Also,it seems that a lot of the empty nesters in the area (parents, and parents' friends are who I've talked to), are becoming very nostalgic for the city (many grew up in the city before moving to the burbs). They seem to be driving a lot of the sales in the condos around the Promenade, and their age group make up many of the pedestrians I often see out walking .
I've also been thinking maybe the residents would be open to urban avenues if the idea is sold right (Could the empty nesters be political allies? Hell even if there isn't consensus, no one wanted the Walmart, which was sprung on Thornhilllers by the city council right after an election but it's there). These are all personal observations and could be completely off base for everyone outside my circles. Any thoughts on Urbanizing Thornhill and building in more mixed use streets? Think the population would go for it?
Well, my family would. Many of those I talk to would. Heck, lots of us tried to move to more walkable 416-y areas first but just couldn't afford to raise a family there. If you were to ask how many young families in that area first looked somewhere much further south, especially in the Bathurst St-Clair area, I think you'd be surprised.
That said, there may be a bit of a disconnect between the above two quotes. The empty nesters are largely replaced by an immigrant population -- Israelis, Jewish immigrants from Russia and South Africa and France/North Africa, and the non-Jewish immigrant groups typical of this part of the city (Persians, Koreans, Chinese). They will in many cases be less likely to share the refined tastes of sneering kettals and more likely share the aspirations of his parents' generation. Which doesn't bode well for constituencies.
Still, I don't want to overstate it. The disconnect isn't that great. I've found agreement among many that, hey, walkability is a good idea, once you get them thinking about it. Our parents' generation who built these suburbs really is a different generation, and whereas many of our parents yearned for the suburbs after growing up in inner cities, even those of the current home-buying generation who did grow up in inner cities in other countries abroad seem to be into walkability today. Which is why I think something as simple as having "New Urbanism" columnists in some of the local rolled-up-ad rags, which actually do get read -- Thornhill Post, the Liberal, etc. -- would make a huge difference.
And, yeah, being controlled from Markham and from Vaugham does not help at all. Hence the Walmart.
I agree the lack of a continuous street wall and huge breaks between pedestrian destinations is the big difference between Thornhill and the city. I've read official plans, and they seemed to have wanted to create a street wall all along Centre from Bathurst to Dufferin, but the back lot housing is a big obstacle (same could be said on Clark, New Westminister, Atkinson).I've been thinking my last few times home though, maybe there's a creative way more urban mixed use avenues could be created (buying up backlots? Using Strip Mall parking lots? Apartment/condo greenspaces? I agree with the other poster on the Promenade Parking lot!)
There are so many opportunities, but it seems to me that the problem is they are all held by enormous developers. Take the strip on Clark that includes the Conservatory, York Hill PS (just off Clark), the Sobeys plaza, and the Garnet plaza. For the most part, the Conservatory buildings themselves excepted (and even then, no streetwall), this is all low sprawl on high-value land. I could seriously see creating a downtown kind of public square and walkable retail there, incorporating a new and more vertical rec centre and whole new public school and all of the current retail, with lots of residential, in a way that would likely pay for itself, if all agreed. But to say that it would be challenging to do this and, especially, to get the major commercial developers (and, obviously, Vaughan and YRSB) onboard is the biggest understatement ever. It's frustrating.
Tiny idea: cafe kiosques in parks?