Bianca Quijano

Students from the University of Tsukuba’s graduate program in Urban Planning are participating in an exchange with U of T Scarborough City Studies and Human Geography students.

As they walk through the bustling streets of the Spadina area, one Japanese student makes an observation that would seem surprising to a Toronto resident.

“It’s so much more peaceful here.”

From July 2 to July 9, 10 UTSC students travelled to Tokyo to learn about Japanese planning and the history of the city’s urbanization plans. They went on walking tours and attended seminars about recent planning issues, led by their Japanese counterparts. On July 10, they were accompanied by 13 Japanese students as they returned to Toronto.

Now, it’s the UTSC students’ turn to present workshops on local city planning issues and take their colleagues on tours of the city. The Japanese students will be here until Sunday. For the UTSC students, the trip is part of the course GGRC54H3, taught by Professor Andre Sorensen. He says that this hands-on approach puts all of the things that his students have learned into good use.

“They’re all experts on Toronto. So it’s a valuable project for them to prepare seminars to present the city's urban issues to our guests and think through the differences between Tokyo and Toronto,” Sorensen says.

Professor Sayaka Fujii came to UTSC in 2013 as a visiting professor. She wants her students to learn about Toronto’s planning issues and hopes that her students gain wider perspective from being able to see first-hand how a different culture tackles planning issues.

“Urban planning programs all over the world have different types of curriculum. Even some of the basic principles can be very different. I want my students to understand this and inform their future studies and professional work,” Fujii says.

For student Shohei Ono, getting over the culture shock is an education in itself.

“This is my first time travelling outside of Japan. I’ve never even been on an airplane until now,” says the first year Masters student.

Walking through the grounds at U of T’s St. George campus, Ono wants to learn about how the city preserves its historical sites.

“It’s very interesting to see the historical buildings because in Japan we have very few historical buildings left in the inner city of Tokyo. They are all demolished and replaced by new buildings. I’m interested to learn about the policy or laws that preserve these historical buildings.”

Ono’s classmate, Keisuke Akiho, also noticed immediate differences between Toronto and Tokyo.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the people here. In Japan, we basically only have Japanese culture. Here cultures and peoples from all over the world are represented,” Akiho says.

So far, the Japanese students have gone on tours of Fort York, the Toronto International Film Festival building and Evergreen Brickworks. On a tour of Kensington Market, they heard from Yvonne Bambrick, founder of Cycle Toronto and author of The Urban Cycling Survival Guide to learn about the issues facing Toronto’s roads, motorists and cyclists. From UTSC students, they also learned about projects such as urban intensification in the King-Spadina neighbourhood and the Project under the Gardiner, which was covered by fourth year UTSC student Mahrukh Shabbir.

As she shares some candy she bought in Tokyo with her new friends, she reminisces about her time in Tokyo.

“They are so friendly and polite. When you bump into someone they will be the ones to apologize to you,” Mahrukh says.

She also realized that Toronto has much to learn from the Japanese, in terms of city planning. Particularly, she was impressed by the level of public involvement that the Japanese were able to muster in certain projects, especially those in their suburban neighbourhoods and how they were able to utilize technology to encourage participation.

“They have portals where people can identify and map their issues. Then they offer crowdsource funding and people actually donate, “she says. “For example, if I believe that there should be a stop sign in a certain intersection where there isn’t one I would go to the local community manager. Then they would help me set up a funding page where anyone can donate. Actually, their projects get overfunded in a way because so many people donate.”

This kind of new insight is exactly what Professor Sorensen hopes the students will gain from the exchange. Sorensen says that in the future, students will be able to go on exchanges to other cities such as New York, Chicago or Montreal.

“Working and living in a single city, you have often too much information. It’s hard to see the basic contours of the issues,” he says. “Whereas when you’re comparing different cities you see the big issues more clearly.”

Rising housing prices and Scarborough’s social revolution

krisha — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 17:03:59 +0000

Rising housing prices and Scarborough’s social revolution

krisha Thu, 07/21/2016 - 13:03

Cutline

The suburban skyline in Scarborough. Photo by Benson Kua, via Flickr

Bianca Quijano

Author legacy

Bianca Quijano

Topic

Subheadline

“The city of Toronto as a whole, Scarborough in particular, is in the midst of a social revolution,” says city studies professor

July is looking to be another record-breaking month as housing prices in Toronto continue to soar.

Scarborough, in particular, has seen the steepest increases this year. Prices of single detached houses in the area have risen to an average of $625,000 – a 44 per cent increase since 2012. Are these the tell-tale signs of a real estate bubble?

Writer Bianca Quijano spoke with Professor John Miron from the department of human geography.

On why suburban Scarborough has seen a surge in housing prices:

The traditional argument in real estate is that prices of different classes of real estate assets in different neighbourhoods increase at the same rate. There can be exceptions. If you’re in an area of Japan affected by the radioactivity from Fukushima then property values are going to be depressed for a long time. It’s a long-term economic perspective that may or may not be correct when we’re looking at mortgages in the short-term.

When I was a young man I bought an apartment in downtown Toronto. My parents lived in suburban Scarborough. I lived in my condominium for 30 years. It cost $45,000 when I bought it. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. My parent’s house was also $45,000. It had four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, two-car garage, detached and on a good-sized lot. Forty years later I sold my parents’ house for more or less the same price as I could have gotten for my apartment.

There’s no such thing as local hot markets or cool markets – at least not over the longer term. In the shorter term, when you talk to real estate agents there are hot markets and cold markets. For a moment, one area looks attractive and people start buying. Then it gets expensive, prices get pushed up and people start looking somewhere else that’s similar but not as expensive. So they start buying in that neighbourhood. It’s like popcorn. It keeps moving around. But when you view it over five years or ten years, they all tend to increase together.

Scarborough is not really this new wonderful place to live. Compared to others it was just a relative bargain. House prices in Scarborough will eventually go back into the same state relative to other parts of Toronto that it was in before.

On Scarborough's social revolution and how real estate markets affect the way we live:

The city of Toronto as a whole, Scarborough in particular, is in the midst of a social revolution. This social revolution is changing the way we do things, the nature of consumption and behavior, what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable. To me it’s evidenced in the condominiumization of Toronto. I lived for 30 years in one of the first condominiums of Toronto. To me, what it means is increasing control over the daily lives of its residents.

Over time, there is a growing body of rules that you have to adhere to if you’re going to live in one of the condominiums or townhouses that are coming up. If your aspirations don’t match with that of the project, the only alternative for you is to sell your unit and buy property somewhere else.

People will find themselves increasingly constrained. In the old days, if you lived in a single detached house, you could pretty much do things that you wanted to do: playing loud music and having friends over late at night are examples. But in condominiums your freedom to live the kind of life you want is becoming more restricted.

Also, new residents typically want something different from what previous residents occupied. With hot housing markets in existing neighbourhoods, we find much new construction, renovation, and often intensification. Construction noise, traffic and congested schools can be very disruptive to existing residents. Existing residents who are homeowners can take some solace in knowing their property values have gone up, for renters however, there may be little upside.

On whether Toronto is in a housing bubble:

I say 1986 to 1988 was clearly a bubble. Prices doubled in three years. Then they fell by 30 per cent. Somewhere between three months and a year was all it took to fall 30 per cent. I use that as a benchmark. Prices have to increase that quickly again for this bubble to burst. I don’t think we’re at that stage yet. Prices certainly have gone up very rapidly from 2005 to the present time but it will come to an end. The general rule is that the rate of increase of house prices is about two-thirds of the rate of increase of the Consumer Price Index. We’re well above that level at the moment. But there will be a period coming up soon where it will be much slower.

On buying a house in Scarborough:

Don’t think of housing as a good investment. It’s not a good investment – over the long term it generally loses ground relative to the Consumer Price Index. If you want to invest in the long term so that you earn more than the rate of inflation then you have to invest in something other than housing. In 1988 when the prices dropped in Toronto it wasn’t until 2005 that they started rising substantially. So if you bought a house in 1988, at the height of the market, in 2005 you still hadn’t recovered your money and that was 17 years later. People think that prices will keep increasing forever and ever. That’s not true. We have protracted periods where prices have not increased very much at all.

How you balance all of your priorities in life is also another thing to keep in mind. For example, now I live in an old part of Pickering built in the 1950s. It’s by Lake Ontario, backing onto the Rouge River. It has ample parking, lots of big trees and shade. It’s a wonderful area with 50 to 100 ft. lots. You go to a new subdivision in Pickering and the houses are built very close together. You can’t step on your driveway without looking at your neighbour’s car. There are no trees, no privacy, no shade. I look at this and think that people can’t possibly live here. But they all sell quickly. Some people don’t want to spend their money on housing. They want to spend it on other things that are more important to them. That trade-off determines what people are going to buy.

See the original of the photo at the top on Flickr

#UofTGrad16: U of T Scarborough’s global citizens

lanthierj — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 19:57:58 +0000

#UofTGrad16: U of T Scarborough’s global citizens

lanthierj Fri, 06/03/2016 - 15:57

Cutline

U of T Scarborough grads gather for convocation (photos by Johnny Guatto and Ken Jones)

Don Campbell

Bianca Quijano

Author legacy

Bianca Quijano and Don Campbell

Topic

They majored in a wide range of subjects but they share a single focus: helping those in need around the world.

Students from the University of Toronto Scarborough were some of the first members of the 18,000-strong Class of 2016 to cross the stage at Convocation Hall this week. Among them: U of T’s top grad, Mihil Patel.

Farika Ekra:

In 2013, Farika Ekra, a sociology and public policy student, travelled to Bangladesh to personally deliver money raised for victims of a factory collapse that left over 1,100 people dead and many more injured.

As the founder and president of Young Canadians for Global Humanity, her group raised $9,000 for amputee victims of the building collapse in Savar, Bangladesh. The not-for-profit organization continues with its aim of encouraging young people to get involved in humanitarian efforts all over the world.

“I’ve always felt that the most important thing to remember is that you don’t lose anything by helping other people. Helping others shouldn’t be reduced to a system of bartering in which you help someone with the intention of receiving something back,” she says.

“My motto is pretty simple; be humble, be selfless, and try to help others whenever you get the chance.”

In addition to being an executive of the Young Liberals Association at UTSC, Ekra also held executive positions with the Political Science Students Association and the Scarborough Youth Philanthropic Council at the Scarborough Hospital.

Her desire to help those exploited through weak global policies and her research interests led her to the Masters of Public Policy program at the School of Public Policy and Governance at U of T, where she will begin in the fall.

It should come as no surprise that one of her research interests is the issue of worker safety and how it relates to global policy and development.

“Public policy is rooted in bettering our society through the research, analysis and development of policies that tackle social and economic issues in our society. In essence, it’s part of a broader category of helping others and really influenced my decision to pursue a Masters in it.”

Nikki Shah:

Nikki Shah, a human biology and psychology graduate, was deeply affected by Typhoon Haiyan that devastated the Philippines in 2013. After seeing images of the crisis on TV, she decided to do something about it.

“I wanted to help those people, but I was only one person. I knew I needed help.”

That’s when she founded UTSC Friends of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders). Since then, the group has grown to include hundreds of members. They help send medics and other support workers to people affected by natural disasters, conflicts and pandemics all over the world.

She’s also proud of a speaker series she was able to help organize featuring the Vice-President of MSF Canada – and U of T alum – Dr. Saleem Kassam. Shah’s interest in health care came out of her own struggles with benign tumours in her knee when she was younger as well as family members who suffered through poor health.

During her time at U of T Scarborough Shah was also an executive at the UTSC chapters of UNICEF and Free the Children, but she also participates in groundbreaking scientific research.
“I’m currently working at SickKids Hospital, helping conduct research on how extremely preterm babies perceive and communicate pain. Our findings will help improve the way they receive medical care in the future,” she says.

After graduation, she wants to pursue a career in public or global health.

“If you don’t have good health, nothing else matters,” she says. “It’s very hard to dwell on the fact that so many don’t have access to adequate healthcare, and it’s something that really motivates me.”

Hasna Syed:

“There’s so much talent and passion among young people, but often those voices are muffled on important issues of global and even local significance,” says Hasna Syed, 22. “We wanted to create a community that gave youth leadership opportunities but also a bigger voice on important issues.”

With her sisters -– and fellow U of T Scarborough students – Sarah and Hana, as well as brother Bilal, Syed created Global Youth Impact.

The NGO and student group quickly earned a reputation on campus for raising awareness about important global issues, social advocacy work, running workshops and community engagement projects. But the organization, which is eyeing expansion to other Canadian university campuses this fall, isn’t the only way Syed, who graduates June 2, is making an impact.

Hasna and her siblings have also been singing together for most of their life. What started out as a hobby soon transformed into a means to help others. They’ve given performances in front of City Hall, the Canadian Labour Congress and also performed for the Music Against Child Labour initiative.

Their group, DEYSofficial, wrote a song for the 2015 Pan Am & Parapan Am Games in Toronto, but it was their song Raise Our Voices that garnered the most attention after it was featured in a United Nations campaign against child labour.

They were also invited to attend the United Nations Youth Assembly in 2015 that took place at the U.N. headquarters in New York. The summit focused on giving youth from around the world a voice on issues surrounding sustainable development including the global economy, environment and energy policy.

“It was a tremendous privilege to be invited and to be the first U of T student delegation selected to take part in the assembly,” says Syed. “It was such a unique experience having all of these young voices at the table talking about issues that will be important to us in the future.”

During her time as an undergrad Syed also served as president and held various executive positions with the U of T Scarborough Political Science Students Association. That passion for political science and human rights will follow her to the London School of Economics and Political Science this fall where she will begin a Master’s in Human Rights.

“I’ve always wanted to be in a position where I can help give a voice to those who are ignored and neglected,” she says.

“If I can help lift people up by making sure they are treated fairly, equitably and have access to justice, I will be satisfied with that.”

Read about more U of T Scarborough grads

Hold the honey – it’s time to celebrate wild bees, says U of T researcher

lavende4 — Tue, 24 May 2016 14:12:04 +0000

Hold the honey – it’s time to celebrate wild bees, says U of T researcher lavende4 Tue, 05/24/2016 - 10:12

Cutline

Homeowners can help save native bees by planting lots of flowers, says UTSC researcher Scott MacIvor (photo by Bianca Quijano)

Bianca Quijano

Author legacy

Bianca Quijano

Topic

Albert Einstein once said, “Mankind will not survive the disappearance of the bees for more than five years.”

His prediction may soon be put to the test, as the world has seen a drastic decline of bee populations. Honeybees dominate the conversation, but efforts to save wild bees are now on the rise. The rusty-patched bumble bee, which is native to Ontario, is now endangered. Six more species are facing extinction.

In response, the provincial government, in partnership with Friends of the Earth and Ontario Power Generation, launched the Let It Bee campaign. Running from May to July, the initiative calls for changes in commercial landscaping and domestic gardening. It also advocates for a more accurate census of wild bees. Scott MacIvor is a post-doctoral researcher at U of T Scarborough who studies wild bees in urban spaces. He is encouraged that the plight of the bees has caught mainstream appeal, but says more work needs to be done.

How important a role do bees like the rusty-patched bumblebee play in our lives?

Most flowering plants including a lot of important food crops require pollination, with bees being the primary pollinators. There are a lot of other pollinators like moths, butterflies, even mammals like bats and mammals, but the extermination of bees would mean the end of many foods we enjoy. Bees are like a canary in the coalmine. They interact with the landscape in so many ways and if something’s happening to the bees we know that something’s happening at a bigger scale.

Until the 1980s, the rusty-patched bumblebee was one of the most common species of bumblebees in Southern Ontario. Today, they’re on the brink of extinction. What are the factors that caused this?

There are many factors that cause destruction to bee foraging and nesting habitat, causing their disappearance. For example, this particular bee nests in the ground, and in an urbanizing environment where we pave and change the soil structure, certain bees are relegated to smaller and smaller natural areas. Shortly thereafter they disappear entirely because their needs are not met.

Depending on what region you’re in, different factors are affecting bees more heavily. In some rural areas pesticides are causing bee declines. In other areas, it’s habitat destruction. In cities like Toronto where pesticides are restricted – some bees appear to thrive. We’re learning that this is the case in some cities around the world, that urban areas can actually be hot spots for certain kinds of bees because of gardening and higher flower diversity.

Blue Orchard Mason Bee (Getty Images)

So what can those of us living in the city do to help save endangered wild bees?

Plant lots of flowers. Choose different colours and different sizes. Plant with diversity in mind and you will provide lots of food for bees at different times of the year. Reduce lawn mowing and leave in some of the small invading flowering plants. Also, leave bare spots in your garden. Also, a lot of the native bees here nest in little holes – so instead of cutting plant stems back after winter right down to the ground, cut them so they’re 15-20cm or more higher. If you do cut them down you can bundle them and set them up on a fence post – they’ll nest in those holes. If you do all of these things, tell your friends and neighbours about it and encourage them to pursue similar activities.

What are some of the factors about bee conservation that need improvement?

Often there is misinformation about which bees need saving. This is especially the case for those who promote keeping honeybees rather than supporting the needs of wild, native bees. Honeybees can be invasive species, out-competing wild native bees for food, when kept in large densities and in non-agricultural habitats like reserves, parks, and cities. New studies have even linked diseases transferred into wild bee populations. With urban beekeeping being promoted as a hobby, too many bee keepers might increase the spread of others pests and disease between colonies over large areas. Educating people that there are simple ways of helping native bees; keeping bee condos in a garden full of flowers, can be easier and ultimately more helpful for native wild bees.

This, as we all know, is a global problem. How are governments all over the world tackling this issue? What are some of the effective strategies that we can apply here?

Many different issues regarding pollinator health are being examined at different levels of government. Some regions are restricting the use of harmful pesticides like Neonicotinoids in an effort to reduce their impact on bees and other wildlife. Other efforts include incentives for habitat creation in agricultural areas and habitat conservation in natural areas.

More research into how to manage alternative (non-honeybee) pollinators is needed. Many solitary bees are extremely effective pollinators of all kinds of crops and in natural systems. For example mason bees are used to pollinate apple orchards and alfalfa (which dairy and beef cattle feed upon) is pollinated primarily by managed solitary leaf-cutter bees. Learning which bees are the most effective for pollinating different crops can lead to new discoveries and innovation in helping solitary bees.

Toronto was recently named as the first ever “Bee City” by Bee City Canada. Was the attitude towards saving the bees always this enthusiastic?

During my PhD, I used citizen science to investigate bee populations in Toronto urban gardens. At the beginning, the biggest question from people would be “How do I avoid being stung?” Today, the most common question is, “How do I help?” Toronto and the surrounding region is particularly bee-diverse with over 300 species – of which more than 90% are native – and so the city has always been a “bee city”! With the public increasingly engaged in helping with the plight of pollinators, neighbourhood-wide action to garden for wild bees has become more easily adopted. Industrial areas, city parks, community gardens, and even green roofs can be designed for bees. The City of Toronto has taken a step further in pledging support for wild bees, publishing the new book, The Bees of Toronto, available for free at all public libraries. Encouraging native pollinator habitat protection and best practices in city planning will ensure native bees continue to thrive in Toronto and other Canadian cities.

Bianca Quijano

From Tokyo to Toronto: U of T students exchange knowledge

Rising housing prices and Scarborough’s social revolution

#UofTGrad16: U of T Scarborough’s global citizens

Read more about Patel

Farika Ekra:

Nikki Shah:

Hasna Syed:

Read about more U of T Scarborough grads

Hold the honey – it’s time to celebrate wild bees, says U of T researcher