Toronto Magazine - Premier 2008 - (Page 55) As Michael Ondaatje observes in his celebrated Toronto novel In the Skin of a Lion, “Before the real city could be seen it had to be imagined, the way rumours and tall tales were a kind of charting.” Toronto finds itself full of tall tales: home to the world’s largest structure, a 19th-century castle, an art school on stilts, an island community free of cars and a surreal Distillery District, resonating somewhere between the real and the unreal. Mix in the time-warp experiences preserved in regional Toronto, and the textual map of this city starts to take shape. We build the map by charting the points where the stories and the city overlap — the nooks and crannies that together create the , t c i r ts i D y r e l l i ts i D erehwemos gnitanoser dna laer eht neewteb eht ni xiM .laernu eht secneirepxe praw-emit lanoiger ni devreserp lautxet eht dna ,otnoroT o t s t r a ts y t i c s i h t f o p a m eht dliub eW .epahs ekat eht gnitrahc yb pam seirots eht erehw stniop — palrevo ytic eht dna seinnarc dna skoon eht eht etaerc rehtegot taht identity — not so much a product of concrete and glass as memories and imagination. Developers of our city’s most meaningful places couldn’t have anticipated their impact in the building. Yet our stories of them are preserved. In other words, Toronto has unfolded, not as much in the building as in the telling. Torontonians value a high quality of city life like anyone, yet our appreciation of engaging public places is unique. It’s why the theory of placemaking is so prevalent. Placemaking is the creation of squares, plazas, parks, streets and waterfronts that will attract people because they are pleasurable and harmonious. What’s happening in Toronto is a collaborative desire to knit neighborhoods together, to bring real economic and social benefits to the city. Parks departments are partnering with transportation officials to create green spaces and paths for pedestrians and bicyclists. City agencies are teaming dna elbarusaelp era yeht s’ tahW .suoinomrah a si otnoroT ni gnineppah ot erised evitaroballoc sdoohrobhgien tink laer gnirb ot ,rehtegot laicos dna cimonoce skraP .ytic eht ot stfieneb -rentrap era stnemtraped noitatropsnart htiw gni neerg etaerc ot slaicfifo rof shtap dna secaps .stsilcycib dna snairtsedep gnimaet era seicnega ytiC up with business improvement areas to bring a sense of vitality to downtown streets. And community development groups are investing in parks, plazas and other public spaces with the goal of reviving urban neighborhoods. Placemaking succeeds at this larger scale precisely because it encourages dreaming big. The idea pushes to improve cities, neighborhood by neighborhood, through preservation, public space, mixed living, culture institutions and experiential retail while respecting our cultural framework and highlighting the natural assets of the region. Leslieville, the Harbourfront, Queen West, Liberty Village, the Yonge Street Corridor, Streetsville and York Region are experiencing ,doohrobhgien yb dooh ,noitavreserp hguorht ,gnivil dexim ,ecaps cilbup dna snoitutitsni erutluc elihw liater laitneirepxe larutluc ruo gnitcepser -thgilhgih dna krowemarf fo stessa larutan eht gni eht ,elliveilseL .noiger eht neeuQ ,tnorfruobraH eht ,egalliV ytrebiL ,tseW ,rodirroC teertS egnoY kroY dna ellivsteertS gnicneirepxe era noigeR this renaissance. The Entertainment District, Greektown, the Beaches, Chinatown, Little Italy and Port Credit — they’re all longstanding successes. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is credited with coining the phrase “smart growth” in a 1998 report titled Liveable Communities for the 21st Century. This term has since become the banner across North America for the reshaping of urban areas into interactive communities. er’ yeht — tiderC troP dna .sesseccus gnidnatsgnol lla eciV .S.U remroF si eroG lA tnediserP eht gninioc htiw detiderc ni ”htworg trams“ esarhp deltit troper 8991 a rof seitinummoC elbaeviL sihT .yrutneC ts12 eht emoceb ecnis sah mret htroN ssorca rennab eht gnipahser eht rof aciremA otni saera nabru fo .seitinummoc evitcaretni 55 toronto | 2008
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