Media Releases

A City of Neighbourhoods? Local Associations & Their Critics in Toronto

January 28, 2013

TORONTO, ON – A very large num­ber of neigh­bour­hoods in Toron­to include active res­i­dent asso­ci­a­tions that vig­or­ous­ly inter­vene in deci­sions impact­ing on issues of plan­ning and design. For some, this makes the City demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly vibrant; for oth­ers it means that respon­si­ble deci­sion mak­ing is imped­ed by ill-informed and “NIM­BY-ist” inter­fer­ence. It is there­fore impor­tant to know whether or not neigh­bour­hood activism is a pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive force and, there­fore, how it can be either fur­ther empow­ered or, for its detrac­tors, cur­tailed.

The pre­sent­ing speak­ers will be Josh Ful­lan and Dr. Aaron Moore. Audi­ence and pan­el dis­cus­sion, mod­er­at­ed by Pro­fes­sor Frank Cun­ning­ham, will fol­low the pre­sen­ta­tions.

From his expe­ri­ence as a direc­tor of the Annex Res­i­dents’ Asso­ci­a­tion and chair of Peo­ple Plan Toron­to, Mr. Ful­lan will exam­ine the suc­cess­es and chal­lenges of a selec­tion of neigh­bour­hood groups across Toron­to, from the estab­lished to the sub­ur­ban to the emerg­ing.

Dr. Moore will address some major ques­tions about local and neigh­bour­hood asso­ci­a­tions: Are these asso­ci­a­tions legit­i­mate demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions serv­ing every­one, or do they serve only the needs of the city’s afflu­ent groups? What role will they play in the future of the city? Ulti­mate­ly, are they a pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive fac­tor in Toron­to’s devel­op­ment?

Ques­tions and dis­cus­sion will fol­low the pre­sen­ta­tions.

SPEAKERS

Josh Ful­lan is a teacher at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Schools and the cre­ator of Max­i­mum City, an award-win­ning cur­ricu­lum and research pro­gram in urban design and civic sus­tain­abil­i­ty for youth. He is the Chair of Peo­ple Plan Toron­to, a grass­roots orga­ni­za­tion in urban plan­ning that con­venes forums and round­ta­bles, advo­cates for bet­ter plan­ning, and pro­motes a strong com­mu­ni­ty voice in the plan­ning process. He is a direc­tor of the Annex Res­i­dents’ Asso­ci­a­tion and Jane’s Walk School Edi­tion, and has writ­ten and lec­tured wide­ly on com­mu­ni­ty, plan­ning and edu­ca­tion top­ics.

Aaron A. Moore received his Ph.D in polit­i­cal sci­ence from the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Ontario in 2009, and in August 2012, com­plet­ed a post-doc­tor­al fel­low­ship at the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance at the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. He is cur­rent­ly a Fel­low at the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance, and a Research Affil­i­ate at the Cities Cen­tre. He is also the author of Plan­ning Pol­i­tics in Toron­to: The Ontario Munic­i­pal Board and Urban Devel­op­ment, a forth­com­ing book from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press.

MODERATOR

Mod­er­a­tor Frank Cun­ning­ham is Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus of Phi­los­o­phy & Polit­i­cal Sci­ence, and Senior Advi­sor, Cities Cen­tre, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.

“A City of Neigh­bour­hoods? Local Asso­ci­a­tion & Their Crit­ics in Toron­to” is the fourth in the Gov­er­nance in Toron­to series of sev­en free, pub­lic events pre­sent­ed by Cities Cen­tre at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.
http://www.citiescentre.utoronto.ca/about/Events/Neighbourhood_Associations_31Jan13.htm

EVENT DETAILS

WHAT: Pub­lic lec­ture on “A City of Neigh­bour­hoods? Local Asso­ci­a­tions & Their Crit­ics in Toron­to”

WHEN: Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 31, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: FitzGer­ald Build­ing, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, 150 Col­lege Street, Room 103, just east of Uni­ver­si­ty.
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/FxdJ1

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For more infor­ma­tion, or for media RSVPs, please con­tact:

Richard Stren
Inter­im Direc­tor, Cities Cen­tre, and Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Pub­lic Pol­i­cy
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: (416) 978‑0350
restren@gmail.com