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Abandonment Issues
When trying to solve the problem of the lack of affordable housing, the thinkers and planners and innovators and design enthusiasts come up with some pretty creative ideas. Like the IKEA House, for example, or the notion of shipping container architecture. A group of Toronto activists are proposing a “use it or lose it” bylaw “that would see vacant and underutilized buildings and spaces expropriated by the City and redeveloped as badly needed affordable housing and social centres.”
On Monday, October 29, 2007, join these activists and thinkers for Abandonment Issues, a panel discussion about the proposed bylaw and affordable housing in Toronto, as well as an exhibition of maps and photos of the sites in question. This will be going down at the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (1499 Queen Street West), from 7:00-9:00 p.m. As the website says,
This project is about mapping missing housing and social centres, but it is also a critique of gentrification, neighbourhood blight, and the local and global forces that cause both of these problems. Through this project we hope to promote awareness of how the issue of abandoned buildings, and the lack of affordable housing and social services are connected to larger patterns of displacement and instability that stem from social and economic inequality.
This talk and exhibition is part of a larger mapping project, organized by the Toronto School of Creativity and Inquiry at the Toronto Free Gallery (and around the city) running until October 27, 2007.
Photo is just one of the many you’ll see at the exhibition.