Image of the day: central Toronto neighbourhoods losing population
As incomes rise, people want more floor space
By Jens von Bergmann, updated with 2021 data.
More Neighbours Toronto on Twitter:
The vast majority of Toronto neighbourhoods have fewer people living in them today than in 1971, despite a doubling in overall population.
Why the population shrinks in certain areas: as incomes rise, people want more space, particularly floor space. If new housing isn’t being added, what happens is that other people get pushed out.
Alex Bozikovic describes what’s happening. Yes, in my backyard: How urban planning must shift to meet our postpandemic challenges. Globe and Mail, March 2021:
Take Harbord Village. When you consider the numbers, the logic is very clear. This place borders the University of Toronto, and is walking distance from the country’s largest cluster of downtown jobs. It has transit and public services as good as any place in North America. And yet it it is not full. Back in 1972, the census here showed 9,215 people; today it’s down to about 6,522 and growing very slowly.
The demographic story here is the same as in Kitsilano, or – once you lower the prices – neighbourhoods in central Edmonton and inner Halifax. Fifty years ago, the average family had less money and more people. Many homeowners had boarders living with them. Others had their houses divided into apartments.
Today, we have the opposite: Fewer people, with more money, occupying more space.
So why aren’t we adding more housing to neighbourhoods where more people want to live?
Our demographics have changed. Our housing has not.
Yet such a shift [to allow infill housing] is impossible in many places, thanks to the idea of “neighbourhood character.” This idea is made explicit in Toronto’s planning policy, and similar ideas exist in most cities. The theme is that the physical character of a place where people live largely shouldn’t change.