There are about 2.1 million people who live in Paris (2023 figure).

The metro area is, of course, much larger with over 13 million people. But if you look at Paris proper -- that being the 20 arrondissements within the Boulevard Périphérique -- it's the 2.1 million number.

The footprint of this area is 105 km2, and so that means that Paris has an average population density within its administrative boundaries of just over 20,000 people per km2.

This is about 4.5x more dense than the City of Toronto as a whole. Which is why if you overlay the outline of Paris on top of Toronto, as Gil Meslin has done over here, you get this:

To be fair, there are pockets of Toronto that are very dense, even by Paris standards. North St. James Town, for example, was estimated at over 44,000 people per km2 back in 2016. But generally speaking, Toronto is not that.

And Gil's maps do an excellent job of demonstrating it.

For those of you who have been reading this blog since last summer, you’ll know that I’m particularly passionate about the Gardiner Expressway East here in Toronto.

Last night a public meeting was held to discuss the 3 alternative designs for what has become known as the “hybrid” option. If you’d like a visual summary of the options, click here.

But essentially as you go from hybrid 1 to hybrid 3, the elevated Gardiner Expressway just gets pushed further north, away from the water. So as you go from 1 to 3, the hybrid option becomes less offensive to the waterfront and its associated public realm, and it opens up more land for development. However, it also becomes more expensive.

Here’s a graphical summary of the costs, which my friend Gil Meslin tweeted out last night:

Evolution of the #GardinerEast options, and their associated costs, in one graphic.

There are about 2.1 million people who live in Paris (2023 figure).

The metro area is, of course, much larger with over 13 million people. But if you look at Paris proper -- that being the 20 arrondissements within the Boulevard Périphérique -- it's the 2.1 million number.

The footprint of this area is 105 km2, and so that means that Paris has an average population density within its administrative boundaries of just over 20,000 people per km2.

This is about 4.5x more dense than the City of Toronto as a whole. Which is why if you overlay the outline of Paris on top of Toronto, as Gil Meslin has done over here, you get this:

To be fair, there are pockets of Toronto that are very dense, even by Paris standards. North St. James Town, for example, was estimated at over 44,000 people per km2 back in 2016. But generally speaking, Toronto is not that.

And Gil's maps do an excellent job of demonstrating it.

For those of you who have been reading this blog since last summer, you’ll know that I’m particularly passionate about the Gardiner Expressway East here in Toronto.

Last night a public meeting was held to discuss the 3 alternative designs for what has become known as the “hybrid” option. If you’d like a visual summary of the options, click here.

But essentially as you go from hybrid 1 to hybrid 3, the elevated Gardiner Expressway just gets pushed further north, away from the water. So as you go from 1 to 3, the hybrid option becomes less offensive to the waterfront and its associated public realm, and it opens up more land for development. However, it also becomes more expensive.

Here’s a graphical summary of the costs, which my friend Gil Meslin tweeted out last night:

Evolution of the #GardinerEast options, and their associated costs, in one graphic.