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Michael Noble
Lovely Spaces in Unknown Places: Creative City Building in Toronto’s Inner Suburbs
Research Paper 217, March 2009, vi, 50 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1474-9
This report examines the applicability of a creative cities strategy to Toronto’s inner suburbs, particularly its priority neighbourhoods. The author studied two priority neighbourhoods – one in North York, the other in Scarborough - and interviewed individuals working in arts, culture and creative industries in those areas. The results demonstrate that the creative class is having a significant impact on the social, physical, economic, and cultural life of the inner suburbs and has the potential for even greater impacts in future. The author proposes a Creative City Strategy for the Inner Suburbs, to be formed through community engagement and integrated with existing creative city and strong neighbourhood agendas. This perspective would lead to a more inclusive, diverse and effective creative city vision for Toronto
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Jason Hackworth
Habitat for Humanity and the Neoliberal Media: A Comparison of News Coverage in Canada and the United States
Research Paper 216, March 2009, vi, 39 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1473-2
The notion of “government failure” is central to neoliberal theories. This study analyses the way in which the charitable organization Habitat for Humanity has been depicted as a challenge to interventionist government, and an alternative to “government failure.” A qualitative and quantitative content analysis of more than 1,400 news articles from six North American newspapers was conducted to determine the extent to which the organization has become normalized as a viable alternative to state-delivered housing. The author argues that neoliberal assumptions, originally associated with a small cadre of right-winged political economists, have permeated mainstream attitudes towards the role of government in the provision of public goods.
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David Wachsmuth
From Abandonment to Affordable Housing: Policy Options for Addressing Toronto's Abandonment Problem
Research Paper 215, November 2008, vi, 48 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1472-5
This report presents the City of Toronto with a strategy to help alleviate the city's affordable housing crisis by addressing the problem of abandoned properties. Abandonment is a multidimensional process, with functional, physical, and financial aspects: not all vacant properties are financially abandoned, and some buildings that are essentially abandoned by their owners may retain some residents. The author presents data from a study of abandoned rental housing in Toronto and proposes strategies to deal with a range of abandonment issues, including a "Use It or Lose It" bylaw whereby the City could expropriate abandoned buildings for affordable housing and deter future abandonment through vacancy fines and positive incentives.
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Katharine N. Rankin, with the assistance of Jim Delaney, Courtney Hood, Justin Ngan and Sabin Ninglekhu
Commercial Change in Toronto’s West-Central Neighbourhoods
Research Paper 214, September 2008, viii, 72 pp.
ISBN-13 978-0-7727-1471-8
This study explores how commercial change contributes to wider processes of exclusion and gentrification, as well as the resources available to counter this trend. The researchers studied three commercial strips in Toronto’s downtown West-Central neighbourhoods (West Queen West, Roncesvalles Village, and Bloordale Village), representing different characteristics and stages of commercial gentrification. The report focuses on themes such as ownership structure in relation to local investment; the politics of strip “branding,” and the role of immigrant-owned businesses in building social cohesion; the role of Business Improvement Areas in promoting local development and fragmenting the urban landscape; and the challenges and opportunities for business finance. The report concludes with some recommendations for policy and community organizing.
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Emily Paradis, Sylvia Novac, Monica Sarty, J. David Hulchanski
Better Off in a Shelter?
A Year of Homelessness and Housing among Status Immigrant, Non-Status Migrant, and Canadian-Born Families
Research Paper 213, July 2008, viii, 89 pp.
ISBN-13 978-0-7727-1469-5
This report contains the results of a panel study that followed 91 women-led homeless families in which the woman was either (1) an immigrants or refugee, or (2) Canadian-born. The results showed that women without status ? including temporary workers awaiting resolution of a refugee claim, or those living “underground” ? are extremely vulnerable, often living in conditions of deep poverty, housing instability, danger, and exploitation. Family shelters, which were intended to function as a crisis intervention of last resort, are in fact functioning as transitional and supportive housing for many of the families. In some respects, women were often better off in the shelter than they were in their own homes, either before or after becoming homeless. The report concludes with recommendations for service providers, provincial and municipal governments, and human rights organizations.
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View the PDF of the 8 page research summary
Duncan Maclennan
Housing for the Toronto Economy
Research Paper 212, July 2008, viii, 72 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1468-8
Housing is one of the key integrative systems in the economy, like the labour market or the financial system. Yet Canadian housing policymakers and advocates have failed to make the case for housing effects on economic outcomes. This study seeks to supply some of the missing connections between housing and the economy in the city of Toronto, focusing particularly on the effects of globalization and the drivers that affect the housing system, and including an overview of research connecting housing to its effects on health, crime, educational outcomes, and quality of life. The report concludes with recommendations for further study, and for measures to help make the connection between housing and the economy at the local, provincial, and federal levels.
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R. Alan Walks and Richard Maaranen
The Timing, Patterning, & Forms of Gentrification & Neighbourhood Change
in Montreal, Toronto, & Vancouver, 1961 to 2001
Research Paper 211, May 2008, viii, 109 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1465-7
This report presents a method for determining the timing, patterning, and forms of gentrification and residential neighbourhood upgrading between the 1960s and 2001 in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, using census data. The resulting maps show a clear geography of gentrification in each city, whereby the process starts in a few core areas and moves outwards into adjacent neighbourhoods, as well as a “gentrification frontier” in each city, where gentrification is likely to occur in future. The authors also identify the main forms of gentrification (deconversion of older housing stock, new construction, and the conversion of non-residential buildings to housing) and the way in which these forms combine to produce gentrified neighbourhoods in each city. They note that although new construction presents an opportunity to mitigate the problems caused by gentrification, this opportunity has not been seized. If present trends continue, the inner cities of Canda’s three largest cities will become the preserve of elites, while low-income households are forced to occupy less accessible fringe locations, a situation that contributes to social exclusion
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Jason Hackworth
Neoliberalism, Social Welfare,
and the Politics of Faith in the United States
Research Paper 210, June 2007, vi, 36 pp.
ISBN 978-0-7727-1459-6, $10.00
The Bush Administration has actively promoted the use of faith-based institutions—from individual congregations to multi-faith alliances—as a replacement for the social welfare activity previously performed by the federal government. This shift challenges existing notions of social welfare, church-state separation, and the politics of the Right in the United States. This report summarizes the key events of the faith-based social service movement during the past 35 years. The modern faith-based social service movement began in the 1970s, and its efforts began to bear fruit with the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, the first major institutional manifestation of the movement. More recently, however, the faith-based social service movement has shown signs of abatement, within the larger debate on the American Right about the relative merits of its two largest ideological blocs: economic conservatism (also known as neoliberalism), and social conservatism. Though this story is American, the politics of the Right are relevant to several other Western countries, including Canada.
Paul Hess, André Sorensen, and Kate Parizeau
Urban Density in the Greater Golden Horseshoe
Research Paper 209, May 2007, vi, 69 pp.
ISBN-13 978-0-7727-1455-8; price for hard copy available on request
The Ontario government has recently taken a proactive approach to growth planning in the Toronto region, or Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH). To carry out its policies, the Province needs reliable ways of measuring density and monitoring how it changes over time. This paper reviews the various definitions of density and discusses methodological and data problems associated with density measurements in the GGH. The authors examine existing density distributions in the GGH using 2001 census data, and analyse the densities of 10 sample census tracts. The authors note problems with using gross density for making comparisons between areas or time periods, and problems with using census data in density calculations. The authors recommend the delineation of small census tracts with permanent boundaries for the area of the GGH that is expected to build up during the next 20 to 30 years and the creation of a regional database on employment location, density, and output.
Downloads
Entire Report (6 Mb)
Front matter & Chapter 1, Concepts & Definitions (296 kb)
Chapter 2, Population & Jobs Density, first part (2.3 Mb)
Chapter 2, Population & Jobs Density, second part (2.4 Mb)
Chapter 3, Analysis: Land Use, Population, & Jobs Density (1.2 Mb)
Chapter 4, References, Appendices (140 kb)
Jordana Ross
Balancing Supportive Housing with Civic Engagement
Research Paper 208, March 2007, vi, 32 pp
ISBN-13 978-0-7727-1454-1, $10.00
Public meetings involving the development of supportive housing for psychiatric survivors may lead to conflict, sometimes characterized by discrimination against psychiatric survivors and often ending in the expense of Ontario Municipal Board hearings. This report examines Toronto’s consultation practices and analyses three case studies to identify what contributes to conflicts between community members and housing providers, and what changes to the planning process might help overcome these conflicts and encourage the development of supportive housing. The report concludes with eight recommendations directed towards the City of Toronto’s Planning Department and Affordable Housing Office and supportive housing providers.
Sylvia Novac, Joe Hermer and Emily Paradis
Justice and Injustice: Homelessness, Crime, Victimization, and the Criminal Justice System
Research Paper 207, November 2006, x, 189 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1451-7, $12.00
Using Toronto as a case study, this multi-method study explores the relationship between homelessness and the criminal justice system. The literature review covers the prevalence of incarceration among homeless adults and youth; the vulnerability of homeless individuals with mental illness and patterns of transinstitutionalization; the prevalence of homelessness among ex-offenders; the criminalization of homelessness and the negative effects on homeless people of law and order approaches to the regulation of public space; offences committed by homeless people; the victimization of homeless people; treatment of homeless people by the police and courts; and service needs and recommendations. A catalogue of more than 70 programs and policies to reduce homelessness among ex-prisoners and the incarceration of homeless individuals is included. Interviews with key informants, a survey of long-term homeless individuals who had been incarcerated or have had dealings with police and courts, and focus groups with homeless persons and service providers add detail.
Sylvia Novac, Emily Paradis, Joyce Brown, and Heather Morton
A Visceral Grief: Young Homeless Mothers
and Loss of Child Custody
Research Paper 206, October 2006, vi, 74 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1450-9, $10.00
The Young Parents No Fixed Address (YPNFA) Committee commissioned this report to explore service interventions for young homeless mothers who lose custody of their child. The report is based on a literature review and interviews with health and social service providers. The report surveys what is known about the effects on mothers of having children removed from their custody, and at existing programs for homeless women in this situation, including bereavement and support services. It also looks at existing research by YPNFA members in this area on young homeless mothers. The report contains findings from interviews with workers from YPNFA member agencies and other agencies about their experiences working with young pregnant or parenting women who are homeless or underhoused. The report concludes with recommendations for improved services and suggestions for further research.
Jim Simmons and Shizue Kamikihara, with the assistance of Larry Bourne and Irma Escamilla
The North American Urban System:
The Limits to Continental Integration
Research Paper 205, October 2006, viii, 59 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1449-5, $10.00
The North American urban system, as defined here, includes the urban systems of Canada, Mexico, and the United States; with almost 400 urban areas, and more than 300 million people. The paper explores the variations within and among the three urban systems, with respect to the spatial distribution, economic base, income per capita, cultural origins, and government; and then examines the relationships among cities through trade, migration, and airline passenger movement in an attempt to understand the patterns of population growth. It is evident that this urban system is not fully integrated, nor is it closed to the rest of the world. The partial integration permits substantial variations among cities in the levels of income and sources of population growth, especially evident along the Mexican border.
Sirine El Kalache, Limin Fang, Abigail Moriah, Luz Rodríguez, Melissa Tapper
Taking the Pulse: Gauging Neighbourhood Change
in Toronto’s Downtown West End
Research Paper 204, May 2005, viii, 68 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1445-2, $12.00
The authors of this paper administered and analyzed a household survey to provide St. Christopher House (SCH) with a better understanding of the issues facing the residents they serve. This research was designed to address three main questions: How do the residents perceive the changes occurring within the neighbourhood? How are these changes affecting their way of life in terms of housing, commercial activity, new residents, and safety? And what can be done to respond to these perceived changes? This research allowed residents to voice their concerns and views about neighbourhood changes. These concerns and views will be translated into policy and planning recommendations for the city, as well as for SCH, the main social service provider in Toronto’s West End.
Jason Hackworth and Josephine Rekers
Ethnic Identity, Place Marketing,
and Gentrification in Toronto
Research Paper 203, April 2005, vi, 26 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1442-8, $10.00
Urban theory has historically viewed ethnic commercial strips as a more-or-less organic extension of nearby ethnic residential enclaves. This paper argues that some of these areas function as a branding mechanism (intended or not) to produce nearby residential gentrification. Certain forms of ethnic identity attract affluent professionals looking for an alternative to suburban life. Some neighbourhood institutions have recognized this attraction and begun to manufacture a saleable form of ethnicity to tourists and prospective residents alike. This paper explores the influence of ethnic packaging on the process of gentrification in Toronto, using the examples of four ethnically defined business improvement areas (BIAs) – Little Italy, Greektown on the Danforth, Corso Italia, and the Gerrard India Bazaar.
Jim Simmons, Larry S. Bourne, and Jeffrey Cantos
How Cities Grow: A Study of Time Series Data
for Canadian Cities
Research Paper 202, November 2004, viii, 57 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1439-8, $12.00
The report explores annual data for Canada’s metropolitan areas from Statistics Canada, focusing on the growth of population, employment and income for the 15 largest urban centres over the last 20 years. Growth processes – both demographic and economic– differ widely from one city to the next, varying in magnitude, timing, and importance. The growth of employment and income are more volatile over time than changes in population and are largely absorbed locally as changes in the labour force participation, wage level, and level of savings. As immigration has overtaken natural increase as the leading contributor to Canada’s population growth, spatial and temporal variations in population growth have increased. Finally, as public and private services now account for most of the change in employment, the latter has become more sensitive to local and regional population change, replacing the sectoral economic variations driven by export markets.
Jim Simmons and Larry S. Bourne
Urban Growth and Decline in Canada, 1971-2001: Explanations and Implications
Research Paper 201, February 2004, x, 43 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1431-2, $10.00
This paper further explores some of the issues raised in an earlier research paper by the same authors ("The Canadian Urban System, 1971-2001: Responses to a Changing World," 2003) concerning urban growth. The research draws on the findings of the 2001 Census of Canada and comparable data for 1971 to investigate trends over the past three decades. After describing the location and amount of urban growth, the paper examines the correlations between growth and other urban characteristics and between growth and changes in those characteristics. In particular, the authors consider the question of whether cities are becoming more alike or more specialized in some ways. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of continued variability in the rates of urban growth and decline.
Jim Simmons and Larry S. Bourne
The Canadian Urban System, 1971 - 2001:
Responses to a Changing World
Research Paper 200, July 2003, viii, 71 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1428-2, $12.00
Canada is now overwhelmingly an urban nation. More than 80% of Canadians now live in urban areas and over 60% in the larger metropolitan regions. As those cities change, so too does the nation. In recent decades, Canadian cities and the entire urban system have undergone a transformation. As the factors driving change have evolved, so must our ideas evolve about how the urban system is organized. Drawing on research on urban Canada over the last thirty years, this paper provides an overview of change in the Canadian urban system for the period from 1971 to 2001. Particular attention is paid to the importance of changes in the national environment – in the economy, the demography, and the public sector – and to shifts in the global environment that have in combination reshaped the urban system. In future, growth is likely to become more uneven, with further concentration in a few large metropolitan regions and with much of the rest of the country in relative decline. The direction of evolution of the urban system is likely to become more dependent on forces emanating from outside the country.
Kristin Good
Explaining Municipal Responsiveness to Immigration:
An Urban Regime Analysis of Toronto and Mississauga
Research Paper 199, January 2005, iv, 34 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1441-X, $10.00
Questions surrounding fair and effective ways to integrate immigrants into Canadian society arise most immediately in cities. However, since immigration policy is outside municipal jurisdiction, and because Canadian municipalities are administrative wards of provincial governments, academics have paid little attention to the way in which municipal governance structures adapt to these dramatic social changes. This paper compares the responsiveness of Toronto and Mississauga, two highly diverse municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area, to the needs and preferences of immigrants and ethno-racial minorities. There is significant variation in the extent to which these two municipalities have adopted diversity policies to facilitate the inclusion and integration of immigrants. The paper uses the dominant theoretical paradigm of the American urban politics literature – urban regime theory – to shed light on why these municipalities have responded so differently to social change.
Peter Clutterbuck and Rob Howarth
Toronto’s Quiet Crisis: The Case for Social and Community Infrastructure Investment
Research Paper 198, November 2002, vi, 60 pp.
ISBN 0-7727-1419-3, $10.00
In the debate over the future of cities in general and the future of Toronto in particular, attention has so far focused on the crisis in physical infrastructure. But equally important is the state of a city’s social and community infrastructure – including child care, public libraries, neighbourhood centres, old age homes, public health units, environmental protection initiatives, settlement support for immigrants and refugees, and recreation programs. These programs benefit families, help vulnerable individuals, build skills and community capacity, and contribute to the quality of life for all community members. This vital but often-overlooked part of Toronto’s infrastructure is struggling to survive in the face of budget cutbacks, which have led to understaffing, higher fees, long waiting lists, the elimination or reduction of programs, and the persistence of unequal levels of service in different parts of the City. This paper estimates the costs of meeting pressing needs in selected areas of Toronto’s social infrastructure.
Marcia Wallace and Frances Frisken
City-Suburban Differences
in Government Responses to
Immigration in the Greater Toronto Area
Research Paper 197, January 2000
vi, 43 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1377-4
Immigration is a national government responsibility
in most countries, and for that reason its effects on the
behaviour of municipal governments have received little
attention. This paper focuses on immigration into the urban
and suburban cities of the Greater Toronto Area, and examines
how six cities in particular respond to their immigrant
communities. The research found that, despite functioning
within a common legislative and economic context, and having
similarly large percentages of their population as immigrants,
the responses of municipal governments to immigrant settlement
vary not only in content and comprehensiveness, but also
in the amount of initiative shown by municipal officials
in putting the responses in place. These variations suggest
that Canadian municipal governments have more flexibility
to design their own policies than is implied by their constitutionally
mandated subjection to provincial laws. This may be especially
true for those circumstances, of which immigrant settlement
is one, where the scope and intent of senior government
policies are unclear or are undergoing frequent modifications.
L.S. Bourne and Mark R. Flowers
Changing Urban Places:
Mobility, Migration and
Immigration in Canada
Research Paper 196, March 1999 vi,
74 pp. $10.00
ISBN 0-7727-1201-8
Migration and immigration have always
been prominent features of the Canadian scene. However,
as rates of fertility and natural population increase have
declined following the early post-war baby boom, these two
components have assumed increasing importance as determinants
of urban and regional growth, and more broadly as sources
of social change and economic well-being, and subjects of
policy concern. This paper offers an overview of population
migration and immigration in Canada, with specific emphasis
on movements within and between urban areas during the 1981-86
and 1986-91 census periods. The study attempts to illustrate
the impressive volume, variety, volatility and uneven geography
of population flows in Canada by region, city-size and relative
location, as well as by age and sex. It explores the complex
relationships between migration and immigration flows and
between those flows and the attributes if individual urban
places through correlation and regression analyses, and
offers a simple typology to demonstrate the diversity of
migration regimes that characterize those places. The paper
concludes that, while there are common properties to migration
flows, no single model or typology fits all flows or places
or time periods. Indeed, the diversity of flows suggests
that Canadian cities are becoming more dissimilar in their
social characteristics, and growth prospects, over time.
Martin Horak
The Power of Local Identity:
C4LD and the Anti-Amalgamation Mobilization in Toronto
Research Paper 195
November 1998 vii, 44 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1378-2
The Ontario government’s December
1996 move to amalgamate Metro Toronto’s municipalities
sparked an unprecedented wave of popular protest, led by
an ad hoc group of local activists called Citizens for Local
Democracy, or C4LD. The paper explores the origins and characteristics
of this protest wave, drawing upon insights from urban regime
theory and social movements theory. It argues that C4LD’s
strength stemmed from its function as a defensive group
for the local socio-political identity of Toronto’s
downtown progressive middle class. Amalgamation threatened
the institutional locus of this identity, the middle-class
progressive regime in the old City of Toronto. The provincial
government’s heavy-handedness broadened opposition
beyond the city core, temporarily subsuming long-standing
animosities between the "core" and the "suburbs"
in Metro. C4LD leaders used their past mobilizational experience
to position the group at the head of a metropolitan-wide
protest wave. However, given the fragmented nature of metropolitan
politics the anti-amalgamation consensus was fragile, and
mobilization died down rapidly as the province’s determination
to press ahead became clear.
Graham White
Breaking the Trail to
Northern Community Empowerment: The Community Transfer Initiative
in Cape Dorset
Research Paper 194, April 1998 vi,
77 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1375-8
The paper examines the efforts of the
Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) at bringing
about a large-scale transfer of governmental authority to
small local communities through a "Community Transfer
Initiative" (CTI). This exercise is analyzed from the
perspective of the central policy-making structures and
processes of the GNWT and from the perspective of one community,
Cape Dorset, which experienced the largest and most successful
transfer under CTI. The paper focuses on how the apparently
clear and straightforward principle of transferring significant
authority to local and community governments can become
politically and administratively problematic.
Frances Frisken, L.S. Bourne, Gunter
Gad and
Robert A. Murdie
Governance and Social
Well-Being in the Toronto Area: Past Achievements and Future
Challenges
Research Paper 193, April 1997 vii,
69 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1207-7
Toronto’s reputation as a successful
city rests on (1) the economic and social well-being of
the downtown core and inner residential areas, (2) the equitable
distribution of public goods and services over the metropolitan
area, and (3) a public transit system that has performed
more effectively and efficiently than all others in North
America. The paper looks at the way municipal tax sharing,
social housing and transportation policies contributed to
the development of those characteristics within Metropolitan
Toronto, the two-tier federation established in 1953 to
deal with problems associated with rapide population growth
and territorial expansion. While the Ontario government
was critically important to the enactment and implementation
of those policies, it has largely ignored their underlying
principles in its responses to the spread of growth beyond
Metro’s boundaries. It is consequently difficult or
impossible for Toronto, either as a city or an urban region,
to maintain the characteristics that have given it a reputation
for success.
Edward T. Relph
The Toronto Guide: The
City, Metro, The Region
Major Report 35, February 1997 134
pp. $12.00
ISBN 0-7727-1256-5
A guidebook with a difference! The
Toronto Guide explores many of the facets of Toronto’s
past and present that make the city what it is — historical
and geographical contexts, social fabric, architectural
and ethnic styles, issues of environment and pollution,
housing and transportation, downtown and suburban development.
Packing lots of information and an illustration on every
page — most of them line drawings by the author —
the updated Guide is designed to be enjoyed by visitor and
resident alike.
Larry S. Bourne and Mark R. Flowers
The Canadian Urban System
Revisited:
A Statistical Analysis
Research Paper 192, October 1996
vii, 81 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1254-9
Urban systems are the collective
expression of the nation’s urban fabric and territorial
organization. This paper examines the properties of all
152 urban places in Canada with over 10,000 population,
documents their contrasting properties, in the nation’s
new core and periphery and among city-size categories, then
evaluates the correlates of structural differences and growth
rates. Using multivariate analysis it identifies the underlying
structure of the system and develops a series of classifications
of urban places according to their attributes. While confirming
many of our assumptions about differences between Canadian
urban areas, the results of the analysis raise further questions
by illustrating the intense diversity and complexity of
the urban system.
Urban Regions in a Global Context:
Directions for the Greater Toronto Area
Proceedings of a conference held
at the University of Toronto October 18-20 1995, Major Report
34, March 1996 vii, 153 pp. $12.00
ISBN 0-7727-1405-3
The conference explored critical challenges
facing cities in an era of globalization, drawing on the
experience of other cities — in North America, Europe
and Australia — to highlight lessons and choices for
the future of the GTA. The volume presents major papers
by Peter Hall, L. J. Sharpe, Ann Markusen, Michael Goldberg
and Leslie Kilmartin; and comments and short analyses by
a dozen local and international scholars and practitioners.
Published with the Program in Planning, Department of Geography,
University of Toronto.
Contents
1 Strategic Metropolitan Planning: The
London Experience
Peter Hall
2 Urban Futures, Functions and Forms in
a Global Setting
Michael A. Goldberg
3 Toronto’s Economic Future: A Rumination
on Comparisons with Seven U.S. Cities
Ann Markusen
4 Planning Urban Regions: Social Dimensions
L.A. Kilmartin
5 Is there a Case for Metropolitan Government?
L.J. Sharpe
6 Comments and Reflections
Marion Steele
Two Kinds of Housing
Allowance, 1980-93: An Evaluation
Research Paper 19 , November 1995
vi, 53 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1252-3
The study analyzes the two kinds of housing
allowance programs in existence in the provinces. The first
is the rent and income conditioned (RIC) allowance offered
to those who are not welfare recipients; SAFER in Manitoba
is an example. The second is the allowance which pays actual
rent up to a maximum (ARM) for welfare recipients in many
provinces including Manitoba and Ontario.
Larry S. Bourne and Antony E. Olvet
New Urban and Regional
Geographies in Canada:
1986-91 and Beyond
Major Report 33, July 1995 vi, 74
pp. $8.50
ISBN 0-7727-1404-5
The report summarizes changes in
the Canadian settlement system during the 1986-91 census
period. Initially, it develops a periodization of urban
and regional development over the post-war period and outlines
the contextual factors, both national and international,
that are currently shaping the urban process in Canada.
Drawing on data to describe trends at three spatial scales
— national, provincial, the urban system and the intra-urban
scale — the paper demonstrates the continuing evolution
of new urban and regional geographies in Canada, concluding
with a summary of some of the policy and research challenges
that flow from these trends.
Larry S. Bourne
Urban Growth and Population
Redistribution in North America: A Diverse and Unequal Landscape
Major Report 32, May 1995 vi, 41
pp. $7.50
ISBN 0-7727-1402-9
Written for an international audience,
the report overviews trends in urbanization and population
redistribution in the US and Canada over the post-war period.
Emphasis is placed on the massive scale and rapidity of
urban growth and the uneven consequences that flow from
that growth. New urban hierarchies are emerging as a result
of economic restructuring and demographic change, and in
response to intense international competition.
Philippa Campsie
The Social Consequences
of Planning Talk:
A Case Study in Urban Intensification
Research Paper 190, March 1995 iv,
48 pp. $7.00
ISBN 0-7727-1203-4
Much recent planning literature and popular
writing on urban affairs in Ontario, especially in Toronto,
promotes a policy of urban "intensification."
The paper examines the benefits that are claimed for the
policy, notably the prevention of further urban sprawl and
the creation of new and affordable housing. However, the
term is defined vaguely and some of the so-called benefits
appear to be mutually exclusive. The paper argues intensification
as it is promoted in Ontario in the 1990s is actually a
policy of controlling urban form and urban population in
such a way as to shape the city around the preferences of
its dominant social groups.
Richard M. Bird
Financing Local Services:
Patterns,
Problems and Possibilities
Major Report 31, February 1995 vi,
54 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1204-2
The worldwide trend to decentralization
of public services brings with it a new realization of the
importance of local government finance. As national governments
shift more functions to the local level, local expenditures
and revenues will constitute an increasingly important component
of total public sector activity, with significant implications
for national development patterns as well as for accountability
and administrative efficiency in service provision. The
paper reviews the ways in which local services are financed,
and examines the different characteristics of local government
finance in three groups of countries: those of the OECD,
Eastern Europe and the developing world. It discusses some
of the problems and issues involved in efficient and equitable
service delivery, and proposes some institutional approaches
to address these.
Charles Tilly
The Weight of the Past
on North American Immigration
Research Paper 189, August 1994 vi,
19 pp. $5.00
ISBN 0-7727-1373-1
The kind of cities that North Americans
have depends to an important extent on the social organization
that brings new residents and takes old ones away. Observers
have previously regarded long-distance migration as the
product of large international forces, such as war, famine
and economic crisis; they have viewed the process of immigration
as posing major problems of absorption and disruption at
the national level, and of disorganization and assimilation
at the individual level. Much recent analysis, however,
emphasizes the social history of migration, showing the
importance of immigrants’ social relations in constraining
and determining their migration choices, their social organization
and their work in their new locations. While not denying
the influence of large events on immigration, the paper
argues the importance of people’s small-scale experience,
common life histories, their behaviour in the face of limited
choice, and the dense social relations that characterize
long-distance migration.
Igor Vojnovic
The Pathway Towards Sustainable
Development
and Sustainable Urban Forms
Research Paper 188, May 1994 iv,
45 pp. $7.00
ISBN 0-7727-1372-3
Encouraging an optimal allocation of resources
through correct pricing would be the main policy initiative
in fulfilling the equity conditions required for advancement
toward sustainable development and sustainable urban forms.
By recognizing the true costs in the pricing of urban private
and public goods, urban regions would have a greater propensity
to intensify to a more compact and efficient pattern of
development, which would inevitably reduce their consumption
of energy, material and land. Advancement towards sustainable
urban forms, therefore, would be generated by improvements
in the efficiency of various functions within the city and
by subsequent increased levels of natural ecological preservation.
If correct pricing initiatives were to be introduced, planners
would on the one hand have a critical role in ensuring that
the full benefits of compact form are realized and, on the
other hand, also be responsible for alleviating potential
pressure points caused by the new direction of market forces.
These new market directions would inevitably encourage greater
compactness of development as opposed to spread patterns.
Caroline O.N. Moser with Linda Peake
Seeing the Invisible:
Women, Gender and
Urban Development
Major Report 30, September 1994 vi,
50 pp. $8.00
ISBN 0-7727-1374-X
This review of research on Third
World women, gender and urban development since the 1960s
examines the extent to which and the reasons why these issues
form a separate agenda or are incorporated into mainstream
research. It presents explanations for the marginalization
of urban gender issues, and why their integration into research
agendas is of critical importance. The paper examines four
distinct periods of urban development, each dominated by
a particular theoretical and policy development model. These
in turn have resulted in different research approaches to
women and gender issues, and have set important parameters
for the organizational and institutional issues involved
in research. The review concludes by identifying a gendered
urban research agenda for the 1990s. It is accompanied by
an extensive bibliography.
J. David Hulchanski
Barriers to Equal Access
in the Housing Market: The Role of Discrimination on the
Basis of Race and Gender
Research Paper 187, November 1993
29 pp. $5.00
ISBN 0-7727-1367-7
This discussion of the nature of
and reasons for barriers to equal access to housing in Canadian
housing markets focuses on Metropolitan Toronto’s
rental housing market. The paper argues that all people
do not have equal access to rental housing because discrimination
is found in the rental market as it is throughout society.
All types of discrimination exist in a system of mutual
support, and there is nothing special about housing markets
to protect them from the forms of discrimination that permeate
the rest of society. Discrimination in the rental market
takes the form not only of denial of access to housing units,
thereby limiting the number, type and location of options
available to certain groups, but can include the extraction
of a financial premium for access. The premium can be in
the form of higher rent or key money.
Richard Sandbrook and Mohamed Halfani,
editors
Empowering People: Building
Community,
Civil Associations and Legality in Africa
Major Report 29, 1993 xiii, 209 pp.
6x9in. perfect bound. $14.95
ISBN 0-7727-1364-2
In Africa, widespread disillusionment
with government has inflated expectations concerning the
socio-political role of indigenous civil associations. Popular
organizations are expected not only to respond to immediate
needs, but also to help empower their hitherto marginalized
or oppressed constituencies. How are these organizations
confronting the inevitable pitfalls and constraints to meet
these challenges? This is the key question which social
activists from eight sub-Saharan countries tackle in this
volume. It is not an academic treatise on popular empowerment.
It is instead a forum in which activists speak about their
pressing concerns, achievements, and hopes. To hear their
voices is to renew hope in a less oppressive and more prosperous
future. The foreword is written by Edward Broadbent, and
the book contains a contribution from Julius K. Nyerere.
Wayne C. Reeves
Visions for the Metropolitan
Toronto Waterfront, II:
Forging a Regional Identity, 1913-68
Major Report 28, June 1993 145 pp.
$10.00
ISBN 0-7727-1365-0
In 1912, the Toronto Harbour Commissioners
brought forward the first comprehensive plan for the Toronto
waterfront. The second such plan — radically different
in scale and character — was unveiled in 1967 by theMunicipality
of Metropolitan Toronto. In the intervening years, efforts
to forge a regional identity had taken place on several
fronts. The topics discussed include the advocacy of a metropolitan
political unit before World War II; the City of Toronto’s
master plan of 1943; the creation of inter-municipal planning
boards and other regional authorities prior to 1953, and
the preparation of physical plans by these organizations.
Their proposals thoroughly conditioned the work of Metropolitan
Toronto after its formation in 1953. For Metro, the waterfront
provided the crucial setting for a vastly expanded regional
infrastructure, including sewerage and water supply facilities,
expressways, and regional parks. Attempts to develop a conservation
strategy for the lakeshore were also made, propelled in
part by the lobbying of community groups. The regional waterfront’s
importance was underscored when Metro initiated a comprehensive
planning process in the early 1960s. The content of and
responses to Metro’s 1967 plan, and Metro’s
involvement with other waterfront ventures through 1968
(when Council adopted the plan), are also examined here.
Wayne C. Reeves
Visions for the Metropolitan
Waterfront, I:
Toward Comprehensive Planning, 1852-1935
Major Report 27, January 1993 109
pp. $10.00
ISBN 0-7727-1401-0
The first volume of two volumes provides
a general overview of waterfront-related planning in the
Toronto area during the period 1852-1935. Plans were brought
forth to resolve a host of problems and to take advantage
of opportunities along the lakeshore and in the regional
watershed. While these challenges were often considered
in isolation, over time the plan-makers adopted a more comprehensive
outlook. The topics addressed here include the struggle
between the railways and other interests on and near the
inner harbour; proposals to develop several major public
properties on the waterfront; the systematization of municipal
hard services; the emergence of a local planning movement
and the development of general schemes for civic improvement;
and the creation of a new public port authority, the Toronto
Harbour Commissioners (THC), and the nature and evolution
of its 1912 plan. The THC’s plan was the most ambitious
and comprehensive effort of its time. Yet, while it represented
a crucial point of departure in the local planning culture,
it was thoroughly conditioned by the proposals which preceded
it. In turn, the visions of the THC and the other plan-makers
set important precedents for later regional thinking and
the waterfront activities of the Municipality of Metropolitan
Toronto.
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