Toronto ascendant

Though the worldwide zeitgeist was all disaster all the time, locally the ’00s were a time of unbridled (and partially justified) optimism

Looking back on the decade, the big global picture is marked by disasters that occurred (terrorism, Bushism, earthquakes and floods, economic meltdown), those that didn’t occur (Y2K) and one that may occur because of our inaction (Kyoto and Copenhagen). We’ve seen wars (Afghanistan, Darfur, Iraq) and all manner of ugliness (Alberta’s oil sands, the destruction of the federal Liberal Party, reality TV).

In Toronto, however, the first decade of the 21st century was most profoundly a time of civic renaissance — at both the grassroots level and in the high towers of officialdom, we enjoyed a palpable sense of Toronto’s ascendancy that reached into the worlds of politics, architecture, art and culture.

This was not a foregone conclusion. We began the decade in a bit of a funk. Mike Harris, who never saw a Toronto-screwing policy he didn’t like, was still premier. Mel Lastman, one of the most buffoonish politicians in living memory, was mayor. The local music scene was scattered and chaotic, the city’s street-level blahness was its defining architectural feature, the TTC was suffering from a couple of decades of neglect (a new privatized highway was the most significant transportation initiative of the previous years). Toronto the Good had evolved slowly into Toronto the Almost Good Enough.

And the early years of the new decade brought more than enough bad news to make it seem that the trend might continue: Yonge and Dundas began its transformation into a bleak and later gaudy monument to advertising, a computer-leasing scandal at City Hall devolved into accusations of outright bribery and SARS ravaged the tourism industry.

But the state of Toronto’s repair had begun to inspire action in various circles. Local activist Dave Meslin founded the Toronto Public Space Committee to fight creeping commercialization and stand up for transit, pedestrianism, cycling and various other city-building causes — which eventually gave birth to Spacing magazine, which became the key journal for lefty, civic-minded Torontonians (full disclosure: I’m a contributing editor). The Wavelength music series and zine was founded to give a shot in the arm to local bands, and soon the website 20hz and, subsequently, Stillepost were serving much the same function aside a host of local record labels including Arts&Crafts. Business titan David Pecaut convened the Toronto City Summit Alliance to address the city’s malaise, and eventually the Luminato festival followed in its footsteps.

All this energy seemed to coalesce with the 2003 election of Mayor David Miller, who brandished a broom and put a new face on the city — representing a revival of Jane Jacobs’ (who was a Miller supporter) grassroots urbanism.

The new psychology was accompanied by a physical resurgence, too — the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario got celebritect makeovers while the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the Gardiner Museum and (most playfully) the Ontario College of Art and Design added new landmark buildings.

As documented in the uTOpia series of books from Coach House, the grassroots efforts started bearing fruit by mid-decade, a series of victories that continues. A thriving local music, literary and gallery scene, a host of civic events (from PS Kensington Sundays to Nuit Blanche) were established and political victories were won (bike lanes established, transit plans aggressively pursued, billboards taxed).

Even as Jane Jacobs passed from living prophet to patron saint living in memory, this decade’s global urban guru, Richard Florida, chose to make his home here.

At decade’s end, there are several fitting (and in some cases sad) bookends to mark the conclusion of the era. Transit City is slowly lurching towards reality. David Pecaut died suddenly this month. David Miller has announced his retirement. Wavelength is ending its weekly series and evolving into something else. The billboard tax so long fought for by public-space activists — Meslin’s first campaign at the founding of the movement was opposing a video billboard — was passed.

And if some of the shine has come off Torontopia, it is because of its success. New city powers wrestled from the province allowed the implementation of still-controversial new taxes. The implementation of the vision of a dedicated transit route have turned St. Clair West into a nightmare for commuters of every stripe. A decade of progressively better garbage diversion strategy has been capped by an absolutely ridiculous garbage bin program. Richard Florida faces critics and mayoral succession is a toss-up. The city’s revitalization has driven real estate prices and rents in our so-valued downtown neighbourhoods further and further out of the reach of those of modest means.

These are real dilemmas, problems and conflicts. But, encouragingly as we end such an exuberantly positive decade, they are largely the dilemmas, problems and conflicts of a thriving metropolis rather than those of a city in decline. We’ll need the vision, energy and urban spirit of this past decade to continue forward so we can deal with the fresh challenges of the next.

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