Description
Book SynopsisFrom the 1950s to the 1970s, downtown North America was reconfigured for the suburban age. Municipal officials planned renewal schemes, merchant groups lobbied for street improvements, developers built bigger and taller. Everywhere, attention turned to the problems and possibilities at the commercial and civic heart of cities.
The Heart of Toronto follows one such example of reinvention: downtown Yonge Street. Efforts to keep pace with, or even lead, urban change included the street's conversion into a car-free public space, a clean-up campaign targeting the sex industry, and the construction of North America's largest urban shopping mall. These revitalization projects were all connected to wider trends of postwar decentralization, economic restructuring, and cultural transformation.
Interweaving histories of development, civic activism, and corporate clout, The Heart of Toronto widens our understanding of the actors and power dynamics involved in remak
Trade Review
"Daniel Ross’ Heart of Toronto is a much needed analysis of a critical aspect of downtown Toronto’s postwar development."
-- Ross Fair, Toronto Metropolitan University * Ontario Historical Society Review *
"In
The Heart of Toronto: Corporate Power, Civic Activism, and the Remaking of Downtown Yonge Street, historian Daniel Ross reminds us how streets provide a unique and critical lens into urban growth and development." -- Karen Chapple, University of Toronto * Journal of the American Planning Association *
Table of ContentsThe Street and the City
1 Making Downtown Yonge Street
2 The City of Tomorrow
3 A People Place
4 Fighting Sin Strip
5 Malling Main Street
Remaking Downtown Yonge Street
Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index
