This all started for me on Friday night, in Waterloo. I like to listen to CBC in the mornings, usually on my Macbook. Flip4Mac is a little clunky in that it stores an entire radio broadcast from the time you tune in until you close your browser tab. So, on Friday morning when I closed the lid of my laptop, it had stored Jane Farrell's interview with Sheila Rogers on Jane's Walk. When I got home in the evening and opened the lid again, there was Jane Farrell talking about this series of walking tours organized by the Centre for City Ecology. (It took me a minute to realize that the walks are named for Jane Jacobs, not Jane Ferrell :) The more I listened the better it sounded. I went to the website and the farther down I scrolled the better these walks looked. What caught my eye at first, were the names John Sewell and David Crombie, long-time figures in Toronto municipal politics (both former mayors), as well as the walk by Steve Brearton, called The Bicycle in Toronto’s History. Then I noticed a walk called Retracing Stop Spadina, and having just attended the book launch of Drive: A Road Trip Through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile and read about Jane Jacobs and her NIMBY coalition that put a stop to the radial, arterial expressways which might have choked Toronto's neighbourhood culture, I realized Jane's Walk was something I couldn't afford to miss.
This was all happening between 10:30 and 10:45 on Friday night. I called my dad to see if he wanted to join me at Parliament and Temperance at 11 am Saturday for Brearton's walk through bike history. His response was luke warm, "Maybe... I'll see how things look tomorrow and call you if I decide to come."
Next I called my friend Scott B. Scott is the man I always call when I get a last-minute, often hair brained, idea. Most notably, he once spent five hours with me in a gas station in Limerick, ON, on an invitation to attend an amateur car rally. He later graciously described this experience as "surreal". In response to the Jane's Walk invite, Scott told me he was moving tomorrow, but would've come otherwise. He'd caught the media blitz too, and apparently the minister at his church, Knox Presbyterian (on Harbord), had mentioned Jane Jacobs and the Stop Spadina movement in a recent sermon.
It was after 11 pm when I got off the phone with Scott. I scanned through the list of Saturday walks, and opened tabs on each of the ones that looked most interesting. Then I checked the Greyhound schedule and planned to catch a bus to Bay and Dundas at 7:30 am. With my bookmarked tabs I'd plan the day's walk schedule on the bus, after reading a chapter from Drive for added motivation.
The plan worked nicely. I found myself in Dundas Square the next morning, making use of Toronto's free wireless to load Google maps for the desired walk locations. I had two parallel day plans, or "Jane Plans":
1. John Sewell's Redeveloping Public Housing: the old and the new followed by Steve Brearton's The Bicycle in Toronto’s History.
2. David Crombie's Building Community: Swansea from Rural Suburb to City Neighborhood followed by Retracing Stop Spadina.
Whichever of these I chose, I was definitely going to be at Eglinton and Warden at 3:30 to catch The "City of Industry Tour", a snapshot of life on the Golden Mile, the economic locus of Toronto's ultramodern motor suburb in the 50's (i.e. Scarborough, spelled variously Scarboro, depending on how ultramodern you're feeling.) More on this history below.
Looking at my laptop clock and making a few rough distance/travel time calculations, I decided to go with Plan 2.
At 9:58, as I walked out of the Quebec St. exit at the High Park subway station, I was greeted by the following scene:
David Crombie was already well into conversation with the cluster of people. He had a mic and a small portable speaker. He was accompanied by a local historian, Norman, who brought along a photo album with historical photos from Swansea. At several points during the tour, we could actually stand on the spots where some of those photos were taken and see the changes around us.Before I jump into my notes and pictures from the walk, here's some background on the paper I'm writing which motivated my interest in Jane's Walk.
Soft Cities: The role of connectivity in greening and humanizing urban energy use
Introduction and Abstract
Since the end of the First World War, there have been distinct, macro-level trends in urban design that affect energy use in cities. Cities that once consisted of mid-high density, "walkable" neighbourhoods are experiencing nodal, linear expansion along arterial highways. Since the post-WWII energy and material resource boom, these trends have led to an explosive growth in low density, car-dependent neighbourhoods. The energy costs, as well as social and other environmental implications, of low-density suburbanism are becoming increasingly apparent, not only to planners but also to the general public.
Popular culture is reflecting a change in preference from "drivable suburbanism" to "walkable urbanism". City planners and municipal politicians are looking for strategies to reduce energy load in cities. Individuals are becoming increasingly concerned about the environment and climate change and looking for ways to reduce their energy footprint. Thus, there is impetus to assess energy trends in cities and develop creative strategies to facilitate both socially-intelligent and historically-informed solutions.
This paper explores emerging trends in the use of connectivity technologies, such as PDA's and wireless networks, in reducing energy consumption, particularly at the community- and neighbourhood-level. Community Energy Planning (CEP) literature is reviewed, as well as literature pertaining to the nature of community and environment. Following the literature review, implications for urban transport planning are discussed with case studies in active modes and car sharing.
Outline:
Introduction
Motivations for research
Research problem/question
Review of Community Energy Planning Literature
What is community?
What is environment?
Community Energy Planning
Urban Transport Planning: lessons from history
Social Implications of Car-dependent Transport System
Contribution to social segregation
Contribution to income disparity
Highway Insecurity: the dangers of inequality
Solutions from Community Energy Planning
Densification, Connectivity Technologies, and Active modes: the ways ahead
Conclusion
Here are my notes from the walk, along with a few pictures* and videos. They're a bit fragmented, but coherent enough to be interesting I hope.
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Swansea, High Park, Humber River, 1940’s, bounded on three sides by water. One hundred years ago, people in the village of Swansea grew up with a sense of being close to water, close to nature. The next closest village was the Village of West Toronto. During amalgamation, the Province listened to what they had to say, and promptly did the opposite~ No to service agreements. Here's a new Chair, Fred Gardiner. "I can't make people go to meetings, but if you tell them that grants come quicker and easier if you come to the meetings, maybe they'll come." Lansing, Willowvale, Newtonville - these were all villages like Swansea that we've never heard of because the people who lived there didn't care enough to protect their history, (i.e. give it value in the planning process.)
After this 15 minute history lesson, we turned towards....
Bloor used to stop at the Humber, and continue in Etobicoke. Like most of Toronto's oldest roads, it was originally a First Nations trail. West Toronto is celebrating its 100th anniversary of incorporation this year. Next year is its 100th anniversary of amalgamation. (It only existed as a city for one year.) Bill Temple, wife Mary wore those big flowery hats. Fine brewing, temperance movement. The issue in those days was "wet or dry". Bill Temple was a champion of the temperance movement. Near the end of his life, when the temperance movement had fallen out of favour, Bill Temple came to one of David Crombie's meetings when he was a young councilor, sat down at the back across the room, and watched him through the meeting. When it came time to vote, Crombie said, "It was like God was moving my hand."
Vierkoetter Sanitarium - mineral bath, "the minnies", "where boy meets girl"
Ernst Vierkoetter was a renown German swimmer who decided to make his home in Swansea after visiting on a swim meet. He was known as the "The Black Shark". Swam to Toronto Island, and other feats like this. Parents asked Vierkoetter how many days it would take their children to learn to swim. “With parents, 10 days. Without parents, 5 days.”
Toronto used to lock swings together on Sundays. Actual spring water flowed towards the lake, “We all learned how to skate on Grenadier Pond.
Great dip in the land. Wendigo Way (was the name of the ravine) Wendigo is equivalent to Manitou, meaning “great spirit”. Moses Znaimer and Ellis Way. Art Deco built in 1920's. One of ten Carnegie Libraries – highest # outside of New York, NY. Toronto Public Library – best run department in the City of Toronto. R. C. Smith – around 1900, Ethel. TB treatment at the Minnies.
Joy Station only one left in the world. In an "act of vandalism", developer tore down and then died in a plane crash. Swansea has a very harsh sense of justice, note that there are no courts in Swansea~ Dr. Generations? used to be York Bros. Funeral Parlour. Bill Small connection.
McDonald’s went through pains to build in the style of the strip. If fire ladder couldn’t reach it, then couldn’t build it. Five story limit. Snowden’s Drugs long-time fixture of the village, Snowden...saw this somewhere else (also Scott).
Island in the Humber River where a local bagpiper used to go to practice to avoid disturbing the neighbours. Crombie’s parents once went for a boat ride down the river; his father thought it would be a relaxing date, but they were serenaded for much of the trip by the sound of this fellow practicing bagpipes.
Runnymede Theatre started out as vaudeville, then ...
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Retracing Stop Spadina
HiMY, Andrew, Antonio, Christina, Tristan, Adrian
HiMY charted the route where the expressway would have gone.
Genesis of Spadina Expressway. 50-60-70 yrs, private transpo companies provided public transit in Toronto. There was very little quality control. The streetcars would run out to the suburbs and end on “squatter’s land”, not actually squatters land, just inexpensive real estate. So workers would tend to buy land at the end of the trolley line where it was cheapest, but still with convenient access to transit.
The expressway was supposed to go to Harbord, demolishing part of the Casa Loma grounds.
U of T had the lobby power to stop it at Harbord. The proponents then looked into tunneling it, so hard set were they on the concept of an arterial road connecting the south and north ends of the city.
In addition to Stop Spadina, there was another coalition called Go Spadina. "Afterall, that’s what the big American cities were doing. "Led to the "hollowing out" of U.S. cities.
Subprime mess, not proven in the 60’s that expressways negatively impact the livability of cities
The argument was that they connect people, connect neighbourhoods.
Metro was out of money. What ended up being built was the Allen. People called it the Baby expressway. Metro level gov’t – Chairman Allen. City officials often get infrastructure named after them b/c of their position in the City not necessarily because of their contribution to the project. 1971 “If cities are built for cars, then Spadina expressway is a good place to start. If cities are built for people, then Spadina is a good place to stop.”
We’ll build the mall, developers put $ into the expressway, both directly and indirectly.
LA river, “the Davis ditch”
Jane Jacobs was living in Brooklyn, NY, and didn’t want her sons to go to Vietnam. So, she came to Toronto and found the same highway controversy.
Casa Loma # 1 tourist draw, attraction for school groups
Expressway architectural drawings easily available online
“air rights”
HiMY talked about the Aug. 16 Christie (pits) Street riots (great book review avail. on Google Scholar)
Union and construction jobs at stake. now the same union protects the neighbourhood
Italian, 2nd, 3rd generation – city much more complex than it was in 1960. Subway tunnel digging machines - $98 M by City of Toronto in ’95, sold for $4 M. Cost more to fill in the Eglinton subway. 40% of a highway’s land is taken up by on- and off-ramps. Toronto curfew. Metro Links City of Toronto can’t do anything with sidewalk – Bill Davis’ last act was to protect this sidewalk.
Thank goodness.
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Scarborough Golden Mile “City of Industry Tour”
spur line = rail line servicing an industrial area
entrepreneurs from around the world get the opportunity to have their own space which they’re not be able to downtown
Michael Thompson - take ownership of the community
Mark Ripp performs "Everything is Made..." at 54east ;)
poverty in Wexford -> Irish came to Scarborough
Golden Mile – originally aboriginal land -> agriculture -> manufacturing base to services and retail
City of Industry
decontaminated and desensitized munitions factory and provided housing for returning veterans. later they were relocated to the newly built development of Regent Park, Shuter Ave.??
Golden Mile modeled on Brentford, England
Frigidaire one of the first plants to locate in Scarborough’s Golden Mile. Delco auto parts, 2500 jobs plant closed in 1993. SKF factory made ball bearings
land adjacent to 401 has replaced the golden mile post-war industrial powerhouse
Councilor Michael Thompson
exceedingly important to recognize history of comm’y
bike trails on Pharmacy Ave. (reducing the number of lanes). Create spaces that invite people to walk and cycle.
trees + greening the neighbourhood – recognize env’t
The Country Cougars
“a city that has some sense of its history would have preserved that sign.”
10,000 workers at GECo. “Our comm’y isn’t as young as it was before” (this struck me as an obvious comment until I realized that it was referring to trends around in- and out-migration as well as an aging population.)
GTA bloggers
work worth doing...Now House (CMHC)
Golden Mile
As a final comment on the city built for cars, now that many cars are imported or made by foreign-owned companies, we're sort of trapped in an economic dependency for these companies to provide the means to get around our own cities.
*For a full virtual tour of five different walks, feel free to explore the links below:
Jane's Walk 2008 - Swansea from Rural Suburb to City Neighbourhood
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=122610374&k=Z2E34VWXT2ZMYFBEPB5UQ
Jane's Walk 2008 - Retracing Stop Spadina
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=122610374&k=Z3L522PRW3WMYFBEPB5UQ
Jane's Walk 2008 - The Golden Mile "City of Industry Tour"
Part 1: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=122610374&k=ZXF3QVV4R53MYFBEPB5UQ
Part 2: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=122610374&k=Z3GXX35XQ2VMYFBEPB5UQ
Scarborough Music Series
http://www.facebook.com/p.php
Jane's Walk 2008 - Commies and Christians: A Riverdale Heritage Walk
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