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I'd say it's definitely LA. Toronto and DC metros have a very similar style of urbanity outside of their downtown cores; they're both dominated by new urbanist developments or clusters of new apartment/condo towers surrounding a rail station and/or attached to a shopping mall.
Toronto and DC aren't exactly the same though, Toronto's developments aren't overly new urbanist, outside of Markham. They're mostly high rises around train or subway stations or shopping malls, towers in the park and dense (typically 10,000-20,000 psm) sprawl. And it seems like Washington's high density developments are more midrise and Toronto's are highrise.
Los Angeles, and it isn't particularly close. LA's downtown is among the worst of any major U.S. city, but the metro area is filled with interesting, dense urban neighborhoods.
I'm not nearly familiar enough with Toronto to make an educated comment about it.
DC has some interesting neighborhoods that are immediately adjacent to it--Arlington, Bethesda, Alexandria, etc. But once you get outside of the inner ring, DC's suburbs become quite pedestrian and cookie-cutter.
Alright, well possibly the most urban area in suburban Toronto is downtown North York. It's located along Yonge Street, which has a subway and is similar to Wilshire Blvd in LA.
About 45,000 to 50,000 people live in it's condos, and there's retail all along Yonge Street, as well as about a dozen fairly large office buildings. It also contains the third densest census tract in the Greater Toronto Area (and Ontario), with a density of 96,470 ppsm and population of 10,427 as of 2006.
But North York is not a suburb anymore, it's within city limits.
The most "Urban" suburb is Mississauga.
The westside of LA is mostly within city limits too. The point is neither North York nor Brentwood, Hollywood are downtown.
Overall, good idea for a thread. I am undecided but leaning towards LA. All 3 have very vibrant urban areas outside dt but in their own ways. I'll meditate on it and comment later.
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