Planning Politics in Toronto

Planning Politics in Toronto
Author: Aaron Alexander Moore
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2013-02-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442699469

The Ontario Municipal Board is an independent provincial planning appeals body that has wielded major influence on Toronto’s urban development. In this book, Aaron A. Moore examines the effect that the OMB has had on the behavior and relationships of Toronto’s main political actors, including city planners, developers, neighbourhood associations, and local politicians. Moore’s findings draw on a quantitative analysis of all OMB decisions and settlements from 2000 through 2006, as well as eight in-depth case studies. The cases, which examine a variety of development proposals that resulted in OMB appeals, compare the decisions of Toronto’s political actors to those typified in American local political economy analyses. A much-needed contribution to the literature on the politics of urban development in Toronto since the 1970s, Planning Politics in Toronto challenges popular preconceptions of the OMB’s role in Toronto’s patterns of growth and change.

The Politics of Urban Development

The Politics of Urban Development
Author: Clarence Nathan Stone
Publisher:
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1987
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

In the past twenty years the study of urban politics has shifted from a predominant concern with political culture and ethos to a preoccupation with political economy, particularly that of urban development. Urban scholars have come to recognize that cities are shaped by forces beyond their boundaries. From that focus have emerged the views that cities are clearly engaged in economic competition; that market processes are shaped by national policy decisions, sometimes intentionally and sometimes inadvertently; and that the costs and benefits of economic growth are unevenly distributed. But what else needs to be said about the policies and politics of urban development? To supplement prevailing theories, The Politics of Urban Development argues that the role of local actors in making development decisions merits closer study. Whatever the structural constraints, politics still matters. Collectively the essays provide ample evidence that local government officials and other community actors do not simply follow the imperatives that derive from the national political economy; they are able to assert a significant degree of influence over the shared destiny of an urban population. The impact of the collection is to heighten awareness of local political practices and of how and why they make a difference.

Urban and Regional Planning in Canada

Urban and Regional Planning in Canada
Author: J. Barry Cullingworth
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2015-01-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1412840791

Originally published in 1987, this book presents a wide-ranging review of urban, regional, economic, and environmental planning in Canada. A comprehensive source of information on Canadian planning policies, it addresses the wide variations between Canadian provinces. While acknowledging similarities with programs and policies in the United States and Britain, the author documents the distinctively Canadian character of planning in Canada. Among the topics addressed in the book are: the agencies of planning; on the nature of urban plans; the instruments of planning; land policies; natural resources; regional planning at the federal level; regional planning and development in Ontario; regional planning in other provinces; environmental protection; planning and people; and reflections on the nature of planning in Canada. The author documents how governmental agencies handle problems of population growth, urban development, exploitation of natural resources, regional disparities, and many other issues that fall within the scope of urban and regional planning. But he goes beyond this to address matters of politics, law, economics, social organization. The book is pragmatic, eclectic, interpretive, and critical. It is a valuable contribution to international literature on planning in its political context.

Changing Toronto

Changing Toronto
Author: Julie-Anne Boudreau
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781442600935

"With an eye for global forces, this panoramic account revolves around a focus on social, spatial, and environmental justice in the city, offering a lively riposte to both dull academicism and theatrical boosterism." - Kanishka Goonewardena, University of Toronto

Urban Affairs

Urban Affairs
Author: Caroline Andrew
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2002
Genre: Urban policy
ISBN: 0773523529

Issues of urban policy are increasingly complex and important. Whether considered from a social, demographic, or economic perspective, Canada is overwhelmingly an urban nation and healthy, prosperous cities are the key to its well-being. What then, is our national policy toward urban affairs? In Urban Affairs leading experts in a variety of disciplines explore this question.

Big Moves

Big Moves
Author: Anthony Perl
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022800294X

All countries have distinctive urban regions, but Canadian cities especially differ from one another in culture, structure, and history. Anthony Perl, Matt Hern, and Jeffrey Kenworthy reveal that despite the peculiarities and singular traits that each city embodies, a common logic has guided the development of transportation infrastructure across the country. Big Moves analyzes how Canada's three largest urban regions - Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver - have been shaped by the interplay of globalized imperatives, aspirations, activism, investment, and local development initiatives, both historically and in a contemporary context. Canadian urban development follows a distinct pattern that involves compromise between local viewpoints and values and the pursuit of global capital at particular historical junctures. As the authors show, the success or failure of each city to construct major mobility infrastructure has always depended on the timing of investments and the specific ways that cities have gained access to necessary capital. Drawing on urban mobility history and global city theory, this book delves into the details of the big moves that have affected transport infrastructure in major Canadian cities. Knowing where urban development will head in the twenty-first century requires understanding how cities' major mobility infrastructures were built. Big Moves explains the shape of Canada's three biggest cities and how their mix of expressways and rapid transit emerged.

Creeping Conformity

Creeping Conformity
Author: Richard Harris
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780802084286

Creeping Conformity, the first history of suburbanization in Canada, provides a geographical perspective - both physical and social - on Canada's suburban past. Shaped by internal and external migration, decentralization of employment, and increased use of the streetcar and then the automobile, the rise of the suburb held great social promise, reflecting the aspirations of Canadian families for more domestic space and home ownership. After 1945 however, the suburbs became stereotyped as generic, physically standardized, and socially conformist places. By 1960, they had grown further away - physically and culturally - from their respective parent cities, and brought unanticipated social and environmental consequences. Government intervention also played a key role, encouraging mortgage indebtedness, amortization, and building and subdivision regulations to become the suburban norm. Suburban homes became less affordable and more standardized, and for the first time, Canadian commentators began to speak disdainfully of 'the suburbs, ' or simply 'suburbia.' Creeping Conformity traces how these perceptions emerged to reflect a new suburban reality.

Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism

Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism
Author: Susannah Bunce
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: City planning
ISBN: 9781787356795

Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism examines changes in governance, property development, urban politics andcommunity activism, in two key global cities: London and Toronto.

Governing Urban Economies

Governing Urban Economies
Author: Neil Bradford
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442626275

Today more than ever, cities matter to the economic and social well-being of the vast majority of Canadians. Canada's urban centers are simultaneously the engines of the national economy and the places where the risks of social exclusion are most concentrated, making innovative and inclusive urban governance an urgent national priority. Governing Urban Economies is the first detailed scholarly examination of relations among governmental and community-based actors in Canadian city-regions. Comparing patterns of municipal-community relations and federal-provincial interactions across city-regions, this volume tracks the ways in which urban coalitions tackle complex economic and social challenges. Featuring an inter-disciplinary group of established and up-and-coming scholars, this collection breaks new ground in the Canadian urban politics literature and will appeal to urbanists working in a range of national contexts.

The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy

The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy
Author: Daniel Drache
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1985-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780888627858

The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy is a handy reference to the vast range of research and writing that political economists in Canada have completed to the date of publication. The book is divided into twenty-five subject bibliographies, each one compiled and introduced by an expert in the field. The overall range of subjects includes economic development in Canada, Canada's external economic relations, regional disparities and regional development, social and economic classes, women, Native peoples, politics and the Canadian state, nationalism, culture and political thought. The book is indexed by author, and includes a helpful shortlist of the "staples" in Canadian political economy. Published in 1985, The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy remains a useful reference to some of the classic literature of the discipline.