Subdivided

City-Building in an Age of Hyper-Diversity

How do we build cities where we aren't just living within the same urban space, but living together?

Greater Toronto is now home to a larger proportion of foreign-born residents than any other major global metropolis. Not surprisingly, city officials rarely miss an opportunity to tout the region’s ethno-cultural neighbourhoods. Yet there’s strong evidence that the GTA is experiencing widening socio-economic disparities that have produced worrisome divisions. We say that ‘diversity is our strength,’ but has a feel-good catchphrase prevented us from confronting the forces that seem to be separating and isolating urban communities?

Through compelling storytelling and analysis, Subdivided’s contributors – a wide range of place-makers, academics, activists and journalists – ask how we can expand city-building processes to tackle issues ranging from transit equity and trust-based policing to holistic mental health, dignified affordable housing and inclusive municipal governance. Ultimately, Subdivided aims to provoke the tough but pressing conversations required to build a truly connected and just city.

Contents

Introduction - Jay Pitter

Identity and the City: Thinking Through Diversity – Beyhan Farhadi

Doing Immigrant Resettlement Right – Doug Saunders

Wasauksing–Vancouver–Toronto: My Path Home – Rebeka Tabobondung

How We Welcome: Why Canada’s Refugee Resettlement Program Undermines Place-making – Sarah Beamish and Sofia Ijaz

Finding Space for Spirituality – Fatima Syed

Navigating the City with an Invisible Illness: The Story of Dorothy – Denise DaCosta

Culture and Mental Illness – Karen Pitter

Neighbourhood Watch: Racial Profiling and Virtual Gated Communities – Asmaa Malik

Accessing Education: An Immigrant’s Story – Nicholas Davis

Policing and Trust in the Hyper-Diverse City – Nana Yanful

Three Questions about Carding – Idil Burale

An Overburdened Promise: Arts Funding for Social Development – Ian Kamau, Paul Nguyen and Ryan Paterson, with John Lorinc

Designing Dignified Social Housing – Jay Pitter

Walking Through Loss: A Critical Visit to an Old Neighbourhood – Photography by Taha Muharuma

Reconsidering Revitalization: The Case of Regent Park – Jay Pitter in conversation with Sandra Costain

Model Citizens – Andrea Gunraj

A Tale of Two – or Three – Cities: Gentrification and Community Consultations – Mariana Valverde

Mobility in the Divided City – Eric Mann

Toward More Complete Communities: Business Out of the Box – Alina Chatterjee

Going Beyond Representation: The Diversity Deficit in Local Government – John Lorinc

Brampton, a.k.a. Browntown – Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Life in the City In-Between – Shawn Micallef

Conclusion – J. David Hulchanski