Urban Neoliberalism and External Partnerships in the City of Toronto's Tower Renewal Program

In 2008, the City of Toronto ('the City') adopted Tower Renewal as a municipal policy and program with the stated objective of helping to revitalize Toronto's postwar high-rise apartment buildings and surrounding neighbourhoods. These apartments were built in the post-World War II period and are predominantly privately owned. This dissertation examines the external partnerships that are being employed by the City for Tower Renewal policy development in municipal offices, and implementation in privately-owned postwar apartment buildings. These external partnerships involve planning professionals from private sector firms, non-profit sector organizations, community-based organizations, and private postwar apartment owners. The overarching argument presented in this dissertation is that Tower Renewal demonstrates the complexities and challenges of local public policy development and delivery in the governance context of urban neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is reflected in four main ways in Tower Renewal that include: (1) discourse and practice of fiscal austerity in municipal offices; (2) popularity of partnership-based policy mechanisms; (3) offloading public policy responsibilities to non-governmental actors; and, (4) the constraints and opportunities that diverse urban actors are confronted with in this new era of partnership-based governance, and within urban neoliberalism more broadly. Although external partnerships have been essential for Tower Renewal policy development and delivery since 2008, my research reveals that the participation of external actors is presently unsustainable and ineffective due to the lack of adequate public-sector financial support and incentives. Theoretically, Tower Renewal also challenges the notion of urban actors as simply passive victims of neoliberalism. Throughout this dissertation, documented are instances where diverse urban actors are strategically engaging in neoliberal policy partnerships with some success in incrementally implementing their progressive agendas. It is through establishing multi-sector policy partnerships, which strive towards more socially and environmentally progressive ends, that these urban actors are challenging neoliberalism from within. In the concluding chapter, I suggest ways to better support the involvement of non-profit and private sector actors in Tower Renewal’s external partnerships. I also recommend an alternative, more traditional approach, to the City’s current emphasis on neoliberal policy partnerships.Ph.D