Mississauga: (false) utopia

Towers of gleaming glass. Green boulevards. Picture perfect parking lots. Is Mississauga the Canadian utopia, or just a suburban dessert?

In 1970, Mississauga began as a  suburban exodus of Toronto. In just 3 decades, its population has increased 500%. It’s been debt free since 1979, and hasn’t had to borrow a single penny ever since.

Some things about this place are fascinating. They’ve only had 1 mayor in the cities entire history: 90 year old Hazel McCallion is still serving. The cities downtown is setup as a huge suburban megamall, surrounded by parking lots and private condos. Some of the streets downtown have no sidewalks, making them unwalkable for pedestrians. This is something different. Its the super-sprawl utopian atmosphere that represents the most disturbing aspect of 21st century urbanity.

I tried to find more things to capture in Mississauga, but in all honestly, there wasn’t much to see here. It looked like every picture perfect prefab North American suburb I’ve ever seen – only super sized. I’ve got a few to share from Mississauga’s new landmark, Absolute World. It was the only building I saw that broke the mold of prefab postmodernism –  you could call it 21st century structuralism.

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