2006 Census

[scarberiankhatru]

My dad grew up in a family of 9 living in a house that was about 1000 sq.ft. I've never lived anywhere that was much over 1500 sq.ft......I'd consider 2000 sq.ft. luxurious. Could 2000 sq.ft be considered a McMansion? If it replaces a tiny bungalow and is clad in stucco with columns, etc., than yes, although classic McMansions (such as Willowdale) can exceed 4000 sq.ft.

Alchemist, no one's talking about 2000 sq.ft condos, though. There just isn't much on the market that's over 1000 sq.ft, which, as Babel says, is perfectly reasonable when you add kitchen + living room + 2 bedrooms, etc. 1200, 1400, 1600 sq.ft, 2-4 bedroom condos would all make a huge difference in the willingness of families to live in them, but they invariably cost $1M. Given the way condos are currently marketed, buying two condos and punching the wall out between them may be your best bet, but I don't see many families bothering with that kind of multi-year hassle.

 

[adma]

It seems to me that the slow population growth in Toronto stems entirely from housing being converted from rooming houses to single-family homes, children moving out and leaving two people to a house, and the virtually complete lack of any new construction of housing suitable for families.

Same thing in the baby-bust 70s. The built-out census tracts practically cratered then.

BTW does anyone find that this census is being far more intensively covered in the media than any before it? As in, extensive front-page feature coverage, even going into issues like census tracts like it's of talking-point interest even to *average* persons...

 

[Ed007Toronto]

I sure all the "decline of Toronto" talk the last decade has something to do with this increased coverage.

 

[interchange42]

adma - I agree - there is far more coverage of this census than the ones wot preceded it.

A lot has happened since the last census that has caused more people to better consider how we live. Substantially high gas prices, increasingly clogged highways, the greenbelt, transit expansion talk, taller and taller condos, and the city's new OP amongst other things, are all appearing on the radar screens these days.

42

 

[adma]

And I hate to say this, but it may also be a product of the new media/knowledge dynamic, and newspapers seeking to affirm their relevance in a super-engaged, microanalytical age of blogs, message boards, etc.

When it comes to knowledge, "in-depth" has become sexy: what was once wonkery has migrated to the mainstream--at least, today's version of the newspaper-reading mainstream. By comparison, the more passive census reportage of past years seems an artifact from an age when news readership pretensions were a little more light/middlebrow/mass-appeally. (Another measure of a shift away from the middlebrow may be what's happened to Macleans in recent years; and that isn't even anything to do with its ideology per se...)

 

[Chuck100]

We've built tens of thousands of condo units

Yes we have, don't forget that. Going by ridings, the population of Willowdale grew by 20,000 people. Between Toronto-Centre and Trinity-Spadina, about 15,000 new people were added downtown. Etobicoke-Lakeshore bucked the overall Etobicoke trend and actually grew by a few thousand people.

Don't freak out about this census, things will change in a few years. The good thing about one bedroom condos is that they provide a stable population base, so long as people want to continue living in them. Whereas a 3 bedroom house can be inhabited by anywhere from 2-4 people, a one bedroom condo will normally have one person living in, and that can never drop.

Finally, don't argue that the growth would be higher taking the undercount into consideration. If you add the undercount this year, you have to add it to the 2001 census as well, which would boost the 2001 population well over 2.5 million.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Recall this thread:

p083.ezboard.com/ftoronto...3599.topic

That said, the shift in population could potentially wreck havoc in areas such as community services planning, etc. That has already reared its' ugly head in education.

AoD

 

[mpolo2]

Interesting (possibly) comparative information on US city growth (from the Economist):

Estimates released by the US Census Bureau on April 5th showed that Atlanta grew faster than any other metropolitan area in America between 2000 and 2006. The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta area gained an estimated 890,000 people during this time, mainly as a result of immigration. Dallas-Fort Worth was second with 842,000, and Houston third with 825,000. Phoenix, San Bernardino County, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, DC, Miami and Chicago completed the top ten. The increase pushes Atlanta’s metropolitan population to 5.1m, although the city itself accounts for just 483,000 of that (according to a 2005 estimate).

www.economist.com/cities/...ity_id=ATL

 

[unimaginative2]

So...where does that put us? I'm being lazy.

 

[gbelan]

all that us growth is pure sprawl.atlanta grew by twice its city population in six years!crazy!