Toronto needs a leader to think big, changing the decades-old pattern of growth that packs some new residents into parts of downtown and scatters others onto car-choked roads
Jason Thorne should lead a concerted effort to establish a wholly new official plan for the city. Mr. Thorne stands for a portrait in downtown Hamilton, on Oct. 31, 2018.
Mr. Thorne, who declined to comment on Friday, is well equipped. As Hamilton’s former general manager of planning and economic development,, opening up new development while also actively protecting heritage. He spoke lucidly and often about architecture, landscape and the importance of public space. He is not a bureaucrat. He’s a leader.
Today, this has grotesque results. Large apartment buildings are demolished to be replaced by bigger ones, even as oceans of house neighbourhoods – places with parks and trees and often-empty public schools – see their populations shrink. Meanwhile, the planning department prides itself on creating “communities” from scratch in suburban parking lots.
Then he should lead a concerted effort to establish a wholly new official plan for the city. It should acknowledge Toronto’s place as a global metropolis and the brains of the Canadian economy, and it should note that Toronto can make a massive contribution to climate action and social mobility – not to mention its own fiscal health – just by opening its doors.
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