Saving the Canadian City, the first phase 1880-1920 : An Anthology of Early Articles on Urban Reform / Paul Rutherford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rutherford, Paul, 1944- comp.

Contributor:

Rutherford, Paul, Editor.

Series:

Social history of Canada.

Heritage

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns--Canada--History.

Cities and towns.

City planning--Canada--History.

City planning.

Canada.

Canada--Social conditions.

Genre:

History.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The rapid, chaotic growth of Canada's cities in the late nineteenth century bred a host of social and economic problems that were most evident in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. The daily press soon made its readers aware of the perils of overcrowding, the appearance of slums and ghettoes, the threat of disease and the evils of vice, the greed of utility corporations, and the corruption of municipal governments. The recognition of this urban crisis led some middle-class Canadians to embark on a reform crusade hoping to create and ordered social environment. The urban reformers were very much the products of their age and class -- aggressively optimistic, self-righteous, materialistic, humanitarian but self-interested, romantic and pragmatic. They endeavoured to restrict the power and autonomy of utility corporations; to establish uniform standards of health, housing, sanitation, and welfare; to compel the submission of lower-class and immigrant residents to bourgeois norms of behaviour; and to rationalize and beautify the urban topography. Most important, they turned to the bureaucratic state to ensure the permanence of their reforms. Ironically, their ideas and techniques became in later years the orthodoxy of civic government, against which the new generation of reformers has begun to struggle. The twenty-nine selections in this book are representative of the variety of concerns evident in reform circles when the first movement was in full flower, from the turn of the century to the end of the First World War. They have been organized around four general themes: the debate over municipal control of public utilities; the efforts to make the city healthy, moral, and equitable; the desire for a planned urban environment; and the changing character of municipal reform schemes.

Contents:

Municipal monopolies and their management (1891) / A.H. Sinclair

Municiple ownership of public utilities (1904) / James Mavor

The taxation of franchises (1905) / Alan C. Thompson

Some suggestions as to Toronto Street railway problems (1905) / F.S. Spence

The control of public utilities (1910) / F.W. Hibbard

Valedictory (1919) / W.D. Lighthall

The modern city (1911) J.S. Woodsworth

Liquor and crime (1887) / W.F. Burgess

Report on the police investigation and its results / Henri Taschereau

Neglected and friendless children (1894) / J.J. Kelso

What does associated charities mean and what is its object? (1909) / J.A. Turnbull

The modern conception of public health administration (1917) / Charles J. Hastings

The housing of our immigrant workers (1913) / Bryce M. Stewart

The church and the slum (1914) / S.W. Dean

Can slums be abolished or must we continue to pay the penalty? / J.J. Kelso

Report of the standing committee on neighbourhood work (1917) / Mary Joplin Clarke

The new spirit in municipal government (1914) / Horatio C. Hocken

Address of welcome to the city planning conference (1914) / Clifford Sifton

A comprenhensive plan for Toronto (1906) / Byron E. Walker

A plea for city planning organization (1914) / G. Frank Beer

Civic efficiency and social welfare in planning of land (1917) / W.F. Burditt

Modern city planning : its meaning and methods (1922) / Thomas Adams

The city as a organism (1926) / C.A. Dawson

City government in Canada (1902) / S. Morley Wickett

The 'Machine' in honest hands (1894) / Herbert B. Ames

'A French Canadian' : municipal reform in Montreal (1899)

Commission government in cities (1911) / Frank H. Underhill

The reform for municipal government (1916) / R.D. Waugh

The better government of our cities (1917) / J.O. Miller.

Notes:

Reprinted in 2018.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

1-4875-8344-3

OCLC:

1129220170