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Executive Summary The St. Clair West community, northwest of Toronto's downtown core, is an area in transition. For most of the community's history, it thrived as a manufacturing area. During the 1990's, evidence of economic and social decline began to emerge. As business vacancies increased the visual appearance of the community deteriorated, fear of crime increased and household income dropped. |
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During the summer of 2000, concerned citizens and business owners approached the City's Economic Development Office and requested support for a revitalization program. An agreement was reached with City officials and local leaders to start the process of designating the community an Employment Area Revitalization district by forming the St. Clair West Revitalization Committee (SWRC). The SWRC, composed of a broad mix of citizens, business leaders, and other local stakeholders, held monthly meetings from September 2001 to date. The main purpose of this committee was to act as a liaison between the community and the City. The committee was also responsible for providing input and guidance to help develop their action plan, "Our Future Together". In developing "Our Future Together", two important sources of information were utilised. First, there was an extensive community consultation process to solicit sentiments about the area and to determine the kind of community people want. In addition to the SWRC meetings, the consultation process also included five stakeholder focus meetings with representatives from industry, retail, social services, the arts and youth, and one large public forum. These meetings took place in late February and March 2002. Second, an extensive socio-economic analysis of the area was conducted to develop an appreciation and fair understanding of the state of the area. Together, both sources of information revealed that the community's hard and soft infrastructure have deteriorated and are exacerbating the negative impacts associated with private disinvestment. Information gathered during the consultation process indicated that community members do not want their area dramatically changed. There is a strong desire to stop the decline so that St. Clair West can be a better place to live, work, shop and operate a business in the future. "Our Future Together" contains 82 Revitalization Actions that are organized around seven themes. Each theme is designed to improve community infrastructure, with an emphasis on building a stronger social infrastructure. The themes address issues such as improving community connections, public space, enhancing the commercial district, retaining and attracting investment, improving transportation, community safety, and creating a unique identity. The Revitalization Actions are divided and prioritized into short-term and long-term goals. All goals should be initiated immediately to take advantage of funding and support from all levels of government (City, Provincial and Federal levels). The SWRC will share responsibility for implementing the Revitalization Actions with all three levels of government. The SWRC has established the following five sub-committees: Marketing; Arts and Cultural Development; Business Development; Community Safety and Social Development; and Physical Infrastructure. These five task-oriented subcommittees, comprised of local volunteers, are responsible for developing work plans and funding arrangements for each of the recommended actions. Find out more! Visit the website at http://www.ourfuturetogether.com |
