Toronto First Parliament Site | ?m | ?s

I listened to two podcast eps from Urban Politics podcast on the Berlin expropriation vote. It isn't as pie in the sky as it is perceived, but is very much a Berlin-specific solution. I think organizations like the Parkdale Land Trust are more tangible community-oriented solutions to hasten the hyper financialization of the housing market.

urbanpolitical.podigee.io

Housing Struggles in Berlin: Part I Rent Cap

This episode, we discuss the social and political consequences of last week's rent cap ("Mietendeckel") ruling of the German Federal Constitutional Court with Andrej Holm. We explore the history of the Mietendeckel, rising rents, and growing housing activism in Berlin that led to the legislation...
urbanpolitical.podigee.io

urbanpolitical.podigee.io

Housing struggles in Berlin: Part II Grassroots Expropriation Activism

After Andrej Holm delved into the history of 'Mietendeckel', the rent cap legislation in Berlin, in the previous episode on contemporary housing struggles in Berlin, in this episode Joanna Kusiak explores grassroots activism of 'Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen' (Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co).
urbanpolitical.podigee.io
 
evandyk said:
It's not low interest rates. Low interest rates make houses expensive, but mortgages cheap. It's the fact that we don't really build any housing in Toronto while welcoming tens of thousands of new residents every year.
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Yes, but they also incentivize more people to enter the market. I think this induced demand far outweighs the cheaper carrying costs. The median income to house price ratio has also gotten much worse in the past 20 years.

But you're absolutely right that population growth and lack of supply through zoning restrictions are also major contributors. IIRC, there were about 15,000 apartment completions in Toronto last year; that's good only for about 30,000 people while the population was growing by 75,000 people annually pre-COVID. This implied we need to more than double how much we build...
 
ADRM said:
Not to pile on, but I mean, just ugh.

View attachment 351914
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It's a way to distract from the real issue, which is that land-use planning in Toronto (and surrounding communities) is broken. Everyone wants to believe that there's a simple solution, where no one has to make hard choices or pay for anything - just "take it out of the profits of developers". And of course, Councillors are more than willing to play to that theme, because it prevents them from having to make hard decisions around intensification, or tell people what they don't want to hear: your kids can't live close by because nothing is getting built, and stores on main streets are closing because we've too little density.
 
allengeorge said:
or tell people what they don't want to hear: your kids can't live close by because nothing is getting built, and stores on main streets are closing because we've too little density.
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Yeah. We're raising a kid downtown, but it's insanely expensive. I thought KWT was sympathetic, but her tweet suggests not.
 
evandyk said:
Sad thing is that she's probably one of the best three councilors when it comes to being in favour of density. And she still hates it next to a new subway line, because a bunch of old hippies who live in St. Lawrence would vote against her.
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If the mayors are asking the feds for help with the housing problem, it's not going to get them very far unless the federal plan is built around exiling the NIMBYs, most of council, and the existing planning department (especially Lintern) to the Northwest Territories where they can have all the privacy and height limits that they want.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
That is rather pathetic - taking one's sweet time and looking impotent when finally reacting to a horse leaving the barn situation.

AoD
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This! They sat around accomplishing nothing (that master plan was due a long time ago) until they knew that they were about to get pushed out and suddenly they're eager to tell us about all the things that they were just about to do for this city....the city bureaucrats and councilors are so incompetent and slow to act that I'm starting to become very fond of MZOs (blunt and imperfect instruments but at least something is moving forward)
 
Report on the First Parliament Plan done for the City, endorsing it as the basis for future plans for the site is going to next week's Executive Ctte Mtg.

The report is here: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-172097.pdf

The Plan is here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-172182.pdf

From the Plan:

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The built forms have various massing options which I won't put here from short to tall, from east only (tall) to west only etc.

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evandyk said:
Brings us back to this, which Alex posted above.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1382861363433848837

Pretty similar site arrangements, with the difference that the province wants to actually build a lot of housing on the site, and the city wants to build very little.
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An oversimplification, Alex missed some key details.

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Have a look at the setback on Front, its vastly larger in the City Plan as part of achieving a 'Great Street'
Likewise, Look at Parliament, the City Plan calls for a double-row of trees and a 'Great Street' streetscape; the Provincial plan does not.
The open space between the 2 buildings is larger in the City Plan. The overall footprint of the buildings is larger in the Provincial Plan.

In totality, I would call that set of differences quite substantive.

There is certainly room to consider greater height and/or housing than the City's preliminary offering.

But the balance of other differences matter.
 
evandyk said:
If this is both sides' first offer, it seems like there is plenty of space for a negotiated resolution.
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They are still, apparently, talking (Infrastructure Ontario and even the government seem to have learned a few lessons from the Foundry mess) and it is good the the City's First Parliament plan is going to be approved (I assume) by Executive Committee and subsequently by Council. To some extent it is a case of shutting the stable door long after the horse has bolted (or been kidnapped) but the City report contains some very useful recommendations that should not be forgotten.
 
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