Transit-led Development

When my son started school at York Memorial, the Crosstown LRT was already under construction on Eglinton. I do not recall what the building looked like before the construction happened, so I must not have noticed the last time I lived here. Why does this matter? The future of the school and schools in this neighbourhood are tied to the changes that will come with having this system in place.

The TDSB Initial Staff Report (and last year’s reports) relied heavily on the “THE THREE CITIES WITHIN TORONTO – Income Polarization Among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2005” Report (or “The Three Cities” Report) by J. David Hulchanski. The flaw in using this report as a predictor, especially for this neighbourhood, lies in the fact that the predictions (which project to 2025) do NOT include any information related to the Crosstown LRT simply because the report was updated in 2007 with 2006 Census Data.

A somewhat more relevant, but highly controversial report provides some insight into possible changes to the future of this neighbourhood: EglintonConnects. More specifically, this report outlines a plan for “revitalization” of specific neighbourhoods – making them more appealing to new investors, families seeking something away from the downtown core, etc. I will not dwell on the looming effects on the current neighbourhood which serves its families and community, but it is necessary to comment on the current reality: the extended construction and the increasing corporate taxes in advance of the Crosstown make it increasingly difficult for businesses to stay open and leave the neighbourhood vulnerable to speculative development and rezoning which will certainly increase population density in this neighbourhood.

This is fact: there are AT LEAST three condominium developments being built within 1.1 km of these schools. One building will be located about 250 metres away from the York Memorial location on Eglinton. This building is designed to be 14 stories high with units from 1-3 bedrooms – 216 units.

A common argument made during PARs is that “neighbourhoods will be turning over” and this has been trivialized in the past – in this case, the Crosstown LRT has targeted this area, and the assumption that population/age density in the area will not be changing is WRONG. It is already changing…and decisions related to the futures of these schools must work with more current data – including adjusting projections of declining enrollment to reflect this information.