Competing Urban Imaginaries in Jane and Finch Green Spaces

Abstract

Green spaces are central to Toronto’s dominant urban imaginary, leading urban planning to privilege regulated and aesthetic landscapes over the informal social practices through which marginalized communities produce space. This paper explores these tensions through the case of Jane and Finch, one of Toronto's modernist neighbourhoods. It does so by tracing the historical evolution of green space planning in a review of literature, analyzing contemporary planning documents, and examining the spatial transformation of green space amenities between 1956– 2024. The findings highlight a persistent mismatch between Toronto's dominant planning imaginary and the lived social landscapes of Jane and Finch. While city-wide planning documents characterize modernist green spaces as ahistorical landscapes requiring animation and redevelopment, the evolution of local amenities demonstrates that green spaces are embedded in broader planning histories, and may function as sites of everyday informality and care. Beyond challenging dominant representations of modernist green spaces rooted in disinvestment and stigmatization, this paper outlines an alternative perspective that advocates for community self - determination in urban planning. The mapping project that accompanies this paper can be found here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/22f97262ce7a49118d102f782dff0b64