News & Events

The following originally appeared in the Toronto Star.

 
It's all about relationships. That is the beauty and the challenge of the debate at City Hall.

There is the relationship of the Mayor to the members of City Council, and the councillors with each other. There is the relationship between the municipal government and its counterparts at the provincial and federal levels. There is the link between resources and services. At its most fundamental, there is the relationship between the city and its people.

The beauty of the debate is that everyone believes in Toronto. The biggest city in Canada has all the advantages of leadership in culture, business, research and industry.

The challenge is matching these advantages with appropriate support. A budget shortfall allows only two choices, both difficult. Either reduce costs, or find new resources.

No one wants to cut services. Limiting library hours and community programs runs counter to the learning and engagement that a city does its best to encourage. Moreover, those who benefit the most are usually the ones most affected.

The well-known phrase coined by Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University - "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - suggests a parallel: if you think the city is expensive, try decline.

The late Jane Jacobs, writing in Dark Age Ahead, lamented the shift. Once perceived as 'a combination of civilized urban grooming and civil manners with exuberantly cosmopolitan diversity of population, activities and street scenes,' Toronto has given way to the culture shock of 'litter and homelessness' and the 'disquieting surliness or public sullenness' of a city in crisis.

Jacobs acknowledged that federal and provincial taxation means that 'not enough resources return for municipal reinvestment.' At the same time, she urged upon lawmakers and citizens the realization that 'city populations possess diversified abilities for identifying, diagnosing, and solving local shortcomings and needs.'

My own university is a case in point. Eighteen months ago, in a speech to the Canadian Club called 'The University as City Builder,' I announced we would be developing a campus Master Plan.

The location of Ryerson, just off Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, means that university buildings are integrated throughout the neighbourhood. So we declared from the outset that the campus plan would recognize no boundary in the traditional sense and would be, in effect, a 'Campus & City' plan.

Our agenda is clear: more space for our students and scholars, and helping build our city. The buy-on has been an immediate and vigorous demonstration of the abilities Jane Jacobs wants us to invoke.

Our working relationship with the city is vital. It goes beyond consultation and approvals, to a sense of shared purpose. We have the expertise of our master planning team guiding the process. Students and faculty in professional programs, using the Master Plan as a case study, are proposing ingenious and sustainable concepts. Business and development partners are offering ideas and options. We are in discussions with provincial and federal governments seeking advice and support.

We will doubtless not be able to achieve all our aspirations, and in some things we will have to take the long view.

But Ryerson is committed to investing in Toronto, because we believe the progress of the city and university are intertwined. We are proud of everything our city has to offer, and want to attract leading scholars and students to join us here.

These sentiments are most assuredly shared by business, industry, services, and families who have a stake in our city and in its future.

In his inspiring book of essays, Municipal Mind - Manifestos for the Creative City, Toronto's Poet Laureate, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco writes: 'The civic dream stems from the desire for a city to be made happy by a common meditation on the good, enacted by a literacy of grace, in a forum where the transaction of mutual delight results in prosperity.'

This ideal, Di Cocco says, is compromised when" Municipal anxiety stunts civic generosity." This is a relationship that needs addressing.

Investing in our city requires the decisiveness to take positive steps with confidence and determination. The future of Toronto is not about pointing fingers, or trying to figure out who should fix it - it's all of us. We need a clear agenda, unity of purpose, and shared pride in what we can achieve together.