Recipe for a healthy city

Marit Stiles.

Okay, Toronto, what makes a city livable?

When I moved to Toronto 15 years ago, from a place steeped in its own tremendous and unique culture, but somewhat lacking in diversity, I moved to Sesame Street. Okay, perhaps not literally, but I distinctly remember thinking that Toronto was as different and colourful and exciting to me then as Sesame Street had been to my 5-year-old self, living in Long Pond, Newfoundland.

From my first walk through Kensington Market, to the school playgrounds near our west-end, downtown apartment, teeming with children, to the squash and beans growing in our neighbours’ front garden and the delicious smell of sardines grilling in the backyards: Sesame Street.

I still love my little corner of Toronto. And that’s what makes it bearable to reside in the belly of the sprawling beast that is this city. My neighbourhood is more than a street, it’s a community. Here’s a recipe for why it works:

1. Take one down-in-the-dump park. Add a parent with enough passion and drive to take back that park and form a community of “friends” to embrace it.That park has to be a place where the teenagers playing hockey or basketball can be at home alongside the moms with their organic coffee and the Somali soccer players. Throw in some city staff with the vision to allow that community’s creativity to flourish, instead of stifling it.

2. Add a library, reconfigured and redesigned. No longer a stodgy dark place used by a few, but a bright, functional, inspiring space that makes room for everyone and redefines the library as a centrepiece in the community.

3. Throw in easy access to the TTC, particularly the subway, and you can get to your job in less than 20 minutes at rush hour. A little squished maybe, but you get there.

4. Provide healthy, preferably locally grown food. Start with an organic farmers’ market, add good, healthy food in local shops and restaurants, a small vegetable plot in your own backyard, and a Friday night community supper in the park.

5. Whisk this together with a handful of community schools, principals that live in the neighbourhood they serve, and an alternative option or two within the public system. And don't forget working families will need affordable, quality childcare.

6. And finally, dust liberally with people who, with this infrastructure to support them, throw their homes open to each other. Because it’s the people that live on my street that make my neighbourhood a great place to be.

It’s the fact that – even if your car window is occasionally smashed – your children can play on the sidewalk with their friends every evening.

We look out for each other. We have a cup of flour if you need one, and provide back up childcare in a pinch. We are so lucky this way.

But Toronto is not Sesame Street.

And there's no cookie cutter approach to making the City work. The ingredients may vary from East York to Etobicoke, but the basic recipe remains. We need the supports and services that allow streets to become neighbourhoods, and neighbourhoods to become communities, and we need a city council that allows community creativity to flourish.

Over the coming days and months, I'm looking forward to hearing more about YOUR recipes for a livable city.... my fellow bloggers and people of Toronto. And I'll tell you what questions I'm going to be asking the candidates that make their way to my doorstep.

About Marit Stiles

Comments

[John Sakamoto]

I think the key is to be able to live in an environment that works on more than one level. The small-community-within-a-large-city scenario definitely allows you to cope with the pressures unique to a metropolitan area while at the same time being able to avail yourself of services, cultural and work options that wouldn't otherwise be available to you. The trick is being in a position to choose which of those levels you want to exist in at any given time, rather than having that decision forced upon you by, for example, traffic congestion, noise or crime.

[Ahnan]

We are also blessed with a diversity of yummy affordable restaurants!
Love the blog Marit!

[Double T]

I love living in Toronto and love my Corktown neighborhood, warts and all. The only thing that truly irks me about this city is the King and Queen streetcar lines. I can't for the life of me understand why the TTC is expanding subway lines northwards, meanwhile the only way to get across the downtown core is to take the always late, overcrowded, unpleasant and painfully slow streetcar. Are we in the dark ages?? Not only is the streetcar archaic, it's completely inefficient and makes a HUGE contribution to traffic congestion. I wish someone would have the sense to build an east-west subway line along King Street. We downtowners pay tons in property tax, but our day-to-day transit needs are overlooked in favor of making it easier for people who don't even live downtown get to work! What the...? It's a travesty.

[Anne-Marie McElrone]

Great blog. Can't wait to read more!

[ConcernedCitizen]

All these can be good ideas but the truth is that our children are falling apart. They watch TV, go to school, hang with friends, and by the time they get home they are more rotten than the apple thats been in my fridge for the last 3 months. I think there is a deeper issue at stake than getting them a library and a community to play with in the park. There is an issue that needs to be addressed within the foundations of a human being. Like a building if these foundations are weak the building is bound to come down even if you have the prettiest building on top. This foundation is a rational belief in God. One that confirms that there has to be 1 true Creator of the universe that is seperate and beyond His creation. Of course this Single and Unique entity must be understood in a rational sense; that God is beyond any terrestrial or possible extra terrestrials imagination and that we are created for a purpose. This purpose is to live a righteous life knowing that we will be brought back to account for our actions. This essential belief in the Creator enables humans to live harmoniously with eachother. We see children growing up and as the years pass there attitudes are becoming worse and the morality of the society is quickly fading into the negative. Instead of our children living and molding their actions only to be in accordance with the law they should further develop there morality to be in accordance to what our human nature tells us is correct or incorrect. The fruits this would produce would be like unlike Toronto has ever seen. Of course an essential element to the formula is to make sure we don't ask them to believe in something that is irrational. Like this Unique and Single entity can have a child or can be split into three. That would destroy the rationale developed in the first place to teach children there is an ultimate Creator that we will surely all return to.

[Carol Sutton]

Thank you Marit Stiles for an excellent blog post. In response to your item # "1. Take one down-in-the-dump park. And - - "; I couldn't agree more. I did just that. I call myself an Ambassador Gardener, not a guerilla gardener, because I go about doing what I do in broad daylight, not at night, and I do not sneak or hide, my effort to bring some beauty to a park. I have loving cared for a single small park for since 1983, and started small by planting flowers around tree trunks and under the park sign. Then later planted trees, vines, green walls that provide berries for birds, as do the boysenberry bushes that I planted, also roses for beauty. This park has a basketball court that is a living outdoor community center, a place where ladies are doing T ' ai chi in the morning, kids ride their bikes, basketball goes for six months & ball hockey for four, moms play their tots, even a couple doing dance practice. One main issue is park maintenance. This is the big difference say between Paris, New York, smaller cities like Norfolk, Va. and Toronto. For example the iron fence in this park has not been repainted once since it was installed in 1982, so it is now rusting.

[Maxine]

I would like to see more trees. Everywhere. Especially in my neighbourhood along Woodbine Avenue, north of Danforth Avenue, and south. And more trees along Danforth Avenue, in the stretch from Warden to Pape Ave.
How about bicycle paths on the less polluted streets, like Mortimer, Cosburn which would decrease the bicycle traffic on the Danforth and also decrease the danger! Riding along Danforth is suicide.
I long for the day when I can actually swim in Lake Ontario!! When I arrived 30 years ago, the lake was the most depressing site I had seen. It is improving slightly but it has a long way to go. All along the lakeshore should be beautiful, every kilometre of it.
Good idea for the blog. Thanks

[Brian Tavares]

Double T I totally agree that lack of proper downtown rapid transit (ie. subways) is the defining challenge the city is now facing.

The subway extensions to York, and the supposedly rapid LRTs being built are good ideas but should only be undertaken once the downtown area transit infrastructure is properly built up first. The current manifestation of the transit city plan is going to result in a lot of new people coming onto an already overcrowded set of subway lines.

I think that a good compromise idea in the meantime however would be to make Queen a transit, pedestrian and bike only road, and remove the King streetcar. The Queen route could therefore be way more rapid (as there would be no road traffic and no traffic lights), and could also be a sensible alternative to bikers. The elimination of the King line would then be compensation for drivers for losing the Queen line.

There would be some challenges, like having local businesses get their deliveries etc. but those could be met by either allowing road traffic during certain hours (ie. really early in the morning) or by another out of the box solution.

Amsterdam does something very similar as a lot of their streetcar lines are on pedestrian only areas, and while not as fast as subways, they are undoubtedly much faster than our streetcars.

[ml johnstone]

the way of the future is carfree cities.
checkout reports from the International EcoCity summits.
Our lifestyles and cities have been built to accomodate the auto.
Without regular automobile use, our cities, people and culture will thrive and be HEALTHY

[Shane Holten]

Ensuring accessibility for people of all ages and abilities is fundamental for a healthy City, GTA and country. Universal design must be mandatory for all future initiatives....more to come and I look forward to contributing to this important dialogue!

[Manzoor Alam]

Whatever you do to make Toronto More attractive, it will be appreciated, if people are sincere to make it more beautifull.

One suggestion from me, that, we all live in Toront, and our life is only and only for once, so therefore we all want to live it happily, so please make it possible that all advertising boards, and posters should present smiling pictures of people. Because when we see any psoter, or advertising board, we catch it in a second, and feel either happy or sad, depends on picture showed. Please recommend all debtsolution companies to post smiling pictures in there advertisements. Please Please Please. Most of people live here with out family, and they mostly feel lonliness and sadness, they earn money here, but money is something, not everything. Even I am student, living alone, and feel lonliness, but when see any sad picture so it increase my sadness. Please reply me, and my english is not so good, but my idea is so good I believe.

[Jayne Long]

Newcomers to Toronto could benefit from assistance in embracing Toronto's diversity. So would more established Torontonians. How about an ethnic restaurant passport that would give you a discount at a group of ethnically diverse (and price-point diverse) eateries in our great city? The restaurants would benefit through word-of-mouth advertising, and people who live here could discover and enjoy Ethiopian cuisine, Iranian treats, Russian fare, etc. This could also be a tourist deal to truly showcase and celebrate our magnificent diversity, one of the most important riches of this city.

[James O'Malley]

How about getting rid of some rules!

Take one down-in-the-dump park. I am guessing you are talking about Dufferin Grove Park. I live in High Park but occasionally make the trip to Dufferin Grove. What a difference. On any given evening the High Park skating rink will have 15 or 20 people pass through. They will skate quietly and leave. Dufferin Grove will have 150 people pass through its doors and those people will not skate quietly. They laugh and talk and skate. It is an amazing place. A real community of people working and playing together. There are Friday night dinners and fresh cookies baking, a warm fireplace and an outdoor firepit. Imagine an open pit fire in the city of Toronto? Where else can you do that? Not even in your own back yard is that allowed. But Dufferin Grove broke all the rules. They did not take no for an answer.
From what I understand, Dufferin Grove still fight tooth and nail for every bit of freedom they have from the bureaucracy that is the Parks and Recreation department. Go to High Park and you are told the rules. (My kids friend couldn’t dress as a goalie during shinny one night.) He was told it was for insurance purposes. They might be sued if he was hurt.
Hang on… This is a park. Shouldn’t we make rules that are meant to improve your use of a Park? Instead we are making rules that please the insurance companies? This is wrong on so many levels.
We tried to swim at High Park a few years ago but gave up. Little kids (we have 3) couldn’t use the water slide. You had to be a teenager to be tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool at the base of the slide. No one used the slide. All the little kids wanted to. All the teenagers didn’t care. More stupid rules. The life guards all had the same lunch break so the entire pool emptied (and we all had to leave) for a half an hour. Your can’t build communities around stupid rules that simply frustrate everybody. Dufferin Grove have it right.

[Carol Sutton]

ERROR in names linked to post.

I am Carol Sutton and my post was made on March 6, 2010:

Thank you Marit Stiles for an excellent blog post. In response to your item # "1. Take one down-in-the-dump park. And - - "; I couldn't agree more. I did just that. I call myself an Ambassador Gardener, not a guerilla gardener, because I go about doing what I do in broad daylight, not at night, and I do not sneak or hide, my effort to bring some beauty to a park. I have loving cared for a single small park for since 1983, and started small by planting flowers around tree trunks and under the park sign. Then later planted trees, vines, green walls that provide berries for birds, as do the boysenberry bushes that I planted, also roses for beauty. This park has a basketball court that is a living outdoor community center, a place where ladies are doing T ' ai chi in the morning, kids ride their bikes, basketball goes for six months & ball hockey for four, moms play their tots, even a couple doing dance practice. One main issue is park maintenance. This is the big difference say between Paris, New York, smaller cities like Norfolk, Va. and Toronto. For example the iron fence in this park has not been repainted once since it was installed in 1982, so it is now rusting.
Posted by: Carol Sutton | 03/06/2010 at 08:56 AM
with link:

Which has been listed in this blog as by:
Posted by: ConcernedCitizen | 03/06/2010 at 08:21 AM

While my post listed above is is in ERROR: as;
"I would like to see more trees. Everywhere. Especially in my neighbourhood along Woodbine Avenue, north of Danforth Avenue, and south. And more trees along Danforth Avenue, in the stretch from Warden to Pape Ave. --continues;

THAT IS NOT My post and I can only think that it is in fact been mistaken switched to that by: Posted by: ConcernedCitizen | 03/06/2010 at 08:21 AM

Please correct this. Thank you very much,
Carol Sutton

[Carol Sutton]

Sorry Marit Stiles.,
I was the one in ERROR, here. I did not realize that the comments signature was below the posting line, and not above it.

I do think the layout could be improved, so it is clear who made the comment. Usually one item and its author is between the two lines.

Please excuse me. Thanks, Carol

[Rob Spence]

I believe one of the keys to a healthy and vibrant Toronto is to create public transit and bicycle riding systems that are equally as vibrant and healthy. As one of the thousands that commute to/from the city every day, integration of these systems beyond the borders of Toronto is critical. We are all part of a huge metropolis with Toronto as the hub; the tone will be set in Toronto, but will be to no avail if not supported by the regions surrounding it,