Toronto Star

Imagine you are blindfolded and dropped on a major regional street in suburban Baltimore, Edmonton or Mississauga. When the blindfold is removed you see a four-lane highway, a wide median and maybe sidewalks — but no pedestrians. There would be the Golden Arches, a Wal-Mart and a series of big box stores and fast food outlets. Other than the licence plates you would be hardpressed to guess where you were. As urbanist and author James Howard Kunstler says, you have landed in the "geography of nowhere." When every place looks the same, there is really no such thing as place anymore. While you were being transported to nowhere, Toronto's city and provincial bureaucrats were in Barcelona, London and Berlin this spring to discover the ingredients of a successful "creative city." The secret lies closer to home, however.