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A Model of Civic Action in Toronto
Posted by Shayna Pollock on February 14, 2011 |
In how many communities could you get 1000 civic, government, business and labor leaders to gather for two days to wrestle seriously with the future of their city?
Count Toronto in. Organized by Julia Deans at Civic Action, the Civic Action Summit brought Torontonians together to tackle issues such as immigration and talent, the environment, the next generation of leaders, neighborhoods, the economy and the arts with new papers on each topic, lots of facilitated discussions and a few keynote speakers.
Carol Coletta, President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, was among those giving a keynote address. Her remarks, captured in a blog post at Belonging Community and in an article in the Toronto Star detailed CEOs for Cities research that shows the drivers of city success are Quality of Talent, Quality of Place, Quality of Opportunity. And, as Carol noted, nothing happens with Quality of Leadership.
A number of cities in our network have already connected with Julia about the work of Civic Action after her presentation on immigration at our national meeting in Detroit. Her work continues to impress us, and there is much we can learn from her and from her group of Toronto civic…
How to Build a Great City
Posted by Carol Coletta on November 16, 2008 |
That's the cover headline on a recent issue of Azure. Inside, reporter Nelda Rodger asks, "Is a great city one that is thrilling to live in, or one where you never have to lock your bike? Where buildings are tourist attractions, or where everyone rides public transit? Can a great city be made, or does it make itself? "
A particularly timely article in the package is on Torino, Italy's motor city that is "remaking itself by redeveloping the railway lands bisecting the city and the industrial sites that grew up alongside them." The city got a "huge kick-start" by landing the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, and this year, the city was named the first World Design Capital. To celebrate, the city mounted "an impressive program of conferences, festivals, and so on that celebrate the city as a centre of art and architecture, shedding forever its image as a factory town."
Note this observation: "Every aspect of the built environment does double, even triple duty." Wouldn't it be nice if every time infrastructure is touted this week as the solution to our growing unemployment crisis, it was coupled with the criteria of doing double or triple duty?
This…
Toronto’s Tower Project
Posted by on April 13, 2008 |
Toronto Mayor David Miller is in China with his "Tower Project" team to consolidate research on how Toronto's concrete towers can be made more energy efficient and much higher quality places to live. E.R.A. Architects? Graeme Stewart, who will be travelling with the firm?s principal architect, Michael McLelland, told Novae Res Urbis, ?The interesting thing about large Chinese cities is that they have thousands of these tower blocks and most of them, similar to here, don?t have insulation, so a lot of the building sciences we?re working on will be directly applicable there and could make a huge environmental impact.?
McLelland and Stewart have been working with city staff, Toronto Community Housing Corporation, University of Toronto, CMHC, Toronto Atmospheric Fund and the Clinton Foundation to develop a plan and a report is expected in June. Meanwhile, they will be taking the concept overseas, presenting it to Chongqing building officials, who have been early adopters of new policies. McLelland said it is also an opportunity to talk about what makes a city work and to present Toronto?s makeup of neighbourhoods as economic, social and culturally sustainable examples.
Mayor Miller has made the conversion of the city's concrete towers a top priority. He…