Toronto Star

In the landscape of the 21st century, nothing looms larger than culture. It is the new infrastructure, the civic bedrock on which the most successful modern metropolises are built. Culture is to the contemporary city what roads, sewers and bridges were in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "Investment in culture means investment in people and investment in neighbourhoods," says Toronto mayor David Miller, who leads a city that, like many others, is trying to reinvent itself as an arts centre. "And, ultimately, it means a city that is more liveable and more prosperous for all." Yes, communities must still maintain the transportation networks, the armies of building inspectors, planners, dog-catchers and metre readers, the whole panoply of municipal services that allow us to carry on. But the 21st-century city is no longer just a place where people work and shop and pass through. As the worldwide condo boom makes clear, the rush downtown proceeds apace.