Greetings, fellow Scarborough residents.
For many years, the planning profession has prioritized, superficially at least, the notion of “complete communities”. In a Scarborough context, this means not being a bedroom community, but rather, a complete community, where we can work, shop, and enjoy a range of community amenities close to home.
This is a planning principle we can all embrace. Do we really want to lose five to ten hours (or more) every week commuting to and from work on congested roads, buses or subways? Do we really want to travel downtown for all of our sporting events and cultural amenities? Do we really want Scarborough to be subdivisions with wall-to-wall condos on all of our major streets and nothing more?
Scarborough can aspire to do better, if we have the support of our politicians and planners. Not all urban amenities can be close by, but we can do much better than we have.
We’re not going to replicate Bay Street in our backyard. But can we bring a microcosm of this to the Consilium district once we finally get our subway to Scarborough Centre, just like North York was able to do?
We’re not going to have our own Scotiabank Arena. But can we build a basketball stadium with, say, 6,000 seats so our Scarborough Shooting Stars can play in an arena that’s larger than what the Pan Am Centre can offer?
We’re not going to have a Princess of Wales theatre. But, hey, we already have the Scarborough Village Theatre – a great local venue, affordably priced, with lots of parking … and not a bad seat in the house! Can we replicate this north of the 401?
Scarborough is already built out, so we’re not starting from a blank canvas. Therefore, change will happen slowly. But it won’t happen at all if there isn’t a plan to make it so. And that plan must engage the community in a meaningful way.
When we strive to make changes in a city as built out as Scarborough, there are bound to be conflicts. We all want to live in a place surrounded by space and tranquility but we also want urban amenities in close proximity. So there’s bound to be conflicts where they meet, so our politicians, planners, and residents’ associations need to work together to find suitable compromises.
A few years ago, Toronto updated its official plan, which includes fine-sounding language regarding “complete community” principles. But this is at risk of dying death by a thousand cuts, one rezoning approval at a time.
Our strip malls are being bulldozed for high-rise housing, erasing neighbourhood retail and creating food deserts. Employment areas are at risk of being converted to housing too, jeopardizing the many light manufacturing, logistics, and service businesses that employ thousands of Scarborough residents.
What’s the point of shoe-horning more and more people into Scarborough if there’s nowhere for them to work or shop and with insufficient local community amenities? Hence the importance of respecting “complete community” principles.
One more thing …
We can’t have this conversation nowadays without bringing the Province into the discussion. Provincial governments have always had a lot of leverage over our cities. But in recent years, the Province has become more meddlesome in the management of Toronto’s civic affairs.
If Scarborough residents are unhappy with how our city is evolving, we should be “squeaky wheels” with our councillors and our mayor, of course. But we need to express these concerns to our MPP’s and our Premier too.
Larry Whatmore
President
Scarborough Community Renewal Organization
https://www.scro.ca
Larry.Whatmore@rogers.com
(416) 562-2101
