RC8
Senior Member
You don't have to convince me of that lifestyle. I went from living on Blue Jays way before condos were so 'hip' to facing Trinity-Bellwoods Park to Riverdale. I just think it's a little pompous for people to discount a completely different way of life. I don't think people 'plan' on commuting, but you just get more 'bang' for your buck. Wait until you have other dependants... being single in a bachelor pad is very different than raising childern and needing more space.
When a 'completely different way of life' is environmentally unsustainable, socially segregating, and fails to deliver adequate levels of well-being and happiness while requiring enormous amounts of government subsidies... it should be criticised.
It's not as if our big box suburbs happened organically because communities or the market dictated them - they were designed and master-planned to a much greater extent than denser urban areas. They are the ugly dysfunctional marriage of corporate interests and a socialist framework that is used to support centralised franchises over people's needs. When the parts of the city that were purposely designed to have the best traffic flow are the most gridlocked, you know it's not just a 'different' type of place, it's a poorly designed type of place.