On a recent weekend visit to downtown Toronto wherein my wife and I played tourists in our own city, as I walked around the empty bank towers and skyscrapers I realized that this city is made up of two groups of people. Group 1 consists of the people who work in these towers who are career professionals and predominantly affluent. Group 2 is made up of the workers who service them. They are the restaurant workers, the retail workers, the guys who wash Group 1's cars and shine their shoes, the stage hands and special events guys, and perhaps the flea market merchants who try to earn their daily keep from the sale of junk, otherwise known as antiques.
Group 1 leaves the downtown by night to retire either to the comfort of its home in Rosedale, Forest Hill or some other posh neighborhood in the city or, more typically, to the "905 belt", the suburbs surrounding the City that donned that moniker to distinguish them from the City of Toronto's 416 code. Group 2, on the other hand, is more likely part of the bottom 50-percent of the income distribution, probably doesn't own a car, and therefore probably lives in one of the city's less affluent neighborhoods with access to bus transportation, at least. Group 2 travels on foot, by bike, by bus, by streetcar or by subway.
And in that moment I could feel the decline of the middle class in this city we call Toronto. A quick Google search found this article which describes succinctly what is happening here, socioeconomically.
It occurred to me as we were leaving the city that the infrastructure linking Toronto to the 905 belt around it where roughly two thirds of the metropolitan area's citizens live was crumbling because Toronto's democratically elected council in City Hall could not agree on how to move forward; not just recently but over the last forty years. It occurred to me that unless something revolutionary were done, that the infrastructure would hold back Toronto and the rest of the metropolitan area. It occurred to me that, given the hollowing out of the City's middle class, given that the majority of Group 2 lived outside of the City of Toronto, that a large voting bloc had given up its right to vote on matters that transcend City borders, matters like the Gardner Expressway, for example, which is crumbling and needs to be replaced.
It occurred to me that the solution is to reconstitute City boundaries to include the 905 belt. The solution is to create a regional government that consists of a government that presides over the metropolitan area, one that allows metro residents to vote on Toronto city issues, and vice versa.
The Government of Ontario passed an amalgamation bill in 1998 which reconstituted the City of Toronto, ostensibly, for cost efficiency. This time the provincial government needs to cast a wider net and do it in the name of ending the political gridlock in Toronto City Hall which has slowed or prevented progress on issues like metro-wide transportation and infrastructure improvements. The City of Toronto belongs to the metropolitan area, not just to the people who reside within its borders. It's unfortunate that the income gap is widening within the City's borders. But that is no reason to allow it to paralyze development of the City within the context of its role within the wider metropolitan area. Until the City's government is reconstituted to allow the 905 belt to have a voice, development will be sub optimal, at best.
Group 1 leaves the downtown by night to retire either to the comfort of its home in Rosedale, Forest Hill or some other posh neighborhood in the city or, more typically, to the "905 belt", the suburbs surrounding the City that donned that moniker to distinguish them from the City of Toronto's 416 code. Group 2, on the other hand, is more likely part of the bottom 50-percent of the income distribution, probably doesn't own a car, and therefore probably lives in one of the city's less affluent neighborhoods with access to bus transportation, at least. Group 2 travels on foot, by bike, by bus, by streetcar or by subway.
And in that moment I could feel the decline of the middle class in this city we call Toronto. A quick Google search found this article which describes succinctly what is happening here, socioeconomically.
It occurred to me as we were leaving the city that the infrastructure linking Toronto to the 905 belt around it where roughly two thirds of the metropolitan area's citizens live was crumbling because Toronto's democratically elected council in City Hall could not agree on how to move forward; not just recently but over the last forty years. It occurred to me that unless something revolutionary were done, that the infrastructure would hold back Toronto and the rest of the metropolitan area. It occurred to me that, given the hollowing out of the City's middle class, given that the majority of Group 2 lived outside of the City of Toronto, that a large voting bloc had given up its right to vote on matters that transcend City borders, matters like the Gardner Expressway, for example, which is crumbling and needs to be replaced.
It occurred to me that the solution is to reconstitute City boundaries to include the 905 belt. The solution is to create a regional government that consists of a government that presides over the metropolitan area, one that allows metro residents to vote on Toronto city issues, and vice versa.
The Government of Ontario passed an amalgamation bill in 1998 which reconstituted the City of Toronto, ostensibly, for cost efficiency. This time the provincial government needs to cast a wider net and do it in the name of ending the political gridlock in Toronto City Hall which has slowed or prevented progress on issues like metro-wide transportation and infrastructure improvements. The City of Toronto belongs to the metropolitan area, not just to the people who reside within its borders. It's unfortunate that the income gap is widening within the City's borders. But that is no reason to allow it to paralyze development of the City within the context of its role within the wider metropolitan area. Until the City's government is reconstituted to allow the 905 belt to have a voice, development will be sub optimal, at best.
