How can ratepayer, community and faith groups support suburban and urban renewal

2015 Scarborough Community Renewal Campaign

September 27, 2015

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Agenda

• What is Rotary? • Why is a Scarborough community renewal

campaign necessary? • Campaign Background • Campaign Goals • Action Plan and Recommendations • 2015 Campaign • New Suburbanism Conference • Working with You

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Rotary is…

• Grass-roots organization

• Unites businesses and community leaders

• Addresses community issues

• Provides humanitarian services, encourages high ethical standards, and advances goodwill and peace globally

• Secular, non-discriminatory, and apolitical

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Why is a Community Renewal Campaign necessary?

Economic indicators

• Scarborough is… • Experiencing job loss while the rest of Toronto is experiencing growth

• Growth in new office space

– in Toronto 1,671,919 m2 – in Scarborough 6,567 m2

• Loosing the few head offices we’ve had (Aviva going to Markham)

• Employment areas being converted to non- employment uses

• Lack of a Scarborough Business Association

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Social indicators

• Areas of poverty

• Close to half of the city’s Neighbourhood Improvement Area’s (NIAs) are located in Scarborough

• Transit is inadequate for the needs of the community

• Lack of social development integrated with urban planning

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Health indicators

• Lack of investment in hospitals

• Can’t keep clean and dirty areas separate (for Scarborough Hospital) as is done in modern hospitals

• Billions invested in hospitals throughout the GTA

• Scarborough hospitals facing budget cut-backs

• Difficulty attracting specialists to support needed services locally and develop centres of excellence in Scarborough 7


Our brand needs work.

Straight out of Compton!

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Arts and Culture Indicators • Provincial and City Pan Am Tourism publication

left part of Scarborough off the map

• Said Scarborough has 2 restaurants – one is the “Mandarin” at Birchmount and Eglinton

• Rest of the GTA sees Scarborough as a place of crime (actually one of the safest places in the GTA)

• However, Actually an excellent arts and culture scene Food and culinary excellence Growing music scene

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Urban planning

• Scarborough's population is currently 625,698, which is 24% of Toronto.

• Larger population than Halifax, Newfoundland and Labrador, or the combined populations of Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo

• Neighbourhoods with high quality of life, but. – Scarborough needs both city-wide and locally-responsive planning. – Toronto’s Official Plan is not working for suburban residents. – Need to prepare for growth and development but on our own terms with

quality of life enhancements

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Campaign Background

• We saw negative indicators of community well being in Scarborough that need to be addressed

• In February 2014, the Rotary Clubs in Scarborough initiated an action plan with the purpose of advancing community renewal

• Based on the Benefits Blueprint Model in Saint John New Brunswick

• This is not about what government should do, but what we as a community should do

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Campaign Goals

The goals of the Renewal Campaign are to:

1. Raise the profile on the need for renewal

2. Create space for open dialogue among community members, businesses and professionals and political leaders

3. Foster greater interaction and collaboration across the community and businesses

4. Through public consultation, seek to identify specific actions to implement renewal

5. Work to build a stronger economy and community

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Action Plan and Recommendations

1. Host a Scarborough-based regional planning conference on ‘New-Suburbanism’ in November 2016

2. Develop a Scarborough Community Renewal Organization

3. Support a new Scarborough Business Association

4. Community dialogue on rebranding and try to achieve iconic signature facility (such as a Living Arts Centre)

5. Launch Scarborough-wide ‘Passport’ Food Festival

6. Much more (see Renewal Campaign Brochure)

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2015 Campaign

• Implementation of the 2014 recommendations and ongoing community consultation.

• Develop existing partnerships.

• Establish new partnerships.

• Continue to identify Champions.

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New Suburbanism

A new way of looking at Toronto’s suburban areas: • A community planning approach that focuses on improving suburban communities

• Views urban, suburban and rural communities as parts of a whole system while

acknowledging their differences and similarities

• Rejects notion that urban centre is primal to a fully-functioning city

• Celebrates privacy, safety and space and other opportunities offered in the suburbs

• Leverages opportunities for suburban communities to improve their governmental, physical, economic, social, and environmental conditions

• Accepts that growth is inevitable and desirable and advocates for enhancing our quality of life through effective planning and design

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Working with you!

The Rotary Clubs in Scarborough want to work with you!

1. Collaborate with us on the New Suburbanism Conference in November

2016.

2. Help us by asking your members three questions: • What do you love about Scarborough?

• What do you envision for Scarborough in the future?

• How do we make this vision a reality?

3. Join with us as part of a Community Renewal Organization.

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More information:

www.renewscarborough.ca

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http://www.renewscarborough.ca/

How can ratepayer, community and faith groups support suburban and urban renewal

Economy & Finance