An examination of what became of Toronto in the last three decades of the 1900s has left some distinguished commentators running around in little circles, flapping their arms and making gurgly noises.
Prepared under the respected direction of J. David Hulchanski of the U of T's Centre for Urban and Community Studies, it shows that something we basically all knew was happening – the city splitting itself into closed enclaves, by no means gated, but rigidly determined by who can afford to live where – is far more pronounced than we ever imagined.
Surprises turned up. The bungalow-lined, crescent-streeted sprawls that once were called suburbs and that spread like viruses just inside the boundaries of the now-amalgamated metropolis were built as middle-class, happy-family refuges insulated from the tumult of the inner city. Today, though, folks who can afford to live somewhere else are choosing somewhere – almost anywhere – else.
Old truths were re-emphasized. The immigrant poor who once would have seethed in downtown slums continue to fester in high-rise infernos along the city's far edges.
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