3 ms·

Montreal's urban planning is seriously underrated. The city has a winning formula of medium-density walk-ups with lots of parks and commercial mixed in, and the

Montreal's urban planning is seriously underrated. The city has a winning formula of medium-density walk-ups with lots of parks and commercial mixed in, and the formula is replicated over and over to create a huge, highly-liveable area with tons of interesting and beautiful neighbourhoods. Montreal affordably houses 1.6 million people in a fairly modest footprint without ever feeling crowded. Contrast with Vancouver, where land is overwhelmingly allocated to large, residential-only neighbourhoods of tightly-packed single-family dwellings with a starting price of $1.5 million. These neighbourhoods are often beautiful, tree-lined utopias with lovely heritage homes, but they are walking distance from nowhere and can't effectively house the city's growing population. And you can bet that the people who live in them furiously oppose any change to that status quo.

IkmoIkmo 10y ago
Agreed, I studied in Montreal for half a year. Was amazed to find a cheap room, cheaper than back home in Europe, in a prime location in a similarly awesome city. Price of groceries really hit me though haha, but Montreal's living arrangements felt incredibly balanced, and that's a really hard thing to pull off.
graeme 10y ago
I think a key to our success is that almost all the areas you describe were built before cars. Montreal was once the biggest city in Canada, then declined. So we have a large amount of housing/commericial stock when neighbourhoods were mixed used and designed for walking. I'm actually not sure you could build Montreal again in Montreal. (I mean, I really don't know what regulations are like for new neighbourhoods)