‘Urban’ has always meant ‘modern’ in a world of change
A century ago, in 1900, the city of Toronto was already the center of the North American textile industry.
Today, the sprawling, multi-billion dollar city of Canada is the biggest industrial city in North America.
It’s a world-class destination for those who want to live in the modern world and those who are interested in the legacy of a city once synonymous with the textile industry, the Globe and Mail reported.
It has also become a hub for people to work, travel, and live and work in one of the world’s largest urban areas.
“The city that used to be the hub of the industrial world is now the world capital of urban innovation,” said Paul Hannon, president and CEO of Urban Technology, a Toronto-based company that offers technology solutions for urban design.
“It’s one of those places where it’s almost a question of who’s in charge and who’s not.”
Hannon said there are plenty of reasons why urban innovation is flourishing today.
“People are living more in cities now, there’s more people living together and people are moving to cities,” he said.
“In a lot of ways, we’re at the crossroads of the past and the future.”
In fact, according to Hannon and others, a major driver of the rapid urbanization that’s happening in the U.S. is the growing economy.
Cities are becoming more diverse and have become more connected, he said, with more people moving to the cities.
“So there’s no doubt that cities are becoming less and less suburban and more and more connected,” he added.
Urban infrastructure, urban amenities, and the growth of companies such as Amazon and Uber are all helping to make it possible for people living in large cities to move around more easily.
“I think a lot has changed since the 1880s,” Hannon told the Globe.
“We now have the ability to move to the suburbs and be more connected.
It used to take me six to 10 hours to get from the airport to my house.”
“There are more people working in the city and more people being out of the city,” said Peter Cairns, who works in downtown Toronto.
“You have a much better chance of getting a job in a city.”
Cairn, who also works for Urban Technology in Toronto, said the growth in the downtown core has increased the amount of activity he sees.
“This is a city of innovation,” he told the newspaper.
“There’s more activity in downtown, more people are out in the neighbourhood, and there’s new businesses opening up.”
Hiring workers is one of many ways that cities have made their way through the post-industrial boom, with new businesses such as Uber and Airbnb providing more opportunities for new workers.
Hannon thinks this will continue to happen.
“Companies are finding it’s easier to hire people in the cities because of all the new opportunities in the new economy,” he explained.
There are still some challenges. “
That’s not to say there’s not still lots of work to be done.
There are still some challenges.
But there’s been a lot more innovation going on in Toronto.”
Cities Are Making the Most of the New Economy The growing economy is also helping to provide the new workforce with new opportunities, with employers including Uber and Amazon hiring more people in Toronto.
Cairnes said he sees many companies looking to relocate their workforces.
“When the economy was strong, there was a lot that was happening downtown.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t find employees,” he noted.
“They just didn’t have the capital to move.
Now that the economy’s a bit stronger, they’re finding a lot easier places to work.”
While it may not be obvious to some, cities are finding ways to accommodate those new workers with infrastructure, such as a wide network of bike lanes, pedestrian boulevards, and parks.
“A lot of companies are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, because the economy is good,” Cairnas said.
But he added that there are some cities that have taken a different approach to dealing with those new arrivals.
“Toronto is one that I know that’s taking the opposite approach,” he continued.
“As a result of the economic downturn, they’ve done a lot to make sure that the infrastructure is there to support those new employees.”
Toronto’s bike lanes are just one example of what’s being done to help city workers who are looking to move into the city.
There’s also the development of more amenities for workers in the workplace, such to the downtown area.
“For some, it’s a big step, and they’ve been working to build that into their work environments,” Caimens said.
Toronto’s new mayor, John Tory, has also made it a priority to encourage workers to live near their work.
“One of the things that we’ve been trying to