Small Cities That Offer a Good Urban Experience.

[Razor]

I feel that the common denominator for all of these smaller places having some urban mojo is them being a bit touristy and historical..I'm going to throw my hat in the ring for both Brockville and Kingston..Both have nice downtowns with cool little pubs, mom and pop shops and lots of stonework..I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Princess Street in Kingston and downtown Brockville the few times we were there. Lots of local and out of town residents were milling about, and I liked the vibes I was getting from both cities. Both cities have a strong identity.

Others?

[Truenorth00]

Define "small".

[niwell]

I'll go ahead and be the first to mention Stratford, ON here. It really does have a lot going for it, and I had a great time visiting a friend who's been staying there for much of COVID last summer. Great stock of buildings, very walkable and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of bars and restaurants we went to (though couldn't get into Mercer Kitchen which I really wanted to try). He did mention that downtown has definitely suffered over the pandemic and especially the last winter, but I don't know enough to corroborate that.

[SignalHillHiker]

I know it’s only one street but the backside of Paris, Ontario’s main drag right along that river would be a dream life for me if there was more city beyond.

[hipster duck]

There are small cities that offer a fun existence or a bohemian lifestyle, but an “urban experience” is the experience one gets in a big city.

I’m talking about things like being able to lead a middle class adult lifestyle without owning a car and the experience of everyone living in dense, multi family housing and the way they begin to treat public space and approach life. Things like the diversity of products you can buy is less of a marker of an urban experience in a world of online shopping.

So, the smallest city with an “urban experience” looks like St. John’s. It has that sort of dense rowhouse culture and walkable core, although it I lived there I’d probably want a car.

[Robertpuant]

The 3 pretties: Quebec city, Halifax, Victoria

[Dengler Avenue]

Quebec City can’t be considered small. It’s even got suburbs (and by suburbs I mean Lévis and Shannon and the likes.)
=====
What about Rivière-du-Loup or Edmundston?
Admittedly I’ve only driven by the former and stopped at the latter once.

[Coldrsx]

Banff
Lethbridge
Camrose
Goderich

[Peggerino]

I always thought a lot of the small towns in Quebec were really pleasant, like Riviere du loup, Shawinigan, Magog, Sherbrooke, and Saguenay. In MB, I guess Stonewall, Gimli and Dauphin would be my favourite small towns but I still would never live there no matter the job prospects.

Cool idea for a thread though. I've always kind of wondered about those mid-size Ontario cities which don't seem mentioned on here a whole lot like Kingston, Cornwall, Peterborough, Brantford. I'd think there's tons of population growth there right now but don't hear any news about developments.

[kool maudit]

The glorious "Med cheat" rides again (Trani, Apulia, pop. 52,000):









But why must I do this? It's because this is easy. This whole thing is so easy: you build things very close together. They don't need to be anything, they could be modular container homes, but you build them close together.

Whether its Griffintown, the Toronto port lands, small towns -- we could do it. But we don't.

[MonkeyRonin]

My honest answer: we don't really have any. There are lots of quaint, attractive, and pleasant small towns across the country, but they don't really offer a substantive, satisfying approximation of urbanity-in-miniature in the way that say, the Italian town above does.

It's just the way our towns are set up. There's usually a single, linear commercial corridor that gives the impression of urbanity, but it too quickly peters out into low-density, semi-rural residential at the margins to be conducive to a tangibly urban lifestyle. Like, this would be really impressive if it were one of several streets that looked the same: https://goo.gl/maps/bbADQJNtooAy6HKT8. But turn any corner and it becomes this: https://goo.gl/maps/dUMBgyZRkedh56Ha7. Nice, but not urban.

St. John's was mentioned above - I'd agree that that's probably about as small as you can go in Canada while still getting a real, comprehensive urban experience. You could maybe stretch it a little smaller to cities like Kingston, Trois-Riviers, or Saint John, but at even that point you're starting to have to make some concessions.

[csbvan]

Do Victoria and Halifax fit into this metric? If so, then those 2. If not, then not really sure.

[Innsertnamehere]

I always liked Kingston for it's size.

Hamilton and Halifax have good sized cores, but are more so mid-sized cities. Hamilton specifically has a diversity of urban neighbourhoods, a good sized central core, and strong transit service that you typically don't see in cities that small.

For sub 200k cities though, that's where you hit issues. Cities like Kingston, Stratford, St. John's, Saint John have good sized downtown areas with urban neighbourhoods stretching out for their size, but nothing crazy.

One town I always found sort of interesting is actually Tilsonburg, ON. It's your typical mid sized town, but what's interesting is that they have managed to retain the majority of their retail centre in the downtown core. it's still in your typical big box format, with lots of surface parking, but a lot of people just park in one spot and walk between stores as they are so close. There really isn't an "edge of town" strip of commercial. The Walmart, Canadian Tire, Metro Grocery Store, Kelsey's restaurant, etc. is all right in the downtown, which makes it surprisingly walkable.

Compare that to Simcoe down Highway 3, which has a very large core for a small town, but all the life has been sucked out to the strip along the highway.

Another one is Sarnia, which has a surprisingly large skyline for a town of about 40k. The town as a whole isn't the most urban place ever, but the highrises bring a good amount of density to the core and it has some fairly healthy retail.

[kool maudit]

Lunenburg is one of best, smallest models.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Define "small".

I should of set up the upper parameter. I would say St. Johns and under..So 225k and under. (+/-)

[Denscity]

Next door neighbour Nelson or too small?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Razor

I should of set up the upper parameter. I would say St. Johns and under..So 225k and under. (+/-)

6 digits for population? That’s quite generous.

[Ozy_Flame]

I'm giving a second vote to Lunenburg, that place is right out of a postcard and a great grid of main street shops.

As I know Alberta well, I will say I enjoy Hinton. Less of the urban experience (it's a logging city), but is right at the gates of Jasper National Park and the mountains. Some great little restaurants and breweries along the Yellowhead, and a fantastic base camp for hiking, trails, mountain biking, bouldering and outdoor pursuits. Plus the Beaver Boardwalk is the world's longest freshwater boardwalk and a stunning hike for families:

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Lunenburg is one of best, smallest models.

I would actually agree with this. I don't know if I'd call it "urban," exactly, but just what a small town should be like (highly walkable, most amenities available on foot, compact residential and commercial core, etc.)

Kingston was mentioned, and I might Charlottetown into the mix as a comparable:

- Walkable.

- Healthy downtown with lots of residential at reasonable density

- Greater richness in culture and amenities than would be found in most communities of its size

- Doesn't sprawl too badly

- Even has a transit system (albeit a very mediocre one)

[JHikka]

Saint John takes this pretty easily i'd imagine.


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