Comparing Oakville to New York City's Suburbs and cities...
I was just about to log in and say White Plains is NYC's equivalent of Oakville, at least in terms of general appearance and income bracket.
New York suburbs tend to be soulless culture-free zones with no diversity or architectural interest to speak of, so there's that to consider.
LM: What makes White Plains interesting is that it has become a decent-sized city in its own right with a substantial Downtown area that is well
served by Metro-North's Harlem line and Westchester County's Bee-Line Bus system...
I have found that older established suburban areas have much more character then newer Sprawl areas built since the early 1980s being good
examples...From what I have seen older suburbs that are close in to cities like New York are much better than the most bland examples such
as Chicago's outer suburban ring and Denver,Colorado's outer suburbs (primarily E in the "grasslands") which is just car-dependent sprawl...
WKL: I agree with you about New Jersey's close-in cities - For example Hudson County's largest cities (Bayonne,Jersey City,Hoboken,Union City)
have more in common with Manhattan across the Hudson River then much of Staten Island actually does...HC could almost be a sixth NYC Borough...
E: I am familiar with Levittown being that I have relatives that lived there for many years and it always amazes me when you see pictures from
the late 40s and 50s era when it was new compared to today to see changes like the foliage...Much of what was eastern Nassau County's now
established suburbs was farmland until after WW2 and it was built on what was known as the "Hempstead Plains"...
Doady: The Rustbelt/Snowbelt sprawl of the past 30-35 or so years is definitely different then what was built from the mid 70s on back before...
The newer areas are much more of car-dependent sprawl then the older areas...For example Nassau County's NICE Bus service is much more
heavily used then Suffolk County Transit is...but I agree that Canada has more transit use then comparable US suburban areas do...
LI MIKE