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We attended the 3rd working group meeting for the proposed 315-325 Spadina development on July 22. In advance of the meeting, we sent a letter to the City demanding a pause to the planning process during the pandemic & most importantly—100% affordable housing (geared to income). https://twitter.com/chinatownFOCT/status/1285393483847655426
For reasons unknown to even Councillor @M_Layton, the meeting was held during business hours from 3-5pm. Due to this, several community members in the working group could not attend—while the developers (ReichmannHauer and Podium) and their whole team were represented.
The City expressed that our concerns about the working group moving forward during the pandemic were reasonable—but that the province has reinstated planning schedules. Not a single white person at the meeting responded to our points about how COVID-19 has impacted Chinatown.
Any time we talked about Chinatown being a racialized neighbourhood and/or any issue about racism, the topic was dodged. At one point, we brought up this @BousfieldsInc (the planning consultants for the developer) “anti-racism” statement posted in June.
After a very awkward silence, a rep from @BousfieldsInc replied “as planners, we have a duty to the community. And we also have duty to our clients.” Another long silence. Then she said, “I think this building does a good job of *celebrating the character of the neighbourhood.*”
This is an example from the development proposal of how they are “celebrating the character” of Chinatown—a new “Community Involvement” mural, which no one from the Chinatown community or in the working group asked for. A mural is not a substitute for community engagement.
Communities are clearly brought into these kinds of planning processes to check off some boxes. Our demand for 100% affordable housing—geared to income—was dismissed as unreasonable and impossible.
The developer shared that 3 weeks prior, they met with @m_layton & discussed the topic of affordable housing. No working group members were invited. They defined “affordable” in terms of a set number of units, geared to market rates rather than income, for a limited time period
The developer “estimated” that monthly market rent for a 1-bdrm unit in the building would be ~$2,500/month. For a median-income household in Chinatown (~$3684/month), affordable housing should be no more than $1105/month for the entire household (30% of household income).
The pace and fervor of real estate development in Toronto is causing a horrific & unacceptable crisis in housing for working-class people. The City is doing nothing to mitigate the impacts and instead uses the tired excuse of “it’s the province’s fault.”
CHINATOWN IS NOT AN AESTHETIC. We want affordable, decent housing—not art-washing. Nobody asked for a mural that pretends to address “diversity” while doing nothing to make our neighbourhood more liveable and more affordable for working-class, racialized residents.
