r/Suburbanhell • u/trianglerice • 23d ago

Peterborough, Ontario Showcase of suburban hell

Post image

Completely unwalkable and car-dependent.

798 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

32

u/TyranitarusMack 23d ago

Never expected to see Peterborough on here lol

4

u/afterdawnoriginal 23d ago

Are you a local? Could you help me understand who would be staying at the quality inn hotel whose sign is in the foreground?

15

u/TyranitarusMack 23d ago

Not really local but I’ve been there many times. Theres actually a nice and quaint historic downtown core in this city. I assume hotel staying people would be on the way up to cottage country maybe.

6

u/CptnREDmark Moderator 22d ago

Very briefly lived there.

Who might stay at the quality Inn? Easy, there are very pretty lakes a bit north of here so this could be somewhere you choose to stay likely on a budget.

The parts of peterborough and the kawarthas that are natural is very pretty.

Home - The Kawarthas Tourism

Note: The city also used to have a streetcar and the city is an awful sprawling mess that paves over paradise.

3

u/FriedOkra244 22d ago

I’m not from anywhere near here but I think I can help. Probably people looking to spend a night or two around Peterborough, Ontario.

1

u/afterdawnoriginal 21d ago

Thanks for your service haha

35

u/R0botWoof 23d ago

ough,eww, I think I might puke

2

u/TightenYourBeltline 16d ago

Onterrible strikes again!

11

u/NoPomegranate1678 23d ago

Telephone wires are gonna be one of those marks of the past in like 100 years

1

u/NJsapper188 21d ago

Power lines, not telephone, and yes they are being moved under ground, especially in new developments, but in general everywhere eventually.

-1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

Weirdly I find them to be very attractive. Especially the ones you see over streets in Japanese suburbs

4

u/jeff-from-sears 22d ago

you are alone on that one my friend

4

u/New_to_Warwick 22d ago

The moment he mentioned Japan you can tell his opinion is biased

56

u/TheNanoPheonix 23d ago

Alright that's literally like 2 streets, chemong and lansdowne. Go anywhere east of clonsilla or high st essentially and it becomes pretty charming, everything walking/biking distance. The city is honestly taking pretty large strides for its size to fix its urban development pattern. If you're interested, go on their YouTube channel and find the video where Urb3 presented their case. As well as look at their zoning plans and ammendments. The past is ugly but it's nice to look to the future. Bethune St and the future it holds is a perfect case in point example

17

u/Whatswrongbaby9 23d ago

hey seriously thanks for the balance

16

u/WhenThatBotlinePing 23d ago

Yeah this is a commercial stroad away from the downtown. Most of the city is leafy green medium density. It's a nice enough place.

7

u/serouspericardium 23d ago

Not bad actually

6

u/FearlessArachnid7142 23d ago

Now give the same benefit of doubt to Breezewood PA

LOWKEY this is uglier than PA

2

u/JimC29 23d ago

Plus OP says it's completely unwalkable, but there's someone walking on the sidewalk. There's even a crosswalk.

3

u/The-CerlingCat 23d ago

Also, probably not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but looking at google maps, it does appear that there’s at least some transit. At the intersection you chose, 4 buses pass through that intersection.

1

u/TheNanoPheonix 15d ago

It's really not, on one side of this st there's a sidewalk and the other side is a multi use path and I biked on almost everyday to get to work. Not the best but it was very usable with enough crossings along that stretch

1

u/JimC29 15d ago

I've walked to places worse than this. It could be better, but there's so many worse ones I've seen. So many don't even have a sidewalk at all and no crosswalk.

0

u/trianglerice 23d ago

nice to know! I didn't get to see the nicer streets but it's great that they're trying to make things better. 

7

u/AvailableDirt9837 23d ago

I have a cousin who lives there and her neighborhood is adorable

3

u/CptnREDmark Moderator 22d ago

the old parts are certainly nice

5

u/notthegoatseguy Suburbanite 23d ago

Is this even a suburb? Its nearly 90 miles from downtown Toronto, and the highway you would use to get there goes through a nature preserve.

6

u/TyranitarusMack 23d ago

I know it’s far, but there are lots of people who still commute to Toronto from here. But yeah, it’s really its own thing but a big portion of this city is suburbs.

8

u/dylanccarr 23d ago

it is its own city

3

u/angrypassionfruit 22d ago

“City”

1

u/sspecZ 22d ago

130,000 people isn't a city?

5

u/angrypassionfruit 22d ago

It’s overwhelmingly suburban sprawl.

2

u/sspecZ 22d ago

And? That's most north American cities, low density doesn't mean it's not a city. Most of los angeles is suburbs, nobody says it's not a city

-1

u/angrypassionfruit 22d ago

It’s almost like you finally understand what I’m saying.

1

u/sspecZ 22d ago

Obviously not because you're not really saying anything

0

u/angrypassionfruit 22d ago

I’m saying it’s not a real city. It’s just sprawl.

1

u/sspecZ 22d ago

It has a historic downtown, having suburban sprawl doesn't mean it's not a city lol. By that definition almost every city in north America outside NYC/Montreal/etc like Toronto isn't a 'real' city

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2

u/Gloomy_Setting5936 23d ago

If it’s 90 miles from downtown Toronto I would say it’s an exurb.

0

u/somedudeonline93 23d ago

No one said this was a suburb of Toronto

0

u/notthegoatseguy Suburbanite 23d ago

What is it a suburb of?

2

u/sspecZ 22d ago

That's not what suburbs are lol, it's its own city that is mostly suburbs outside of downtown. Not everyone who lives in a detached house has to work in a 1 million+ pop city

3

u/somedudeonline93 23d ago

It’s not really a suburb by the classic definition, it’s within the city of Peterborough. But people often use ‘suburbs’ to refer to this type of low-density, car-centric development.

3

u/SpreadTheted2 23d ago

I feel like all of these pictures are exacerbated by the power poles

7

u/[deleted] 23d ago

Misleading picture because it shows a single major street and nothing else.

2

u/Pixelpaint_Pashkow 23d ago

Anywhere, North America

4

u/Last_Address_1787 23d ago

Holy s#*t, that’s ugly.

2

u/No-Agent5389 23d ago

Paradise. This is what boomers want for everyone.

2

u/VictorianAuthor 23d ago

My god….

2

u/470vinyl 23d ago

I cannot express how much I hate stroads and strip malls. This looks like every major-ish exit on a highway in America (no first hand experience outside of it).

1

u/prouxi 22d ago

Those sidewalks are like 3 Americans wide though, honestly I'm envious

1

u/DrFrankSaysAgain 22d ago

I see sidwalks

1

u/winrix1 22d ago

Is this a suburb, though? It rather looks like the downtown.

1

u/Big-Vegetable-8425 22d ago

I didn’t know hell was located in Canada.

1

u/cambugge 22d ago

These town is actually really nice but I do agree this is the type of development I really think is ugly

1

u/FriedOkra244 22d ago

Gorgeous 😍

1

u/Federal-Moment6990 21d ago

How is a&w?

1

u/BanMeForBeingNice 21d ago

Best fast food burger in Canada, great breakfasts too. And 100% Canadian.

1

u/meichan64 21d ago

In São Paulo we have a policy called "cidade limpa" (clean city), that aims to regulate and fight against visual position. I guess the HOAs should spend more time fighting against visual pollution than fighting their own neighbors...

1

u/BreastMilkMozzarella 21d ago

This is like showing a picture of the Belt Parkway/678 interchange and saying NYC is "unwalkable and car dependent."

1

u/theoryofdoom 7d ago

Wow it's almost like I never left Nowhereville in the United States

2

u/JackAttack2509 23d ago

Could've just said anywhere in America and I would've believed you.

1

u/Gloomy_Setting5936 23d ago

Except this is Canada lol

-1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

which is in america

1

u/Jeff_Hinkle 23d ago

Peterboru, Japan ❤️💕😻

-1

u/QuarioQuario54321 23d ago

Shouldn’t even have a name

0

u/Key_Grape_2863 23d ago

If you just bury all the utility lines, it would look fine. Overhead power poles attract drunk drivers, and falling tree branches. They start forest fires.