Some ambition and attention to detail in Phoenix suburbs, it seems not bad. But still too many parking lots, not enough sidewalks, but at least they are trying.
Discussion about workplace transit use in suburbs in another thread made me think about what is the main thing holding a suburban downtown from becoming a true downtown: not enough suburban office workers using transit. The suburban office buildings still surrounded by parking, it kills street life. You can see that problem in "real" downtowns like OKC and Little Rock that have virtually no transit as well.
Some suburbs like Mississauga actually have really good transit ridership. The MiWay bus system had 201k boardings per weekday in 2019, almost twice as much as the entire Metro system in St. Louis for example. People misunderstand "TOD". Mississauga actually incorporated TOD measures in many new subdivisions, and you can see it in the high ridership. So what's the problem? The high transit use is not concentrated in one place. The transit service and TOD and riders are not concentrated in the "downtown" that it's trying to build. Instead, transit capacity and ridership is spread evenly all over Mississauga.
So I think that is where the Metro system in St. Louis succeeds where the MiWay system in Mississauga fails, even if MiWay's ridership is much higher. I can also see success of transit in Phoenix based on street view of its downtown, even if ridership not as good as Mississauga. Amount of residents using transit is not what's important, it's the amount of workers using transit that's important.
Hopefully, the Hurontario LRT and 407 Transitway will help change that, get more suburban workers onto transit, not just more suburban residents onto transit. But maybe it will take more to fully get rid of those parking lots surrounding those office buildings, and finally get more office towers constructed instead of just yet more condo towers. Maybe all-day GO Train service and/or Bloor-Danforth Line subway extension as well to make Mississauga City Centre a true downtown. LRT, BRT, commuter rail, subway, regular bus altogether to make a suburban node into a downtown.
Anyways, here was a part of Mississauga's City Centre in 2005. It's obviously a suburban location, isn't it?