As Premier Doug Ford’s decision to cut council almost in half reignites talk of the urban-suburban divide, the Star finds the old differences aren’t what they used to be. In a new occasional series, One Toronto, we take a look at what divides us and what we share, no matter where the ward lines fall. Faced with moving out of a mouldy basement apartment, Jesse and Joanna James wanted to find something above ground they could afford in the same neighbourhood, which they love for its diversity, parks and walkability.The couple, in their early 30s with two kids, had been paying $1,750 for a six-bedroom house, subletting the rooms upstairs to help pay the bills. They’d hoped to find an apartment on their own for around $1,300, something that didn’t seem outlandish the last time they were house-hunting, a little more than six years ago.They quickly realized times had changed.They were up against an “astonishing” price jump of about 20 per cent, said Jesse, and worried they might be priced out of the area altogether.The Jameses live not on Queen West or in Liberty Village, but in Ward 23 Willowdale, in North York. It’s a formerly affordable neighbourhood where tenant households now pay the most on average in the city, at $1,592 a month, for shelter costs (rent and utilities), according to 2016 Statistics Canada data.As an occasional series this summer, the Star is looking at what unites and divides Toronto’s megacity 20 years after amalgamation. It’s clear the search for affordable housing — once a problem for the old city of Toronto — is something people now struggle with in every neighbourhood.In every ward of the city, from Etobicoke to Scarborough, at least 40 per cent of renters are putting 30 per cent or more of their income towards rent, a common benchmark for unaffordable housing. In Ward 23, that number is 58 per cent, according to 2016 census data.“It used to be that if you were looking f ...
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