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Don Mills

Don Mills

Don Mills is a new town and neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its name refers to its location between the East and West Don River valleys, and the fact that several grist mills were operating in this part of the Don Valley during the 1800s. Don Mills is recognized as the first planned and fully integrated post-war community developed by private enterprise in North America. It is credited with being the blueprint for post-war suburban development in Toronto and contemporary residential neighbourhoods. Its design was influenced by Ebenezer Howard's Garden City, and by the principles of two American town planners, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, who developed the garden city community of Radburn, New Jersey. The Don Mills project was designed by an urban planner named Macklin Hancock, who envisioned a self-contained community distinguished by consistent design principles and a modernist style. It was financed by well-known businessman E.P. Taylor, who had acquired 8.35 square kilometres land in the area. Taylor saw the development as a lucrative business opportunity. He was right, as Don Mills became an immediate critical and commercial success, and was imitated in suburban developments across Canada. The design of Don Mills was based on five planning principles, which had not been implemented in Canada before. The first was the neighbourhood principle, which broke down the community into four neighbourhood quadrants, all surrounding a regional shopping centre. Each quadrant was to contain a school, a church, and a park. The second concept was the separation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, which was accomplished through the creation of a network of pedestrian paths providing easy access through parks to area schools and the town centre, while roads were designed to slow vehicular traffic through the use of winding roads, T-intersections, and cul-de-sacs. The third concept was the promotion of Modernist architecture and the Modern aesthetic. Don Mills Development controlled the architectural design, colours, and materials of all buildings in Don Mills. As well, the corporation insisted that builders use company-approved architects, who had been educated according to Bauhaus principles, to prevent the project from deteriorating into a typical post-war subdivision of builder's homes. The fourth concept was the creation of a greenbelt linked to a system of neighbourhood parks that would preserve the beauty of the surrounding ravines. The final concept was the integration of industry into the community, which followed Howard's ideals for the Garden City. Planners felt that it was important for residents to live and work in the same satellite town so that Don Mills would not become a bedroom community. A sizeable number of high residential densities -- rental townhouses and low-rise apartments -- was essential if the town were to attract a cross-section of residents working in local industries. Today, Don Mills is home to Global Television, Rogers Communications, and Celestica. The local high school is Don Mills Collegiate Institute.

New town

:For the place, see New Town. A New town or planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. Many of the world's capital cities are planned cities, notably Washington, DC in the United States, Abuja in Nigeria, Brasília in Brazil, Canberra and Adelaide in Australia, and New Delhi, Chandigarh, Fatehpur Sikri and Gandhinagar in India, Isfahan in Iran and Islamabad in Pakistan. It was also common in European colonization of the Americas to build according to a plan either on fresh ground or on the ruins of earlier Amerindian cities.

Ancient Rome

Although Rome itself was never a planned settlement, the Romans built a large number of towns throughout their empire, often as colonies for the settlement of citizens or veterans. These were generally characterised by a grid of streets and a planned water-supply; and many modern European towns of originally Roman foundation still retain part of the original street-grid. The most impressive Roman planned town was the city of Constantinople. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great chose the site for the new metropolis and began construction. His plans quickly fell into place. The modern city (known since 1930 as Istanbul) has changed much since then, but it must be remembered that the city did not develop due to simple human migrational patterns nor pure military advantage. Constantine wanted a city to mark his magnificence and Constantinople fulfilled the desire.

Australia

Adelaide was founded by British and German colonists in 1836 to test out Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theories of systematic colonisation. Convict labour was not employed and the colony in theory would be financially self-sufficient; in practice government assistance was used in the early stages. Land had been sold before anyone set foot in the largely unexplored territory and the city (the basis for the future CBD) was surveyed and planned in a remarkably short space of time. Adelaide's design has been praised for its four-square design, choice of setting and ample parklands which have had minimal encroachment of developments. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, was established in 1908 as the Federal Capital following the federation of the six Australian colonies which formed the Commonwealth of Australia. The new nation required a capital that was located away from other major settlements such as Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra is thus located in a Territory - the Australian Capital Territory - and not a State. Prior to this time the land that Canberra is found on was nothing more than farming land and forest. In 1912, after an extensive planning competition was completed, the vision of American Walter Burley Griffin was chosen as the winning design for the city. Extensive construction and public works were required to complete the city, this involved the flooding of a large parcel of land to form the cente piece of the city, Lake Burley Griffin. Unlike other Australian cities the road network, suburbs, parks and other elements of the city were designed in context with each other, rather than haphazard planning as witnessed in much of Sydney. Notable buildings include the High Court, Federal Parliament, Government House, War Memorial, Anzac Parade and headquarters of the Department of Defence.

Brazil

The country's capital, Brasília was a planned city built in the middle of the vast empty center of Brazil, at that time (1960) thousands of kilometers from any big city. It was built in four years, and as such concrete needed to be transported by airplane at times. The former capital of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro, and the resources tended to be concentrated in the southeast region of Brazil. While in part the city was built because there was the need for a neutral federal capital, the main reason was to promote the development of Brazil's hinterland and better integrate the entire territory of Brazil (although some say the real reason was to move the government to a place far from the masses). Brasília is approximately at the geographical center of Brazilian territory. The city is designed in the shape of an airplane, despite the fact that Lúcio Costa insists he shaped it like a butterfly. Housing and offices are situated on giant superblocks, everything following the original plan. The plan specifies which zones are residential, which zones are commercial, where industries can settle, where official buildings can be built, the maximum height of buildings, etc. Other notable planned cities in Brazil include Belo Horizonte (inaugurated in 1897), Goiânia, and Curitiba.

Canada

When Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald began to settle the West in Canada, he put the project under the command of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CPR exercised complete control over the development of land under its ownership. The federal government granted every second square mile section (totalling 101,000 km²) along the proposed railway line route to the CPR. The CPR decided where to place railway stations, and thus would decide where the dominant town of the area would be. In most instances the CPR would build a station on an empty section of land to make the largest profit from land sales — meaning that the CPR founded many of the Canadian West's towns, such as Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw, from scratch. If an existing town was close to the newly constructed station but on land not owned by the CPR, the town was forced to move itself to the new site and reconstruct itself, essentially building a new town. Calgary and Yorkton, Saskatchewan, were among the towns that had to move themselves. After the CPR established a station at a particular site, it would plan how the town would be constructed. The side of the tracks with the station would go to business, while the other side would go to warehouses. Furthermore, the CPR controlled where major buildings went (by giving the town free land to build it where the CPR wanted it to go), the construction of roads and the placement and organization of class-structured residential areas. The CPR's influence over the development of the Canadian west's communities was one of the earliest examples of new town construction in the modern world. In the modern suburban context, the Erin Mills Development located in the larger, incorporated city of Mississauga, Ontario is likely the largest planned suburban development or New Town in Canada. Phased development began in the early 1970's and continues to this day. Another example would be the Cornell development in Markham, Ontario also near Toronto, Canada, much of which incorporates housing "wired up" for the high-speed internet access.

France

A program of new towns (French villes nouvelles) was developed in the mid-1960s in France. Nine villes nouvelles were created.
- Near Paris: Cergy-Pontoise, Marne-la-Vallée, Sénart (former Melun-Sénart), Évry, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
- Near Lille: Villeneuve d'Ascq (Former Lille-Est)
- Near Lyon: Isle d'Abeau
- Near Marseille: Rives de l'Etang de Berre
- Near Rouen: Val de Reuil

Hong Kong

The area of Hong Kong is very mountainous and many places in the New Territories are remote to access by road transport. Hong Kong started developing new towns in the 1950s, to accommodate booming populations. In the early days the term "satellite cities" was used. The very first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong. Wah Fu Estate was built in a remote corner on Hong Kong Island. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Roads and later rail transport are usually available. The first towns are Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful. Recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung - Tai Ho).

India

The period following independence saw India being defined into smaller geographical regions. New states like Gujarat were formed, hence their capitals were planned.
- New Delhi is a planned city.
- Chandigarh is a planned city. Its planning was done by Le Corbusier.
- Gandhinagar is also a planned city, with a city plan different from that of Chandigarh.
- Dispur
- Navi Mumbai

Iran

In the period of the Persian Safavid Empire, Isfahan, the Persian capital, was built according to a pre-planned scheme, consisting of a long boulevard and planned housing and green areas around it. In modern day Iran more than 20 planned cities have been developed or are under construction, mostly around Iran's main metropolitan areas such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. Some of these new cities are build for special porpuses such as:
- Pardis which is built as a scientific city.
- Poulad-Shahr which is an industrious city built for the housing of Isfahan's steel industry workers.
- Shirin Shahr which is to provide housing for the suger industry personnel.
- Tehranpars which was built to house Tehran's additional population.
- Shahrak-e Gharb , built as a massive project of modern apartment buildings.
- Parand which is intended to provide residences for the staff of Imam Khomeini International Airport.
- Shushtar New Town which was built to provide housing for the employees of a sugar cane processing plant. 576,000 people have been planned to be settled in Iran's new towns by the year 2005. For a list of Iran's modern planned cities see: List of Iran's planned cities.

Ireland

Londonderry was the first ever planned city in Ireland, it was begun in 1613, which is when the name was changed from Derry. The walls were actually completed 5 years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence.[http://www.planningni.gov.uk/AreaPlans_Policy/Conservation/Londonderry/HistoricCityCA.pdf] In the Republic of Ireland, as in the United Kingdom, the term "new town" is often used to refer to planned towns built after World War II which were discussed as early as 1941. The term "new town" in Ireland was also used for some earlier developments, notably during the Georgian era. Part of Limerick city was built in a planned fashion as "Newtown Pery". In 1961 the first new town of Shannon was commenced and a target of 6,000 inhabitants was set, this has been exceeded. Shannon is of some regional importance today as an economic centre (with the Shannon Free Zone and Shannon International Airport), but until recently failed to expand in population as anticipated. Since the late 1990s, and particularly in the early 2000s, the population has been expanding at a much faster rate, with town rejuvenation, new retail and entertainment facilities and many new housing developments. It was not until 1967 that the Wright Report planned four towns in County Dublin. These were Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght but in actuallity this was reduced to Blanchardstown, Lucan-Clondalkin and Tallaght, each of these towns has approximately 50,000 inhabitants today. None of the Dublin towns were particularly successful this is partly due to their proximity to the city of Dublin and lack of services. The most recent new town in Ireland is Adamstown in County Dublin. As of 2005, building has commenced and it is anticipated that occupation will commence later in this year with the main development being completed within a ten year timescale.

Japan

Borrowed from New Town movement in the UK, Japan has built some 30 new towns all over the country. Most of them are located near Tokyo and Kansai regions. These towns, unlike those in the UK, do not provide employments. Much of the residents commute to the nearby city. These towns fostered the infamous congestion of commuter trains. Japan has also developed the concept of new towns to what Manuel Castells and Sir Peter Hall call technopole. In the past, the Japanese government had proposed relocating the capital to a planned city, but this plan was cancelled.

Netherlands

One province of The Netherlands, Flevoland (pop. 330,000 (March 2002)), was reclaimed from IJsselmeer. After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be closed and reclaimed. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer. The first part of the new lake that was reclaimed was the Noordoostpolder (Northeast polder). This new land included, among others, the former island of Urk and it was included with the province of Overijssel. After this, other parts were also reclaimed: the eastern part in 1957 (Oost-Flevoland) and the southern part (Zuid-Flevoland) in 1968. The municipalities on the three parts voted to become a separate province, which happened in 1986. The capital of Flevoland is Lelystad, but the biggest city is Almere (pop. 170.704 in January 2004). Apart from these two larger cities, several 'New Villages' were built. In the Noordoostpolder the central town of Emmeloord is surrounded by ten villages, all on cycling distance from Emmeloord since that was the most popular way of transport in the 1940s. Most noteworthy of these villages is Nagele which was designed by famous modern architects of the time, Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema among them. The other villages were built in a more traditional/vernacular style. In the more recent Flevolandpolders four more 'New Villages' were built. Initially more villages were planned, but the introduction of cars made fewer but larger villages possible. New towns outside Flevoland are Hoofddorp and IJmuiden near Amsterdam, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse near Rotterdam and the navy port Den Helder. The cities of Almere, Capelle aan den IJssel, Haarlemmermeer (also a reclaimed polder, 17th century), Nieuwegein, Purmerend and Zoetermeer are members of the [http://www.newtowns.net/newtowns/index_html European New Town Platform].

Poland

The very diverse layouts in Poland's planned cities is the result of the different aesthetics that were held as ideal during the development of these planned communities. Planned cities in Poland have a long history and fall primarily into three time periods during which planned towns developed in Poland. These are the Nobleman's Republic (16th-18th c.), the interwar period (1918-1939) and Socialist Realism (1944-1956).

Nobleman's Republic

The extreme opulence that Poland's nobility enjoyed during the Renaissance left Poland's elites with not only obscene amounts of money to spend, but also motivated them to find new ways to invest their hefty fortunes away from the grasp of the Royal Treasury. Jan Zamoyski, Great Crown Chancellor and Hetman whose financial empire within the Polish Republic was known as the "Zamoyski Ordinate" spanned 6400 km² with 11 cities and over 200 villages, in addition to the royal lands he controlled of over 17 500 km² with 112 cities and 612 villages. The "Zamoyski Ordinate" functioned as a country with in a country, and Zamoyski founded the city of Zamość in order to circumvent royal tariffs and duties while also serving as the capital for his mini-state. Zamość as he named his city was planned by the renowned Paduan architect Bernardo Morando and modelled on Renaissance theories of the 'ideal city'. Realizing the importance of trade, Zamoyski issued special location charters for representatives of peoples traditionally engaged in trade, i.e. to Greeks, Armenians and Sefardic Jews and secured exemptions on taxes, customs duties and tolls, which contributed to its fast development. Zamość was so successful that 11 years after its construction began it had only 26 empty lots left. During the following years Zamość Academy and numerous churches were built as well as fortifications were completed. Zamość Zamoyski's success spawned numerous other Polish nobles to found their own "private" cities such as Bialystok and many of these towns survive today, while Zamość was added to the UN World Heritage list in 1992 and is today considered one of the most precious urban complexes in Europe and in the world.

Interwar period

The preeminent example of a planned community in interwar Poland is Gdynia. After World War I when Poland regained its independence it lacked a commercial seaport, making it necessary to build one from scratch. The extensive and modern seaport facilities in Gdynia, the most modern and extensive port facilities in Europe at the time, became Poland's central port on the Baltic Sea. In the shadow of the port, the city took shape mirroring in its scope only the rapid development of 19th century Chicago, Illinois, USA, going from a small fishing village of 1,300 in 1921 into a full blown city with a population over 126,000 less than 20 years later. The City's Central Business District that developed in Gdynia is a showcase of Art Deco and Modernist architectural styles and predominate much of the cityscape. There are also villas, particularly in the city's villa districts such as Kamienna Góra where Historicism inspired Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque architecture

Socialist realism

After the destruction of most Polish cities in World War II, the Communist regime that took power in Poland sought to bring about architecture that was in line with its vision of society. Thus urban complexes arose that reflected the ideals of socialist realism. This can be seen in districts of Polish cities such as Warsaw's MDM. The City of Nowa Huta (now district of Krakow) was built as the epitome of the proletarian future of Poland.

Singapore

The new town planning concept was introduced into Singapore with the building of the first New Town, Queenstown from July 1952 to 1973 by the country's public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board. Today, the vast majority of the approximately 11,000 public housing flats are organised into 22 new towns across the country. Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industral estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on. Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was international recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.

United Kingdom

The Romans planned many towns in Britain, but the settlements were changed out of all recognition in subsequent centuries. The town of Winchelsea is said to be the first post-Roman new town in Britain, constructed to a grid system under the instructions of King Edward I in 1280, and largely completed by 1292. The best known pre-20th century new town in the UK was undoubtedly the Edinburgh New Town, built in accordance with a 1766 master plan by James Craig, and (along with Bath and Dublin) the archetype of the elegant Georgian style of British architecture. However, the term "new town" is now used in the UK, in the main, to refer to the towns developed after World War II under the New Towns Act 1946. These grew out of the garden city movement, launched around 1900 by Ebenezer Howard and Sir Patrick Geddes and the work of Raymond Unwin, and manifested at Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. Following World War II, a number of towns (eventually numbering 28) were designated under the 1946 Act as New Towns, and were developed partly to house the large numbers of people who had lost homes during the War. New Towns policy was also informed by a series wartime commissions, including:
- the Barlow Commission (1940) into the distribution of industrial population,
- the Scott Committee into rural land use (1941)
- the Uthwatt Committee into compensation and betterment (1942)
- (later) the Reith Report into New Towns (1947). Also crucial to thinking was the Abercrombie Plan for London (1944), which envisaged moving 1.5 million people from London to new and expanded towns. Together these committees reflected a strong consensus to halt the uncontrolled sprawl of London and other large cities, under the axiom if we can build better, we can live better. This consensus should probably be viewed in conjunction with emerging concern for social welfare reform (typified by the Beveridge Report). The first of a ring of such "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) was Stevenage in Hertfordshire. Later a scatter of "second-generation" towns were built to meet specific problems, such as the development of the Corby steelworks, or the new car plant at East Kilbride. Finally, five "third-generation" towns were launched in the late 1960s: these were larger, some of them based on substantial existing settlements such as Peterborough, and the most famous was probably the new city of Milton Keynes, midway between London and Birmingham, known for its huge central park and shopping centre, and its concrete cows. All the new towns featured a car-oriented layout with many roundabouts and a grid-based road system unusual in the old world. The earlier new towns, where construction was often rushed and whose inhabitants were generally plucked out of their established communities with little ceremony, rapidly got a poor press reputation as the home of "new town blues". These issues were systematically addressed in the later towns, with the third generation towns in particular devoting substantial resources to cycle routes, public transport and community facilities, as well as employing teams of officers for social development work. The financing of the UK new towns was creative. Land within the designated area was acquired at agricultural use value by the development corporation for each town, and infrastructure and building funds borrowed on 60-year terms from the UK Treasury. Interest on these loans was rolled up, in the expectation that the growth in land values caused by the development of the town would eventually allow the loans to be repaid in full. However, the high levels of retail price inflation experienced in the developed world in the 1970s and 1980s fed through into interest rates and frustrated this expectation, so that substantial parts of the loans had ultimately to be written off. From the 1970s the first generation towns began to reach their initial growth targets. As they did so, their development corporations were wound up and the assets disposed of: rented housing to the local authority, and other assets to the Commission for the New Towns (in England; but alternative arrangements were made in Scotland and Wales). The Thatcher Government, from 1979, saw the new towns as a socialist experiment to be discontinued, and all the development corporations were dissolved by 1990, even for the third generation towns whose growth targets were still far from being achieved. Ultimately the Commission for the New Towns was also dissolved and its assets - still including a lot of undeveloped land - passed to the English Industrial Estates Corporation (later known as English Partnerships). In the 1990s an experimental "new town" developed by The Prince of Wales to use very traditional or vernacular architectural styles was started at Poundbury in Dorset. In Northern Ireland, Craigavon in County Armagh was a successful town commenced and built in in 1966 outside of Belfast, although entire blocks of apartments and shops laid empty, and later derelict, before eventually being bulldozed. The area, which now has a population exceeding 50,000 is mostly a dormitory town for Belfast. See also: Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom; New towns in the United Kingdom for the full list of post-war new towns.

United States

New towns in the United Kingdom In the early history of America, planned communities were quite common: Jamestown, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, and Annapolis are examples of this trend. Washington, DC, Indianapolis, Indiana; Raleigh, North Carolina; Madison, Wisconsin; Tallahassee, Florida; and Austin, Texas are unusual, having been carved out of the wilderness to serve as capital cities. (Other cities with this distinction are Brasília in Brazil, Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire, Canberra in Australia and Islamabad in Pakistan.) Pullman, now incorporated into Chicago's Southwest side, was a world renowned company town founded by the industrialist George M. Pullman in the 1880's. Greenbelt, Maryland, which was built in the 1930s, was one of a series of planned communities built during that era. The Levittowns - in Long Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - typified the planned communities of the 1950s and early 1960s. California's Rohnert Park is another example of a planned city built at the same time as Levittown's which was marketed to attract middle class people into an area only populated with farmers with the phrase, "A Country Club for the middle class." The era of the modern planned city began in 1963 with the creation of Reston in western Fairfax County, Virginia, which was begun just a year before Columbia in Howard County, Maryland. In more recent years, New Urbanism has set the stage for new cities, with places like the idyllic Seaside, Florida and Disney's new town of Celebration, Florida. In recent years, new towns such as Mountain House, California have added a new wrinkle to the movement: to prevent conurbation with nearby cities, they have imposed strict growth boundaries, as well as automatic "circuit breakers" that place moratoriums on residential development if the number of jobs per resident in the town falls below a certain value. (The proposed new town of Centennial, on the Tejon Ranch halfway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, will incorporate such restrictions in order to minimize the commuter load on severely congested I-5). With energy prices steadily increasing and anti-sprawl sentiments gaining currency, it is likely that most future new towns will be along "smart growth" and New Urbanist lines.

External links

- [http://www.newtowns.net/newtowns/index_html European New Town Platform]
- [http://www.villes-nouvelles.equipement.gouv.fr/index2.html French new towns] (in French)
- [http://whc.unesco.org/sites/564.htm Renaissance town of Zamość]
- [http://www.info.gov.hk/tdd/towns/index.htm Hong Kong new towns]
- [http://www.tcpa.org.uk/ Town and Country Planning Association] (formerly the Garden Cities Association)
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- Category:Urban studies and planning Category:Housing in the United Kingdom ja:ニュータウン

Ontario

:This article describes the Canadian province. For other usages, see Ontario (disambiguation). Ontario is the most populous and second-largest in area of Canada's ten provinces. It is found in east-central Canada. Its capital is Toronto. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is also located in Ontario. Ontario has a population (July 1, 2005) of 12,541,410, representing approximately 37.9% of the total Canadian population (Ontarians) and an area of 1,076,395km² (415,598 sq. mi.).

Geography

Ontario is bounded on the north by Hudson Bay and James Bay, on the east by Quebec, on the west by Manitoba, and on the south by the American states of Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Ontario's long American border is formed almost entirely by lakes and rivers, starting in Lake of the Woods and continuing to the Saint Lawrence River near Cornwall; it passes through the four Great Lakes on which Ontario has coastline, namely Lakes Superior, Huron (which includes Georgian Bay), Erie, and Ontario (for which the province is named; Ontario itself is an Iroquois word meaning "beautiful lake" or "beautiful water"). There are approximately 250,000 lakes and over 100,000 kilometres of rivers in the province. The province consists of three main geographical regions:
- the thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, a mainly infertile area rich in minerals and studded with lakes and rivers; sub-regions are Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario.
- the mostly unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast, mainly swampy and sparsely forested; and
- the temperate, and therefore most populous region, the fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south where agriculture and industry are concentrated. Southern Ontario is further sub-divided into four regions; Western Ontario (sometimes called Southwestern Ontario), Golden Horseshore, Central Ontario and Eastern Ontario. The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern section, its northern extent is parts of the Greater Toronto Area at the western end of Lake Ontario. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies 90 per cent of the surface area of the province; conversely Southern Ontario contains 94 per cent of the population (see article Geography of Canada). Point Pelee National Park is a peninsula in southwestern Ontario (near Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan) that extends into Lake Erie and is the part of Canada's mainland furthest south. Pelee Island in Lake Erie is even further south. Both are south of 42°N slighty further south than the northern border of California.

Demographics

The major racial/ethnic groups in Ontario are:
- European: 80.9% (Major groups: English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian)
- South Asian: 4.9%
- Chinese: 3.7%
- Black: 3.6%
- Aboriginal: 1.7%
- Filipino: 1.3%
- Latin-American: 0.9%
- Other: 3.0% Increasing immigration from all parts of the world, especially to Toronto and its environs, is rapidly diversifying the province's ethnic makeup. About five per cent of the population of Ontario is Franco-Ontarian. 10 largest municipalities by population

Weather

Franco-Ontarian The weather in Ontario is very diverse. The south, including Greater Toronto Area receives very hot, humid weather in the summer, as the stronger the Bermuda high pressure over the Atlantic Ocean, the more warm, humid air is transported northward from the the Gulf of Mexico. Severe thunderstorms peak in frequency in June and July, most notably in Southwestern and Central Ontario. Northwestern Ontario also receives short periods of hot weather and severe storms. In the winter, lake effect snow squalls affect three primary areas in Ontario known as the "snow belts", the Algoma District in Northeastern Ontario on the east end of Lake Superior; much of the Georgian Bay shoreline including Killarney, Parry Sound District, Muskoka and Simcoe County; the Lake Huron shore from east of Sarnia northward to the Bruce Peninsula. Wind whipped snowsqualls or lake effect snow can affect areas much further inland, as far as 100km or greater from the shore but the heaviest snows usually occur within 20km from the shoreline. At other times, all regions of the province may encounter snow squalls.

Economy

Ontario's rivers, particularly its share of the Niagara River, make it rich in hydroelectric energy. This competitive advantage, as well as excellent transportation links to the American heartland, has contributed to making manufacturing the principal industry, found mainly in the Golden Horseshoe region, the most industrialized area in Canada. Important products include motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, electrical appliances, machinery, chemicals, and paper. Ontario surpassed the American state of Michigan in car production, assembling 2.696 million vehicles in 2004 (see Canada-United States Automotive Agreement). Some economists believe that the North American Free Trade Agreement has led to a decline in manufacturing in part of North America's manufacturing "Rust Belt" that includes a portion of Southern Ontario from roughly Windsor through to St. Catharines (south of Toronto). This area and the Greater Toronto region contain the bulk of the auto sector in the province. As a result of steeply delcining sales, on November 21, 2005 General Motors announced massive layoffs at production facilities across North America including two large GM plants in Oshawa and a drive train facility in St. Catharines by 2008 resulting in 8,000 job losses in Ontario alone. Uncertainty also looms for money losing Ford Motor Co. and an announcement on cutbacks is likely in the coming weeks. Toronto is the centre of Canada's financial services and banking industry. Surburban cities Brampton and Mississauga are large product distribution centres, in addition to having automobile related industries. The information technology sector is also important, especially around Markham, Waterloo and Ottawa. Mining and the forest products industry, notably pulp and paper, are important to the economy of the Canadian Shield of Northern Ontario. Nominal Gross Domestic Product in 2003 was an estimated C$494.229 billion (40.6% of the Canadian total), larger than the GDP of Austria, Belgium or Sweden. Broken down by sector, the primary sector is 1.8% of total GDP, secondary sector 28.5%, and service sector 69.7%. Further economic information on provincial GDP etc. at [http://www.2ontario.com/welcome/oo_000.asp Ontario Facts]

Agriculture

Gross Domestic Product] Once the dominant industry, agriculture occupies a small percentage of the population. The number of farms has decreased from 68,633 in 1991 to 59,728 in 2001, but farms have increased in average size. Cattle, small grains and dairy were the common types of farms in the 2001 census. The fruit, grape and vegetable growing industry is located primarily on the Niagara Peninsula and along Lake Erie. The Ontario origins of Massey-Ferguson Ltd., once one of the largest farm implement manufacturers in the world, indicate the importance agriculture once had to the Ontario economy (see Geography of Canada for more detail).

History

Pre-1867

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian (Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) and Iroquoian (Iroquois and Huron) tribes. The French explorer Étienne Brûlé explored part of the area in 1610-12. The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England, but Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615 and French missionaries began to establish posts along the Great Lakes. French settlement was hampered by their hostilities with the Iroquois, who would ally themselves with the British.

Image:Ontario.jpg
Map of Ontario, showing CMA's and CA's

The British established trading posts on Hudson Bay in the late 17th century and began a struggle for domination of Ontario. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War by awarding nearly all of France's North American possessions (New France) to Britain. The region was annexed to Quebec in 1774. From 1783 to 1796, the United Kingdom granted United Empire Loyalists leaving the United States following the American Revolution 200 acres (0.8 km²) of land and other items with which to rebuild their lives. This measure substantially increased the population of Canada west of the Ottawa River during this period, a fact recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1791, which split Quebec into The Canadas: Upper Canada west of the Ottawa River, and Lower Canada east of it. John Graves Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first Lieutenant-Governor in 1793. American troops in the War of 1812 invaded Upper Canada across the Niagara River and the Detroit River but were successfully pushed back by British and Native American forces. The Americans gained control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, however, and during the Battle of York occupied the Town of York (later named Toronto) in 1813. Not able to hold the town, the departing soldiers burned it to the ground. After the War of 1812, many settlers from the British Isles immigrated to Upper Canada, and began to chafe against the aristocratic Family Compact that governed the region, much as the Château Clique ruled Lower Canada. Accordingly, rebellion in favour of responsible government rose in both regions; Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Lower Canada Rebellion and William Lyon Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion. For more on the rebellions of 1837, see History of Canada. Although both rebellions were crushed, the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the causes of the unrest. He recommended that self-government be granted and that Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt to assimilate the Québécois. Accordingly, the two colonies were merged into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union (1840), with Ontario becoming known as Canada West. Parliamentary self-government was granted in 1848. Due to heavy immigration the population of Canada West more than doubled by 1851 over the previous decade, and as a result for the first time the English-speaking population of Canada West surpassed the French-speaking population of Canada East. A political stalemate between the French- and English-speaking legislators, as well as fear of aggression from the United States during the American Civil War, led the political elite to hold a series of conferences in the 1860s to effect a broader federal union of all British North American colonies. The British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867, establishing the Dominion of Canada, initially with four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The Province of Canada was divided at this point into Ontario and Quebec so that each linguistic group would have its own province. Both Quebec and Ontario were required by section 93 of the BNA Act to safeguard existing educational rights and privileges of the Protestant and Catholic minorities. Neither province had a constitutional requirement to protect its French- or English-speaking minority. Toronto was formally established as Ontario's provincial capital at this time.

From 1867 to 1896

Once constituted as a province, Ontario proceeded to assert its economic and legislative power. In 1872, the lawyer Oliver Mowat became premier, and remained as premier until 1896. He fought for provincial rights, weakening the power of the federal government in provincial matters, usually through well-argued appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His battles with the federal government greatly decentralized Canada, giving the provinces far more power than John A. Macdonald had intended. He consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought tenaciously to ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of the Lake Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the District of Keewatin) would become part of Ontario, a victory embodied in the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889. He also presided over the emergence of the province into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of what is often called Empire Ontario. Beginning with Sir John A. Macdonald's the National Policy (1879) and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1875-1885) through Northern Ontario and the Prairies to British Columbia, Ontario manufacturing and industry flourished.

From 1896 to the present

Mineral exploitation began in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of important mining centres like Sudbury, Cobalt and Timmins. The province harnessed its water power to generate hydro-electric power, and created the state-controlled Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, later Ontario Hydro. The availability of cheap electric power further facilitated the development of industry. In 1904, the Canadian automobile industry was launched in what is now Windsor, Ontario with the establishment of the Ford Motor Company of Canada. General Motors of Canada Ltd. was formed in 1918. The motor vehicle industry would become the major industrial component of the Ontario economy. In July 1912, the Conservative government of Sir James P. Whitney issued Regulation 17 which severely limited the availability of French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking minority. French-Canadians reacted with outrage, journalist Henri Bourassa denouncing the "Prussians of Ontario". It was eventually repealed in 1927. Influenced by events in the United States, the government of Sir William Hearst introduced prohibition of alcoholic drinks in 1916 with the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act. Prohibition came to an end in 1927 with the establishment of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario by the government of George Howard Ferguson. The sale of liquor and beer is still tightly-controlled by the state to ensure that the maximum revenues go to the provincial treasury. The post-World War II period was one of exceptional prosperity and growth. Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area in particular, have been the recipients of most immigration to Canada. Changes in federal immigration law have led to a massive influx of non-Europeans since the 1980s. From a largely ethnically British province, Ontario has now become very culturally diverse. The nationalist movement in Quebec, particularly after the election of the Parti Québécois in 1976, contributed to driving many businesses out of Quebec to Ontario, and Toronto surpassed Montreal as the largest city and economic centre of Canada. According to the provincial government website, English is Ontario's official language, although French language rights have been extended to the legal and educational systems under the French Language Services Act of 1990.

Government

1990 The British North America Act 1867 section 69 stipulated "There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of One House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario". The assembly has 103 seats representing ridings elected in a first-past-the-post system across the province. The legislative buildings at Queen's Park in Toronto are the seat of government. Following the Westminster system, the leader of the party currently holding the most seats in the assembly is known as the "Premier and President of the Council" (Executive Council Act R.S.O. 1990). The Premier chooses the cabinet or Executive Council whose members are deemed "ministers of the Crown". Although the Legislative Assembly Act (R.S.O. 1990) refers to members of the assembly, the legislators are now called MPPs (Members of the Provincial Parliament) in English and députés de l'Assemblée législative in French, but they have also been called MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly), and both are acceptable. The title of Prime Minister of Ontario, while permissible in English and correct in French (le Premier ministre), is generally avoided in favour of "Premier" to avoid confusion with the Prime Minister of Canada.

Politics

Territorial evolution 1788-1899

Executive Council in Northwestern Ontario.]] Land was not legally subdivided into administrative units until a treaty had been concluded with the native peoples ceding the land (see Royal Proclamation of 1763). In 1788, while part of the Province of Quebec (1763-1791), southern Ontario was divided into four districts: Hesse, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Nassau. In 1792, the four districts were renamed: Hesse became the Western District, Lunenburg became the Eastern District, Mecklenburg became the Midland District, and Nassau became the Home District. Counties were created within the districts. By 1798, there were eight districts: Eastern, Home, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara and Western. By 1826, there were eleven districts: Bathurst, Eastern, Gore, Home, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa, and Western. By 1838, there were twenty districts: Bathurst, Brock, Colbourne, Dalhousie, Eastern, Gore, Home, Huron, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa, Prince Edward, Simcoe, Talbot, Victoria, Wellington and Western. In 1849, the districts of southern Ontario were abolished by the Province of Canada and county governments took over certain municipal responsibilities. The Province of Canada also began creating districts in sparsely populated Northern Ontario with the establishment of Algoma District and Nipissing District in 1858. The northern and western boundaries of Ontario were in dispute after Confederation. Ontario's right to Northwestern Ontario was determined by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1884 and confirmed by the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. By 1899, there were seven northern districts: Algoma, Manitoulin, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay. Four more northern districts were created between 1907 and 1912: Cochrane, Kenora, Sudbury and Temiskaming.
- [http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/maps/districts.htm Early Districts and Counties 1788-1899]

External links

- [http://www.gov.on.ca/ Government of Ontario]
- [http://atlas.gc.ca/rasterimages/english/maps/reference/provincesterritories/ont_new.pdf Map]
- [http://www.ontariotenants.ca/government/mpp.phtml Ontario MPP Contact Information]
- [http://www.ontarioghosttowns.com/ Ontario Ghost Towns and Abandoned Places]
- [http://www.historicbridges.org/b_s_ont.htm Learn about and see photos of historic bridges in southwestern Ontario]
- zh-min-nan:Ontario ko:온타리오 주 ja:オンタリオ州 simple:Ontario

Don River (Toronto)

:This article is about the river in Toronto, Canada. For other rivers with the same name, see Don River. The Don River is one of two rivers bounding the original settled area of Toronto, Canada along the shore of Lake Ontario, the other being the Humber River to the west. The Don is formed from two rivers, the East and West Branches, that meet about 7 km north of Lake Ontario while flowing southward into the lake. The area below the confluence is known as the lower Don, and the areas above as the upper Don. The Don is also joined at the confluence by a third major branch, Taylor Massey Creek. The eastern arm of the rivers starts near the Oak Ridges Moraine just to the west of Yonge Street, flowing south-eastward through ravine forests in Richmond Hill, Thornhill, east of Willowdale and Don Mills. A second branch of the eastern Don, known as German Mills Creek, parallels the main eastern branch and joins it at Steeles Avenue, the northern boundary of Toronto. The western half starts near the area of Maple, flowing south-west through the suburban industrial belt of Concord (Vaughan), a reservoir, and then through the York Mills and Leaside areas before joining the eastern half. It crosses Yonge Street at Hogg's Hollow. Taylor Creek runs almost due west from Scarborough. ScarboroughCharles Sauriol Conservation Reserve is located near the forks of the Don River. It was at one time home of a Maple sugar shack and tapline, which was visited yearly by students from across East York. Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve is a rarely used area of the river valley. Charles Sauriol was a historic protector of the Don. The mouth of the Don was relocated some 500 m to the west by a land expansion of about 3 km² to make room for an industrial area. This also moved the confluence further from the lake, to 7 km from about 6 km before the expansion. Unlike the mouth of the Humber, which is located in a recreational area and is navigable, the mouth of the Don is located in a heavily industrialized area, and spanned by a number of low bridges which make navigation impassable. In late 2000, several plans were being drawn up to redevelop the area, including relocating the mouth closer to its original location, and developing a canal system around the area. ScarboroughThe Don had been heavily developed in the earlier portions of the 20th century, with several factories, two rail lines and then a freeway, the Don Valley Parkway, being built in the river valley. The last of the industrial plants, Domtar Polyresins, closed in the 1980s and has since been reused as the Toronto Police Force K-9 training site. The only remaining industrial use on urban portions of the river is the North Toronto Sewage Treatment plant, whose use is currently under review. Much of Taylor Creek and the southern portion of the western branch are surrounded by parkland. In more recent years the retreat of the industrial plants and rail infrastructure has freed up room which is now being turned into bicycling trails, which now extend from the shore of Lake Ontario northward in several directions to provide some 30km of off-road paved trails. While Toronto is fairly flat in general, local cyclists have developed a number of technically challenging singletrack trails throughout the area, following the main trails.

Tributaries

- Don River (lower Don)
- Castle Frank Brook
- Yellow Creek
- Mud Creek
- Cudmore Creek
- Don River West Branch
- Wilket Creek
- Walmsley Creek
- Burke Brook
- Don River East Branch
- Taylor Massey Creek
- German Mills Creek

External links

- [http://www.toronto.ca/don Task Force to Bring back the Don]
- [http://www.web.net/~fode/ Friends of the Don East]
- [http://www.lostrivers.ca/ Lost Rivers Walks and Local History]
- [http://www.hopscotch.ca/tmwp/preserve/index.html Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve]
- [http://donwatcher.blogspot.com/ Don Watcher weblog]
- [http://www.mwilson.on.ca/don.html Don Watershed Regeneration]
- Map of, and links to, [http://www.lostrivers.ca/centralkey.htm the buried waterways of Toronto], including the Don tributaries Castle Frank Creek, Yellow Creek, Mud Creek, Cudmore Creek, Walmsley Brook and Burke Brook. Category:Rivers of Ontario Category:Toronto

Ebenezer Howard

Ebenezer Howard (1850 - 1928) was a prominent British urban planner.

Early life

Howard travelled to America from England at the age of 21, moved to Nebraska, and soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer. He moved to Chicago and worked as a reporter for the courts and newspapers. In the U.S. he became acquainted with, and admired, poets Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Howard began to think about ways to improve the quality of life. By 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard, which produces the official verbatim record of Parliament, and he spent the rest of his life in this occupation.

Influences and ideas

Parliament Howard read widely, including Edward Bellamy's 1900 utopian novel Looking Backward and thought deeply about social issues. One result was his book (1898) titled [http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/howard To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform], which was reprinted in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-Morrow. This book offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town (such as opportunity, amusement and high wages) and country (such as beauty, fresh air and low rents). He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram (pictured), which addressed the question 'Where will the people go?', the choices being 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country' - the Three Magnets. It called for the creation of new suburban towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land. These Garden cities were used as a role model for many suburbs. Howard believed that such Garden Cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. The towns would be largely independent, and managed and financed by the citizens who had an economic interest in them.

Action

In 1899 he founded the Garden Cities Association, now known as the Town and Country Planning Association and the oldest environmental charity in England. His ideas attracted enough attention and financial backing to begin Letchworth, a suburban garden city north of London. A second garden city, Welwyn, was started after World War I. His contacts with German architects Hermann Muthesius and Bruno Taut resulted in the application of humane design principles in many large housing projects built in the Weimar years. The creation of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City were influential in the development of "New Towns" after World War II by the British government. This movement produced more than 30 communities, the first being Stevenage, Hertfordshire and the last (and largest) being Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Howard's ideas also inspired other planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted II and Clarence Perry. Walt Disney used elements of Howards's concepts in his original design for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). Howard was an enthusiastic speaker of Esperanto, often using the language to give speeches.

External links

- [http://www.tcpa.org.uk Town and Country Planning Association]
- Howard, Ebenezer Howard, Ebenezer Howard, Ebenezer Howard, Ebenezer ja:エベネザー・ハワード

Garden City

Garden City is the name of several places around the world. There are several in the United States of America:
- Garden City, Alabama
- Garden City, Colorado
- Garden City, Georgia
- Garden City, Idaho
- Garden City, Iowa
- Garden City, Kansas
- Garden City, Michigan
- Garden City, Minnesota
- Garden City, Missouri
- Garden City, New York
- Garden City, South Carolina
- Garden City, South Dakota
- Garden City, Texas
- Garden City, Utah Garden City also refers to the Garden city movement of English urban planner Ebenezer Howard, who was responsible for:
- Welwyn Garden City
- Letchworth Garden City
- Garden City is also an affluent neighbourhood of Cairo, Egypt.
- Garden City is a moniker of Bangalore, India and Victoria, British Columbia.
- Garden City is also a nickname of the city-state of Singapore as well, which is known for its greenery.
- Ciudad Jardín (the garden city) is the nickname of the city of Maracay, in Venezuela.
- Garden City is also the nickname of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia and Missoula, MT, USA.
- Garden City is also a Westfield shopping centre in Upper Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia
- Garden City is also a shopping centre in Perth, Australia, although it has no connection with the centre in Brisbane
- Garden City is also a suburb of, and shopping centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Garden City is also an AOG church in Mt Gravatt, Queensland Garden City is also a term synomous with ecocity.

Clarence Stein

Clarence Stein, born in 1882, was an architect and major proponent of the garden city, an idea characterized by greenbelts and created by Sir Ebenezer Howard. Stein studied architecture at Columbia University and the École des Beaux-Arts. While working at the office of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Stein assisted the planning of the 1915 World’s Fair in San Diego. Clarence Stein and Henry Wright collaborated on the design of Radburn in New Jersey. Radburn http://www.radburn.org/, founded in 1929, was intended to be the "town in which people cold live peacefully with the automobile-or rather in spite of it". Radburn was designed in such a way that thoroughfares had a specialized use; main roads linking traffic at various sections, service lanes to allow direct access to buildings, and express highways. The desire was also to have as complete a separation of automobile and pedestrian as possible. Pedestrian crossways were designed at differing levels than that of autos, and were directed differing places than autos. These largely residential areas were termed “superblocks”. Radburn was also intended to become a garden city characterized by surrounding greenbelts, and the careful design of residential, industrial and agricultural land. Residential areas were designed to face inwards towards gardens and nature rather than out towards traffic. Unfortunately, the depression proved the end of the "Radburn idea". Only a minute section was completed before the operation was forced to stop. Stein was also involved in the design of Kitimat, British Columbia. His experiences at Radburn, and elsewhere, helped lay the groundwork for what was to hopefully become another garden city. Stein wrote Toward New Towns for America in 1951. This book details his "experiments" at Radburn as well as other projects that he was involved in. He describes what he believes the direction that city design must take in order to help preserve nature. Stein’s lasting legacy will be his vision of better self sustaining towns. Although unsuccesful at Radburn, it was attempted elsewhere with varying degrees of success. Stein died in 1975 at the age of 93. Sources Stein, C. (1951). Toward new towns for america. : M.I.T Press. Stein, clarence. (2005). Infoplease Web site: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0846615.html. Radburn. (2005). Retrieved Oct. 26, 2005, from http://formertopdog.tripod.com/radburn/ Stein, Clarence Stein, Clarence Stein, Clarence

Radburn, New Jersey

Radburn is an unincorporated new town located within Fair Lawn, New Jersey, which was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age." Its planners, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, aimed to incorporate modern planning principles, which were then being introduced into England's Garden Cities, following the ideals of urban planners Ebenezer Howard and Sir Patrick Geddes. One of the key design elements is the separation of traffic by mode, such that the pedestrian path system does not cross any major roads at grade. This resulted in the creation of "superblocks," which are largely residential. The community has about 3,100 people living in 469 houses, 48 townhouses, 30 duplexes, and one 93-unit apartment complex.

External links

- [http://www.radburn.org/ Radburn, New Jersey - A Town for the Motor Age]
- [http://www.fairlawn.org/ Borough of Fair Lawn] Category:Bergen County, New Jersey Category:Planned cities Category:Unincorporated communities in New Jersey

E. P. Taylor

Edward Plunket Taylor (born January 29, 1901 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a wealthy Canadian business man and land buyer. Taylor was president of the Ontario Jockey Club from 1953 to 1973, and owner of Windfields Farm and the legendary sire Northern Dancer. E.P. Taylor oversaw the construction of the New Woodbine Racetrack at Hwy. 27 and Rexdale Boulevard in Toronto, whose one and a half-mile turf course, unique in North America, still bears his name. Taylor, Edward Plunket Taylor, Edward Plunket Taylor, Ed

Modernism

:For Christian theological modernism see: Liberal Christianity Modernism as an artistic and cultural movement that generally includes progressive art and architecture, music and literature emerging in the decades before 1914, as artists rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist traditions. Some divide the 20th century into modern and postmodern periods, whereas others see them as two parts of the same larger period. This article will focus on the movement that grew out of the late 19th and early 20th century, while Postmodernism has its own article.

Historical outline

The Modernist Movement emerged in the mid-19th century in France and was rooted in the idea that "traditional" forms of art, literature, social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture. Modernism encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was "holding back" progress, and replacing it with new, and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end. In essence, the Modern Movement argued that the new realities of the 20th century were permanent and imminent, and that people should adapt their world view to accept that what was new was also good and beautiful.

Precursors to modernism

The first half of the 19th century for Europe was marked by a series of turbulent wars and revolutions, which gradually formed into a series of ideas and doctrines now identified as Romanticism, which focused on individual subjective experience, the supremacy of "Nature" as the standard subject for art, revolutionary or radical extensions of expression, and individual liberty. By mid-century, however, a synthesis of these ideas, and stable governing forms had emerged. Called by various names, this synthesis was rooted in the idea that what was "real" dominated over what was subjective. It is exemplified by Otto von Bismarck's realpolitik, philosophical ideas such as positivism and cultural norms now described by the word Victorian. Central to this synthesis, however, was the importance of institutions, common assumptions and frames of reference. These drew their support from religious norms found in Christianity, scientific norms found in classical physics and doctrines that asserted that depiction of the basic external reality from an objective standpoint was possible. Cultural critics and historians label this set of doctrines Realism, though this term is not universal. In philosophy, the rationalist and positivist movements established a primacy of reason and system. Against the current were a series of ideas. Some were direct continuations of Romantic schools of thought. Notable were the agrarian and revivalist movements in plastic arts and poetry (e.g. the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the philosopher John Ruskin). Rationalism also drew responses from the anti-rationalists in philosophy. In particular, Hegel's dialectic view of civilization and history drew responses from Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, who were major influences on Existentialism. All of these separate reactions together, however, began to be seen as offering a challenge to any comfortable ideas of certainty derived by civilization, history, or pure reason. From the 1870s onwards, the views that history and civilization were inherently progressive, and that progress was inherently amicable, were increasingly called into question. Writers like Wagner and Ibsen had been reviled for their own critiques of contemporary civilization, and warned that increasing "progress" would lead to increasing isolation and the creation of individuals detached from social norms and their fellow men. Increasingly, it began to be argued not merely that the values of the artist and those of society were different, but that society was antithetical to progress itself, and could not move forward in its present form. Moreover, there were new views of philosophy that called into question the previous optimism. The work of Schopenhauer was labelled "pessimistic" for its idea of the "negation of the will", an idea that would be both rejected and incorporated by later thinkers such as Nietzsche. Two of the most disruptive thinkers of the period were, in biology Charles Darwin, and in political science Karl Marx. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection undermined religious certainty of the general public, and the sense of human uniqueness of the intelligentsia. The notion that human beings were driven by the same impulses as "lower animals" proved to be difficult to reconcile with the idea of an ennobling spirituality. Karl Marx seemed to present a political version of the same problem: that problems with the economic order were not transient, the result of specific wrong doers or temporary conditions, but were fundamentally contradictions within the "capitalist" system. Both thinkers would spawn defenders and schools of thought that would become decisive in establishing modernism. Separately, in the arts and letters, two ideas originating in France would have particular impact. The first was Impressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors (en plein air). They argued that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself. The school gathered adherents, and despite deep internal divisions among its leading practitioners, became increasingly influential. Initially rejected from the most important commercial show of the time — the government-sponsored Paris Salon — the art was shown at the Salon des Refusés, created by Emperor Napoleon III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon. While most were in standard styles, but by inferior artists, the work of Manet attracted tremendous attention, and opened commercial doors to the movement. The second school was Symbolism, marked by a belief that language is expressly symbolic in its nature, and that poetry and writing should follow whichever connection the sheer sound and texture of the words create. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé would be of particular importance to what would occur afterwards. At the same time social, political, and economic forces were at work that would eventually be used as the basis to argue for a radically different kind of art and thinking. Chief among these was industrialization, which produced buildings such as the Eiffel Tower that broke all previous limitations on how tall man-made objects could be, and at the same time offered a radically different environment in urban life. The miseries of industrial urbanity, and the possibilities created by scientific examination of subjects would be crucial in the series of changes that would shake European civilization, which, at that point, regarded itself as having a continuous and progressive line of development from the Renaissance. The breadth of the changes can be seen in how many disciplines are described, in their pre-20th century form, as being "classical", including physics, economics, and arts such as ballet.

The beginning of modernism 1890–1910

Clement Greenberg wrote 'What can be safely called Modernism emerged in the middle of the last century. And rather locally, in France, with Baudelaire in literature and Manet in painting, and maybe with Flaubert, too, in prose fiction. (It was a while later, and not so locally, that Modernism appeared in music and architecture). The "avant-garde" was what Modernism was called at first, and the term remained to describe movements which identify themselves as attempting to overthrow some aspect of tradition or the status quo. Beginning in the 1890s and with increasing force afterwards, a strand of thinking began to assert that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, and instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of current techniques, it would be necessary to make more thorough changes. The movement in art paralleled such developments as the Theory of Relativity in physics; the increasing integration of internal combustion and industrialization; and the rise of social sciences in public policy. In the first fifteen years of the twentieth century a series of writers, thinkers, and artists made the break with traditional means of organizing literature, painting, and music - again, in parallel to the change in organizational methods in other fields. The argument was that if the nature of reality itself was in question, and the restrictions which, it was felt, had been in place around human activity were falling, then art too, would have to radically change. As vividly Sigmund Freud offered a view of subjective states that involved a unconscious mind full of primal impulses and counterbalancing restrictions, and Carl Jung would combine Freud's doctrine of the unconscious with a belief in natural essence to stipulate a collective unconscious that was full of basic typologies that the conscious mind fought or embraced. This attacked the idea that people's impulses towards breaking social norms were the product of being childish or ignorant, and were instead essential to the nature of the human animal, and the ideas of Darwin had introduced the idea of "man, the animal" to the public mind. At the same time, and in nearly the same place as Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche championed a process philosophy, in which processes and forces, specifically the 'will to power', were more important than facts or things (although, it must be mentioned that Freud was far more influenced by Nietzsche than the latter was by the former). Similarly, the writings of Henri Bergson became increasingly influential, who also championed the vital 'life force' over static conceptions of reality. What united all these writers was a romantic distrust of the Victorian positivism and certainty. Instead they championed, or, in case of Freud, attempted to explain, irrational thought processes through the lens of rationality and holism. This was connected with a general search to culminate the century long trend to thinking in terms of holistic ideas, which would include an increased interest in the occult, and "the vital force". Out of this collision of ideals from Romanticism, and an attempt to find a way for knowledge to explain that which was as yet unknown, came the first wave of works, which, while their authors considered them extensions of existing trends in art, broke the implicit contract that artists were the interpreters and representatives of bourgeoise culture and ideas. The landmarks include Arnold Schoenberg's atonal ending to his Second String Quartet in 1906, the abstract paintings of Wassily Kandinsky starting in 1903 and culminating with the founding of the Blue Rider group in Munich, and the rise of cubism from the work of Picasso and Georges Braque in 1908. Powerfully influential in this wave of modernity were the theories of Freud, who argued that the mind had a basic and fundamental structure, and that subjective experience was based on the interplay of the parts of the mind. All subjective reality was based, according to Freud's ideas, on the play of basic drives and instincts, through which the outside world was perceived. This represented a break with the past, in that previously it was believed that external and absolute reality could impress itself on an individual, as, for example, in John Locke's tabula rasa doctrine. However, the modern movement was not merely defined by its avant-garde but also by a reforming trend within previous artistic norms, as well as arguing that to main tain the high standards of previous accomplishment it was necessary to advance technique and theory. This search for simplification of diction was found in the work of Joseph Conrad. The pressures of communication, transportation and more rapid scientific development began placing a premium on architectural styles which were cheaper to build and less ornamented, and on writing which was shorter, clearer, and easier to read. The rise of cinema and "moving pictures" in the first decade of the twentieth century gave the modern movement an art form which was uniquely its own, and again, created a direct connection between the perceived need to extend the "progressive" tradition of the late nineteenth century, even if this conflicted with then established norms. This wave of the modern movement broke with the past in the first decade of the twentieth century, and tried to redefine various artforms in a radical manner. Leading lights within the literary wing of this movement (or, rather, these movements) include Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Valery, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Max Jacob, Paul Reverdy, Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, Gertrude Stein, Wyndham Lewis, H.D., Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, Robert Walser, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Federico Garcia Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Franz Kafka. Composers such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Poulenc represent modernism in music. Artists such as