After four years of in-depth engagement and collective visioning, the 2024 Parkdale Community Plan is ready! This community plan embodies the tireless contributions, passion, and dedication of countless individuals and organizations in Parkdale.
The pace of Parkdale is changing – the sounds of birds chirping are overshadowed by construction that are building developments high in the sky, we are losing the light from the sun as these buildings start to loom over us. People are being displaced with little to no permanently affordable, accessible housing to go to, and are forced off land where they make homes for themselves. People put away food as they stand in the checkout line at local grocery stores, they leave with their shopping trolleys half empty, their wages don’t offer them their basic needs. The city uses policing as a means of controlling the population, but we yearn for mental health supports that are culturally relevant to the people that make this city what it is.
While change is inevitable, our collective effort shapes how change happens. The 2024 Parkdale Community Planning Study aims to achieve a vision of decent work, shared wealth, and equitable development. In the themes of housing justice, solidarity economy, community health and safety, social infrastructure, food systems, and climate action, we lay out how community members and partner organizations can build a better future for Parkdale.
Read the 2024 Parkdale Community Planning Study here.
Access the appendix to the study here.
Editorial Comment: On July 4, 2024, we revised the sentence on page 16 of the 2024 Parkdale Community Planning Study that said “Meanwhile, more middle class professionals and artists in search of affordable home ownership were attracted to the potential of Parkdale’s preserved Victorian and Edwardian buildings” to “Meanwhile, more middle class professionals in search of affordable home ownership were attracted to the potential of Parkdale’s preserved Victorian and Edwardian building.”
Low-income, disinvested areas like Parkdale attracted artists seeking affordable live/work spaces through tenancy. Although many artists moved to Parkdale seeking lower rents during this period, they were not the main drivers of gentrification.
