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US cities vs. Canadian cities generalization

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Ahhh, classic Mike.

Except that your analysis excludes one thing. The core is NOT in decline. Yes the suburbs are, gasp, developing their own support systems and turning into 'places', but not at the expense of downtown.

Canadian cities are a reflection of Canadian society more so than the inverse. If Canadian cities one day find themselves resembling Detroit, Las Vegas or Los Angeles, then it will not likely have come from the fact that we let those perky suburbs 'win', but probably from a far more disturbing and damning break down of society.

Edit: And if you think todays suburban development is a threat to the core of Canadian cities, just wait until the modern Canadian aerotropolis develops! If your not sure what I am talking about, read this article to find out more. If you think Mississauga is a threat to Toronto now, just wait Mike. Soon they will have the sexy, curvy towers and the power!
 
Antiloop33rpm: very interesting article on the Aerotropolis trend. I'm one of those "nerds" inhabiting the nerd birds. My office currently is downtown, but seldom do I go to it, and when I do, there are few people there - most are out on the road or telecommuting from home (as I am today). Many of the other companies in my industry are located outside of downtown, either by the airport or up in Markham.

As for the differences between Canadian and American cities, I actually think the difference is between east coast, mid-west, western and west-coast cities. Toronto is similar to Chicago and St. Louis. Denver is similar to Calgary. Montreal has more in common with Boston than Toronto. Vancouver, Portland and Seattle are more alike than anything to the east of them.
 
I've just dragged out my "Canadian Cities in Transition" (2nd ed., 2000) textbook, and let's see what differences I can find in the essay "Canadian Cities in Continental Context" by Mercer and England...

Population and Household Change

"For the 1981-91 decade there are no Canadian cases where both the central city and the overall metropolitan region lost population... In stark contrast the US system has 39 cases (out of 230- almost one-fifth) where the entire metropolitan area, as well as its central city, lost population. (Buffalo, Detroit, New Orleans, Flint, Akron)" (p. 57)

"...an important difference between Canada and the US... is that households in Canadian central cities are much more likely to house families with children." (p. 59)

"... population data for the first half of the 1990s do indicate some convergence between Canadian and US metropolitan regions for this period." (p. 59)

Urban Transportation

"While Canadians have been greater users of public transportation than Americans, negotiating the low density suburbs and urban fringe makes the automobile particularly attractive and mass transit particularly costly in both countries." (p. 59)

"Canadian commuters were significantly less likely to use automobiles in the daily commute (about two-thirds compared to 85 percent for Americans). Although it has narrowed, that difference persists into the 1990s" (p. 59)

"Canadians are also far less reliant upon expressway systems as there is much less expressway capacity in metropolitan Canada than in metropolitan America." (p. 59)

"In a ranking of North American metropolitan areas using 1993-5 per capita public transit trips... Canadian CMAs occupied eight of the first 10 ranks and 12 of the top 20." (p. 59)

Housing

"Canadians do not have access to the various tax advantages provided to Americans to promote home-ownership." (p. 61-2)

"The generally lower proportion of single family units in Canadian metropolitan housing stock... suggest(s) a more compact and less dispersed form in Canadian cities" (p. 62)

"For 1990/1, the single detached unit accounts for 61 percent of all housing units in metropolitan America and 55 percent in Canadian areas. The typically higher percentages for the US are also found in central cities... There is, however, a striking reversal in the outer city, where the US average is 68 percent and for Canada 74 percent." (p. 62)

"While there has been increased concern about crime in Canadian metropolitan regions, even in their suburban parts, defended or gated communities are far less common." (p. 62)

"... suburban life in the US stands close to the core of the national vision but... suburbs in Canada and Britain do not embody the nation in the same way" (p. 62)

Planning and Local Government Fragmentation

"Canadian urban and regional planning has a more wide-ranging and acceptable role than is the case in the United States." (p. 63)

"While (local government) fragmentation occurs in numerous Canadian areas... the Canadian level remains much lower than the US level. Within fragmented metropolitan regions, the central city is commonly portrayed as the loser in the struggle for investments, taxable property, residents, and higher government fiscal transfers. While this is much more a characteristic US urban problem, in Canada's few largest metropolitan areas this scenario is becoming increasingly fitting." (p. 63)
 
I think the biggest difference between Canadian and US cities comes down to one word: race.
 
"Canadians do not have access to the various tax advantages provided to Americans to promote home-ownership." (p. 61-2)
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This is a huge thing. Many of the Americans I work with will buy homes because of the ability to write off the interest payments against they income. You can buy a place and turn around and sell it in a couple of years down there without worrying about if it appreciated too much, because you'll still be ahead on the money you saved on taxes.

Another point there about density - I remember I worked on a project in Toronto with a bunch of Americans. They said they were amazed at the number of high rise residential buildings in Toronto (this was in 1997).

And I remember reading a stat somewhere that Toronto had one of the highest (if not the highest) number of "high-rise" (which I think they defined as 12+ storey buildings) in North America. I think I read it in Christopher Hume article last year, but can't find it right now.

edited: found a reference to it in Eye magazine.

"According to real-estate researchers Emporis, Toronto has more high-rise buildings -- defined as 12 storeys or greater -- than any other North American city except New York."
www.eye.net/eye/issue/iss...ondos.html
 
Re: Antiloop's Ottawa example. I'd never seen that plan before, thanks for sharing it. Hurdman is terribly disconnected from the rest of the city, and that area hasn't turned out well.

Ironically, though, Ottawa is an exception to what you've stated, because of the Jacques Greber plan developed in the 1930's and carried out over several years, rather remarkably close to his original version. Elements of the plan included the riverside and canalside parkways, removal of the railway tracks beside the canal and their replacement with pathways, and the changes made to Parliament Hill. They also cleared out LeBreton Flats in the 1960's to fulfill part of the plan, then left it vacant until, well, essentially last year.
 
Archivist: Your right. Not only that but I could not have been more wrong using Ottawa as an example. The NCC is probably one of the best examples of large scale planning in a Canadian city. Slight error on my part.
 
And I remember reading a stat somewhere that Toronto had one of the highest (if not the highest) number of "high-rise" (which I think they defined as 12+ storey buildings) in North America. I think I read it in Christopher Hume article last year, but can't find it right now.
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Interesting...yet Hume can't stop ranting about how scared of heights we are here in Toronto.
 
Being cheap in the 1950s and 1960s saved us. We didn't ram expressways through our city centres simply because we didn't spend the money. The impetus to create the Scarborough or Spadina expressways was certainly there.

Race is no less of a problem in the poor neighbourhoods of Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina or Edmonton where natives live in equally appaling ghettoes to the ones we see in the States. Actually, aboriginals in Canada have it even worse than blacks in America. They have the option of leaving gulag-like conditions on reserves to migrate to join a growing urban underclass in the cities. There are black middle class communities and blacks in influential positions in the US. The same can't be said about natives in Canada.
 
Yes, aboriginals in Canada are poor and segregated but the cast majority of them live in rural areas, not in cities. That is a major difference between US and Canadian cities. Racial segregation is limited in Canadian cities, and poverty is concentrated in rural areas and small urban areas while in the US it is concentrated in large urban areas. In Los Angeles for example, there is extreme segreation between whites, blacks, hispanics, and Asians that is non-existant in Toronto. also, the Canadian cities tend to be wealth whiel in US they tend to be poor. The distribution of race and poverty are definately the biggest differences between American and Canadian cities.

Another difference is that Canadian suburbs are also much denser, with a lot more multiple unit housing developments instead of single-family homes. According to Emporis, of all the cities in North America, Toronto ranks 2nd in terms of the most high-rises in North America, thanks in part to the huge amount of high-rises in its suburban areas. Mississauga also ranks 19th on the list, ahead of major American cities such as Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, etc.

American cities also have much fragmented municipal structure, lots of small municipalities while in Canada there are fewer municipalities because they are much larger and there are more regional governments. There are like 26 municipalites in Toronto CMA, but thousands in Chicago.

Transit another big difference. The rate of tranist use in Canada is 2.5 times higher than in the US. If you compare the percentage of workers using transit in metropolitan areas of Canada and the US, Canadian cities clearly dominate the list. For example, Winnipeg, a small city with no rail transit system, has a higher level of transit ridership than much larger American cities with large subway systems like Chicago and Washington, DC.

New York 24.9%
Toronto 22.4
Montreal 21.7
Ottawa-Gatineau 18.5
Winnipeg 14.2
Calgary 13.1
Chicago 11.5
Vancouver 11.5
Halifax 9.9
Quebec 9.8
Victoria 9.7
San Francisco 9.5
Washington-Baltimore 9.4
Boston 9.0
Philadelphia 8.7
Edmonton 8.6
Hamilton 7.9
Oshawa 7.1
Seattle 6.8
Pittsburgh 6.2
London 6.0
Portland 5.7
Los Angeles 4.7
Minneapolis-St. Paul 4.6
Regina 4.4
 
Alch:

Being cheap in the 1950s and 1960s saved us. We didn't ram expressways through our city centres simply because we didn't spend the money. The impetus to create the Scarborough or Spadina expressways was certainly there.
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And also conservative on the matters of urban renewal - we're 10 years behind the US when it comes to implementation of such schemes.

AoD
 
The NCC is probably one of the best examples of large scale planning in a Canadian city.
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And probably one of the most loved/hated organizations in that city.
 
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