All the transit and sidewalks are accessible; there are cute little grocery stores and bookshops and cafes within a short walk of every apartment tower; healthcare is universal and social services are easy to access.
IN every apartment tower. The number of apartment buildings I still see being built without commercial space on the ground floor (and, ideally, a couple of floors of offices) astounds me.
I moved to Amsterdam almost exactly a year and a half ago and you’re pretty much describing it. It feels like living in the future but also the past since you go to the market and pay the butcher with your phone.
To be fair, we DID get that vision of the future from a certain subset of sci fi...
Cyberpunk Dystopia. But it called them arcologies and made them sealed shells controlled by corporations...
And security provided by the government ensures diversity, by allowing landlords to accept and support local culture in the shops cafes restaurants galleries spaces.
Montreal is getting there. Since the pandemic the city has built more protected bike lanes and a new rail line. More coming montreal.citynews.ca/2024/06/11/m...
Toronto got pretty close to this if you squint, but all bets are off now, between the neolibs and the reactionaries, we're treading water in a Canada Goose jacket
You've just described Quebec City. ;) I moved here from the States (by way of Toronto), and it's pretty much perfect here. (The 15% sales tax covers *a lot* of social programs!)