Toronto's future vision...

In a previous post I said that eventually our low density 905 residential sprawl developments will have to be torn down and replaced with higher density housing (not to be confused with overcrowding conditions) because eventually service delivery to these neighborhoods would become so costly to both municipality and homeowner that re-development would likely be the only way out.

Not so drastic in his views, Architect Jack Diamond recently coined the damaging effects of Ontario’s urban sprawl as “our inconvenient truth” (The Globe, May 18-07) and backed it up with some painful truths too numerous to recite here. His article was interesting in that in offering solutions to urban sprawl he was really articulating elements of a vision of the sustainable city of the future (referring to such elements as transit, environment, economy, people, etc.).

Following the damage done to Toronto by former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and now years of chronic under funding by our senior governments, Toronto has suffered a loss of confidence and pride which frustrates our ability to come up with a quintessential vision or idea of the city that can really bring all the elements Mr. Diamond spoke of and more into “one” coherent set of ideas about the city of the future. We see this played out in our problems in finding an enduring brand for the city and our lack of civic pride.

It is this future vision of Toronto that really interests me and reflecting on this is what prompted me to create Torontoperspectives.com