As Toronto casts a net across North America in a search to replace recently retired planning chief Gary Wright, Christopher Hume expresses his hopes, and the likely depressing outcome, of the city's efforts.
Although recent planning efforts around the city's waterfront and Regent Park are lauded by Hume as "projects in which the city can take pride," the further one gets from the city center the more evident the need for progressive and comprehensive planning reform becomes. "[O]utside the downtown core it seems no one gives a damn. Let the sprawl continue. Let the malls go up. Bring on the parking lots."
In a desperate plea, Hume concludes that, "In 21st-century Toronto, there's no room for such sloppiness. No civic function is more crucial than planning, but for us it remains an afterthought. What the city desperately needs is a visionary, someone who can engage residents and developers and articulate a compelling sense of where Toronto is headed and how it will get there."
FULL STORY: Hume: Toronto seeks a new chief planner; what it needs is a visionary
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