Alan Mallach unpacks a remarkable project currently underway in Toronto, suggesting that sometimes higher, rather than lower, density may be the best way to go.
By the 1990s, Regent Park, a public housing project built in Toronto in the late 1940s, was showing many of the same problems that had prompted the Hope VI program in the United States. With over 2,000 housing units on 69 acres, located less than a mile from booming downtown Toronto, Regent Park had become Canada’s own poster child for distressed public housing.
In 2005, Toronto Community Housing, a city-owned nonprofit social housing provider, partnered with local developer, The Daniels Corporation, to execute a revitalization plan for the entire complex. Though far from complete, Regent Park’s transformation is well underway, and was recently featured in The New York Times. Although the appetite for large-scale revitalization seems to be modest in the United States these days, looking at how Toronto is rebuilding Regent Park offers some intriguing lessons for the federal government, as well as for states and cities that are grappling with the challenges of remaking distressed public housing projects.
FULL STORY: Canada is Looking Better and Better (The Regent Park Story)
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Report Links Housing Growth and Climate Resilience
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Trump Administration Could Effectively End Housing Voucher Program
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Ken Jennings Launches Transit Web Series
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Driving Equity and Clean Air: California Invests in Greener School Transportation
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Congress Moves to End Reconnecting Communities and Related Grants
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved to rescind funding for the Neighborhood Equity and Access program, which funds highway removals, freeway caps, transit projects, pedestrian infrastructure, and more.
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How the Covid-19 pandemic taught us new ways to reclaim city streets from cars.
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
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