A few days ago I was paraphrasing philosopher Alain de Botton in my post about the future of the city. A more accurate transcription of his words follows:
True diversity comes from communication and contact [...] if there is no meeting point [the city] is not diverse [... a city] can look superficially very diverse, but if you actually look at the levels of integration and communication and public space and places where very different communities can come together, then all of the sudden [the city] can start looking at lot less diverse.
He was talking about London. Today I came across an article in Spacing magazine that questions the same issues, this time in Toronto. The article “Come Together” by Dale Duncan reports the activities of residents associations in what is known as “immigration gateway communities”. To understand the context, it is important to know some stats about the Toronto population mix:
30% The percentage of all recent immigrants to Canada that live in Toronto.
50% The percentage of Torontonians born outside of Canada
47% The percentage of Torontonians who have a mother tongue other than English or French
Immigration gateway communities is a creative way to label rough neighbourhoods characterized [...]
