Toronto Neighbourhoods Research Articles

Temporal and spatial variation of heat-related illness using 911 medical dispatch data

Background The adverse effect of hot weather on health in urban communities is of increasing public health concern, particularly given trends in climate change. Objectives To demonstrate the potential public health applications of monitoring 911 medical dispatch data for heat-related illness (HRI), using historical data for the summer periods (June 1–August 31) during 2002–2005 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Methods The temporal distribution of the medical dispatch calls was described in relation to a current early warning system and emergency department data from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS). Geospatial methods were used to map the percentage of heat-related calls in each Toronto neighborhood over the study period. Results The temporal pattern of 911 calls for HRI was similar, and sometimes peaked earlier, than current heat health warning systems (HHWS). The pattern of calls was similar to NACRS HRI visits, with the exception of 2005 where 911 calls peaked earlier. Areas of the city with a relatively higher burden of HRI included low income inner-city neighborhoods, areas with high rates of street-involved individuals, and areas along the waterfront which include summer outdoor recreational activities. Conclusions Identifying the temporal trends and geospatial patterns of these important environmental health events has the potential to direct targeted public health interventions to mitigate associated morbidity and mortality.

Food Insecurity and Participation in Community Food Programs among Low-income Toronto Families

Responses to food insecurity in Canada have been dominated by community-based food initiatives, while little attention has been paid to potential policy directions to alleviate this problem. The purpose of this paper is to examine food security circumstances, participation in community food programs, and strategies employed in response to food shortages among a sample of low-income families residing in high-poverty Toronto neighbourhoods. Data from surveys conducted with 484 families and neighbourhood mapping were analyzed. Two thirds of families were food insecure over the past 12 months and over one quarter were severely food insecure, indicative of food deprivation. Only one in five families used food banks in the past 12 months and the odds of use were higher among food-insecure families. One third of families participated in children's food programs but participation was not associated with household food security. One in 20 families used a community kitchen, and participation in community gardens was even lower. It was relatively common for families to delay payments of bills or rent and terminate services as a way to free up money for food and these behaviours were positively associated with food insecurity. While documenting high rates of food insecurity, this research challenges the presumption that current community-based food initiatives are reaching those in need. Public health practitioners have a responsibility to critically examine the programs that they deliver to assess their relevance to food-insecure households and to advocate for policy reforms to ensure that low-income households have adequate resources for food.

The Factors Inhibiting Gentrification in Areas with Little Non-market Housing: Policy Lessons from the Toronto Experience

This paper examines the factors that have limited gentrification in two Toronto neighbourhoods which have below-average proportions of public housing and which have traditionally acted as immigrant reception areas. The first failed to gentrify despite the existence of gentrification nearby, whereas gentrification stalled in the second in the early 1980s. Analysis of the historical reasons behind this suggests ways in which policy could intervene to limit the spread of gentrification in the absence of support for local affordable housing. These include the maintenance of areas of working-class employment, different approaches to nuisance uses and environmental externalities, a housing stock not amenable to gentrifiers' tastes and state encouragement of non-market and ethnic sources of housing finance. However, the Toronto experience also highlights the importance of policy in a negative way, as changes in municipal policy which run counter to these prescriptions are now resulting in the gentrification of these two neighbourhoods.

Metabolism of Neighborhoods

Analysis of urban metabolism has been established as an appropriate approach for assessing the sustainability of cities. A desirable next step is to use the metabolism as a guide to designing more sustainable cities. This study provides an analysis of the metabolism of four representative Toronto neighborhoods. The annual energy consumption for buildings and transport is determined to be from 57to107GJ/capita and from 0.5to9.2GJ/capita, respectively. The annual consumption of food and water is found to be 1,100 and 92,300kg/capita. The findings of the study have implications for the design of sustainable neighborhoods. This includes the construction of energy-efficient buildings, development of public transit, and encouragement of residents to replace inefficient water fixtures. More advanced methods might consist of growing the urban forest using nutrients from wastewater, and converting solar energy to building operational energy

Urban Form, Everyday Life, and Ideology: Support for Privatization in Three Toronto Neighbourhoods

One of the trends marking neoliberalism and the attack on the welfare state from the right is the move toward the privatization of public services. Recent research in both the United States and Canada suggests that residents of the suburbs of large urban regions are more likely to vote for political parties on the right and to support neoliberal policies such as privatization, while the opposite is true for inner-city dwellers. However, the reasons why such a spatial division should occur have received little academic attention. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the relationship between residential location, spatial factors, and attitudes toward privatization, using survey data collected in the Toronto region. Results suggest that the way urban space influences residents' daily routines and personal experiences may then mediate their perception of the uses of public services and the efficacy of government spending, factors which are found to affect spatial disparities in support of and/or in opposition to privatization. Thus, there is some evidence that urban spatial form is important for understanding the geographic unevenness of support for neoliberalism, and thus ultimately for the production of ideology.

A geographic visualization approach to multi‐criteria evaluation of urban quality of life

This paper proposes to use principles of geographic visualization in conjunction with multi‐criteria evaluation methods to support expert‐level spatial decision‐making. Interactive maps can be combined with analytical tools to explore various settings of multi‐criteria evaluation parameters that define different decision‐making strategies. In a case study, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to calculate composite measures of urban quality of life (QoL) for neighbourhoods in Toronto. The AHP allows for an interactive exploration of decision‐making strategies, while offering a view on spatial patterns in the evaluation results. In particular, an interactive blending between a classical and a contemporary QoL model is supported. This feature is used in a pilot study to assess the usefulness of geographic visualization in urban QoL evaluation. Three user interviews provide positive feedback on the utility and usability of the tool that was operated by the investigator.

Resisting the creation of forgotten places: artistic production in Toronto neighbourhoods

This article analyzes semi‐structured interviews with contemporary visual artists from Toronto, Canada, to explore the relationship between artists, memory, and place. The focus of the article is on three neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto that have the potential to become forgotten places of artistic production: Yorkville, King Street West and The Junction. Through an analysis of artists' spatially grounded narratives about these three neighbourhoods, I reveal how the intense emotional and material connections that artists have to places have the potential to challenge the loss of collective urban memory. This article contributes to intersecting literatures on neighbourhood change, artistic production and the importance of vernacular memory in urban cultural geography.

The De-Greening of the Irish : Toronto’s Irish‑Catholic Press, Imperialism, and the Forging of a New Identity, 1887-1914

Traditionally Canadian and American historians have assumed thai Irish Catholics in urban centres constituted highly resistant subcultures in the face of a dominantProtestant majority. In Canada, scholars have stated that these Irish-Catholic subcultures kept themselves isolated, socially and religiously, from the Anglo- Protestant society around them. Between 1890 and 1918, however, the Irish Catholics of Toronto underwent significant social, ideological, and economic changes that hastened their integration into Toronto society. By World War One, Irish Catholics were dispersed in all of Toronto's neighbourhoods; they permeated the city's occupational structure at all levels; and they intermarried with Protestants at an unprecedented rate. These changes were greatly influenced by Canadian-born generations of Irish-Catholic clergy and laity. This paper argues that these social, ideological, and emotional realignments were confirmed and articulated most clearly in the city's Catholic press. Editors drew up new lines of loyally for Catholics and embraced the notion of an autonomous Canadian nation within the British Empire. What developed was a sense of English-speaking Catholic Canadian identity which included a love of the British Crown, allegiance to the Empire, and a duty to participate in Canadian nation-building. In the process, a sense of Irish identity declined as new generations of Catholics chose to contextualize their Catholicism in a Canadian cultural milieu. The press expressed a variant of the imperial-nationalist theme, which blended devout Catholicism with a theory of imperial “interdependence.” This maturation of a new identity facilitated Catholic participation in the First World War and underscored an English-speaking Catholic effort to evangelize and anglicize “new” Catholic Canadians. By the end of the war, Toronto's Irish Catholics were imbued with zealous Canadian patriotism, complemented, in part, by their greater social integration into the city's mainstream.

Ruling The Inner City: Television, Citizenship and King of Kensington

Cette relecture critique de la série King of Kensington, présentée au réseau anglais de Radio-Canada, examine l’utilisation d’espaces locaux dans la construction d’une image cohérente de la nation mise en marché pour séduire le public canadien. La série façonne un modèle de citoyenneté qui vise à relier les notions d’urbanisme et d’appartenance locale aux priorités nationales déterminées par le contexte politique et historique canadien des années 1970. En employant la ville comme symbole du Canada uni, la série amoindrit conflits et tensions en projetant une image d’hétérogénéité réconciliée qui offre une impression de stabilité, rassurant ainsi les Canadiens pendant une période de grande incertitude.

The Politics of Urban Space: Modes of Place-making by Italians in Toronto's Neighbourhoods

This paper examines the politics of urban space through a consideration of three ways Italians in Toronto, Canada, create, make claims to and express their belonging in particular neighbourhoods in the city. The article considers forms of claiming and colonizing space that are not overtly violent or confrontational with respect to other groups living within the plural city but, in effect, are assertions of power over particular places with which others must contend. The three forms encompass a range of scales, temporal duration and purposeful collective expression by Italians in Toronto, and they include the quotidian shaping of neighbourhoods, the calendrical colonizing of public spaces during religious and secular celebrations and the monument building that attests to the permanence of Italians in the city. Ultimately, these forms of place-making must contend with the larger forces of commodification and popular imagery that influence the spatial representations of Italians in Toronto.

Mapping the social demography and location of HIV services across Toronto neighbourhoods

In this paper we map the location and distribution of HIV service providers across Toronto neighbourhoods. Our analysis identified an uneven distribution of services across Toronto and a number of communities that are less accessible to HIV-related services. We subsequently identified three neighbourhood-level characteristics of the populations living within these communities (i.e. concentrated economic disadvantage, concentrated immigration, and residential instability). Our findings suggest a significant overlap in the location of HIV service providers and the clustering of neighbourhood-level demographic and socioeconomic factors. Some inaccessible neighbourhoods overlap with clusters of neighbourhoods with higher levels of concentrated disadvantage, immigration and percentage of black Canadians. Accessible neighbourhoods are located within the downtown core of Toronto and overlap with clusters of highly dense, younger neighbourhoods (with a high proportion of 15- to 34-year-olds who are unmarried). Our findings point to the need for policy-makers to integrate spatial analytic techniques into their examination of the types of neighbourhoods, and subsequently the community members that live within those neighbourhoods, that are potentially underserved with respect to health and social services.

The Effect of Income on Anaphylaxis Preparation and Management Plans in Toronto Primary Schools

Outcomes of serious allergic reactions are worse at school than at home. Prompt administration of epinephrine is the first-line treatment for anaphylactic reactions, and the EpiPen device is not subsidized by Ontario public health insurance. This study examines the relationship between the proportion of low-income households in Toronto neighbourhoods and the adequacy of anaphylaxis management plans in primary schools. A survey was administered to principals of primary schools. It addressed the areas of: prevalence of food allergy, the presence of EpiPen at school and staff training in its use, and exposure prevention policy. The results were correlated to 2001 Canadian Census data for percentage of low-income households in each school's area. Children with reported severe food allergy attending schools in areas with greater than 20% low-income households were less likely to have medication at school than those in neighbourhoods with less than 20% (relative risk 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.1-4.4). Other aspects of the anaphylaxis action plan, including staff EpiPen training and parental provision of information to the school, showed no significant correlation to income. Overall, about 50% of schools have their entire teaching staff trained to administer the EpiPen. The lack of medication at school for anaphylaxis is a limiting factor in optimal anaphylaxis management in the school setting. Government support in the purchase of EpiPen in low-income households may be indicated.

Mapping and visualizing the location HIV service providers: An exploratory spatial analysis of Toronto neighborhoods

Efforts have been made to identify, reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities, yet variation in access to health services continues to be an important concern. As with large American cities, Toronto has been particularly hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, representing 68% of Ontario's HIV diagnoses (Health Canada, 2000). The accessibility of healthcare in terms of the geographic location and spatial distribution of health services are important factors in healthcare utilization. In this descriptive paper we map the location of HIV-related services and use exploratory spatial data analysis to visualize and examine the distribution of HIV service providers. In examining the location of HIV service providers we map the minimum distance to the nearest service provider. Our analyses also map and analyze five separate categories of HIV-related services. These include: (1) Diagnostic and preventive services; (2) Health and social services for initial HIV diagnosis; (3) Emotional and social support; (4) Emergency services; and (5) Medical and end-of-life services. While our findings point to significant clustering of some types of HIV-related services (such as emergency and preventive services), other services are more evenly distributed across Toronto (this includes medical and end-of-life services). Our findings point to the need for policy makers and researchers to integrate mapping, GIS and spatial analytic techniques into their analyses of the neighborhoods and subsequently the populations in those neighborhoods that are underserved in terms of accessibility of some categories of HIV-related services.

Neighbourhood Recent Immigration and Hospitalization in Toronto, Canada

Recent immigrants to Canada tend to initially settle in low-income urban core areas. The relationships among immigration, neighbourhood effects and health are poorly understood. This study explored the risk of hospitalization in high recent-immigration areas in Toronto compared to other Toronto neighbourhoods. The study used 1996 hospitalization and census data. Regression was used to examine the effects of recent immigration on neighbourhood hospitalization rates. Most hospitalization categories showed significantly higher rates of admission as the proportion of recent immigrants increased. Income was also significantly associated with all categories of hospitalization except surgical admissions. Average household income was almost 60% lower (dollar 36,122) in the highest versus the lowest immigration areas (dollar 82,641) suggesting that, at the neighbourhood level, the effects of immigration and income may be difficult to disentangle. These findings have important implications for health care planning, delivery, and policy.

An Analysis of Public Support for Severity and Proportionality in the Sentencing of Youthful Offenders

This study provides some data regarding public support for certain principles in the Youth Criminal Justice Act. It focuses on the concept of proportionality and explores the relationship between support for proportionality and support for more severe sentences. Data were obtained from 150 respondents to a questionnaire distributed in various neighbourhoods in Toronto during May and June 2002. The findings suggest strong support for proportionality, particularly amongst those who view sentencing under the Young Offenders Act as too lenient. However, although those favouring proportionality and those favouring harsher youth court sentences tend to overlap, support for each of these may develop in somewhat different ways. The findings suggest that few people would support or oppose all aspects of the YCJA. Thus if the government's goal was to try to give something to everyone, they may have succeeded.

Working with Toronto neighbourhoods toward developing indicators of community capacity.

Often the goal of health and social development agencies is to assess communities and work with them to improve community capacity. Particularly for health promoters working in community settings and to ensure consistency in the definition of health promotion, the evaluation of health promotion programmes should be based on strengths and assets, yet existing information for planning and evaluation purposes usually focuses on problems and deficits. A model and definition of community capacity, grounded in community experience and focusing on strengths and assets, was developed following a 4-year, multi-site, qualitative, action research project in four Toronto neighbourhoods. There was significant community involvement in the four Community Advisory Committees, one for each study site. Semi-structured, open-ended interviews and focus groups were conducted with 161 residents and agency workers identified by the Community Advisory Committees. The data were analyzed with the assistance of NUDIST software. Thematic analysis was undertaken in two stages: (i) within each site and (ii) across sites, with the latter serving as the basis for the development of indicators of community capacity. This paper presents a summary of the research, the model and the proposed indicators. The model locates talents and skills of community members in a larger context of socioenvironmental conditions, both inside and outside the community, which can act to enable or constrain the expression of these talents and skills. The significance of the indicators of community capacity proposed in the study is that they focus on identifying and measuring the facilitating and constraining socioenvironmental conditions.

Constructing contemporary artistic identities in Toronto neighbourhoods

This paper examines the role of the neighbourhood in the construction of artistic identities. Drawing upon in‐depth, semistructured interviews with Canadian visual artists from Toronto, I identify some of the common features of downtown Toronto neighbourhoods where artists congregate. I demonstrate that artists are drawn to neighbourhoods that have not been gentrified and do not directly reflect current dominant values in society. I focus, in particular, on the importance of marginal niches of improvisational space within the urban fabric. Marginal spaces, often neglected and overlooked, weakly classified and in a state of becoming, I argue, are essential to the development and sustenance of an artistic identity.

Introduction to the Special Issue -- Identity: Now You Don't See It; Now You Do

In 1972, a young Nigerian woman traveled to New York to study. At John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport, she saw a Black man who worked at the airport and who appeared to her to be a Nigerian. When she asked him whether he was Nigerian, the man went into a rage and started shouting obscenities at her for suggesting that he was African. "Me African? Me African? You mother f---, you African", was the opening salvo. Then, "What the sh-- you thinking calling me African?" Obviously the "Black and proud" movement of the 1960s did not get to him. In 1990, a 12-year old Black boy in a middle-class Toronto neighborhood, was asked by his 9-year old "brown" neighbor where he was from. The surprised Black boy answered "Toronto." To this, the brown boy responded: "No, you are not; you are black." These brief exchanges throw into sharp relief the saliency of and relationship between identity, citizenship, power, privilege, and oppression. Identity studies have taken on added impetus in recent years, especially with the redrawing of ideological, cultural, and economic battle lines following the collapse of the Soviet block countries. A subject virtually considered a taboo by the political Left has come to be popular even among Left scholars who are trying to explain the rise of new forms of assertion of identity and autonomy by a variety of groups-ethnic groups, women, homosexuals, the disabled, cultural rebels, and the like.

Links to Literature: Interweaving Language and Mathematics Literacy through a Story

Programs that promote literacy development in the early grades, kindergarten through grade 2, are of prime interest to educators, particularly when they are also effective for ESL students. With interest, then, I talked with Silvana Bozzato, a kindergarten teacher at Our Lady of Victory School, set in a multicultural, downtown Toronto neighborhood. I wanted to know if she used in her program any books with a focus on mathematics, wondering how that practice might help students understand important mathematical concepts. Bozzato used many such books, and we agreed that she would model one lesson in which mathematics and language were interwoven, choosing a beautifully illustrated, lyrical story by Pat Brisson, Benny's Pennies (1993).

“The Real of It Would Be Awful”: Representing the Real Ophelia in Canada

Judith Thompson's 1992 “relay” play, Lion in the Streets, opens with an address to the audience by the young Portuguese girl, Isobel, who provides the through-line and a bridge among the play's linked scenes. Her speech frames the play by introducing, among other things, issues of representation. “Doan be scare,” she says pointing to her downtown Toronto neighborhood. “Doan be scare of this pickshur! This pickshur is niiiice, nice! I looove this pickshur, this pickshur is mine!” In a later scene, a neighborhood woman, Joanne, tells her friend Rhonda that she has bone cancer, and asks for her help: