway and the Viva lanes and the bus terminal. There is also a good half dozen cranes on towers going up over towards Weston. But I guess 30-storey towers at Weston and Highway 7 is just same ol same ol to you. Maybe once they're built you can wrap your head around it because the whole "future development" concept seems to weird you out. Crikey, even your picture shows 4 cranes in this big nowheresville where the subway hasn't even opened yet. You think there will be LESS development after or that maybe the massive parking lot and empty fields around Wal-Mart will get more of the same?
Right, hope. That about says it all. Ignore the past, present, ample evidence...just rely on "hope" and a seemingly perpetual state of disconnection.
Hey man, it's better than ignoring reality, which seems to be your area of expertise.