Local Motion : The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto

It’s election year in Toronto. Mayor David Miller is leaving office, and leaving behind a nagging worry that it might be harder than we ever anticipated to get anything substantial accomplished from within City Hall. Maybe, just maybe, we can get more done from without.

Shifting from the ‘what’ of the previous uTOpia books to ‘how,’ Local Motion presents an in-depth analysis of civic engagement in Canada’s largest city. Decisions about the things that matter to us most on a daily basis – our schools and roads and houses – happen at the city level. So, how do we influence these decisions? What motivates ordinary citizens to take action and improve their community? How do neighbours organize together? Does City Hall help facilitate engagement, or stand in the way? Local Motion explores how we, as citizens, can make a positive change in our city.

Essays by politicians and senior journalists explain what makes one city, Toronto, tick and stall. They explore electoral reform, civic organizations, ethnicity and racism, the press gallery and grassroots activism, offering up ways in which the people who live there might help to make their city a better, more humane one. Former Winnipeg mayor and current Toronto Centre MPP Glen Murray asks why we’re ‘consumers’ and ‘taxpayer’ rather than ‘citizens.’ Journalist Bert Archer looks at Torontonians'' success at stopping things and asks why there isn’t more activism that starts things. Mike Smith considers the ‘creative city,’ John Lorinc looks at community responses to crime and Catherine Porter studies neighbourhood action. Denise Balkissoon explores how culture and ethnicity factors into the vote, Jennifer Lewington tells us about the role the media plays in city-building and how you might exploit it, while Hamutal Dotan rethinks zoning. Kelly Grant asks if there''s room for us in city budgeting. Edward Keenan looks at how our elections could become more engaging, Hannah Sung depicts the lives of a few activists and Jason McBride studies how the private sector manages to get so much done.

Taken together, these twelve in-depth essays paint a citizen-focused portrait of a city in transition, offering up myriad ways in which the people who live there might help to make their city a better, more humane one.