Toronto A City Becoming In this collection of provocative essays, the subject is Toronto. But not Toronto the static, Toronto the understandable, Toronto the known-commodity. As its title suggests, Toronto: A City Becoming argues that Canada’s biggest city is undergoing a major transformation. Whether for good or ill, Toronto is changing before the eyes of its citizens. And it’s possible to interpret this change any number of ways. From city to big city? From post-industrial to creative? From nominally multicultural to truly diverse? From functioning metropolis to dysfunctional megalopolis? From placid (if dull) urban centre to exciting (if dangerous) city? From bad to worse? Or from good to better? The book includes twenty-two essays that will inspire real debate on the key issues facing the city. Contributors such as the acclaimed academic and author, Richard Florida, Toronto's former mayor, David Crombie, urban geographer, Meric Gertler, art critic, Sarah Milroy, political economist, James Milway, architect, John van Nostrand, and bestselling author and journalist Linda McQuaig take a wide variety of compelling and provocative perspectives on Toronto as it enters the 21st century. The book also features visual essays by some of Toronto's pre-eminent photographers, including Michael Awad's unique cityscapes, Scott Johnston's resonating portraits of Regent Park, and David Kaufman's exquisite architectural studies of buildings, storefronts, and landmarks. Rarely, if ever, has it been possible to witness with such clarity the passage of one kind of urban entity to another. Toronto: A City Becoming reveals the transformation of city at an exciting moment in its history.

About the Contributor(s)

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DAVID MacFARLANE has won numerous National Magazine Awards. Born in Hamilton in 1952, Macfarlane received his B.A. in 1975 from Trinity College, University of Toronto. He began his career as an editor and writer in 1978 with Weekend magazine, the former national newspaper supplement. Since then, his prose and poetry have appeared regularly in Saturday Night, Toronto Life, Maclean’s and Books in Canada. Macfarlane has also worked as a staff writer for Saturday Night and senior writer for The Globe and Mail’s former Toronto magazine. His first book, The Danger Tree, was published in 1992. A Canadian bestseller, it won the Canadian Authors’ Association Award and later appeared in the U.S> and U.K. under the title Come From Away. His first novel, Summer Gone, was published in 1997.