A re-awakening of Toronto?
I've been mulling over this post for a while now mainly because I hadn't given myself the impetus to write it. Oddly enough, my thoughts took shape during a job interview with a planner for the City of Toronto when he asked what the biggest problem Toronto was facing currently.
To me, it was that Toronto could be such a great city, and be better than what it is. It had such potential. But it was faced with a lot of problems: financial, politicial, perception, etc.
But that seems to be changing.
Things once talked about are finally taking shape. On the cultural front, The Royal Ontario Museum renovations are being completed. The Art Gallery of Ontario designs are being finalized, to name a few.
Regent Park is being revitalized, re-integrated back into the city fabric, de-segregating that community while perhaps building one of the few true "sustainable" communities (environmentally, socially, economically) in Canada. The West Don Lands project, talked about for so long, are finally starting to take shape.
Architects were invited to tour our waterfront on behalf of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation to get an idea of the context for their designs. Bring Back the Don has been trying to repair the ecological damage wrought on it by the planning of its day for many years now. The environment has slowly, but finally been pushed further forward in our priorities.
Finally, apparently there have been buzz in the Toronto blogging circles about the Toronto Star's (whose Sunday section have been putting out very interesting articles lately) What If series, asking its writers how they envisioned Toronto in the future and asking its readers to put their ideas, any ideas, forward.
So it just seems that, the forces are finally coming together for the city, and people are finally excited about what Toronto MIGHT be, if we can keep the enthusiasm up.
