Life In Ward 13

Dispatches from Toronto Centre by Momina, Abe, and Caroline at the University of Toronto’s Munk School. #MunkinTheCity

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Here’s a link to our Facebook page that includes an album with more posts about our walking tours in Ward 13!

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Construction in Ward 13

Besides current construction, there are also many more plans to start construction in Toronto Centre as well. During our walking tour, we came across many of these notices on buildings. This one is for another high rise apartment building. More information on this can be found here.

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High Rise Buildings in Ward 13

These are just a few of the high rise buildings that are in use in Toronto Centre, while many more are still being built.

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Community Services in Ward 13

These are just a couple of the places we came across during our walking tour of Toronto Centre that provide residents of Toronto with community and social services.

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Momina on Twitter

“@UrbanPolicyLab This is what a full day of class (aka sitting for 8 hours) and a 2 hour #MunkintheCity session looks like:”

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Housing and disability funding. I’m in a situation where I’m looking for housing and the opportunities for that have been very slim, in terms of affordability and availability.

Student living in Ward 13, when asked about issues they would like to see addressed in the upcoming municipal election

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Residents of Ward 13

Talking to some people in a local Second Cup, we met someone who had lived in Ward 13 for the last 6 years and didn’t know what specific ward she was in.

What issues would you like to see addressed in the upcoming municipal election?

“Transit, bike lanes.”

“I want transit plans to actually happen and not get cancelled every time the government changes.”

“It almost doesn’t matter what they are, as long as it’s something.” As she says this, we all laugh.

“I want to see more bike lanes, and safer ones.”

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This is a super cool tool made by the Urban Policy Lab that can help you figure out where you stand in this municipal election in Toronto! 

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Libraries in Ward 13 - St. James Town Library

We visited one of the libraries in Toronto Centre and spoke to some parents with young children in the building.

We also noticed that one of the advanced voting stations was in this building. It was full of people of all ages on a Wednesday evening.

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Candidates in Ward 13

These are some of the posters we came across during our walking tour throughout Ward 13.

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Construction in Ward 13

While speaking to a couple students living in Ward 13 at a Starbucks, they mentioned that the construction was a big inconvenience for them and traffic/transit.

One student referred to Korea.

“Construction can only occur within a designated area. So all construction vehicles and materials must be in a fenced area... it must be fenced and enclosed so that other traffic is not disturbed.”

“Construction can also only happen during a designated time of the day and it’s very structured.”

While we walked around Ward 13, we also noticed that a lot of Toronto Centre was under construction and decided to take a couple photos.

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Part 2: A Walk Through Norman Jewison Park in Ward 13

We asked another couple in the park about what they wanted to see addressed in the election, and they highlighted affordable housing.

What do you think they could do to make housing more affordable?

“I think more rent control would be nice... Generally more money.”

“Capping rent increase. There’s a suggested increase of one point something, but my friend’s increased by three point something in a year.”

Do you think building more apartments would help?

“Ummm, no.”

“Depends on who buys out the apartments... These apartments, probably not.” She says this as she points to the new high rise buildings that we can see being built on the street over.

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Part 1: A Walk Through Norman Jewison Park in Ward 13

As we walked through the park, we saw many kinds of people; young, old, some with children, some walking their dogs.

Walking through the park, we stopped to talk to a couple sitting on a bench, watching their toddler play on the field in front of them.

We asked them about the upcoming municipal elections:

Did you know there’s an election coming up? What issues would you like to see addressed by incoming leaders and City Hall?

Thet knew about the election and they mentioned transit improvement, and increased and better quality mental health services.

The couple spoke to each other in another language and had thick accents, but their insight on the needs of the community they lived in were similar to just about everyone else we spoke to in the area.