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[PHOTO] Varsity Stadium
Jun. 22nd, 2009 11:20 amThe University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium is a beautiful new complex, the sweep of its blue running tracks lying below the sky and the downtown Toronto skyline.
Jun. 22nd, 2009
- Over at blogTO, Christopher Reynolds visits the Hanlan's Point nude beach on the Toronto Islands and does an amusing and enjoyable bit of reportage about an amusing and entertaining bit of Toronto.
- Spacing Toronto's Jake Schabas explains what's up, exactly, with the projector ads in the Annex.
[LINK] "Germany's shrinking east"
Jun. 22nd, 2009 02:15 pmOver at his blog, Claus Vistesen examines the background behind the former East Germany's ongoing population decline.
By comparison, in normal First World countries with low infant mortality rates, a TFR needs to be in the range of 2.1 for a population to sustain itself.
He goes on to note the particular dynamics of out-migration from East Germany--the particularly hard impact on small and middle-sized communities, the disproportionately large number of women and young adults leaving--and speculates about the implications of East Germany's experiences for Germany as a whole.
Go, read.
[W]omen in East Germany essentially stopped having children all together. In a paper from 1994 detailing the immediate evolution of East German fertility in the context of the reunification process, Nicholas Eberstadt shows how births in East Germany indeed did fall dramatically. From 1988 to 1992 the total number of live births fell from 215700 to 88300 which translates into a drop in the crude birth rate from 12.1 to 5.6.
[. . .]
According to Eberstadt and given the information available at the time, the drop was especially severe because fertility dropped sharply among women aged 25-34 and thus among those women in their prime age with respect to childbearing. Furthermore, Eberstadt also shows how marriage rates declined sharply during the transition from communism. Marina A. Adler notes that the highly insecure environment following communism made women reluctant to engage in the kind of long term commitments which marriage and child rearing constitutes. In fact, the almost effective halt in childrearing occuring in East Germany is not so unique in the general sense since the fall of communism also marked a decisive structural break in the context of the fertility behavior of an entire generation of women all across the Eastern European edifice. In this sense, Sobotka offers a comprehensive view of the drivers of the fertility transition in the context Eastern Europe.
The ultimate effect of the shift in an Eastern Germany context was remarkable; Eberstadt estimates that the TFR had fallen to an astonishing 0.98 in East Germany by 1991.
By comparison, in normal First World countries with low infant mortality rates, a TFR needs to be in the range of 2.1 for a population to sustain itself.
He goes on to note the particular dynamics of out-migration from East Germany--the particularly hard impact on small and middle-sized communities, the disproportionately large number of women and young adults leaving--and speculates about the implications of East Germany's experiences for Germany as a whole.
Go, read.
[BRIEF NOTE] On ethnic succession
Jun. 22nd, 2009 07:00 pmOne of the many many things that I liked about moving from Prince Edward Island was that I'd have the chance to witness for myself the ethnic succession theory, "a theory in sociology stating that ethnic and racial groups will be the targets of neighborhood segregation only until they achieve economic parity. This group will then move on and be replaced by a new ethnic group in a similar situation. This pattern will continue, creating a succession of groups moving through the neighborhood over time."
This happens everywhere. A while ago, while visiting Brussels, Noel observed that an immigrant neighbourhood home to many Turks and Romanians was at one point a Jewish neighbourhood, pre-Holocaust Belgian Jews themselves constituting an immigrant minority. Another example of this sort of phenomenon is London's Brick Hill district in the East End, which from the late 17th century has seen successive waves of immigrants--Huguenots, Jews, Bengalis--choose to settle in this area and start to integrate. I'm sure that my readers can think of other examples closer to home.
Toronto's certainly not exempt from this pattern In the early 20th century, Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood used to be a destination for Jewish migrants and a major Jewish community. By the Second World War, the increasing cultural and economic capital available to Toronto's Jewish led to migration north along the Bathurst Street corridor. Kensington Market, in the meantime, charged substantially.
Another example of this is the steady expansion of the Portuguese Canadian community, of relatively recent origins but still highly visible, a population that has benefited from ethnic succession. As Nicholas De Maria Harney observed in his 1998 Eh Paesan!, much of the old Italian-Canadian community's territories have been infiltrated by Portuguese migrants. "One Italian-Canadian speaker noted with a grin that, 'thhe Portuguese had pushed the Italians out of Dundas, then College, and now they had made it to Lawrence and Dufferin[;] pretty soon it will be Woodbridge," (77-78). Woodbridge being a suburban community just outside of Toronto with a large Italian-Canadian community. Little Portugal remains a highly viable ethnic neighbourhood in Toronto, one that seems likely to persist in light of Portuguese-Canadians' generally high level of endogamy and spatial separation.
This happens everywhere. A while ago, while visiting Brussels, Noel observed that an immigrant neighbourhood home to many Turks and Romanians was at one point a Jewish neighbourhood, pre-Holocaust Belgian Jews themselves constituting an immigrant minority. Another example of this sort of phenomenon is London's Brick Hill district in the East End, which from the late 17th century has seen successive waves of immigrants--Huguenots, Jews, Bengalis--choose to settle in this area and start to integrate. I'm sure that my readers can think of other examples closer to home.
Toronto's certainly not exempt from this pattern In the early 20th century, Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood used to be a destination for Jewish migrants and a major Jewish community. By the Second World War, the increasing cultural and economic capital available to Toronto's Jewish led to migration north along the Bathurst Street corridor. Kensington Market, in the meantime, charged substantially.
The various waves of residents in the neighbourhood, from a range of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, have also left their traces on the neighbourhood. The presence of two synagogues, the Kiever (1926) and the Anshei Mink (1930), are reminders of the area’s early Jewish population. The bright and colourful building colours, however, have been attributed to the influence of the Portuguese community that arrived later in the early 1960s.
[. . . ]
During the first decade of the 20th century, Toronto became home to more than 15,000 displaced Jews from South and Central Europe. Between 1905 and 1910, many Jewish families moved out "the Ward" (an overcrowded immigrant reception area between Yonge and University) and settled in Kensington. Families purchased small row houses from the previous working-class British and Irish immigrant residents. Many opened small businesses in the area and the market was established.
Since Jews were restricted from many services and lacked social benefits, the Jewish community established their own societies, hospitals and other services through the synagogues in the area. The Jewish presence in Kensington Market declined in the 1950s and early 1960s when they moved up and out to other areas of the city.
Following the Second World War, between 1945 and the early 1960s, Canada became home to more than 2.7 million immigrants; of which one quarter settled in Toronto. Poles, Ukrainians, Italians and Hungarians moved into the Kensington Market area. The largest and most important ethnic group to establish itself here were the Portuguese.
Immigrants were attracted to the neighbourhood because of the availability of affordable housing for rent or sale, the proximity of the area to public transportation and work opportunities, and the presence of an ‘old world’ market.
In 1962, Canada amended its Immigration Act to allow a more egalitarian process based on economic and educational factors. As a result, many new groups of immigrants from poorer countries moved into Kensington and opened shops: Afro-Caribbeans (mostly Jamaican), Chinese and East Indian. Kensington Market became a true microcosm of Canada’s ethnic mosaic.
Another example of this is the steady expansion of the Portuguese Canadian community, of relatively recent origins but still highly visible, a population that has benefited from ethnic succession. As Nicholas De Maria Harney observed in his 1998 Eh Paesan!, much of the old Italian-Canadian community's territories have been infiltrated by Portuguese migrants. "One Italian-Canadian speaker noted with a grin that, 'thhe Portuguese had pushed the Italians out of Dundas, then College, and now they had made it to Lawrence and Dufferin[;] pretty soon it will be Woodbridge," (77-78). Woodbridge being a suburban community just outside of Toronto with a large Italian-Canadian community. Little Portugal remains a highly viable ethnic neighbourhood in Toronto, one that seems likely to persist in light of Portuguese-Canadians' generally high level of endogamy and spatial separation.
[URBAN NOTE] Climate change and Toronto
Jun. 22nd, 2009 07:09 pmReading The Dragon Tales blog, I recently came across some very disturbing news on climate change as it can affect Canada. Glaciers in the Arctic, it turns out, can melt very very quickly with obvious implications for sea level. (Will earlier noted research suggesting that the northeastern coastline of North America will take a particular hit.)
When I learned about this, I congratulated myself for having had the good sense to move from a low-lying island on the northeastern coastline of North America to a city on the shore of the Great Lakes. Alas, my optimism turns out to have rather badly misplaced. This chart, predicting rainfall patterns in North America in the llast two decades of the 21st century, has some implications for Canada. Climate change will be rather uncomfortable in the United States (much more in some areas than others), and it looks like life in Mexico will be seriously harmed, but Canada seems OK. Oh, there is slated to be much more preciptation in winter (Mont-Tremblant survives?), but things are generally unchanged. Except for summer, when precipitation is projected to fall by between 5 and 10%.
Why is this an issue? For this, see this article abstract, the most relevant sections of which I've reposted below.
A common joke is that although Toronto's located on the shores of Lake Ontario its inhabitants certainly don't have much of a sense of having a waterfront. In a century's time, if the charts referred to above underestimate the situation, might it be that Toronto will be an inland city in faact as well as in sentiment?
When I learned about this, I congratulated myself for having had the good sense to move from a low-lying island on the northeastern coastline of North America to a city on the shore of the Great Lakes. Alas, my optimism turns out to have rather badly misplaced. This chart, predicting rainfall patterns in North America in the llast two decades of the 21st century, has some implications for Canada. Climate change will be rather uncomfortable in the United States (much more in some areas than others), and it looks like life in Mexico will be seriously harmed, but Canada seems OK. Oh, there is slated to be much more preciptation in winter (Mont-Tremblant survives?), but things are generally unchanged. Except for summer, when precipitation is projected to fall by between 5 and 10%.
Why is this an issue? For this, see this article abstract, the most relevant sections of which I've reposted below.
Eos, Vol. 89, No. 52, 23 December 2008
Dry Climate Disconnected the Laurentian Great Lakes
Recent studies have produced a new understanding of the hydrological history of North America’s Great Lakes, showing that water levels fell several meters below lake basin outlets during an early postglacial dry climate in the Holocene (younger than 10,000 radiocarbon years, or about 11,500 calibrated or calendar years before present (B.P.)). Water levels in the Huron basin, for example, fell more than 20 meters below the basin overflow outlet between about 7900 and 7500 radiocarbon (about 8770–8290 calibrated) years B.P. Outlet rivers, including the Niagara River, presently falling 99 meters from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario (and hence Niagara Falls), ran dry This newly recognized phase of low lake levels in a dry climate provides a case study for evaluating the sensitivity of the Great Lakes to current and future climate change.
[. . .]
Lakes without overflow, such as these lowstands in the GLB, can only be explained by a dry climate in which water lost through evaporation exceeded water gained from direct precipitation and catchment runoff. The dry regional climate that forced the lakes into hydrologic closure must have been substantially drier than the present climate. Hydrologic modeling of the present lakes shows that current mean annual precipitation would have to decrease by about 25% in the Superior basin and by about 42% in the Ontario basin, in conjunction with a 5ºC mean temperature increase, to achieve lake closure [Croley and Lewis, 2006]. Paleoclimate simulations and reconstructions using pollen [Bartlein et al., 1998] and stable isotopes [Edwards et al., 1996] indicate that climate in the GLB (Figure 2c) was drier than present at 7900 radiocarbon (8770 calibrated) years B.P. Termination of the lowstand episode about 7500 radiocarbon (8300 calibrated) years B.P. coincides with the onset of a wetter climate as atmospheric circulation adjusted to the rapidly diminishing ice sheet [Dean et al., 2002] and moist air mass incursions from the Gulf of Mexico became more frequent.
The discovery that the Great Lakes entered a low-level phase without having connecting rivers during the early Holocene dry period demonstrates the sensitivity of the lakes to climate change. The closed lakes of this phase occurred when the Great Lakes entered their present nonglacial state. Thus, the closed lakes afford a valuable example of past, high-amplitude, climate-driven hydrologic variation upon which an improved assessment of lake-level sensitivity in response to future climates can be based.
A common joke is that although Toronto's located on the shores of Lake Ontario its inhabitants certainly don't have much of a sense of having a waterfront. In a century's time, if the charts referred to above underestimate the situation, might it be that Toronto will be an inland city in faact as well as in sentiment?