Memph
Active Member
http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2015/11/planning-prosperity-neptis-foundation-maps-economic-growth
Key points:
-Zoning can be problematic limit the ability for different components of a business to co-locate, like management offices, manufacturing, research facilities
-Export driven sector is continuing to switch from manufacturing to "creative class" type employment. Manufacturing employment is declining due to both off-shoring and automation. Creative class/white collar employment allegedly depends on a labour force that values urbanism and a sense of place, which many office parks lack.
-Increasing reliance on a specialized skilled labour force means there's a need for good mobility (best achieved with dense urban transit-connected environments)
-While manufacturing blue collar employment is declining, very low skilled, minimum wage type service sector employment is growing
-Public investments like hospitals and universities should be taken advantage of - i.e. maybe not such a good idea to put them at the suburban outskirts *cough* Laurier in Milton *cough*. Universities and hospitals can anchor many other economic activities and land uses, and cities should make sure this potential does not go to waste. (p 25)
-Aside from downtown, the rest of Toronto's urban core is highly devoid of STEM employment and is experiencing declines in STEM employment (2001-2011). This includes certain innermost suburban areas ex Don Mills & Eglinton. The 905 has experienced increases in STEM employment, especially in Mississauga and Markham. The outermost parts of the 416 are more or less flatlining. Outside the GTA, STEM employment growth is limited to the vicinity of the University of Waterloo. (p 27-29)
-Employment in finance is concentrated in Downtown with significant secondary hubs in Mississauga, North York, Markham and K-W. Downtown and Mississauga lead in employment growth with smaller areas of growth elsewhere like in North York, Markham and K-W. (p 30-32)
-Manufacturing employment is largely suburbanized. For exact locations, anywhere in grey on satellite imagery is a good indicator... so mostly suburban GTA, Waterloo Region, Guelph and Hamilton. Overall major job losses, with only a few small areas experiencing small gains, mainly at the periphery. The only major success storey was Waterloo but that was probably RIM (2001-2011) and probably largely reversed since 2011. (p. 33-35)
While population has grown about 20% from 2001 to 2011 (I think?), job growth worth just 10% and employment involving goods and services that can be exported did not experience any net growth (-0.7%). (p. 37)
The 3 biggest sprawling employment zones of the 905 have 93% auto-commute mode share, compared to 29% for Downtown Toronto (p 43)
Suburban export-producing employment growth has been lead by major office parks like Meadowvale, ACC, 404/401, Winston Churchill/QEW and Burlington-QEW
The report seems to question the need for new employment lands. With the decline in manufacturing, warehousing is the only land intensive employment type that is seeing increasing demand. Perhaps this could simply replace manufacturing facilities that become vacant and will require little to no new land. Meanwhile retail and office uses might not be so good to locate within industrial parks and be better suited closer to housing and/or transit. Apparently a lot of greenfield land has been recently zoned for new employment districts to try to comply with Places to Grow, which may be excessive.
The report also argues there should be more of a focus on providing rapid transit to the suburban office and industrial parks. I'm not sure I completely agree. Some of these have inherently anti-urban layouts, it might be better to just focus on encouraging any future employment growth to occur in better locations with more modest attempts to serve existing suburban employment with transit (ex Mississauga BRT and Hwy 7 BRT).
Key points:
-Zoning can be problematic limit the ability for different components of a business to co-locate, like management offices, manufacturing, research facilities
-Export driven sector is continuing to switch from manufacturing to "creative class" type employment. Manufacturing employment is declining due to both off-shoring and automation. Creative class/white collar employment allegedly depends on a labour force that values urbanism and a sense of place, which many office parks lack.
-Increasing reliance on a specialized skilled labour force means there's a need for good mobility (best achieved with dense urban transit-connected environments)
-While manufacturing blue collar employment is declining, very low skilled, minimum wage type service sector employment is growing
-Public investments like hospitals and universities should be taken advantage of - i.e. maybe not such a good idea to put them at the suburban outskirts *cough* Laurier in Milton *cough*. Universities and hospitals can anchor many other economic activities and land uses, and cities should make sure this potential does not go to waste. (p 25)
-Aside from downtown, the rest of Toronto's urban core is highly devoid of STEM employment and is experiencing declines in STEM employment (2001-2011). This includes certain innermost suburban areas ex Don Mills & Eglinton. The 905 has experienced increases in STEM employment, especially in Mississauga and Markham. The outermost parts of the 416 are more or less flatlining. Outside the GTA, STEM employment growth is limited to the vicinity of the University of Waterloo. (p 27-29)
-Employment in finance is concentrated in Downtown with significant secondary hubs in Mississauga, North York, Markham and K-W. Downtown and Mississauga lead in employment growth with smaller areas of growth elsewhere like in North York, Markham and K-W. (p 30-32)
-Manufacturing employment is largely suburbanized. For exact locations, anywhere in grey on satellite imagery is a good indicator... so mostly suburban GTA, Waterloo Region, Guelph and Hamilton. Overall major job losses, with only a few small areas experiencing small gains, mainly at the periphery. The only major success storey was Waterloo but that was probably RIM (2001-2011) and probably largely reversed since 2011. (p. 33-35)
While population has grown about 20% from 2001 to 2011 (I think?), job growth worth just 10% and employment involving goods and services that can be exported did not experience any net growth (-0.7%). (p. 37)
The 3 biggest sprawling employment zones of the 905 have 93% auto-commute mode share, compared to 29% for Downtown Toronto (p 43)
Suburban export-producing employment growth has been lead by major office parks like Meadowvale, ACC, 404/401, Winston Churchill/QEW and Burlington-QEW
The report seems to question the need for new employment lands. With the decline in manufacturing, warehousing is the only land intensive employment type that is seeing increasing demand. Perhaps this could simply replace manufacturing facilities that become vacant and will require little to no new land. Meanwhile retail and office uses might not be so good to locate within industrial parks and be better suited closer to housing and/or transit. Apparently a lot of greenfield land has been recently zoned for new employment districts to try to comply with Places to Grow, which may be excessive.
The report also argues there should be more of a focus on providing rapid transit to the suburban office and industrial parks. I'm not sure I completely agree. Some of these have inherently anti-urban layouts, it might be better to just focus on encouraging any future employment growth to occur in better locations with more modest attempts to serve existing suburban employment with transit (ex Mississauga BRT and Hwy 7 BRT).