[jonray]

Hmmm.... wondering what people's thoughts on this area are? Do you think it will get severely congested over time? Will the builders vision of this "downtown markham" be completed one day? Anyone know how the townhouses are (through personal experience, know someone who lives there, etc...)?

Being a student from Markham, I hope for this to become a dense city centre, simply because a lot of the youth are in need of better meeting spots. For students living on the northern and eastern parts of markham they are truly suburban kids. They often feel disconnected from toronto, and they are not used to the subway they feel much more isolated, and hang out in malls. Students living near the western sides or in southern thornhill and even neighbouring richmond hill seem to live with slightly more urbanity. They are accustomed to transit and often go downtown (due to the proximity to the yonge line). However what i find common between youth these days is their lack of faith with canadian development. Some youths who have roots in Hong Kong or China (and to a lesser extend the rest of asia) think that Canada is "boring" and they often joke that things will take forever to make. They find our subway to be dissapointing, when compared to the subway systems in asia.

The reason why this all matters is because they dont look forward to downtown markham because they just know it will take a long time to be completed. I wish someone from my generation could become a city planner.

Personally i think the townhouses were a bad idea because now it just prevents the possibility for a real "downtown". I don't really care about height in Markham but the density factor is sacrificed.

 

[roamingmonkeys]

The townhouses seem to be off on its own corner so it's sort of isolated. I personally don't see how everything planned will be built. Where is the money coming from? If the builder jumps ship halfway, wouldn't the residential area there suffer a lot?

 

[canarob]

The townhouses seem to be off on its own corner so it's sort of isolated. I personally don't see how everything planned will be built. Where is the money coming from? If the builder jumps ship halfway, wouldn't the residential area there suffer a lot?

The residential portions seem to be selling well and at decent prices, so I don't see the developer bailing. They've owned this land for a long time and have very deep pockets (the Remington Group), so even if real estate tanks for a few years, they could easily wait it out. Where we have seen some changes to the vision is a decrease in planned office space and an increase in planned retail.

Being a student from Markham, I hope for this to become a dense city centre, simply because a lot of the youth are in need of better meeting spots. For students living on the northern and eastern parts of markham they are truly suburban kids. They often feel disconnected from toronto, and they are not used to the subway they feel much more isolated, and hang out in malls. Students living near the western sides or in southern thornhill and even neighbouring richmond hill seem to live with slightly more urbanity.

The kids in the east have better access to GO though. This is just based on the number of young people I see on the GO bus heading downtown on the weekend.

 

[jonray]

The kids in the east have better access to GO though. This is just based on the number of young people I see on the GO bus heading downtown on the weekend.

That's true but I think it's a bit out of the budget and convenience for most teenagers to go downtown. In those cases their only contact with the city is being driven by parents. I usually take viva purple and the comments from people my age think it is kind of awkward that a detour on enterprise drive is taken especially since the developments are done yet. Also a thought not limited to students, it's hard to tell what downtown markham wants to be. So far the dedicated viva lanes and the mediocre condos are hard to paint a picture. Personally if they aim to be a central hub for markham I think townhouses ruin the street presence. So far downtown markham seems to be a couple of condos and units that are all condensely located, but if there is nothing interesting in this neighborhood what will be it's use? Other than viva and go, transit isn't particularly widespread either.

 

[taal]

It has long term potential ... over 1 million square feet of retail in the area ... offices as well, which help to make such areas more active during the week.

In the soon future will be the large ciniplex complex so you'll get that. Several parks as well.


It's very similar to the east bayfront / west donlands in this regard, its all about future potential, not what exist today.

 

[wilson_wu]

That's true but I think it's a bit out of the budget and convenience for most teenagers to go downtown. In those cases their only contact with the city is being driven by parents. I usually take viva purple and the comments from people my age think it is kind of awkward that a detour on enterprise drive is taken especially since the developments are done yet. Also a thought not limited to students, it's hard to tell what downtown markham wants to be. So far the dedicated viva lanes and the mediocre condos are hard to paint a picture. Personally if they aim to be a central hub for markham I think townhouses ruin the street presence. So far downtown markham seems to be a couple of condos and units that are all condensely located, but if there is nothing interesting in this neighborhood what will be it's use? Other than viva and go, transit isn't particularly widespread either.

Of course there's nothing there. Didn't the project just start 2-3 years ago? A project of this scope will take 20+ years. But I do agree with your comments that youth in Markham seem isolated and sheltered. When I moved to Markham, many of them had never been on the subway and/or rarely gone downtown for entertainment.

As for Downtown Markham, a Cineplex Odeon will be going in over the next year, that's a popular entertainment destination for youth. I'm assuming the visably aging and tiny cineplex down the street at First Markham Place will be closing once the one at Enterprise/Birchmount opens.