toronto

CITY PROFILE

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Toronto has been the 'city that works'. Local government, including Metropo- titan Toronto, has succeeded in solv- ing urban problems. Growth is now reaching outward so that nearly half of the population of Toronto (four million) lies beyond Metro's borders. Pofiti- cians foster multiculturalism in this ethnically diverse city. Citizen groups have been active in promoting a wide range of social programmes. Policies attempt to guide the restructuring of the economy. Land-use planning now encourages increasing densities to enhance transit. Active controls over the environment are in place. Growth will probably be slower in the future.

James Lemon is Professor of Geography and Planning, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St George St, Toronto, Canada M5S 1A1.

The author is grateful to Paul Bain, Engin Isin and Evelyn Ruppert for help.

~Sam B. Warner, The Urban Wilderness, Harper and Row, New York, 1972; Helen F. Ladd and John Yinger, America's Ailing Cities: Fiscal Health and the Design of Urban Policy, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1989. aNational comparisons: Michael A. Gold- berg and John Mercer, The Myth of the North American City: C ontinentalism Chal- lenged, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1985. Also Harold Ka- plan, Reform, Planning, and City Politics: Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1982.

Toronto

James Lemon

In the 19b0s, its Americans discovered that their cities were increasingly in disarray. Canadians woke up to find Americans were praising theirs, especially Toronto . In its year end issue in 1965, Life asserted that the city's "greatness is at stake' . In March of 1969 Newsweek compla ined about "The sick, sick cities'. The refrain has bccn repeated over and over both in the popular press and in academic writing, such as The Urban Wilderness and America'.~ Ailing Cities. I

By comparison, US praise of Toron- to has been almost cmbarrassmg to Torontonians , though the2,' knov¢ that Americans are not very curious about why it diffcrs. Ccrtainly in the wake of the awareness of crisis in the U S A in thc 197(1s, Fortune in Scp tcmbcr 1974 revealed that Toron to had become the 'new great city'; in 1975 the National (;eographic said it was "worldly, weal- thy, personable, and rclativcly prob- Icm free' . Harper's author Anthony Astrachan went further in 1974: Toron to is "a city that works . . . a model of the alternative future" to Los Angeles , hitherto the dominant imprcssario. Then in November 1980 the publicist for the Toron to meeting of the Amer ican Association for the Advancement of Science was ecstatic in Science: '1 have scen civilization, and it works' . While thc praisc has become less obvious in the 1981)s, recently The Economist (19 May 19901 compared strong Toron to with de- caying I)etroit . Evcn if some would say this was an unfair comparison, taking the best and the worst on ei ther side of the border, to those who recall the splcndour of inner city Detroi t , the point is well taken. Toron to shows morc cohcrcncc in communi ty (a US

idcal), a wider spectrt, m of public involvement ill planning, that politics can be (nearly) clean, violence can be less and strccts and landscapes nlorc orderly than any city in the USA. Yet even if Toron to stands out as the 'city thl, t works ' , its problems are likcl.v to mount .2

The imsI Founded in 1793 as York on I.akc ()ntar io, the town was the capital of Upper Canada. When it was incorpo- rated as i, city and renamed in 1834, Toron to ( ' the place of meetiug" in Algonquian) had a population of only 900(I, reflecting the slow growth of the province - immigrants preferred tile USA. in 1867. when several provinces confederated to create Canada, it be- came the permanent capital of ()ntario. At the time it housed about 50 [}00, interestingly less than half the population of Buffalo or Clevehmd, reflect- lug continued lag in Canadian as compared to US growth. But a rapid spurt ill tile 1880s and between 1900 and 1912 brought it level with Buffalo. ()n the latter date still only 15% of Onla- rians lived in Toronto , a far cry from, say, its counterparts in Australia. The pace slackened between 1912 and 1940.

The last fifty years have seen Foron- to grow rapidly, though not quite ill tile rate of the "sunbelt" cities in the USA. In 194(I the city itself counted about 650 (100, the urbanized region 910 0(}(1. Today, by its most generot, s definition, the urban region, the Grea- ter Toronto Area ( G T A ) , contains 4. I million. The ( 'ensus Metropoli tan Area (CMA) holds 3.7 million, or about 14% of ( ' anada ' s population. Metropoli tan Toron to (Metro) . cstab-

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Figure 1. The Greater Toronto Area and the Census Metropolitan Area.

Source: City of Toronto Planning and De- velopment Department, Toronto: Business and Marketing Trends, Toronto, 1989, p 6.

3Recent histories: J.M.S. Careless, Toron- to to 1918: An Illustrated History, 1984 and James Lemon, Toronto since 1918: An Illustrated History, 1985, both published by Museum of Civilization, Ottowa, and Lorimer, Toronto.

CITY PROFILE [~'+ Thl Toronto lIiglon ind CMA

lished in 1953. is home to 2.2 million, the City of Toronto to 6211 000 (Figure 1)+ In the late 1971)s Toronto passed Montreal as the most populous city in ( 'anada, and it is now three times the size of Buffalo. Toronto possesses a dynamic diversified economy ;,nd is the preeminent financial centre in the country. The current recession n3~,y signal that the era of strong grovcth is passi ng. 3

(~oug'r*' l l?l(' l l[ A great deal of energy has gone into maintaining the "city that works'. Con- st i tut ionally the province of Ontario is responsible for municipalities, l.eg- islation pa, rticular to Toronto and to municipalities collectively is passed by the provincial parliament each year. Additionally, ministers of the crov~n often announce initiatives bearing on city lift'. Even so, Toronto and other communities in the province have over the years taken their obligatiolls seriously. Open democratic government rather than a closed corporation has been a halhnark of city life, including a committee system in which elec- tors can have their say. Politics has been free of partisanship, at least in an official sense. After 1834 politics with-

in the overwhehnmgty dominant Con- servative Party sorted out priorities, nc, tab[y on development issues. Only in recent times has the New Democra- tic Party brought partial partisanship to the councils, generally ~,rguing for containing development. Neighbour- hood resident and ratepayer associa- tions, tenant groups, and a whole host of other non-governmental bodies also play a prominent advocacy role. Politicians ignore them at their peril.

l+ocal governments have sought provincial support for restructuring from time to time. Most notably, in 1953 the province legislated Metro- politan Toronto (Metro), composed of the City of l 'oronto and 12 other municipalities covering 615 square kilomctres. Metro was to provide services for the rapidly urbanizing fringe, to equalize to a fair degree the assess- ment rates, to transfer some of the taxes from the richer central city (especially its offices downtown and affluent neighbourhoods) to the poorer suburbs (some of which had defaulted in the early 1930s" depression), and to phm. Local municipalities 'retailed" services "wholesaled" from Metro, but retained the crucial power of bylaw (zoning) controls over de-

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4Brief overviews, Canadian Urban Insti- tute, How is Toronto Governed? Three Torontos: The City, Metro, and the Region, and The Greater Toronto Area: An Urban Region, both 1991. The Institute is housed in Toronto City Hall.

velopmcnt - over which the debates arc tile most heated. Of two subse- quent major cvahwtions of Metro only the first brought some major cl langes, notably the reduction of local municipalities to six arid Metro ' s assumption of social welfare.

In anticipation of growth beyond Mctrt) 's limits, in the early 1970s the r)rovince created other Metro-l ike regions, by upgrading county powers. and in the process reducing the number of municir)alities. But then the age of cutbacks arrived in 1975 leading to a decade or so of reh,tive inactit)n on the urban frtmt. But in 1988 the province pulled together Metro and tile adjacent five regions into the ( i rca te r Tor tmto ( 'oordinat ing ( ' t )n ln l i t lee and then sel tip tile Office of the Greater Tt)rt~ntt) Area ( O G T A ) with its own deputy minister, a top bureaucrat , responsible to an clot ted cabinet minister. The O ( ; T A ' s mandate is to bring greater cot)rdination of services over this wide region. In sum, the gov- erning structures arc extraordinari ly complex four, even five, levels of government . The pt)licy features of T o r o n t o can be seen lhrt)ugh denlt)- graphic, social, economic, land-use and environmental lenses. 4

Demographic policies Since 1947 ( ' anada has held to the view that immigrants tire good for the economy, a sharp change f rom the policy of the restrained interwar period. Within ( ' anada , the federal government has, smcc 1()6(), slowed movements fronl poor regions through social transfer payments and economic development schemes. Yet people leave. Toron to has continued to bc the chief magnet for both streams, with the exception of the middle and late 1970s. So its population has qui,d- ruplcd. In the 1980s 5(1 000 came each year, tilree times as many ;,s t() Van- couver, the next strongest htrge place. At the last census (1986) 36% of Tor tmtonians were born outside Canada.

Since the federal policy of tile late 1940s allowed European migration, and that of 1962 opened the country to 'visible minorit ies ' , the ethnic make up has become extraordinari ly di-

verse• In 1940 four out of five Torontonians could chum ancestors in the UK; today the numl')er is less than two in five. Multicuhural programmcs arc supported by all levels of government, the nrost expensivc being that of "heritage" languages in the school system. Policies have discouraged seg- regati(m and have tried to ft)stcr toler- ance. Yet ethnic/religious groups show some residential clustering, with Jews and Italians especially in defined wedges. Ghettoizat i tm of (the far fev,- er) l)lacks is far less marked than it') large northern US cities like Toron to 's near rmighbour, Detroit . Aboriginal ( 'anadians are becoming more preva- lent, though they arc far less con- spicuous than in Winnipeg and Reg- ina. G T A policy makers expect con- tinucd strong growth - 5•44 million by 2(111 - hut have no control over tile n ti m he rs.

Social Policies cover a wide range of social issues. Social indicators give Toron to a high rating. 1.ow infant nlortaJity rates reflect the universality of provincial/federal pnblic health insul- ance in place for over twenty years. Perhaps no other ( 'anadian invention has St') cmlght the ~ittcntion of Anler - icans in recent times. Al though the system is considerably cheaper than the aggregate cost of health care m tile USA, policy makers arc trying to de- vise ways of reducing the costs to Western l -uropean levels. The edtic;.l- titm system remains largely public (including state supported Roman Catholic): nine in ten e lementary and secondary schools and all r)osl - secondary students are provided for by the stale. Financing is equitable within provinces through a system of transfer payments. In ()ntario e lementary and secondary levels are mmraged by local elected boards which, in Tor tmto at least, pursue vigorous prograilrnles.

l lousing policies in Cana(.la have resemMed US rather than Western European initiatives - at least up lo 1973. Before the 1930s governments did little; then in the 1940s, with Torontt`) leading, state working rnen's housing appeared. As in the U S A ,

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SSocial policy material available from So- cial Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto. Housing data, Steven Dynes, City of Toronto Planning Board. Metro planners say 12%. Most other data, Statistics Cana- da.

though conditions arc better, public housing has largely turned into welfare housing for the unemployed, many of them single mothers. Since 1973 the City of Toronto especially has pursued a housing policy empha- sizing small scale, with diverse building forms, tenures (cooperative - non- equity, rental, ownership) and in- comes. The province, and through ( 'anada Mortgage and flousing ( 'or- poration, the fcdend government, have provided cheap money for financing many schemes. Social housing is the only "urban" issue with which the federal government directly en- gages. All others are deemed municipal, and hence are provincially control- led. Today in Metro Toronto between 8% and 12% of households occupy social housing units, half of which are public 'welfare', a quarter senior, and the rest mixed and cooperative.

Federal and provincial policy makers have concerned themselves with income distribution, in part becat,se municipalities, including Toronto, pressed them to do so in the wake of the Great Depression when the dole was largely local responsibility. Today a vast system of transfer payments, is in place: federal to provincial and to individuals, provincial to nlunicipali- ties, and regional/county levels to community groups to individuals. Strains have vppcared over the past decade or so, as tile federal govern- lllellt has reduced its share and pro- vinccs in turn push the local politicians to pay more. The basic problem in Toronto and ( 'anada generally is trying to provide Western European, even Swedish levels of human/social services, with near US levels of tax- alton.

hlcome-wise the average Toronto- nian is well off: 15 of the 20 highest income municipalities in the country arc within the Toronto CMA. This CMA led the country with an average private household total income of $43 000 in 1986, well ahead of other cities. But in Toronto the gap between rich and poor has widened, l lousing costs arc high by North American standards. Even though median prices of housing units fell by 20% between early 1999 and rnid-1991, the $210 0(10

level remains too high for the majority of households who would want to buy. Even with rent controls in place since 1975, many tenants pay landlords more than the assumed healthy yard- stick of 25% of gross inconle. An even clearer indicator of social disparity is the rise of food banks in the wake of tile last recession of the early 19g(ls. And worse, as of April 1991 unenl- ployment was at 1(1% over double the level of a year before - a sudden and severe strain on budgets.

Economic Econonlic planning is a much con- tested field of debate, and policies arc less well defined than on more clearly social questions. As suggested by the level of income, Toronto is the most materially successful city in Canada, perhaps on the continent - or was at least until the current sharp depression. The Toronto ( 'MA share of jobs

o / in Canada is nearly 17 ,,,, well ahead of its population level of 14%. l 'oron- to's economy has been diverse, covering a wide range of activities. In share of employment today, finance, insur- ance and real estate stand out. l 'oron- to has gradually superseded Montreal as the chief financial and corpon,te centre in Canada,. ()f the six large chartered Canadian hanks, five have headquarters in Toronto (though offi- cially only two). By occupation, nlana- gers and administrators hike up one in six positions - a near doubling since 1976! The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) handles 80% of all shares (by value and volume) in Ca.iHda. TO maintain perspective - and pointing to the dependency of Canada on the USA, with its population nine times larger - the TSE's dealing is only one-tenth that of the New York Ex- change. A whole array of federal policies have often unwittingly favoured the Toronto area over the years.

Toronto's manufacturing has contri- buted to its economic diversity. In 1989 (by industrial sector) - despite an enormous decline in the early 19g0s - Toronto's share of manufactt, ring ern- ployment exceeded its population share at 19%. Of Toronto's CMA work force, manufacturing workers composed nearly 20%, though occu-

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6Meric Gertler, 'The state of the regional economy', a paper for workshop of Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, Labour Council of Metropolitan Toronto and York Region, Toronto Econo- mic Development Corporation and the Office of the Greater Toronto Area, May 1991. ZFrances Frisken, Planning and Servicing the Greater Toronto Area: the Interplay of Provincial and Municipal Interests, York University Urban Studies Working Paper 12, 1990. City of Toronto Planning and Development Department, City Plan 91, several reports. Useful is the monthly, Toronto Planning Digest.

pationally only about one in tight workers can be considered blue-collar factory operatives. Attesting to the importance of manufacturing, annual investment rose from $225 million in 1955 to $1321 (in constant 1971 dol- lars) in 1986. Also striking is tile in- crease in value-added per production cmploycc (ovcr the samc pcriod), from under $14 (XI() to nearly $25 000. l tigh technology and auto production (including Japanese) have bccn central/ '

Economic phmning is not easy in Toronto, with four competing levels of government trying to enhancc well- being and businessmen willing to take subsidies but most resistant to any collective strategy. In the 1980s Metro and each of the mtmicipMities have attempted to pr(mlote economic growth and new industry. Modest suc- cesses in providing space for incubator industries, and provincial st, pport for some sectors m high technology, has probably been overshadowed by the gains in promoting tourism. Toronto has been an attractive place for US visitors, especially those seeking urban holidays and at strong conven- tion centre. The new Skydome sta- dium fits the leisure scenario; but Toronto has seen the 1996 ()lympics go to Atlantv.

I . a n d use

l listorically, land-use policies have been restrained, even rational. In the post-war era politicians and officials havc had mixed succcsscs in im- plementing plans. In comparison to the USA, if not Western Europe, it might bc said that success llas been more frequent: higher density, heavier use of transit, less auto use, greater logic in land-use types, less extrava- gance in building outlying office/retail clusters, more mixing of people and activities and so on. The greatest contrast with the USA is that phmning has been in the public sphere and, especially over the past quarter century, has had the benefit of a good deal of citizen participation.

Although Torontonians rejected US style business plans early in the century, the Great Depression began to turn heads toward public phmning and

plans. Toronto led the way in ( 'anada by setting up a phmning board in 1942. At the end of the war ()ntario and other provinces passed planning policies that were far tot,gher than any legislated in thc 1910s. The acts re- quired mt, nicipal official plans showing proposed hmd uses. Gradually phmners were hired - mi, ny of them British who drew up the plans. The most impressive of that era was Met- ro's, published in 1959 a massivt: volume showing everything in its place, covering not only Metro itself but an area three times its large. Vast tracts of tile suburbs were proposed for industry, expressways ~.crc to lace the area. Interestingly, its an echo of eltrlier resistance to grandeur, Metro politicians decided not to sulmfit the phm for "official" ar~Proval from the province.

By the mid-196(Is the province itself decided to phm for an cvcn wider Toronto-centred region, pt, blicizing its schemes in 197(I. Although many would slty that the province failcd in this venture, sonic of notions of order remain. Over the past decade and a half phmning activity has beet) carried out on a less grandiose scale, though certainly the City of Toronto has con- t inued to employ i, v;,tst arnly of well paid planners to come forward with several ph, ns, most recently at the time of writing, CityPlan 91. Although the plans themselves have been far less sumptuous than eltrlier ones, in- numerable policy studies seem the order of the day. 7

Toronto's density is roughly that of Copenhagen and | lamburg, and is much higher than most {IS cities. The origins of this density lie in tile era bcfore public planning. But today in- tensification is on the lips of most planners, and even politicians. A recent phmning exercise on the future of the GTA developed three conceptual models: current trends ('spread'), high density ('central'), and finally 'nodal' , which has received the strongest support. In response Metro phmners put forward five notions, the favoured fourth, 're-investment centrcs', advo- cating less spread than the GTA's 'nodal' (Figure 2). After some success with higher density residential de-

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CITY PROFILE

Figure 2. Re-investment centres.

Source: Metro Toronto Planning Depart- ment, The GTA: Concepts for the Future, Toronto, 1990.

[3 ,

0

- Existing built-up area

- - - - - - Existing/Proposed Urban Envelope

• Primary Growth Centres

Secondary Growth Centres

8Densities, P.W.G. Newman and I.R. Ken- worthy, Cities and Automobile Depend- ence, Gower Technical, Aldershot, 1989. IBI Group, Greater Toronto Urban Struc- ture Concepts Study, Summary Report, Toronto, 1990. Metropolitan Toronto Plan- ning Department, The GTA: Concepts for the Future, Toronto, 1990. 9Data, Steven Dynes, City of Toronto Plan- ning Board, from A.E. LePage Real Estate.

vclopment and nodal development over the past two decades, this is not surprising, s

Office construction over the past third of a century, particularly in the 1960s and 1980s, has been spectacular. Currently about 12.3 million square metres stand, quadruple the figure of twenty years ago, putting Toronto in the top half dozen cities on the continent. Projections of 15.7 million square metres put forward in 1989 will probably not be met, as many large projects have been put on hold. In May 1991 the vacancy rate ran at nearly 15%. The woes of other big cities have finally caught up with Toronto: a very large number of construction workers are on the dole, Robert Campeau - Canada's Donald Trump and fleeting- ly a department store mogul in the USA - has had to sell holdings, and even the greatest development com- pany in the Western world, Toronto's Olympia and York, the developer of the World Finance Centre in New York and of Canary Wharf, l,ondon, has experienced strain. '~

Even though conditions are worsen- ing, much of the phmning for the distribution of offices and associated retail has been in nodes. Only a quarter of the office space is in the finan-

cial core downtown: about three-fifths or more is in nodes around rapid transit stations (Figure 3). As for retail, a local depression joke is that in the USA malls go broke; in Canada it is only stores. Manufacturing zones are still being stoutly reserved by local municipalities even though nlany will never be used again for that, or any purpose (though Toronto city has some innovative projects). As in the past, flames of expectation for industry are inextinguishable. The calls of the boosters are heard amid the ruins.

Many believe that the residential areas in the suburbs of the post-war era are not densc or mixed enough. The inner city provides a partial posi- tive model for the future. Not only recent housing projects such as St Lawrence, but also many older areas. through the conversion of single- family houses, have a mixed population. Although today few rooming houses remain and more deconverted, renovated (so called gentrified) houses have appeared in what were working-class areas, the regional changes in income have not been dramatic. Indeed, the virtual absence of abandoned houses is a sign of this. The contrast with many US cities is sharp: many high-income profession-

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Figure 3. Downtown officescape: big banks dominate, island ferry docks in the foreground.

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264 CITIES November 1991

Figure 4. The CN tower.

Source: City Planning. Photo taken from Leslie Street spit created from fill. The spit is a bird watcher’s paradise.

als live in the central city, in many cases next to houses divided up for those earning modest salaries.

Transit has been paraded as Toron- to’s most notable success - again by US standards. Municipalized in 1921, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), covering Metro since 1953, has maintained a high level of service on its rapid transit (since 1954), buses and trams - to the tune of 450 million riders annually. Financially it has a low level of public subsidy, obtaining about 70% of revenue from the fare box. And virtually every year the commission wins the North American safety award. The Government of Ontario (GO) commuter rail system, carrying 30 million a year, is heavily subsidized. Transit planning was in abeyance during the cutback years, but several new initiatives are now proceeding. Sentiment on limiting cars is strong, though on the outer reaches of the built up area the province is slowly adding some expressway lanes.

Environmental If Toronto is distinctive and strong in

some policy areas, on environmental questions, until recently, it has been much like other cities. But now the environment minister has said that aggressive action must be taken to reduce, reuse and recycle by denying the region the right to ship garbage (non-toxic) elsewhere for disposal. This policy is very restraining on an area that has limited dumpsites, ex- acerbated by nimbyism. Like other cities a whole range of innovative ideas are being tried; among the successful have been blue boxes for week- ly recycling, bottling companies being forced to reuse containers (for many years virtually all beer bottles and cans have been returned); tapping the cold water of Lake Ontario for air con- ditioning; and saving transit energy by heavier transit use.

The Future? Toronto has been among the most materially and operationally successful cities on the continent: the CN tower is the tallest free standing struc- ture in the world and symbolizes Toronto’s wealth (Figure 4). But the

CITIES November 1991 265

CITY PROFILE current recession has hit the place with a vengance. No longer does Toron to seem immune to the w~garies of investment . So it seems probable that little construction will occur for several years, that industrial jobs will be lost, that the service sector will not support all the unemployed and that governments will be hard pressed to maintain social support programmes.

Perhaps, too, the century long economic strength of Canada is waning. So Canada may join the UK and Austra- lia, which saw growth slow down a century ago. and the U S A , as it con- tinues its relative decline since the 1970s. It so, structural and not simply cyclical problems will prevent Toronto from maintaining its status as the "city that works'.

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toronto

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