Danforth
A Geographical Deep Dive
Introduction and Livability
The neighborhood that I reside in is the Danforth. The Danforth boundaries start at Milverton Boulevard and Woodbine which then connects to Woodbine and Danforth. Then at Woodbine and Danforth, the boundary line continues along Danforth Avenue until Pape Avenue. The line continues West to a property line near Aldwych Avenue. That line then connects back to Milverton and Woodbine.
Some of the key characteristics of my neighborhood are that it is relatively accessible, stable, and walkable. Throughout the entire neighborhood, there are 5 schools alongside 4 doctors' offices spread across fairly. There is also access to public transit in the Danforth area with 4 subway stations and multiple bus stops along Danforth Avenue. The neighborhood is also very bikeable with bike paths all along Danforth Avenue. A last characteristic is access to parks, which this neighborhood has multiple, including many parkettes.
Land Use and Physical Geography
The physical landscape has affected the neighborhood's design in many ways. One of them is that a lot of the natural green spaces are located South of the neighborhood leaving the majority of residential areas to be located North of the green spaces or surrounding them. A lot of parks have also intersected with green spaces. Along Danforth Avenue, the sidewalk tends to elevate and deevelate at times most likely due to weathering reasons and/or being built on top of a hill. The approximate topographic elevation of the neighborhood is 120m.
The Danforth area is has a majority of residential land use still with access to many commercial and institutional sections within the neighborhood.
Land Use Map
Social Aspects
In the Danforth neighborhood area there is an approximate population of 9,666 people. The population density of the Danforth neighborhood is approximately 8,554 per square km. The majority gender of this population is female barely a 50.39% population compared to males with a 49.61% population. The average age for both genders in the neighborhood is 40 which is slightly different from the neighborhood's median age which is actually 41 for men and 40 for women.
Social Aspects (Continued)
The population age groups are split into 5 separate groups with the Working Age group (4,335) having the highest number out of the groups which is followed by Children (1,650), Seniors (1,520), Pre-Retirement (1,190), and finally Youth (900).. Marital status in the Danforth area has a majority of people who are married (3,675) followed by people who have never been married (2,430) and people living in common law (720). (2016)
An Urban Issue
An issue that the Danforth neighborhood seems to face is having affordable housing. Toronto's housing market prices have increased extensively over the past years from being set in the hundred thousands to millions. This has many downsides with the increased housing, as people moving to the city who are most likely trying to find affordable homes for their families, cannot due to most of the prices being close to or over $1 million. Theses people are can be identified as immigrants coming to find a new life or for a temporary job, people moving cause of occupational reasons, or maybe people who have low income. The city is also building condos which would be a great solution to the housing problem, but these condos are also the majority of the time pricey.
Redevelopment Plan
I think a way to help with the issue is to not get rid of the housing market prices, as they have already been in effect for some years now. The solution is to build more affordable housing throughout the neighbourhood. A way to do this that can be beneficial for multiple reasons, is building up a couple storeys atop of buildings that already exist on Danforth Avenue. This is so that there is not much discussion of where to find space to build affordable housing units. I think the best option would be to build off of 2 storey buildings as they are most likely easier for construction work. In the diagram you see, the purple boxes are examples of where to possibly build more housing units.
