Weekend 905 exploration led to Cornell, the New Urbanism development in Markham, planned by Andrés Duany — the man behind Celebration and Seaside Florida — and instigated by the NDP provicial governement in the early 1990s.
Markham, in general, is much more dense than it’s given credit and New Urbanism ideals seem to have spread through many other non-Cornell neighbourhoods. That is to say, it looks more like Toronto’s Annex than not. It doesn’t function the same way though — the main retail strips haven’t developed much, and are either not retail, as above, or dominated by health care services. If there was a bar, we’d have sat in it, but there wasn’t. Still, a work in progress, as adjacent land nearby is still being developed, so more people are coming. We’ll check back in 10, then 20, years. We noticed that while the development is only 15 or so years old, some of the poor quality materials are not aging well. Rusting metal gingerbread. For now, it has a Truman Show quality to it and worth a visit if nearby.
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There are probably some “illegal” hair dressers and auto mechanics going on that is not very visible for outsiders.
Pretty sprawl
The “non-retail” ironically resembles a lot of older disconcertingly dormant retail strips–like, say, Dundas along the RR tracks btw/Wallace and Dupont, awaiting whatever retail spawn of Hula Girl to reclaim them from the dead.
(Oh, and one thing that makes Cornell and its spawn different from the Annex, and all the closer to the Truman Show: uninspired-to-nonexistent household greenery. Which may also be a bit of an “immigrant/non-Western values” thing at this point, i.e. new buyers prizing raw household space over Western-style garden settings, etc. And if that observation comes through ignorantly uninformed, please excuse me.)
Adam> Disagree about the greenery, it was actually quite lush on the the sidestreets. Mature trees.
Scanning over the neighbourhood on Google, I think one thing which is holding it back is too much single use. Despite going for the New Urbanism title, the area consists of 99% residential, with a few mixed use sections scattered in almost randomly. If the area was built with a larger core consisting of buildings similar to the one in the picture above, with the medium density residential near the peripheries, I think the area could be much more vibrant.
Perhaps when the area is fully constructed, it will achieve the vision it is going for. Right now, I hate to say it, but it is just lipstick on a pig.
lipstick on a pig indeed. So the magic of older downtown neighbourhood is just some of the build form features? Like if you put garage on the back you magically get a vibrant neighbourhood. But of course we cannot part with suburban “amenities”, 4 lanes of traffic, check; extra parking lanes, check; grass besides sidewalk, check; large bare parks, check… Well, there is not nearly enough density, and certainly not the mix use that makes walking/cycling useful. Most residents are probably still relying on cars for nearly everything. I am not optimistic about the area, even when it is “fully constructed”. Adding more single family dwellings is not going to transform it. I can picture residents ganging up against any midrise mix-use development that might give it a chance.
Not that Markham is not going to develop some dense, walkable neighbourhood, but I won’t bet on Cornell.