You Shoulda’ Been There!

Pubnight Pics!    Check out the images here.

Love those stashes!

The attendance was amazing for the first pubnight of the 2011-2012 year. It was an amazing event. If you didn’t make it this time, be sure to come out for the next event.

Stay tuned for a new and enhanced RAPS website, including a photo section, an article database, and more fun stuff!!!!!!

Do downtowns excite you? Are you interested in networking with BIA’s and learning about downtown renewal and leadership? If you are, than you might want to join the Leadership Retreat, put on by the International Downtown Assoc.(IDA), which is coming to Toronto next week. Ryerson’s Sheldon Levy will also be making speech at the event.

The event is also of note, as a celebration will be held to honor the 40th Anniversary of Bloor-West Village, which became North America’s first BIA, and start off the trend of downtown districts, and neighbourhood retail districts, starting BIA’s to market, and renew their retail areas, to compete with suburban malls which were the craze 40 years ago.

I was in contact with the IDA today, and the best they can offer students is a $275 registration fee, which is less than half the price members are paying.

Check out the event at

http://www.ida-downtown.org/eweb//DynamicPage.aspx?WebKey=1F9D19E6-C349-4730-B830-AACBB721986D& </eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?WebKey=1F9D19E6-C349-4730-B830-AACBB721986D&

If you are interested in coming, please email me ASAP at mbinetti@ryerson.ca

Wednesday April 7th

I can not stress enough how important it is to see these presentations before you are required to give one yourself. All 1st and 2nd Year students should attend one or two to get an idea of what will be expected of your in the upper years of your education at Ryerson.

(This can also be a great opportunity to see what NOT to do during a presentation)

All presentations are taking place in SBB 312

7:00 – 8:00pm - Bloorcourt VillageB.I. Strategic Directions

Thursday April 8th

9:00 – 10:00am - Maple Leaf Entertainment. New Toronto FC Academy & Practice Facility

10:30 – 11:30am - Bousfields Inc. The Toronto Transit City Light Rail Plan

12:00 – 1:00pm - Elspeth Hayworth centre: Settlement Centre

1:15 – 2:15pm - Doppelmayr Group. Cable Propelled Transit

2:30 – 3:30pm - Councillors, Fletcher & Vaughan; Re-Purposing Churches

3:45 – 4:45pm - Smart Growth Secretariat: Greater Golden Horseshoe

5:00 – 6:00pm - Ontario Reality Corp. 407 Subway station

For all undergad students who are curious about what the grad students have been up to, their final presentations will be taking place on Wednesday, March 24 in SBB 312 from 1:00pm to 4:45pm

1:00-1:45pm – Planning for Age Friendly Communities (Client:  Ontario Professional Planners Institute)
2:00-2:45pm – Food and Farm Innovation in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (Client:  Sustain Ontario)
3:00-3:45pm – Quality of Life in the Region of Peel (Client:  Region of Peel)
4:00-4:45pm – Planning for Employment Lands in the GTA (Client:  Ontario Growth Secretariat)

The Ryerson Urban Planning Sweatshirts and T-shirts are in for pickup.
We will be in SBB 444 today until 6 PM and on Monday from 11 – 2 and by appointment thereafter.

Please email raps AT ryerson.ca if you are unable to come at these times and want to arrange a time pick up the clothing. However, we would appreciate if you made arrangements to come at the above listed times.

On a related note, we have small quantities still available for sale, if you are interested, please email raps AT ryerson.ca to inquire.

Planning Quiz

In some parts of the world, many people live in “boomed developments”.

Without looking this up online, can anyone guess what a “boomed housing development” is? Post your answer in the reply section, and lets see if anyone can figure it out!

Come down to the Rivoli (Queen & Spadina) to share some fun times with fellow planners. There will be pool tables and lots of dancing! Be there or be t-square. Seriously.

WHEN: March 26, 2010, 9pm – ???!!!!

WHERE: the Rivoli, 332 Queen Street West

Living in Toronto is expensive and the city is losing the middle class to the suburbs. Rich people are buying condos in towers and gentrifying previously affordable neighbourhoods. Poor people are being pushed into shittier and shittier housing conditions or spending more than they can afford for a decent roof over their heads.

The City of Toronto strives to provide affordable housing and subsidized housing but cannot afford to build new units, or properly maintain the ones they have. One proposed solution is to mandate the inclusion of affordable condo units in new developments at the expense of the developer. Developers are understandably upset by the prospect of missing out on potential revenue and claim that the burden of paying the difference in value for the affordable units will fall on the market-rate owners in the building.

There is a huge need for affordable and subsidized housing in Toronto but I see a piece missing from this whole debate. About 50% of Toronto’s households are in rental units and the population of the city keeps increasing. By 2031 the number of rental units required to meet demand will increase by 20% but only 5% of new housing units between 1996 and 2006 were rental units. Of the few new buildings built specifically for rentals, most were for social housing.

20% of rental units in the city are in converted houses, often in basements. 5% are rented out condos. This is considered the secondary rental market and are unstable as their existence depends on the whim of the home owner. Apartment buildings are the primary rental market but they continue to age and deteriorate becoming less desirable, healthy, energy efficient and safe. Despite all this rental prices in Toronto remain relatively high and will only increase as demand grows.

There are virtually no incentives for developers to build new rental housing. Managing rental properties is time-consuming and difficult and the return on investment is slow to come and dependent on fluctuations in the market. Condo buildings on the other hand can sell out before construction begins allowing the developer to walk away with debts paid and a tidy profit upon completion.

Forcing developers to build affordable housing may not be the most economical way of creating affordable housing. Perhaps the best way to create affordable housing is to make existing housing more affordable.

Maybe we shouldn’t mandate the inclusion of affordable housing and subsidized housing. Maybe we should mandate the inclusion of rental housing, with no provision for subsidy or incentives at all, leased by the building owner directly at whatever price the market will allow.

What would this look like, and how could it lead to a more affordable housing market in Toronto?

Looking for a job? Want to know what you can do with your B.U.R.Pl. once you leave Ryerson?
Discover the diverse career options that are available to you at the Ryerson Planning Alumni Networking Event brought to you by RAPS and the School of Urban and Regional Planning.

Meet Ryerson Planners working for the following companies and organizations:

• Ontario Ministry of Transportation
• The Goldberg Group
• TAS Design Build
• First Gulf Development
• Delta Urban Inc
• Rockport Group
• Tridel
• The City of Toronto

And more!

When: Tuesday, March 9th from 5:00-8:00pm Where: SBB 312