Toronto Downtown versus Uptown versus...
I know that this is the Toronto Outpost, but which Toronto?
From a strickly transportation effect of oil peak, what does our city look like?
For a walkable orientated community you can't beat downtown Toronto. Sure we don't talk to each other now, but when the lights went out during the blackout of 2003 everyone got to know each other, for a little while at least. That was a lot of fun surprisingly. Without a car how can the GTA people make personal connections? Without population density how will they get things done easily without feeling isolated? There will probably be an abandonment of the Uptown GTA.
The real definitions of our city downtown or uptown are made up of all the different former turn of the century (other century;) local names. Toronto the walkable becomes (for some) bordered by St. Clair and then on south. Maybe not even that far, say Bloor. This will change depending where you are.
Maybe to give ourselves a sense of our local community and local potential focus we could try to re-inforce and re-establish these old names too in our activities? That would help with local concerns and keep things within a walkable distance for local business connections and developments. You'd also likely get to know you're neighbours. Look at the success of Kensington Market and their no-car festivals.
GTA is not going to be a walkable community any time soon. The real borders seems to be transportation daily limits, and your personal connection. Different perceptions and solutions will be the inevitable result.
cheers
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November 10th, 2006
walkable communities in Toronto
Toronto isn't particularly walkable north of St. Clair, or Eglinton, or away from Yonge St....but it could be bikeable.
There is a cluster of retail / commercial strip development along Lawrence Avenue East between Victoria Park and say, Kennedy Road in Scarborough. anyone within 2 km could easily bike to such a strip to do their errands and tasks. I do that now along the Yonge corridor north of the 401.
That said, Toronto is laid out horridly north of the old pre-war neighbourhoods. Huge 2 km x 2km grids filled with low density. If the city population were to decline due to energy pressures, I could see the centres of those blocks turning into little urban farms.
March 5th, 2006
Toronto Downtown versus
Toronto has walkable neighbourhoods from at least some distance north of Eglinton, down the main arteries from Broadview west to Bathurst with clusters of small retail stores and restaurants throughout. I've walked most of that area down to the waterfront over the years I've been here. Beyond the core, the old City of Toronto, however, things quickly turn suburban.
The broader GTA is a terrible problem. Still, there are livable pockets, usually the former cores of the small towns that were absorbed into the growing suburbs.
As long as the oil supply declines relatively slowly, I think what we will see is a huge variety of improvised adaptations: car pools, informal commuter services run by enterprising minivan owners, a shift to smaller energy efficient cars, etc. That will hold things for a while. Perhaps there will be presure to change the zoning rules and allow small retail stores to open up in the centres of residential suburban develpments, by converting homes into retail space (a sort-of suburban Kensington market!).
As for which Toronto Post Carbon Toronto represents, I guess most of us live Downtown. We haven't established a formal boundary as we are so far just a seed. Others are welcome to setup their own Outposts and define their own community boundaries.
March 9th, 2006
let's build a postcarbon map
March 16th, 2006
post carbon map etc
March 20th, 2006
local markets: example Tsukiji Market
So the wholesale market, standing between producers and consumers, promotes the smooth distribution of perishables and contributes to stabilization of diet through the fair and speedy transactions between wholesalers and jobbers in the clean and functional facilities.
There are 88 central wholesale markets in 56 cities in Japan: markets for fruit and vegetables, 54 for fish, 19 for flowers and 10 for meat.""" Our concept to put everything into a refrigerator would seem to be just a North American preoccupation. Such a local network of wholesale foods maintains freshness overall due to proximity to market. In turn this saves a lot of refrigerator space and energy. Here's an already existing legal and applied model that uses and requires such a developed local network. For policy types, look for the Wholesale Market Law, although it's probably in Japanese. cheers
November 12th, 2006
local slaughtering.
We will likely have to go back to localized slaughtering too. If costs of refrigeration goes up, it is likely cheaper to keep the animal alive somewhere in the until you need it for food.
The centralize abattoir and meat packing model doesn't make sense given its high transport and refrigeration costs.
November 17th, 2006
comes down to local people
That's true too. Any transportation based item will take care of itself and move to its market. But is there space?
Also given that the most meat you need would be about a deck of cards per week, the idea of wasting our time with so much meat production as we do now may not seem so appealing in the future.
With grain able to feed more people rather than being wasted on animal production, it may be that locally there will not be so much of a need for local abattoirs. Also the NIMBY rule may delay any initial planning.
With local Toronto cuisine experts (ex: Italian, Chinese, Indian ... food and other groups who have a massive variety of foods meatless and with meat), I think it's only a question of what can we actually grow here? We've got the expertise. I don't think we'll lose much diversity, if we y'know.. plan.
I'm wondering more so these days just how much food we can make if at all when we keep filling in our spaces with wanton condo development?
in the planning it will be with the local producers and local restaurant associations on what's possible. Might be an excellent way to start asking and bridge those community groups now.
Are we lucky and anyone represented here?
cheers