The Suburban Neighbourhood

of Tam O’Shanter
Assignment #1: The Local & The Global


Name: Rida Shaikh

Student Number: 1003945261
TA Name: Elizabeth Carlson
Tutorial Number: 1103
Date: February 12/2019
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 Introduction:

When walking through the neighbourhood that I grew up in, I see a motley assemblage of

cultures, homes, and people. Throughout the years, the Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood has

changed greatly and it continues to transform due to a multitude of factors. David Hulchanski’s

report, “The Three Cities Within Toronto”, and Doreen Massey’s piece, “A Global Sense of

Place”, shed light on some of these transformative factors that influence neighbourhoods,

including urban and global relations, respectively. This essay will attempt to characterize the

Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood at a local, urban, and global scale by drawing on the

aforementioned literature.

Local Scale:

At first glance, the Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood looks like a generic suburban region of

the Greater Toronto Area. Residential options include single-detached houses, semi-detached

houses, and large apartment complexes. Commercial spaces range from large department stores

like Walmart in Agincourt Mall to small family businesses and ethnic supermarkets clustered in

plazas. There are a wide variety of restaurants serving different cultural cuisines. Institutional

spaces include two elementary schools,

a middle school and a high school.

Furthermore, there is a branch of the

Toronto Public Library, a community

centre, and a large recreational centre in

The Local Mall

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this neighbourhood. Another defining feature of this neighbourhood is the large population of

elderly people who reside in the Shepherd Terrace senior home. A substantial fraction of the

neighbourhood map is taken up by green space, which seems to be the perfect addition to a

quintessential suburban dream.

Detached Housing Units

Despite the initial image of this

neighbourhood, a deeper look into its

history as well as its current census data

allows us to get a better insight into the

neighbourhood’s defining features. The neighbourhood was first established in 1892, and was

part of the suburban development of Toronto, which consisted largely of a middle and high

income caucasian population, who lived in some of the single-detached houses that still stand

today. Rapid development and investment in the infrastructure of the area resulted in the creation

of a respectable suburb with access to a highway and many institutional areas. Then, in the

mid-1970s after the immigration policies of Canada were altered, many low income immigrant

families settled in the area. Hulchanski describes

this event, stating that “over the ensuing decades,

particularly in Scarborough … high-rise housing

became home to many newly arrived, low-income

immigrant families that came to

High-Rise Housing
Canada” (Hulchanski 21). This holds true for the

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Tam O’Shanter community, as many newer buildings, including the one in which my family

resides, were built to cater to the low income immigrants who decided to make this part of

Scarborough their home.

Shortly after this change, the Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood experienced “white flight”,

as a large percentage of the caucasian population moved to other areas. This is reflected in the

most current census data which shows that 75% of the population in this area are visible

minorities, with Chinese and South Asian immigrants making up the majority (City of Toronto

17). Furthermore, a low income population remained in the area, and the previous investment in

infrastructure and development did not continue. Today, this area has no access to the subway,

and only has a few bus stations that do not operate well enough to meet the commuting demands

of the area. The green space has been converted into a private golf course that locals have limited

Private Golf Course access to. The prices of the houses have risen

exponentially, and pockets of the neighbourhood are

home to the few who can afford these prices. On the

other hand, the apartment complexes are full and in

need of renovations. Near the library and mall, social

housing and apartments have been torn down and

replaced by high-rise condominiums that previous tenants of the area cannot afford. The local

characteristics of this neighbourhood are definitely shaped by the history of the area, and

continue to change as the population occupying this space also changes.

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 Urban Scale:

My neighbourhood is deep within the City #3 area according to “The Three Cities Within

Toronto”. Hulchanski’s framework for understanding this neighbourhood in relation to the

broader city seems to apply in most cases, but can be challenged in others.

The report draws on the observation that “poverty has moved from the centre to the edges

of the city” (Hulchanski 1) and “low-income households are concentrated in the northeastern and

the northwestern parts of the city” (Hulchanski 1). This accurately describes the Tam O’Shanter

neighbourhood, which is a suburb located in the northeastern part of the city. Census data shows

that the median household income of this neighbourhood is much lower than the city median

(City of Toronto 13). Additionally, the data regarding commute times shows that residents of this

neighbourhood spend a longer time travelling to work compared to city averages, which also

conforms to Hulchanski’s report. Residents of City #3 “have to travel further to find

employment, yet they have the poorest access to the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway

stations” (Hulchanski 12). This is exemplified in my neighbourhood because the closest subway

station is two bus transfers away.

Looking at the map, it is quite evident that

two different residential developments

dominate this area. Hulchanski accurately

depicts this spread of housing when he

talks about City #3, stating that “many

Inadequate Public Transport

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census tracts include two contrasting urban forms - high rise apartments on the major arterial

roads and single-family, more traditional suburban housing on quieter residential

streets” (Hulchanski 21).

Revitalization Plans Recent condo developments in areas close

to the mall and library have displaced

people residing in social housing and

indicate the beginning of the process of

gentrification. Plans released for this area

show many more condo buildings, and

the reconstruction of the whole area. This phenomenon contradicts Hulchanski, who addresses

potential gentrification into City #2, while disregarding City #3 as a candidate for gentrification.

He says that “some of the increases in incomes and housing prices occurring in City #1 could

very well result in spillover gentrification to adjacent, relatively low-income census tracts that

are part of City #2” (Hulchanski 14).

Hulchanski seems to disregard the

active gentrification of parts of City

#3 that is occurring as new

developments arise and people move

far from City #1, going right into the

New Condo Development
inner suburbs of City #3.

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Furthermore, the averages depicted in the census data may agree with Hulchanski’s framework,

but a large range of incomes affect that data and many higher income families reside within City

#3 suburbs in the expensive single-detached houses that they own. Thus, Hulchanski’s

framework may be an accurate description of some urban relations this neighbourhood has with

the greater city of Toronto, but it also disregards the diversity of people that exist in the

neighbourhood and overgeneralizes the populations that exist in City #3.

A variety of housing ranging from apartment complexes to

detached homes and new condominiums can be seen in this picture.

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 Global Scale:

As our world becomes increasingly

interconnected, we no longer have the

traditional distinct idea of a place. Instead,

as Doreen Massey argues in “A Global

Sense of Place”, globalization has changed Street-side Plaza

the notion of what a place really is. She describes her hometown of Kilburn, stating that it is

“not a seamless, coherent identity or a single sense of place which everyone shares” (Massey

153). The Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood could also be described by this statement because it

consists of a variety of different identities that come together. In the past when immigration

policies were different in Canada, the Tam O’ Shanter neighbourhood was a more ethnically

homogenous population. However, as time has passed, globalization has been a “source of

geographically uneven development” (Massey 156) which has contributed to the “uniqueness of

place” (Massey 156). A high immigrant population has transformed this place into an area full of

diverse people participating in cultural exchange. The

diversity in the population has also translated into

diversity in the local businesses. Stores such as the

Asian Supermarket, Royal Chinese Restaurant, Peri

Halal Cuisine, and many others have recently opened

in the area. On the other hand, large retail brands

Chinese Supermarket such as Walmart and NoFrills also exist in this

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neighbourhood, which depict economic

global connections. Hundreds of retail stores

just like these are present in low-income

neighbourhoods all over the country and

show how some economic aspects of

globalization also determine our experience Large, Affordable Department Stores

of place. Unlike other, more affluent areas, there are no expensive brand stores like Gucci, Apple,

or Nordstrom because there is a lack of a substantial customer base for these products in this

area, as the population is mostly lower income and could not afford these higher end products.

Furthermore, Doreen Massey discusses the phenomenon of time-space compression,

which is the shrinking of time and space due to technological advancements and developments in

infrastructure. One major component is the public transportation that is available to those in this

area. This neighbourhood doesn't have access to the Toronto’s subway infrastructure and instead

relies upon buses for commuting. Lack of investment in the neighbourhood’s infrastructure

Area Has No Access to the Subway highlights “the power geometry of

time-space compression” (Massey

149), which indicates that different

people have different access to the

technology that allows time-space

compression to occur. Housing

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closer to the subway line is often more Differential Access to Mobility

expensive, and so populations that are

wealthier have better access to this

piece of infrastructure compared to

lower income households. Moreover,

Massey states that “differential mobility

can weaken the leverage of the already

weak” (Massey 150), and this can be seen in the transportation problem present in this

neighbourhood. Many residents in this area with a higher income utilize their cars to get to work,

which increases their personal mobility, and thus inadvertently reduces the mobility of people

that rely on a public transit system to travel, because the need for such a system goes down. This

is a prime example of how different individuals can reinforce the power geometries that are in

place, which leads to others becoming powerless and trapped in unfortunate situations.

Conclusion:

Global and urban relations come together at a local scale to change our sense of place. In

the case of the Tam O’Shanter neighbourhood, Massey’s statement that “places are

processes” (Massey 155) is quite apparent as this neighbourhood has been through many changes

throughout the years due to the shifts in the population. This neighbourhood continues to change

as processes of gentrification, and the effects of time-space compression influence the character

of this area.

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 Works Cited:

City of Toronto (2016) “Tam O’Shanter-Sullivan.” 2016 Census of Population. Social

Policy, Analysis & Research

Hulchanski, D. (2007) “The Three Cities Within Toronto: Income Polarization Among Toronto’s

Neighbourhoods, 1970- 2005.” University of Toronto Cities Centre.

Massey, D. (1994) “A Global Sense of Place.” In Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press.

Welch, D. (2013) “Scarborough.” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/

scarborough

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