“The Cost to Build Per Square Foot” Planning for Direct Action for Citizenship in Toronto’s Downtown East

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss the role planning plays at recognizing or denying citizenship within Toronto’s downtown east. Currently, housing is analyzed and addressed through a lens of crisis, which justifies supply side rationale through planning process and political decisions ideologically rooted in the classical economics of supply and demand. Crisis urbanism greatly benefits private capital and its political enablers while exacerbating existing urban social inequalities. The case study focuses on a nearly two-decade long struggle between community activists, developers, and Toronto city council in deciding the best use of the land at 214-230 Sherbourne Street in Toronto’s downtown east. The paper historically situates a community driven development plan for social housing at 214-230 Sherbourne St., a proposal based on community desires and needs that runs counter and disparate to surrounding profit-based market development. The paper closes with a discussion on 230 Fightback’s campaign to continue the struggle for social housing at that location.