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Apartment towers fail as community hubs

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By Laurie Milne August 18, 2017 - 10:16am

Students enrolled in Anthropology 394: Urban Anthropology may find a recent article in the Globe and Mail  of interest.  Alex Bozikovic reports on the problems of many 20th century residential high rise clusters which hinder street life and economic opportunity   and where there are no shops for buying groceries nor places to meet one's neighbors.  These behemoths were often constructed in the 1960's and 1970's when city governments in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, London and smaller cities were singularly focused on providing new housing separate from commercial and industrial spaces.  The author reports that the city of Toronto is looking to creat a new zoning category in order to create true communities. RAC (Residential Apartment Commercial) zoning is a bold effort by the City of Toronto planning department, the United Way and others to open up the spaces surrounding high rises to restaurants, artist's studios, daycare, and office space.  They are hoping that policy changes will produce  'a new kind of city'.

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/how-advocates-and-planners-are-rethinking-high-rise-towerneighbourhoods/article35994531/