Meet the Avatars Helping to Plan Toronto's Downtown

Introducing a group of 16 avatars meant to represent the people who live, work, and play in downtown Toronto.

1 minute read

May 18, 2016, 7:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Toronto Streetcar

The City of Toronto / Flickr

The planners behind the ongoing TOCore downtown planning process recently introduced a group of "avatars," created from demographic data about the city.

The TOCore website explains the reasoning behind the avatars:

Businesses create customer profiles all the time to ensure they are thinking about the needs of their customers, like when they are designing new products. This is the same thing, but we're taking our Avatars one step further and making them public.

The website lists 16 such avatars, covering such demographic categories as refugee, homeless, special needs, trans youth, and lots more.

The Regional Plan Association created a similar group of avatars for the purposes of creating the Fourth Regional Plan in 2014.

As for TOCore, the downtown planning effort launched a second phase in April 2016. More information can be found at the plan's website and with #TOCore.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016 in Toronto

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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