2

• Properties of Canadian Cities

  • Production
  • Reproduction
  • Proximity
  • Capitalization
  • Sense of Place
  • Urban Governance
• Economic production is considered the main reason for urban growth
• Reproduction in the marxist sense centres on the conditions essential to the presence of the labour force
• Proximity has also led to the development of intricate transportation systems, which led to the dispersal of population into the suburbs
• uThe city provides a “sense of place” to its residents
• 'Space' can be described as a location which has no social connections for a human being. No value has been added to this space

  'Place' is, in contrary, more than just a location and can be described as a location created by human experiences
• Four Stages of Changing Urban Form

  1. Before 1945

  2. Metropolitan Development (1945-1972)

  3. Subruban Domination (1972- Present?)

  4. Gentrification
• Industrial Era

  Cities began to grow dramatically, in both population and territory

  Emergence of Zoning
• Zoning - A regulatory mechanism that was to become the key instrument in consolidating the specialisation and segregation characteristics of American cities
• Zoning led to discrimination and segregation
• Fordist Era - Automobile suburbs and streetcar suburbs
• Pre-1945 Urban Structure

  CBD: central business district

  •City Hall - City officers and bureaucrats

  •Department Stores - ”Walking zone” - retailing activities within the CBD in compact form

  •Downtown Offices - offices (e.g., banks, doctor’s office, law firms) close to the departmental stores – some vertical high rises holding these offices

  •Warehouse Zones, at the edge of the CBD next to the freight yards

  Zone of Transition – with mixed and changing land use pattern

  Factory belts along waterways and railways

  High density residential neighbourhoods (but not high rises)
• Metropolitan Development

  Rapid Transit/Metro/Underground

  Suburbs rushed to become municipalities so that they could control the pace and nature of urban growth (Boroughs)

  Exurban settlements and satellite townships developeduLarger lot sizes (5000 sq ft)

  Lower population densities (10,000 people per sq mile)

  Emergence of Planned SuburbsuSuburban shopping areas developed

  At the street car terminals and junctions commercial activities developed
• Fordist Era Part 2

  •Outcome:

  Birth of Metropolitan Toronto

  A rapidly expanding surburbs

  City and suburbs equally strong

  A new lifestyle – commuting!
• Suburbs: Planned Development

  • Roads, parkways, expressways, highways, regional malls, parks, new lifestyles, housing hospitals
• Garden City Movement - A method of urban planning initiated by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom in 1898
• Don Mills is Canada's first planned community
• Suburban Domination

  ØExpanded expressway system

  ØSuburban growth in population, employment, and retail – suburban downtowns, office towers (e.g., IBM), factory outlets, big box stores

  ØDrop in population in some inner cities (up until early 1980s) followed by rapid gentrification, then condo development

  ØSuburban Infill: the development of land in existing suburban areas that was left vacant during the development of the suburb, or more recently, redevelopment of suburban areas associated with a change of land use (single detached homes to townhomes, retail spaces to residential)
• Splintering Urbanism

  A term coined by geographers Steven Graham and Simon Marvin to refer to the ways in which infrastructures, including information and communication technologies, can fragment the experience of the city

  A city, such as Toronto, breaks down into isolated pockets that are not well interconnected
• Polycentric Metropolis

  Decentralised urban landscapesuFragmented

  Multi-nodal

  Mixed Densities

  Defined by their internal connections among cities

  Characterised by “Edge Cities”: a specialized suburb that provides mainly businesses, entertainment, and shopping centers. Suburban hubs of shops and offices often overshadow the old downtown – in an area that was previously suburban residential or rural
• Four main periods in the evolution of the shopping centre

  Consequent Development

  Simultaneous development strategy

  Catalytic development strategy

  Entertainment or tourist attraction development strategy
• 1950s, consequent development strategy

  shopping centre after housing

  small, open automobile oriented plazas for convenience needs

  Retail sprawl

  1960s, simultaneous development strategy

  shopping centre at the same time as housing

  Shopping centre as the centre of a planned community (Don Mills Plaza in 1959)

  At all levels, large retail complexes to neighbourhood plazas
• 1970s, catalytic development strategy

  Shopping centre seen as a growth pole that would stimulate future development (for example, two major malls opened in 1973)st generation shopping centres

  Regional or community malls outside small towns

  Super-regional shopping centre built in a greenfield at the intersection of two major highways would precede residential development by 3 to 5 years

  “Bigger is better” philosophy

  Commercial revitalization of central cores - enclosed downtown shopping facilities

  Rejuvenating, enclosing and/or “remixing” old 1
• 1980s, entertainment or tourist attraction development strategy

  The overt mixing of retailing and recreation in a major shopping centre

  West Edmonton Mall

  Multi-screen theatres became shopping centre anchors and key tenants in power centres

  Major revitalization of existing properties (10-15 year life cycle)

  Re-tenanting centres, expanding, smaller stores and therefore more tenants

  Woodbine Centre Fantasy Fair

  Waterfront and historic area retail development
• Gentrification

  The term “gentrification” was first coined in 1964 by urban sociologist Ruth Glass, who used the term to describe a distinct process that was affecting inner-city residential neighbourhoods in London, U.K.

  A type of neighbourhood upgrading transforming working class neighbourhoods into middle and upper class neighbourhoods

  The term has been used over the last fifty years to describe a shift in the makeup of a neighbourhood located within close proximity to the central business district (CBD) of North American cities
• 3 Types of Gentrification in Toronto

  • Commercial
  • Artist-led
  • Municipal
• Two Theories of Gentrification

  Phillip L. Clay: Four Stage “Neighbourhood Renewal” Model

  Neil Smith: “Production” of Gentrification