Downtown Toronto’s pace of population growth triples, outpacing suburbs’ ...

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Downtown Toronto’s pace of population growth triples, outpacing suburbs’ as Echo Boomers flock towards urban centre: report


Jan 22, 2013

By Megan O'Toole

Read More: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01...centre-report/

Toronto has reached a “substantial turning point” after five years of massive growth in the downtown core, says a new report that also raises questions about whether the localized condo and employment boom will be sustainable in the decades ahead.

- The pace of population growth has tripled since the previous three census periods and — for the first time in decades — outpaced the suburbs. “This is a turning point for the city,” report author Francis Fong said. “I feel like we’ve hit critical mass and now we’re sort of on our way to becoming a city like New York or London. “We’re on our way; we’re not there yet.”

- The report finds that “Echo Boomers,” the children of post-war Baby Boomers, have increasingly eschewed the suburbs for proximity to transit, workplaces and amenities. Recognizing the opportunity, more employers have started setting up shop in the downtown core, reversing a decades-long trend of businesses opting to locate in outlying municipalities to avoid the high costs of downtown real-estate, the report states. Since 2009, 4.7 million square feet of office space have been built in Toronto, compared with 3.9 million in the surrounding suburbs.

- “If we look at the previous few decades, so much of the development of the city was driven by the Baby Boomers; what they wanted, what they demanded,” Mr. Fong said. “Now, [their children] want to be close to transit, they want to be close to restaurants, they want to be close to nightlife. “They want it all … It’s a selling point for businesses to locate here if they want to be able to tap that talent pool.” The data is not surprising, Mr. Fong says, considering other generational shifts: Echo Boomers are far more likely to switch jobs or careers than their parents were.

- The growth presents a number of challenges, not least of which is transit: “Rising population density, specifically along transit lines, will put serious pressure on the city’s already-strained road and public transit infrastructure,” the report notes. There is also uncertainty as to whether the current trends will hold. On one hand, Baby Boomers may begin downsizing and shifting yet more of Greater Toronto’s population to the core. On the other hand, as Echo Boomers begin raising families, some may opt to return to the relative quiet and big backyards of the suburbs — leading to a downtown bust.

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