City of Toronto - Urbanization, Urban Form, Urban Ecology - PDF Lecture

CITY OF TORONTO -​ Important to look at the functions: provides mobilization of factors of production (land, labour, capital, physical infrastructure, diverse population, attracts entrepreneurs). Effective beneficial environment for business. -​ Decision making function of the city...

CITY OF TORONTO -​ Important to look at the functions: provides mobilization of factors of production (land, labour, capital, physical infrastructure, diverse population, attracts entrepreneurs). Effective beneficial environment for business. -​ Decision making function of the city of Toronto: many headquarters of operations located here, that make decisions that have richer implications for companies, partners in other regions or countries, central location for making decisions (CIBC, BMO, Aerospace industries, major hospital administrations, government departments). -​ Third function: provides generative function, concentration of people creates interaction among different groups. It serves as an environment where there is a pool of labour where people have talent, creativity, skills that are needed and well experienced and knowledgeable and with this pool of labour it always creates competition and innovation production of high quality of services. -​ Transformation: diversity of people and ethnic groups living in the city creates freedom and liberation, in a small town there are not lots of work opportunities because there are not many people. In the city, there are different things to see and do, different attractions so it is a break from the rigidity from rural areas. URBANIZATION Between 2011-2021 about 81% live in major cities, British Columbia Lower mainland landSouthern Vancouver Island, Edmonton, Toronto’s Golden Lakeshore lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe and Montreal greater area. Some of the fundamental questions are: 1.​ What makes the city of Toronto distinctive or unique? 2.​ Do significant patterns or regularities exist in the spatial organization of land uses? 3.​ What factors account for the form and patterns of the growth of the city of Toronto? URBAN FORM: structure and organization of the city. Refers to the type of land used, the nature of the built environment, the layout of streets. Toronto has more of a grit patent. Growing extensively and intensively, growing vertically because of intensification and gentrification, some parts of the city go through redesign, redevelopment and reorganization. Many laws that regulate the development of the city. -​ INCENTIVE ZONING: the builder is often given some legal rights to disregard some provisions in providing social amenities to the public (affordable housing, public parks, recreational spaces) then the government relaxes on prohibitions to develop. -​ DENSITY BONUSING: the developer and the municipality will come to an agreement to offer incentives to the government to take advantage of height restrictions. 20 floors is the restriction you can ask more and you offer more rec rooms or walk in clinics. -​ DISCRETIONARY: so restrictive that don’t work well in setting context, not likely that city planner will make precise forecasts of growth of the area. Things that they cannot predict, so is context specific and designed to be flexible to adapt to context specific needs of neighborhoods and communities. URBAN ECOLOGY: social and the demographic composition of the city. As the city evolves there are different groups moving, according to ability to pay and connect with people so it is an ongoing process. -​ Human agency and natural entities in the environment, to create cultural landscapes. We have mosques, temples, jewish sanctuaries. Within this ecology different ethnic groups are competing for space, job opportunities, places where they can shop or take part in activities. -​ When immigrants move: displacement of existing groups (when new groups come in large numbers and practice religion they force existing groups to move out and relocate), integration (groups are living together, harmoniously, culture is respected and there is cultural assimilation or acculturation, barriers are being erased) and repulsion (when groups move into neighborhoods and cost of living is high is beyond the needs of the new group so they are not settled down easy and the majority group will repel them). URBANISM: way of life promoted by urban settings. -​ What features separate an urbanite from a rural folk? -​ Way of life that is the fashion of an urban setting, the way we dress and talk to other people are features that differentiate an urban from rural person. Urban is exposed to fashion URBAN SYSTEM: interlocking urban systems, interdependent set of urban cities. City regions with different hierarchies, top tier, medium and lower level cities in terms of population and concentration of economic activities. Connected by people, services and economy. -​ Nested hierarchies of core (central business district) and periphery (surrounding areas) areas of the city. Conurbation: network of cities CENTRAL PLACE THEORY Walter Crystaller (German geographer) in the 1930s used the following terms. City is like a market center that evolves as a result of shopping behaviors of people, because on a daily basis people demand goods and services. Individual demands turn into collective demands and that’s why services expand and can be found even in rural areas, where there is more demand for the service. ​ Range: maximum distance that an individual is willing to travel to obtain a good/service. Often affected by cost and time, within a short distance is easier to travel so there is greater volume of interaction, whether a great distance is between a good and individual the desire to travel will be reduced less frequently of travels. The shorter the distance the greater the interaction. DISTANCE DECAY EFFECT. Banff and ROM ○​ Waldo Tobler: everything is related to everything else, but closer things are more related than distant things. ​ High-order goods and services: produced in major cities, very expensive, rare or not common and highly specialized. We find them in major cities like Toronto (neurosurgeon, cancer facility). ​ Low-order goods: ubiquitous, found everywhere and they are also cheap, like groceries, convenience stores, walk in clinics, gas stations.  ​ Threshold population: The minimum number of people who are serviced by the city. Some groups move in and move out and all services, businesses thrive based on the customer, cost of land, price they pay for labour, distance for services and optimal location for establishing a business and take into account the threshold population. Every city has a threshold population, if you want a particular business then do a market analysis. In ideal circumstances, there is a flat plain with good transportation. -​ Low transport cost, lower cost of rent and lower cost of labour. TYPES OF URBAN CITIES -​ Gateway cities: command entrance and exit from a particular country or region, usually emerge as port cities where merchandise, goods and services are brought in (Florence, New York, Halifax, St John, Montreal, Vancouver, Kitimat, Prince Rupert). -​ Shock city: Embodiment of surprising change, their existence is not because of ecclesiastical or religious, it is because of industrial manufacturing, warehouses, metfabrication, assembly lines, food processing. They go through the boom and bust of industrialization, climax of industrial development (Detroit, auto capital of the USA with 40 models of cars but now is in bankruptcy) creative destruction, investment capital for the city to the new era that is experiencing a new boom -​ Colonial city: established and planted for colonial administrations the often fulfilled colonial functions such as ceremonial (public arena where people can have events, activities established for independence day or confederation, they can hold events) offices, government departments, also have trading post where merchandise can be brought in and raw materials are assembled and then transported. Bungalows, plantations and representatives who live in that city. Barracks to store ammunitions and house for soldiers (Forth York) -​ World cities: nerve centre of financial, economic and political culture of the rest of the world. When decisions are made in Toronto it has consequences in other regions in Canada, because important buildings and offices are in Toronto (NYC like the United Nations, world bank, Paris, London). -​ Neo-liberal introduce the Structural Adjustment Program: the wor bank pit requirements on developing countries to devalue their currencies and remove subsidies in services like agricultural, medical and this also impacted other world cities and huge implications for developing cities because government removed services and subsidies and it was cash and carry “if you're sick you have to have money with you to pay medication and a doctor to treat you if not nothing is going to be done” -​ PAMSCAD: program of action to mitigate the social cost of adjustment. SPRAWL The spread of low-density urban or suburban development outward from an urban center. Outward growth of desirable lifestyle for individuals, usually the wealthy class. Wasteful inefficient use of resources and ugly, because so many houses that need to be connected through services like gas, electricity, water and it takes a lot of money.  ​ Physical spread of development is greater than the rate of population growth. ​ Conurbation ​ Edge cities: major highway intersections, restaurants and slow houses around the intersection too. Nodal towns tend to be linchpin. CAUSES OF SPRAWL -​ Human population growth -​ Per capita land consumption -​ Highways, automobiles, technologies, telecommunications. -​ WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE THE GEOGRAPHY OF URBAN AREAS? Rental market, raise of prices if you cannot afford you need to move out. High levels of noise, crime levels -​ Several types of development lead to sprawl: -​ Uncentered commercial strip development: many stores scattered and with great distance from each other, there is no attempt of centralization to concentrate the stores in one particular road. Everything is separated and low density (street level). -​ Low-density single-use development: big properties, housing development exceeds population growth. -​ Scattered, or leapfrog development: development far from the center of the city which requires citizens to commute or drive everywhere -​ Sparse street network: less developed in terms of street but located in very remote spaces. PROBLEMS OF URBAN SPRAWL ➔​ Is urban sprawl a consumer choice? ◆​ Some members of the development industry maintain that the form of postwar suburban expansion is a simple matter of consumer preference. ➔​ Low density developments means high cost infrastructure development. ➔​ Most suburban home buyers pay little attention to the cost of maintenance of home and cost of transportation to and from work. POLLUTION AND HEALTH PROBLEMS: 2 kg heavier than the urban population, when you drive more get exposed to carbon monoxide and that also affects your health, if you inhale too much which is incomplete combustion of fuel on automobiles you feel drowsy and driving falling asleep accidents happen. You die from asphyxiation or suffocation LAND USE CHANGES Key problem: Bid rent theory (different types of land uses are competing, industrial, commercial, residential, agricultural, the type of land use that offers highest profit and best investment is the one that wins and most of the times agricultural loses) this explains why we are losing productive farmlands.  -​ Farmland Easement Agreements: farmers who want to preserve their farmland enter into an agreement that sends officials and they assess and find properties and they come to an agreement. URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS AND TRENDS 1.​ Cities and food production a.​ Currently, there is sufficient food for the world’s population but due to inequitable distribution and poverty, at least 1 billion people are undernourished. b.​ Changes in diet from grains to meat has the potential to cause changes in land uses, deforestation and overgrazing (land degradation) due to intensive livestock operations. c.​ There is an increase in community gardening. d.​ In-door food production is on the ascendancy. 2.​ Atmosphere and climate change a.​ The structure and forms of cities modify location climate by creating unique microclimates. b.​ Overall, cities average temperatures will be about 5 degrees higher than the countryside or rural areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. c.​ In 2012, The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that outdoor air pollution was responsible for 3.7 million deaths whereas indoor air quality resulted in the death of 4.3 million people. d.​ Health problems due to frequent use of cars which promotes physical inactivity. 3.​ Water issues a.​ Cities also affect water quality b.​ Most Canadian cities are served by surface water supply. Only about 10% or urban population are served by municipal systems. i.​ Walkerton tragedy: 2000 people were ill, Justice O'Connor found provincial cut on budget allocation, municipal treat was broken down and they did not release boil water advisory (when you cannot treat the water because it is under repair) with no record or negligence. No water testing lab and they took samples to Manitoba and results came in when it was too late and there was E Coli. ii.​ Kashechewan also had E coli c.​ Southern Ontarians depend on groundwater and they face the possibility of long term decline. d.​ Public or private water provision or public-private partnerships (PPP). 4.​ Sustainable housing a.​ Many Canadians have strong preference for detached, single-family homes due to affordability. b.​ Co-housing is a community planning model developed in Denmark in the late 1960s in which residents own their individual homes which are clustered around a “common house” with shared amenities.  c.​ There are homes that are being constructed that have concern for environmental stewardship, occupant health, resource conservation and use of appropriate technologies. PROBLEMS OF POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY OF TORONTO ​ Fiscal problems; economics: drains tax dollars from communities ○​ Fiscal squeeze not raising enough tax revenue ​ Infrastructure problems ○​ 1.2 billion dollars to fix the Gardiner express ​ Poverty and neighborhood decay ○​ Household debt in Toronto $38,000 ​ Homelessness