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Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto's Sprawl
It is now impossible to understand major North American cities without considering the seemingly never-ending and ever-growing sprawl of their surrounding suburbs. In The Shape of the Suburbs , activist, urban affairs columnist, and former Toronto mayor John Sewell examines the relationship between the development of suburbs, water and sewage systems, highways, and the decision-making of Toronto-area governments to show how the suburbs spread, and how they have in turn shaped the city. Using his wealth of knowledge of the city of Toronto and new information gathered from municipal archives, Sewell describes the major movements and forces that allowed for rapid development of the suburbs, while considering the options that were available to planners at the time. Discussing proposals to curb suburban sprawl from the 1960s to the recently adopted plan for the Greater Toronto area, Sewell combines insightful and accessible commentary with rigorous research on the debate between urban and suburban. Concerned not only with sprawl, The Shape of the Suburbs also demonstrates the ways in which suburban political, economic, and cultural influences have impacted the older, central city, culminating in the forced Megacity amalgamation of 1998. Rich in detail and full of useful visual illustrations, The Shape of the Suburbs is a lively look at the construction of the suburban era.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 30, 2020
Like Sewell's earlier book The Shape of the City, this eloquent little book explains how Toronto-area planners created high levels of sprawl: through aggressive construction of roads and sewers into suburbia, rubber-stamping suburban development applications, and anti-urban road design policies. A few of the fascinating facts in this book:
1. In the 1940s, Toronto's transit surplus actually ran a surplus- and it continued to be more or less self-financing until the 1970s (when government decided to reduce suburban fares to the same level as city fares, and money-losing suburban rail lines were built). In some ways, these innovations were successful: ridership rose from 310 million riders in the mid-1940s to 460 million in 1990. But at a heavy cost: city-oriented Toronto transit costs .47 per rider, but suburban GO Transit costs 4.71 per rider. As a result, when transit subsidies were reduced in the 1990s, ridership nosedived.
2. 1940s planners favored policies that today would be considered pro-sprawl by many planners. For example, the city of Toronto's 1943 plan (like later plans) proposed that new areas be half as dense as older neighborhoods, and that numerous expressways be built. In those days, provincial legislation actually required the city of Toronto to directly pay for suburban roads, on the theory that its existence generated suburban traffic. And just as the federal government supported expressway construction in the United States, Ontario later paid for Toronto-area expressways.
3. The provincial government, responsible for water and sewer service, consistently sold service to newer suburbs at far less than the cost of provision: for example, in 1971, water cost .61 per gallon, about twice the cost of what ratepayers paid.
4. Despite these pro-sprawl policies, Toronto is still less car-dependent than American cities; in the older part of the city of Toronto, 51% of households have no car, and 60% of daily trips are by walking and cycling. And even Toronto's outer neighborhoods are far less car-dependent than their American counterparts. In inner suburbs, 17.4% of households have no car (as opposed to 7.8% in Cheektowaga, a not-particularly-wealthy inner suburb of Buffalo), though outer suburbs have car ownership rates comparable to those of the USA. And even Toronto's outer suburbs have 1.5 miles of transit ridership more day, about twice the regional average in Buffalo. This may be because Toronto suburbs, though far less compact than older parts of Toronto, are about twice as densely populated as most American suburbs. (NOTE: I got statistics about American suburbs from sources other than Sewell's book).
I do wish Sewell had devoted more space to design issues in the suburbs (such as road design, parking, and zoning) - the sort of policies that explain why Canadian suburbs are more thinly populated and car-dependent than their urban neighbors.
1. In the 1940s, Toronto's transit surplus actually ran a surplus- and it continued to be more or less self-financing until the 1970s (when government decided to reduce suburban fares to the same level as city fares, and money-losing suburban rail lines were built). In some ways, these innovations were successful: ridership rose from 310 million riders in the mid-1940s to 460 million in 1990. But at a heavy cost: city-oriented Toronto transit costs .47 per rider, but suburban GO Transit costs 4.71 per rider. As a result, when transit subsidies were reduced in the 1990s, ridership nosedived.
2. 1940s planners favored policies that today would be considered pro-sprawl by many planners. For example, the city of Toronto's 1943 plan (like later plans) proposed that new areas be half as dense as older neighborhoods, and that numerous expressways be built. In those days, provincial legislation actually required the city of Toronto to directly pay for suburban roads, on the theory that its existence generated suburban traffic. And just as the federal government supported expressway construction in the United States, Ontario later paid for Toronto-area expressways.
3. The provincial government, responsible for water and sewer service, consistently sold service to newer suburbs at far less than the cost of provision: for example, in 1971, water cost .61 per gallon, about twice the cost of what ratepayers paid.
4. Despite these pro-sprawl policies, Toronto is still less car-dependent than American cities; in the older part of the city of Toronto, 51% of households have no car, and 60% of daily trips are by walking and cycling. And even Toronto's outer neighborhoods are far less car-dependent than their American counterparts. In inner suburbs, 17.4% of households have no car (as opposed to 7.8% in Cheektowaga, a not-particularly-wealthy inner suburb of Buffalo), though outer suburbs have car ownership rates comparable to those of the USA. And even Toronto's outer suburbs have 1.5 miles of transit ridership more day, about twice the regional average in Buffalo. This may be because Toronto suburbs, though far less compact than older parts of Toronto, are about twice as densely populated as most American suburbs. (NOTE: I got statistics about American suburbs from sources other than Sewell's book).
I do wish Sewell had devoted more space to design issues in the suburbs (such as road design, parking, and zoning) - the sort of policies that explain why Canadian suburbs are more thinly populated and car-dependent than their urban neighbors.
February 10, 2025
John Sewell served as Mayor of Toronto in the late 70s/early 80s. He's a reformer/progressive politician who opposed the amalgamation of Toronto under PC Premier Mike Harris. His book explores the development of the 905 from its infancy to the present sprawl and offers a scattering critic of suburban development and the forces that help create it. He rages against suburbanites in an almost cliche way. Overall, Sewell, who refers to himself in third person, appears pessimistic about the future, citing the failure of the McGuinty government to create tangible action.
Considering today's sprawl, it was interesting to learn about initial plans to create a ribbon-like urban development pattern around Lake Ontario vision, limiting northern growth. Also, with all the discussion about 401 traffic today, I now feel informed on the history behind Toronto's highway system and infrastructure decisions (notably the subsidization of suburban infrastructure development). The book reads like it is from 2009, which it is. I wonder what steps could be taken in the present day to retrofit these suburbs to accommodate a different way of life. The Toronto suburbs have been built so the next generation of planners will have to focus on thinking about what these changes could be.
Considering today's sprawl, it was interesting to learn about initial plans to create a ribbon-like urban development pattern around Lake Ontario vision, limiting northern growth. Also, with all the discussion about 401 traffic today, I now feel informed on the history behind Toronto's highway system and infrastructure decisions (notably the subsidization of suburban infrastructure development). The book reads like it is from 2009, which it is. I wonder what steps could be taken in the present day to retrofit these suburbs to accommodate a different way of life. The Toronto suburbs have been built so the next generation of planners will have to focus on thinking about what these changes could be.
February 22, 2013
Editing and proofreading by The Editing Company
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