City Hall

U of T task force on city hall reform featured in Toronto Life

ullahnor — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 19:41:52 +0000

U of T task force on city hall reform featured in Toronto Life

ullahnor Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:41

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A city hall task force launched by U of T recently made recommendations on how to reform municipal government in Toronto (photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)

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City & Culture

Cities

urban

City Hall

Government

School of Public Policy & Governance

Toronto Life features a School of Public Policy & Governance (SPPG) task force that recently released recommendations for reforming city hall.

The task force, launched by U of T's Gabriel Eidelman, an assistant professor at SPPG, released a report titled “A Practical Blueprint for Change” that makes 14 recommendations such as capping council meetings to 12 hours and restricting councillors’ questions to staff.

Read the article

Frontier City: U of T’s Shawn Micallef takes on populism and potential in Toronto

Romi Levine — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 17:00:32 +0000

Frontier City: U of T’s Shawn Micallef takes on populism and potential in Toronto

Romi Levine Thu, 03/09/2017 - 12:00

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Shawn Micallef's new book ‘Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness’ explores what's behind the rise of populism in Toronto (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, before the United Kingdom voted in favour of Brexit, there was Rob Ford.

The late former mayor of Toronto made it clear that populism was alive and well in Canada. But what drew people to become loyal followers of Ford Nation?

That’s what Shawn Micallef is exploring in his new book Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness.

Micallef is an author, co-founder of Spacing Magazine, a Toronto Star columnist and a lecturer at University College and Innis College at University of Toronto.

“When you're downtown, it's very easy to be seduced by the prosperity of this place with cranes in the sky,” Micallef said at a book launch on Tuesday at Innis Town Hall. “There's a lot of Toronto that doesn't get to participate necessarily in all of that prosperity and all of that Sesame Street urbanism.”

Micallef was joined by Shauna Brail, U of T’s presidential adviser on urban engagement and director of the urban studies program, who moderated the event, as well as Jennifer Pagliaro, Toronto Star city hall reporter and former city council candidates Alejandra Bravo and Keegan Henry-Mathieu – who were both interviewed for the book.

Frontier City tells the story of Toronto’s neighbourhoods often neglected by downtown-centric politicians through conversations with 12 former non-incumbent City Hall candidates on walks around their wards.

“What was great about underdog candidates – people who were challenging power – was they were critiquing power. They’re not trying to hold on to it,” said Micallef. “They're a lot freer to come up with ideas, to talk about the future potential of the city – what’s wrong with it and where it's going. That kind of liberation of thought was a fun thing to explore.”

Panelists at the Frontier City book launch, from left to right, Jennifer Pagliaro, Alejandra Bravo, Keegan Henry-Mathieu and Shauna Brail (photo by Romi Levine)

Henry-Mathieu, a Ward 7 candidate, said he enjoyed reflecting on his neighbourhood with Micallef.

“It was the first opportunity for me to really walk around and see the neighbourhood differently – to be able to make that connection between the greatness of our people and the potential of our neighbourhoods.”

It’s important for all Torontonians to remember that different people experience the city in different ways, said Bravo, who was a candidate in Ward 17.

“It's important to challenge our generalized assumptions about how inclusive and diverse our city is,” she said.

“For so many people, they've only ever known low wages, high unemployment, really expensive housing – this generates a sense of insecurity and fear about the future. That's what a lot of our neighbours are contending with.”

The danger comes when we think we’re immune to the discourses the United States has been confronted by, she said.

“We have a tendency to mythologize Canadian exceptionalism,” she said.

If City Hall continues to brush these issues aside, Toronto runs the risk of electing another Ford-like leader, said Micallef.

“These looming crises of being left out of the prosperity that a lot of people in the city enjoy means it's going to come back,” he said. “There's no one on the radar yet, but if a populist leader with the magical charisma that Rob Ford had...if another person like that comes along, they'll be unstoppable.”

But Micallef’s message is also hopeful, said Pagliaro who cited an exerpt from the book that reads: “We're always longing for a city we don't allow ourselves to have.”

“It is both an urgent callout but also something that's very hopeful,” she said.

U of T McLuhan salons take the classroom to the city

Romi Levine — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 19:35:05 +0000

U of T McLuhan salons take the classroom to the city

Romi Levine Tue, 11/08/2016 - 14:35

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The first McLuhan salon took place in the City Hall council chamber (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Faculty of Information

McLuhan Centre for Culture & Technology

Toronto's place in an increasingly interconnected world was the subject of the inaugural McLuhan Salon, hosted by U of T's McLuhan Centre for Culture & Technology.

The salons are a nod to famed University of Toronto professor Marshall McLuhan, whose ideas about mass media, technology and culture still have a huge impact on today’s thinkers. They kicked off last week with Torontonians packing into the City Hall council chamber for the first event.

“We thought it would be good to get out of the university, get out of the centre, to bring the McLuhan Centre into the city in order to better explore the city under the broad theme of ‘City as Classroom’,” said the McLuhan Centre’s David Nostbakken, who was once McLuhan’s teaching assistant.

Nostbakken moderated the event. Speakers included author Anne Michaels, Toronto’s poet laureate and a U of T alumna; Vickery Bowles, city librarian at Toronto Public Library; and Kevin D’Innocenzo‎, a consultant with Lord Cultural Resources.

Altogether, there will be six events held by the Faculty of Information's McLuhan Centre, each at different cultural institutions monthly. The salons will bring together experts from different academic disciplines and city institutions. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the discussion.

Find out more about the McLuhan salons

Keeping in line with McLuhan's idea of the “global village,” the first salon explored the role Toronto and its cultural institutions play in the world. For example, the Toronto Public Library has found that technology has “transformational power” in public libraries.

“We’ve been able to reach people in ways we never dreamed of before,” said Bowles.

For example, when the library published a blog post welcoming refugees from Syria to Toronto, a refugee living in Beirut sent a message in response: “Thank you for welcoming us to the big Canadian family.”

“It was a real-time connection that social media allowed us to achieve,” Bowles said. “It’s important for us to be able make that kind of connection available to everyone. That’s an important part of what the public library does and what we’re so dedicated to.”

Author Anne Michaels (left) and Lord Cultural Resources consultant Kevin D'Innocenzo (right) spoke at the event (photo by Leona Seely)

Michaels said bringing together different groups of people who speak different languages is the perfect opportunity to showcase the richness of Toronto’s cultural communities.

“In this really extraordinary city, we speak over 140 languages,” she said.

“As we have more and more [newcomers] come to the city – more and more immigration and languages – this kind of history is extremely important. It’s giving this place its own stories.”

The city is starting to share those diverse histories through projects like Myseum, which explores the stories of newcomers to Canada, D'Innocenzo said.

“We are very cognisant and keen on giving people a platform to tell their story, and we’re only getting better at it.”

After all, it’s the core of what the city stands for, Bowles said.

“The city’s motto is ‘Diversity Our Strength’, and I think that’s something that’s so important for everyone to remember all the time because it’s so true about our ability to understand other people and understand their cultures. It builds connections that are so important for us as individuals, as communities, as cities.”