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Green gentrification implicates urban greening as a driver of neighbourhood 'upgrading' and subsequent displacement. However, it is unclear whether the concept resonates with, or supports the work of, those responsible for much of the greening occurring in cities – urban green planners/practitioners. We interviewed 33 planners/practitioners in Canada to refine our understanding of the relationships between urban greening and gentrification. We found that greening is closely tied to development, with funding/space for greening often provided through development requirements/incentives. Thus, rather than greening causing gentrification (as described in current literature), here greening is often a requirement and direct outcome of new development – contributing to what we describe as a broader greening of the gentrification process that is facilitated by various political-economic factors. Many interviewees stated that their current work focuses on addressing existing inequities rather than strategizing to limit future gentrification. However, they had mixed opinions about whether knowledge of green gentrification as a concept can help them promote equitable urban greening due to their lack of power over where/how urban greening occurs, along with the finding that greening is not causing gentrification. The uneven power dynamics between urban green practitioners/planners, developers, and elected officials also influenced views on whether gentrification is an intended outcome of greening. We conclude that relying on new development to provide urban greening is antithetical to addressing existing green inequities and is likely to exacerbate inequities through associating greening with gentrification. Recent measures to improve housing affordability (i.e. the removal of developer greening requirements) will disrupt the current development-greening relationship but are unlikely to address the issue of inequitable greening. Increased and ongoing collaboration between those working in urban greening, housing, and planning is paramount and should focus on affordability and equity across urban systems – attending to the interplay between greening, housing, affordability, and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Plan Canada is the property of Canadian Institute of Planners and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While academic research on neighbourhood change has developed over the past 30 years, its measurement is often technical and complex, hampering knowledge translation of academic research to wider audiences. Based on our research on neighbourhood change in Atlantic Canadian cities, we have developed two "simple" indexes of neighbourhood change. We document the steps to creating the simple indexes and discuss what decisions are made along the way. We then compare results of the two indexes with a mean‐centred index that is commonly used for academic audiences. This is done to assess how simpler methods perform compared to one that is considered more sophisticated. Using the 2006 and 2016 Canadian Census data, we apply each of these neighbourhood change indexes to four Atlantic Canadian cities. Results indicate some similarities between the simple indexes and the mean‐centred index. We discuss the methodological and practical implications of the results to help facilitate knowledge translation of academic research for urban planners and NGOs. Key Messages: We develop two "simple" indexes of neighbourhood change that can be easily used by urban planners and NGOs, as well as students and intermediate academic researchers.The simple indexes consider three dimensions of neighbourhood change: economic, sociocultural, and physical dimensions.There is a power to a simple approach to understanding neighbourhood change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Plan Canada is the property of Canadian Institute of Planners and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background Researchers, policy makers, and urban planners require tools to better understand the complex relationship between gentrification and health. The Gentrification, Urban Interventions and Equity (GENUINE) tool is an open-access, map-based tool that allows users to explore measures of gentrification for Canadian cities and incorporate them into their work. Data and methods The phenomenon of gentrification has manifested differently across cities. The GENUINE tool was developed to include four distinct gentrification measures that have been used in the United States and Canada and that rely on different combinations of change in census indicators related to income, housing, occupation, education and age. The measures were computed for all census tracts within the 36 Canadian census metropolitan areas to identify gentrifiable areas in 2006 and those that gentrified between 2006 and 2016. Results Depending on the measure, by 2016, 2% to 20% of census tracts had experienced gentrification, corresponding to between 2% (418,065 people) and 17% (4,266,434) of the Canadian population living in gentrified areas. Generally, metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million people had a greater proportion of their population living in gentrified areas (2% to 18%) compared with metropolitan areas with fewer than 250,000 residents (1% to 14%). Interpretation With attention on healthy cities only expanding, GENUINE provides pan-Canadian indicators of gentrification, which can be an integral part of solution-oriented research and advancing cities toward designing healthy and equitable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an impressive international career, the German city planner Hans Blumenfeld remains largely unknown. In The Transatlantic Collapse of Urban Renewal, Christopher Klemek depicts him as an apologist of authoritarian and technocratic urban renewal. This statement is puzzling because many post-war planners saw him as a humble left-wing progressive. Drawing from a close analysis of the writings and actions of Blumenfeld, in particular his work in Canada, this article shows that he was far from being an uncritical apologist of urban renewal in North America. He was always very sceptical but, as opposed to Jane Jacobs, he did not think that modernist urban planning had it all wrong. He always thought that progress came not only from citizens' participation, but also principally from science and expertise. For that reason, Blumenfeld tried, on the one hand, to transform the language of city planning to answer criticism from citizens and activists, and, on the other, to retain the expertise to proceed from plan-making to a communication-process, as some professionals were beginning to advocate at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Plan Canada is the property of Canadian Institute of Planners and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Frame Lake, located within the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, has been identified as requiring significant remediation due to its steadily declining water quality and inability to support fish by the 1970s. Former gold mining operations and urbanization around the lake have been suspected as probable causes for the decline in water quality. While these land-use activities are well documented, little information is available regarding their impact on the lake itself. For this reason, Arcellinida, a group of shelled protozoans known to be reliable bioindicators of land-use change, were used to develop a hydroecological history of the lake. The purpose of this study was to use Arcellinida to: (1) document the contamination history of the lake, particularly related to arsenic (As) associated with aerial deposition from mine roaster stacks; (2) track the progress of water quality deterioration in Frame Lake related to mining, urbanization and other activities; and (3) identify any evidence of natural remediation within the lake. Arcellinida assemblages were assessed at 1-cm intervals through the upper 30 cm of a freeze core obtained from Frame Lake. The assemblages were statistically compared to geochemical and loss-on-ignition results from the core to document the contamination and degradation of conditions in the lake. The chronology of limnological changes recorded in the lake sediments were derived from 210Pb, 14C dating and known stratigraphic events. The progress of urbanization near the lake was tracked using aerial photography. Using Spearman correlations, the five most significant environmental variables impacting Arcellinida distribution were identified as minerogenics, organics, As, iron and mercury (p<0:05; nD30). Based on CONISS and ANOSIM analysis, three Arcellinida assemblages are identified. These include the Baseline Limnological Conditions Assemblage (BLCA), ranging from 17-30 cm and deposited in the early Holocene >7,000 years before present; the As Contamination Assemblage (ACA), ranging from 7-16 cm, deposited after ~1962 when sedimentation began in the lake again following a long hiatus that spanned to the early Holocene; and the Eutrophication Assemblage (EA), ranging from 1-6 cm, comprised of sediments deposited after 1990 following the cessation of As and other metal contaminations. The EA developed in response to nutrient-rich waters entering the lake derived from the urbanization of the lake catchment and a reduction in lake circulation associated with the development at the lake outlet of a major road, later replaced by a causeway with rarely open sluiceways. The eutrophic condition currently charactering the lake--as evidenced by a population explosion of eutrophication indicator taxa Cucurbitella tricuspis-likely led to a massive increase in macrophyte growth and winter fish-kills. This ecological shift ultimately led to a system dominated by Hirudinea (leeches) and cessation of the lake as a recreational area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings : Researchers have developed conceptual consensus on core plan characteristics that contribute to plan quality, but rarely assess how practitioners view plan quality. I explore how Canadian planners view the characteristics thought to create quality plans. I asked planners in 290 municipalities across southern Ontario (Canada) their view of the importance of plan quality and asked that they identify additional plan quality characteristics, rate the influence of various plan characteristics, and explain why they omitted certain characteristics in their official plans. I find that practitioners valued quality plans because they facilitate implementation and help inspire the community while adding credibility and legitimacy to planning processes and the planning profession. Planners did not value all plan elements equally; they felt that clear and enforceable polices were crucial, but that it was less important to report participation in plan preparation or discuss monitoring or interorganizational cooperation in the official plan. Planners did not always include important plan quality elements in their official plans because they lacked sufficient resources to prepare comprehensive plans and rarely significantly updated older plans. These case study findings may not be generalizable to other jurisdictions in Canada or internationally, but still offer useful insights. Takeaway for practice : Scholars should ensure that planning practitioners have a key role in shaping understanding of plan quality. Academics and practitioners should work together to create reflective practitioners who use plan quality characteristics to guide them as they create or update plans. The profession needs to better train current Do Practicing Planners Value Plan Quality? Insights From a Survey of Planning Professionals in Ontario, Canada Dave Guyadeen 21 and future planners on how to prepare and evaluate quality plans through improvements in planning curricula and professional development courses offered by the American Planning Association and the Canadian Institute of Planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of Canadian planners explored perceptions about factors contributing to the growing number of plans communities have adopted recently. The results suggest that practitioners see themselves as responding to current community concerns, as well as to requirements imposed by higher levels of government. Neoliberal practices that force compliance with accountability frameworks to enable transfer payments increase demands for new plans. Professional practices within planning have encouraged specialization—in fields such as urban design—that often leads to plan-making activities. With many plans to coordinate, and limited staff resources and time available, practitioners face increasing implementation challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the design and implementation of density for benefit agreements (DBAs), a form of density 'bonusing' in Toronto and Vancouver. The cities identify many of the same priorities for benefits secured from developers, but in practice they prioritize widely different benefits. By comparing practice in Toronto and Vancouver, this article demonstrates how institutional differences and the decentralization of policy decision-making in major cities can affect urban planning decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaders in planning and public health endorsed a set of shared principles to guide systems-wide food policy change. Yet, food system considerations are relatively new to planners. There is a need to examine the current policies and practices that may be hindering supportive local planning activity. Using Waterloo Region as a case study, in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders. Findings revealed gaps in regional food system planning and policy coordination, and provincial food planning legislation. Legacy, industry and governance barriers were identified as challenges. The identification of barriers to food-related planning provides important opportunities to improve food access at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ways in which the Crown Duty to Consult is implemented in Ontario planning processes. The authors present the Red Hill Valley Parkway project in Hamilton, Ontario and draw from seventeen semi-structured interviews to examine the role of municipal planning in relation to the duty to consult. The interviews reveal that engaging in municipal-First Nations relations is a mutually beneficial practice, although legislation offers minimal guidance for this practice. In order to move forward planners must confront the challenges and opportunities for municipalities to implement consultation with First Nations in planning processes. The authors conclude that municipal-First Nations engagement will require both legislative change and a cultural shift in how planning is done and what is included in professional planning curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban History Review / Revue d'Histoire Urbaine is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents an examination into the urban planning and local politics of Vancouver, British Columbia between 1952 and 1973 under the leadership of the city's planning director Gerald Sutton Brown. Details are given noting both the large scale economic growth which the city experienced during the period as well as the expansion of the welfare system. Subjects addressed include the influence of modernist thought on urban planning, the early initiatives of Sutton Brown's Board of Administration in the 1950s, and the political resistance which rallied against him in the 1960s.

Copyright of Urban History Review / Revue d'Histoire Urbaine is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reports on a survey of the readings that have most influenced the professional development of Canadian planning practitioners. Results indicate that influential writings originate from a wide diversity of sources, both inside and outside the discipline. We also detect a relationship between the age of respondents and that of the works mentioned, pointing to the determining effect of influences encountered during formative years. Works published in the 1960s, which are critical of previous approaches, are widely cited in the survey. A large selection of subsequent works proposing alternatives to mainstream planning suggests a lasting adherence to critical perspectives launched in the 1960s. Consequently, few foundational texts, and more generally works predating the 1960s, figure in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes an alternative cellular automata (CA) model, which relaxes the traditional CA regular square grid and synchronous growth, and is designed for representations of land-use change in rural—urban fringe settings. The model uses high-resolution spatial data in the form of irregularly sized and shaped land parcels, and incorporates synchronous and asynchronous development in order to model more realistically land-use change at the land parcel scale. The model allows urban planners and other stakeholders to evaluate how different subdivision designs will influence development under varying population growth rates and buyer preferences. A model prototype has been developed in a common desktop GIS and applied to a rapidly developing area of a midsized Canadian city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After making a comparative historical survey of contemporaneous responses to her 1964 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Klemek concludes that Jane Jacobs' ideas were anticipated by urbanists in Great Britain and West Germany, and were embraced more readily by influential planners and architects in these nations and Canada than was initially the case in the United States. Unlike the almost reactionary outsider and opposition figure she seemed to be in New York, Jacobs was accepted by many types of planners and architects in these other nations, illustrating that her ideas were not as inherently anti-planning, antimodernist, or NIMBYist, as they appeared in the context of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from case studies of communities with access-controlled developments, the paper explores the ways respondents talk about the functions of gates in access-controlled developments in Canada. Security may be less overtly a motivation for gating in Canada than investigators report for other countries. Planners and elected officials usually deny security justifications for gates. Respondents marketing or inhabiting enclaves are conflicted in their sentiments about the relationship of gated projects to security concerns. Pervasive assumptions about class and status and about the significance of life cycle status in shaping behaviour appear to influence explanations for the appearance of gates in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planet is rapidly urbanizing, the need for actionable evidence to guide the design of cities that help (not hinder) our health has never felt more urgent. One essential component of healthy city design is improving neighborhood conditions in previously disinvested areas. To ensure equitable city design, policy makers, city planners, health practitioners, and researchers are interested in understanding the complex relationship between urban change, gentrification, and population health. Yet, the causal link between gentrification and health outcomes remain unclear. Without clear and consistent gentrification measures, researchers struggle to identify populations who are exposed to gentrification, and to compare health outcomes between exposed and unexposed populations. To move the science forward, this paper summarizes the challenges related to gentrification measurement in the United States and Canada when aspiring to conduct studies to analyze causal relationships between gentrification and health. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for studies aimed at examining both causes and consequences of gentrification and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biography of Canadian urban planner Earl A. Levin is presented. Levin worked as an urban planner in large cities across the country following his service in World War II. He served as the director of planning for the province of Saskatchewan and the secretary of the Provincial Planning Appeals Board. He donated his personal papers to the Institute of Urban Studies in 2007.