The Globe and Mail published an interesting article this weekend talking about how Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, is the only major city in Canada to have lost people in the last census. Here are the population changes for the top 10 largest municipalities in the country:

There is a simple explanation for this and it is one we have talked about a number of times before on the blog. Many/most of our low-rise single-family neighborhoods are actually losing people. Empty nesters are becoming over-housed and young people aren't backfilling in quite the same way.

Mississauga has a lot of these neighborhoods and is heavily geared towards this kind of built form. But they are certainly not alone. The same phenomenon is happening in places like Toronto; there is just enough other growth to offset these negatives so that the headline number still remains positive.

However, this is slowly changing. Toronto is working to "expand housing options" in its low-rise neighborhoods; it is considering how to better intensify its major streets; and it is re-introducing small-scale retail uses so that people living in a house can easily walk to a corner store for milk.

It is a shift in mindset. But I believe that this trend will only continue, and eventually it will make its way to the suburbs.

Images: The Globe and Mail

Progress is happening slowly but surely.

Over the years we have spoken a few times about this nice little coffee shop on Shaw Street here in Toronto. It is a good looking and widely visited coffee shop that has made many guest appearances on urbanist Twitter.

The problem, though, is that it was a real battle to get it approved, thanks to the opposition of a single neighbor. That's all it takes to hold up a new project. In this case it was a coffee shop. But it could also be thousands of new homes.

But that was then. Today if you look on the City of Toronto's website you'll actually see this exact coffee shop on a page that speaks to the benefits and the historic role of small-scale retail, service, and office uses.

Right now these uses are only permitted in low-rise neighborhoods on major streets and through an amendment to the Zoning By-Law (unless the nonconforming use already exists). This is a lot of unnecessary work (see above) and it has translated into a steady decline in these sorts of uses across the city.

Thankfully, the city is now looking to change this and permit these uses on an as-of-right basis. So it looks like the good fight was worth it.

For more info, head over here. And if you'd like to attend the public meeting to talk about how brilliant this is, you can do that on July 5 over at City Hall.

The Globe and Mail published an interesting article this weekend talking about how Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, is the only major city in Canada to have lost people in the last census. Here are the population changes for the top 10 largest municipalities in the country:

There is a simple explanation for this and it is one we have talked about a number of times before on the blog. Many/most of our low-rise single-family neighborhoods are actually losing people. Empty nesters are becoming over-housed and young people aren't backfilling in quite the same way.

Mississauga has a lot of these neighborhoods and is heavily geared towards this kind of built form. But they are certainly not alone. The same phenomenon is happening in places like Toronto; there is just enough other growth to offset these negatives so that the headline number still remains positive.

However, this is slowly changing. Toronto is working to "expand housing options" in its low-rise neighborhoods; it is considering how to better intensify its major streets; and it is re-introducing small-scale retail uses so that people living in a house can easily walk to a corner store for milk.

It is a shift in mindset. But I believe that this trend will only continue, and eventually it will make its way to the suburbs.

Images: The Globe and Mail

Progress is happening slowly but surely.

Over the years we have spoken a few times about this nice little coffee shop on Shaw Street here in Toronto. It is a good looking and widely visited coffee shop that has made many guest appearances on urbanist Twitter.

The problem, though, is that it was a real battle to get it approved, thanks to the opposition of a single neighbor. That's all it takes to hold up a new project. In this case it was a coffee shop. But it could also be thousands of new homes.

But that was then. Today if you look on the City of Toronto's website you'll actually see this exact coffee shop on a page that speaks to the benefits and the historic role of small-scale retail, service, and office uses.

Right now these uses are only permitted in low-rise neighborhoods on major streets and through an amendment to the Zoning By-Law (unless the nonconforming use already exists). This is a lot of unnecessary work (see above) and it has translated into a steady decline in these sorts of uses across the city.

Thankfully, the city is now looking to change this and permit these uses on an as-of-right basis. So it looks like the good fight was worth it.

For more info, head over here. And if you'd like to attend the public meeting to talk about how brilliant this is, you can do that on July 5 over at City Hall.