From The National Post, originally published on Thursday, July 27, 2006
By Sherry Noik-Bent
They call it an Urbantopia: A place where people take precedence over cars, where the buildings complement rather than destroy the environment, and where work blends seamlessly with play.
Here, a typical day might include leaving your super-energy-efficient condo to cycle through a linked park system on the way to the office, a lunch-hour stop at the farmers' market in the square, followed by a quick bite at a sidewalk cafe, then early-evening shopping at brand-name stores and a live music performance at your choice of nightclubs.
Welcome to Markham, circa 2016.
The $3-billion, mixed-used Downtown Markham development will be the legacy of outgoing mayor Don Cousens, who, for the past 12 years, has steered this booming technoburb away from urban sprawl and toward truly sustainable development.
So much so that in 2003 the venerable alternative U.S. magazine, Utne, named Markham as the only
Canadian community in its top 10 list of "most enlightened suburbs."
"Municipal officials in Markham have embraced New Urbanism more sincerely than almost anywhere
else, working hard to instill a vibrant, bustling feeling to new developments," wrote Peter Katz and Jay
Walljasper at the time. So, you have a region of four separate towns -- Thornhill, Unionville, Milliken and Old Markham -- and the chance to create a city centre from scratch. Where to begin?
"The biggest thing of all is that we just didn't need another subdivision," says Mayor Cousens. "We really had to have a fresh approach to what this community is all about and combine the live/work relationship in a way that makes good sense."
The result is sort of Silicon Valley meets Kensington High Street meets the Piazza San Marco meets Fifth Avenue, right in our own 905 backyard, within a 160-hectare area bounded by Warden Avenue, Kennedy Road and Highways 7 and 407.
