How Cities Are Rebuilding Neighborhoods Around People, Not Cars
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📰 The quick summary: Cities like Montreal are moving away from car-dependent suburban development toward walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that bring housing, shops, parks, and community spaces closer together.
📈 One key stat: Montreal’s Namur-Hippodrome project required a 10-year consultation and planning process, illustrating how complex urban infill development can be compared to building on the outskirts of a city.
💬 One key quote: “It’s clear there’s been a shift in thinking about what makes a neighbourhood desirable.”
1️⃣ The big picture: For decades after World War II, North American cities were built around the car, with low-density suburbs that kept housing, shops, and workplaces far apart. Critics began pushing back on this model as early as the late 1970s, pointing to sedentary lifestyles, social fragmentation, and environmental costs. By the 1980s, urban planners launched the New Urbanism movement, advocating for compact, walkable, and mixed-use neighborhoods. Today, cities like Montreal are putting those principles into practice, with multiple large developments emphasizing walkability, transit access, public spaces, and community amenities. Federal and municipal governments are now actively supporting higher urban density by rolling back restrictive zoning rules and offering direct funding to municipalities that encourage infill development.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: Neighborhoods designed around walkability and mixed-use zoning give you easier access to daily needs like groceries, schools, and community centers without relying on a car. Bringing housing closer to transit, shops, and green spaces encourages more social interaction and a stronger sense of community. Developing underused land within existing cities also makes better use of infrastructure that is already in place, reducing the sprawl that eats into farmland and drives up costs for roads and sewers. Projects like Montreal’s Esplanade-Cartier, which features a community rooftop garden and a pedestrian street, show that new developments can actively support urban agriculture and greener city living. This shift in urban planning thinking has the potential to make cities healthier, more affordable, and more resilient for future generations.
3️⃣ What’s next: Several large urban redevelopment projects, including Montreal’s Namur-Hippodrome and Ottawa’s Lebreton Flats, are still working through planning and funding processes. Governments at multiple levels will need to keep aligning on infrastructure investment so developers are not left bearing costs alone. As more cities adopt New Urbanism principles, sharing lessons from complex infill projects will be key to scaling up this approach across North America.
Read the full story here: The Conversation – Neighbourhoods are changing as cities prioritize diversity, connectivity and livability
