Revitalization Plan

COMMUNITY SAFETY INITIATIVE & ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION PLAN

BIG: Bloor Improvement Group received a 2 year Community Safety Investment grant in 2006 from the City of Toronto to undertake a community safety initiative. The goal of this work is to explore the issue of community safety with multiple stakeholders in the area and to collaboratively generate a strategic plan for community safety.  The first year saw the development of the BIG festival as a way to encourage community stakeholders to work together on a shared project and provide an opportunity for general community participation.

BIG then worked with the graduate Planning Program at the University of Toronto to develop a workshop project for graduate students under the direction of planner Katharine N. Rankin. In Fall 2008 a group of four students developed an economic revitalization plan for Bloor Street between Landsdowne and Christie. The students were charged with the task of developing this plan in a way that tries to retain the current socioeconomic composition of the neighborhood and does not contribute to a process of displacing local residents or businesses.

The Bloordale BIA was a founding member of BIG and a member of the board of directors since BIG’s start-up. The BIA has been working actively to implement suggestions that were included in the report.

The report can be viewed in three sections in PDF format:

Neighborhood review and economic revitalization plan
Appendices with data from the research
A primer on ‘gentrification’