Recipe for resilience: U of T cities experts talk housing, transportation, growing disparity in GTA

Romi Levine — Thu, 04 May 2017 16:16:51 +0000

Romi Levine Thu, 05/04/2017 - 12:16

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U of T cities experts say initiatives like the Regent Park redevelopment are a step toward building a more resilient Toronto (photo by City of Toronto via Flickr)

Romi Levine

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Romi Levine

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City & Culture

Cities

Housing

Transportation

Students

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Toronto

Toronto's rising housing prices are just one symptom of the city's struggles with rapid growth.

On Tuesday, a group of U of T cities experts explored Toronto's challenges and proposed solutions for making the city more resilient at The Inclusive and Sustainable City of the 21st Century, an RBC-sponsored conference organized by the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Toronto’s growing inequality is undeniable, said Professor David Hulchanski, principal investigator of the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership, which has documented the shrinking of middle-income neighbourhoods, greater disparity between high-income and low-income residents and released research showing that low-income families can no longer afford to live in the city.

“We've always had a gap between rich and poor, and we always will have it – only it is much larger today,” Hulchanski said.

If Toronto continues on this trajectory, it could become a city like Chicago which has almost no middle-income neighbourhoods, Hulchanski warned.

“We're not Chicago, but we're going in that direction.”

Speakers also included Daniyal Zuberi, RBC chair and associate professor of social policy, Shauna Brail, U of T’s presidential advisor on urban engagement and director of the urban studies program, and Mark Kingwell, author and professor of philosophy.

From left, conference speakers included Associate Professor Shauna Brail, Professor David Hulchanski and Associate Professor Daniyal Zuberi (photo by Romi Levine)

Zuberi has been studying how inequality plays out in different cities.

“For many people who don't have resources, they're increasingly left behind, socially isolated, simply pushed out into either the least desirable parts of these cities or into the suburbs, or they are forced to move to other cities,” he said.

But it’s not all bad news, said Zuberi.

“We do see a growing recognition that mixed-income zoning and development is probably better than single-family homes on farmers' fields two hours from downtown, and there's a growing push for these kinds of more inclusive communities to be built,” he said

He commended the federal, provincial and municipal governments for supporting more affordable housing initiatives like in Regent Park and the proposed Rail Deck Park, which are opportunities to improve the lives of Torontonians living in highly dense neighbourhoods downtown.

But change can also take place in small ways in underserved neighbourhoods, said Zuberi.

“Doubling the number of buses that come to a neighbourhood can dramatically improve life in these communities but doesn't cost that much.”

Kingwell emphasized the need for acceptance as cities and the people within them change (photo by Romi Levine)

For Brail, it’s the research conducted by academics like Hulchanski and Zuberi, and the university’s community partnerships that drive change in the city.

“We really need to think, not just about the university as a physical city builder…but also as an institution that creates a social infrastructure, that helps contribute to communities whether it's by working with particular groups, whether it's by identifying ways of developing infrastructure that actually supports groups outside, or whether it's about thinking how to connect and bring other groups into the university,” she said.

This can also be done through service learning placements for students, joint programs in neighbourhoods like Regent Park and collaboration between the Toronto universities through initiatives like the StudentMoveTO survey of student transportation woes and a recent call for proposals addressing Toronto's affordable housing challenge, said Brail.

While Kingwell spoke of the need to embrace people’s differences as the key to becoming an inclusive city, his final message was much more simple: “Don’t be a jerk.”

U of T helps launch an army of tree lovers

lavende4 — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 19:13:38 +0000

U of T helps launch an army of tree lovers

lavende4 Mon, 10/24/2016 - 15:13

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Tree-lined Cabbagetown street (photo by Jay Woodworth via Flickr)

Scott Anderson

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Scott Anderson

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Subheadline

The Faculty of Forestry is teaching Torontonians how to care for one of the city’s most valuable resources – its trees

David Grant is passionate about Toronto’s trees. He’s particularly fond of the majestic silver maple that stood outside his Cabbagetown home. But he had never thought much about how to care for it – until three years ago when the ice storm hit.

Surveying the downed branches in his own yard and along his street, Grant wondered about the millions of other trees across Toronto. Did his fellow homeowners know how to care for them in the wake of such a damaging event?

Soon after, Grant met Sandy Smith, a professor in the Faculty of Forestry, who had an interesting idea: students from Smith’s graduate class in urban forest conservation would work with Grant and other Cabbagetown residents to devise a long-term plan for the care of their community’s trees. Residents themselves could then follow the preservation plan.

“It was like a dream come true,” says Grant.

Now, he is looking to replicate the success of Cabbagetown Releaf – the non-profit association he founded to carry out the plan – in other communities. And, once again, he has enlisted Smith’s help.

Early in October, Smith and a colleague, Danijela Puric-Mladenovic, spent the day training about 25 Torontonians in the basics of forest management at an event organized by Cabbagetown Releaf. The hope is that these newly trained “citizen foresters” will fan out across the city and set up urban forestry groups in their own communities.

“This is David’s vision to educate and build awareness, so the average person knows about the health of trees,” says Smith. “Governments can’t afford all the work that needs to be done.”

Smith likens “citizen foresters” to “citizen scientists,” a movement that has gained steam in recent years to involve members of the public in science projects, ranging from counting butterflies to tracking bird migration. A citizen scientist group in Toronto monitors the health of the Rouge River in Scarborough. Citizen foresters would do something similar for the city’s trees.

The effort aims to protect a valuable investment. A 2014 report by the TD Bank Group estimates that Toronto’s 10 million trees are worth about $700 each, or $7 billion in total. According to the report, the urban forest provides Toronto residents with more than $80 million worth of environmental benefits and cost savings each year, or about $125 per household.

These benefits include improved air quality, better storm water management, reduced flooding, and cooler homes and businesses. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide, which helps to slow climate warming. The study didn’t put a dollar value on less tangible benefits, such as the enjoyment people get from parks, but Grant sees these as no less important.

“Nature helps people de-stress,” he says

Learn more about Smith's urban forestry efforts

Looking ahead, Grant has no shortage of ideas about how to expand the program. He wants to encourage community members to grow trees from seeds and then have an annual seedling giveaway. He thinks there’s good potential for working with schools to have students grow seedlings and share these with neighbourhoods that need more trees.

He hopes that one day Toronto might be home to a small army of citizen foresters tending to the urban canopy.

“We need to protect what we have,” says Grant, “and to start doing things for future generations.”

Learn more about the Citizen Foresters

(This story originally ran in U of T Magazine)