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Looks nice and Modernist, but take a walk through the remade Don Mount public housing complex, unveiled last week by the mayor and Toronto Community Housing officials, and its hard to escape the feeling of claustrophobia, that bad vibe that also infected the circa-1950s monsters these new boxes of ticky-tacky have replaced. Its easy to forget amid the celebration of new possibilities, that the only reason Don Mount was redeveloped was because the city had let it fall into such a state of disrepair that it had no other option. Enter the private sector, its inevitable condos and the brave new world of mixed development. But are mixed hoods better than all-low income? Where this approach to public housing has been tried in the U.S., the jurys still out. Michael Shapcott of the Wellesley Institute points out that income-mixing alone wont address the fundamental social and economic issues that perpetuate poverty. Other levels of government, meanwhile, have abdicated responsibility for employment, education and income-assistance programs. But were sure Don Mount residents will appreciate the extra closet space.
