05.27.2015 12:24 PM

U of T: Toronto is already segregated – on transit, services and just about everything else

But God help you if you actually say that out loud. I mean, Olivia Chow may pretend that she doesn’t know you!

David Hulchanski, a professor of housing and community development at the University of Toronto, has spent years documenting how Toronto evolved from a mixed-income city to an increasingly segregated one. His “Three Cities” research [PDF], which was updated earlier this year, shows that from 1990 to 2012 the average household income in a number of neighbourhoods, such as North Toronto, increased by more than 20 per cent. In roughly the same number of neighbourhoods, though, average household income declined by 20 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of middle-income communities, which accounted for the majority of Toronto in 1990, dropped to less than a third of all census tracts.

…Wealthy Torontonians are increasingly concentrated in downtown and midtown enclaves, while low-income residents are relegated to the inner suburbs, with limited access to transit, grocery stores, and other essential services.”

4 Comments

  1. doconnor says:

    The segregation isn’t on purpose. Because Toronto is such a great place to live a lot of people what to live here, driving up prices. Many middle class want a detached house but they can’t afford one in the city so they end up in the 905. People with low incomes need rental apartments and most of them are in the inner suburbs.

    The ironic thing is the high income downtowners vote for politicians who would provide more services to the lower income areas, but people with income vote against it.

    I suspect a lot of the NUMBYers are from the shrinking middle class.

    • Peter says:

      Because Toronto is such a great place to live…

      I can understand the appeal to youth and those into exotic food and repertory theatre, but given the cost, crime, congestion and the overall frenetic pace of the place, why so many people, especially people with families, think as you is as big a mystery to me and millions of other Canadians as why so many still root for the Maple Leafs. I’ve had plenty of conversations with Torontonians in which they complain ( boast?) incessantly about their stresses and struggles while making it clear they would never even consider living elsewhere.

  2. WestGuy says:

    Olivia who?

Leave a Reply to WestGuy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.