Making bad buildings better
I called it a beacon. A reader called it the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
We were both talking about New York City’s fabulous Prince George building – an old-world jewel housing 208 formerly homeless men and women and another 208 low-wage earners.
Could we create a similar success story for Toronto Community Housing’s most problematic buildings? We must! TCHC has more than a dozen “high need buildings,” that are failing the people who live in them.
Go big AND go home
New York City is known for its beacons: the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the late and future World Trade Centres.
Last month I visited another beacon – or at least a building that deserves to be: Common Ground’s The Prince George building in Manhattan.
The Prince George is a majestic heritage building. Walk past the brass plaque and the library-style security desk and enter a world of ornate charm. The lobby looks like a grand old hotel, or perhaps a posh lawyer’s office.
In fact, it is a 416-unit supportive housing building – home to 208 people with long histories of homelessness, and another 208 low-wage earners.
How do they do it? Read more…
Moving made easy
After the tragic shooting on Danzig Street, three Toronto Community Housing residents told the media they wanted to move out of the neighbourhood.
They could have a long wait. Read more…
Welcome the new, keep the old
I walked through the Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre’s Open House on September 22nd with a lump in my throat. Little girls danced in one room, while professional-calibre adults rehearsed down the hall. Locals displayed their creations at ArtHeart, while fledgling entrepreneurs eyed some of the few office spaces still available in the Centre for Social Innovation. The entire building was filled with life and vitality – city-building at its best.
The centre has been named Daniels Spectrum to recognize the Daniels Corporation’s $4 Million contribution to the building – not to mention the company’s contribution to the entire Regent Park development. If it had not stepped forward when other companies shied at the risks, Regent Park would not be what it is today.
But there was a contributor even more crucial to Regent Park’s success: the visionary able to turn decades of “what-do-we-do-about-Regent Park” talk into action.
So where in Regent Park is the Derek Ballantyne Building? Why is there no plaque, or star in the sidewalk, to acknowledge his contribution? Why do TCHC’s media releases consistently fail to mention his role?[1] Read more…
Three cheers for the Bailão report
It was a big job, but somebody had to do it.
That somebody was Councillor Ana Bailão, who stepped forward last spring to help Toronto Community Housing find money to repair its 58,500 homes – without losing 619 of Toronto’s most integrated and versatile social housing units.
On September 17th, Councillor Bailao and the Special Housing Working Group announced Putting People First: their recommendations for transforming TCHC. The report is going to the Executive Committee on October 9th, and then on to City Council. Let’s look at three reasons to cheer it on its way. Read more…
Home to stay
My parents lived in their house for 35 years. My husband and I have lived in our house for 13 years. We plan to stay as long as we can, and I know my kids have hopes they will be able to stay on after we leave.
Is my family “stuck?” Have we become “dependent on our housing?” Are we selfishly hogging homes that someone else might want? Read more…
Strength comes from within
Danzig Street – the Toronto Community Housing neighbourhood that lost two young residents and saw another 25 wounded last week — has already received more than enough cheap advice from outsiders like me.
Swifter arrests. Longer sentences. More security cameras, youth workers, outreach programs, street patrols, evictions, deportations. The list of solutions goes on and on.
I don’t know enough to sift the good ideas from the bad. All I know is that the residents of Danzig Street have been treated far differently from those who live on my own street. Read more…
The promise of community land trusts
Just over 20 years ago I had the pleasure of sharing a lunch table with the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The lunch table was in a school cafeteria and the occasion was a conference on Community Land Trusts.
Participants sat around the table describing the work they were doing. “I have six houses under development,” one crowed. Another said, “We’re trying to buy a 20 unit apartment building.” Then it was my husband Paul’s turn. “I personally am developing 300 homes this year, and my firm has a total of 1100 homes under development.” And the Mayor said wistfully, “Yet another example of how much we have to learn from Canada.”
How the tables have turned!
Jungle City? Or company town?
A warren of laneways that only the locals could navigate? A place of danger?
I’m not sure what I expected when I joined the Jungle City Walk, a Jane’s Walk led by members of the Lawrence Heights Community Safety Story Circle Group. Read more…
Come and see for yourself
Think of it as a blog in 3-D.
This Sunday, May 6th I will be leading A Fresh Look at Social Housing – a tour that literally walks through 30 years of housing policy and speaks to the hot issues facing Toronto’s social housing today. The tour starts at 2pm at 1555 Queen Street East, just west of Coxwell, and ends at Project Amik around 4 pm.
The tour is one of almost 500 Jane’s Walks held world-wide to commemorate the life and work of Jane Jacobs. There’s other housing walks offered in Toronto this weekend too:
- Jungle City Walk led by members of the Lawrence Heights community
- A Second Look at Regent Park, following on last year’s successful tours
- Or for a different angle on revitalized neighbourhoods, try A Walk on the Radical Side: Gentrification and other downsides of becoming a desirable neighbourhood led by Diane Dyson and Martine August.
Want to celebrate Jane Jacobs indoors?
This spring the City Builder Book Club hosted a blog on each chapter of Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities.
I wrote the entry on Jacob’s chapter on “Subsidizing dwellings.” It’s called “Redeeming Strategic Lunacy.” But don’t stop there. The site is chock-ablock with good thinking.
Opening the Window 