Past, present and future revitalization trends in Canadian mid‐size city downtowns

Abstract

The article is a critical review of the literature investigating the impact suburbanization has had since the mid‐20th century on the downtowns of Canadian mid‐size cities and the strategies deployed to revitalize these districts. It demonstrates that large city downtowns are more likely than their mid‐size city counterparts to enjoy conditions favourable to their success, hence the need to devise revitalization efforts tailored to the reality of mid‐size city downtowns. The article identifies revitalization strategies adopted over the last decades, which mostly failed to reverse the decline affecting these downtowns. It then concentrates on the present, and likely enduring, revitalization model, which emphasizes hospitality, recreation, culture, services, and walkability. The article refines the understanding of the differences between mid‐size and large city downtowns by concentrating on their specific dynamics and explores future revitalization options for mid‐size city downtowns. It discusses the present and likely enduring absence of alternatives to the present revitalization model and highlights its equity downsides as it challenges the downtown low‐income resident living environment.

Revisiting small and mid‐sized cities in Canada: Old questions, new challenges*

“…Two contributions to the section focus on the issue of urban revitalization in mid-sized Canadian city downtowns. Filion (2023) surveys the literature on the revitalization of mid-sized downtowns, arguing that mid-sized cities cannot be understood as "merely small versions" of big cities because they lack the density, accessibility, concentration, diversity of activities, and synergy that enable the downtowns of larger Canadian cities to thrive. To address these challenges, many mid-sized cities in Canada have attempted to generate a competitive advantage by developing districts focused on services and by "emulating" higher performing mid-sized cities like Halifax and Victoria.…”

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Small and mid-sized cities (SMCs) are increasingly where people in Canada "live, work, and play" (Statistics Canada, 2022, 2023. In 2021, for example, eight of the top ten fastest growing Canadian census metropolitan areas were mid-sized cities-including Kelowna, Halifax, Guelph, and Moncton (Statistics Canada, 2021).

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“…province of similar population size, for example the cities of Kingston and Sudbury in Ontario (Filion, 2023). Numeric definitions also generally ignore how "smallness is bound up with particular ways of acting, self-images, structures of feeling, senses of place, aspirations" (Bell & Jayne, 2009, p. 690).…”

“…There is a growing recognition that SMCs serve as repositories of innovation in urban theory and policy, offering distinct contexts for technology, culture, creativity, and collaboration, and potentially holding the key to Canada's collective well-being (e.g., Flatt, 2018; SDG Cities, 2021). SMCs, however, grapple with the global forces which channel resources to larger cities (Barber et al, 2023;Filion, 2023;Grant et al, 2019). "Slow growth," "shrinking," "less favoured," "peripheral," "intermediate," and "second tier" or "third tier" are all terms reflecting Canada's diverse urban geographies and are fundamentally about the broader socio-spatial and power relationships that disadvantage SMCs (e.g., Hall & Hall, 2008;Hartt, 2021).…”