Eye Weekly is running a series of articles on development in Toronto. In the first piece, “Beyond NIMBY,” Spacing‘s managing editor Dale Duncan writes about how most residents just want to be part of the process of development in their communities.
“Instead of looking to simply placate resistant residents, the challenge now facing the city is how to give citizens a voice in the process. A citywide model for consulting residents does not exist — at least not in the way associations would like it to — while a confusing planning process, made up of layers of bylaws and difficult-to-access information, presents an overwhelming obstacle to involvement. One million new people are expected to move to Toronto in the next 30 years. For many residents, the fight is no longer to stop development from happening, it’s simply to be involved.”
Also worth reading is an article that defends life in suburbia in today’s Toronto Star. Nicholas Hune-Brown writes: “There’s nothing new about attacking the suburbs. A quick look at their history shows us that their image as a conformist prison is as old as the suburbs themselves. Perhaps the only dirty little secret left to tell about life in suburbia is that, despite what you’ve heard from books, movies and television, it isn’t really all that bad.” If it isn’t all that bad, then why are people who’ve fled the urban centres for the ‘burbs returning in droves? Read this article in the New York Times. [via]
