'It's getting worse': Years of underinvestment paved way for downtown Toronto decline even before pandemic hit, experts say
In Part 1 of its Downtown Decay series, CTV News Toronto asks: Is the city’s core coming apart at the seams, and how did it get to this point?
As a tourist shuffles his hard-shell luggage along downtown Yonge Street, a man shouting at passersby from the shelter of an arched overhang calls out after him for cash. The clanging suitcase continues to roll, passing a mattress and broken pallet discarded next to a heaping trash bin — and then is soon forced off the sidewalk altogether where the road is ripped up.
It’s a warm Wednesday in the city’s core, and in the shadows of some of Toronto’s tallest towers there are signs of disrepair and decay in the downtown.
“It’s not as good as it used to be,” said Doug Quackenbush, who has lived at the foot of Yonge Street for 20 years. “It’s getting worse before it gets better.”
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
“Way worse,” echoed Kwabena Owusu, who took transit down to the core. “There’s a lot of uncleanliness on the subway here, there’s a lot of weird vibes.”
“Even walking downtown, nothing’s clean.”
The broken construction signs, vandalized storefronts, and toppled trash strewn through the nearby park are but small signs of neglect that many insist represent a bigger-picture problem: a downtown in decline.
And while poorly-coordinated road repairs and rerouted, reduced transit have made the core more complicated and costly to navigate, it’s the affordability crisis that has pushed other downtown-dwellers out.
An overflowing garbage bin is seen in downtown Toronto.
“It’s overpriced,” said Williams Dike, who lives downtown. “And it’s really chasing a lot of people away.”
Out to the suburbs, or worse: onto the street. Toronto council declared homelessness an emergency less than two weeks ago.
“The pandemic really took the air out of the balloon,” Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, told CTV News Toronto. “It also started then to highlight some of the challenges that were underlying, that maybe were papered over by the downtown success.”
Challenges, he said, like years of underinvestment in municipal infrastructure—both capital builds and routine maintenance.
“We’re playing catch-up,” he said. “Many of the sewers and watermains and whatnot are 50 years old, and are starting to break down.”
A number of tents are seen at an encampment in downtown Toronto.
“One of the essential problems of the council in Toronto, and some other large cities, is that they forget the basic reason of having a city,” said Frank Clayton, co-founder of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development.
“They’re there to provide roads, sewer, water, basic infrastructure, parks, and keep them up, maintain them. People want them maintained.”
The core is now struggling to keep pace with rapid population growth, said incoming Toronto Region Board of Trade president Giles Gherson.
“It’s like wearing a shoe that’s two sizes too small. We’ve grown so fast we haven’t built the infrastructure to accommodate it, so we’re now facing that disconnect between what we have now and what we’re going to be in the number of years.” Gherson said.
Services, meanwhile, have gotten the squeeze as a result of a cash flow that has barely covered the basics. A dozen years of mayoral mandates to keep property tax hikes at or below the rate of inflation has left little room for added investment, said Matt Elliott, publisher of City Hall Watcher.
“The city is saying to itself, let’s take a pay cut every year, let’s not try to keep up with population growth and the increased costs that come from that, let’s instead try to wring a bunch of savings out of the budget every year,” Elliott said.
A man walks by a vacant storefront in downtown Toronto.
The result, said some Newstalk 1010 listeners, was a city coming apart at the seams.
“It’s absolutely in a state of decline,” one caller said.
“It’s not at rock bottom,” another said. “But it’s certainly collapsing a little bit.”
In Part 2 of Downtown Decay, CTV News Toronto will analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Toronto’s core—and examine what the lingering effects mean for the city moving forward.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6975012.1721775341!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Olympic Committee apologizes after New Zealand accuses Canada women's soccer team of spying on their practices
The Canadian Olympic Committee offered a 'heartfelt' apology to New Zealand Football Tuesday after the New Zealand women's club accused the Canadian women's team of spying on them during a training session.
Pennsylvania state police commissioner reveals stunning details about Trump shooting
A local law enforcement commissioner revealed during a House Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday stunning new details about the security failures that led to the near assassination of Donald Trump, raising more questions for the embattled U.S. Secret Service.
Polar bear at Calgary Zoo died by drowning following 'crushing' injury
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo has revealed the cause of death for polar bear Baffin last week.
Clip resurfaces of Vance criticizing Harris for being 'childless,' testing Trump's new running mate
Comments Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance made in 2021 questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership because she did not have biological children have resurfaced, testing the young conservative senator in his early days campaigning as part of the Republicans' presidential ticket.
Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, scientists say
Sunday was the hottest day ever recorded, breaking global temperatures dating back to 1940, according to preliminary data from Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Jasper evacuees forced into B.C. to flee fires told to make U-turn to Alberta for aid
Thousands of wildfire evacuees forced from Jasper National Park into British Columbia along smoke-choked mountain roads Monday night were directed Tuesday to make a wide U-turn and head home if they needed a place to stay.
'Bigger than just the record': Football fan eyes world record for quickest visit to all CFL stadiums
A CFL super fan is two-thirds of the way into his record-breaking attempt to visit all nine stadiums in the Canadian Football League in 15 days.
Laws that could get Canadians in trouble in tourism hotspots
There are some laws in popular tourist destinations around the world that could land Canadian travellers in mild-to-serious trouble if they're not careful. Don't let these local laws land you in hot water during your next vacation abroad.
'Stars are aligning' for Bank of Canada rate cut: economists
The Bank of Canada is expected to deliver a dose of interest rate relief Wednesday when economists and market watchers predict the central bank will cut its overnight lending rate.