When my fab friend Della the photographer tells me about a documentary worth seeing, I always take notice. Della and her laughing lover Matt told me they adored watching ‘The Queen of Versailles’, which is about the super rich white trash Time Share king and queen of America struggling during the financial crisis of 2008 while trying to build their 90,000 square foot palace. It was a riveting train wreck. Click HERE to see more about that doc.

Last week Della posted on Facebook that she saw, and loved, ‘Detropia’. Centred on the rise and fall, and hopeful (fingers crossed!) renaissance of Detroit one day in our not so distant future, ‘Detropia’ captures the decline of the middle class in a one industry city. Amidst economic collapse, broken American dreams, and the decay of Detroit’s architectural grandeur and essential urban infrastructure, the story shares in the struggles of the few who refuse to abandon their hope and love for Motor City. If it’s going to survive in a postindustrial society, they have no choice but to embark on a radically different future. Click HERE to see the trailer for this fantastic film.

Want to see it? Click HERE for the schedule at the Bloor cinema!

The film took me back to the state of Toronto in the late 1980s and 1990s. When the migration of industry from the downtown core to the suburbs (with its cheaper land, lower taxes and proximity to major transportation networks) coincided with the real estate collapse of 1989, there was a period of time when downtown Toronto felt equally forlorn and ravaged by decay. This bleak background provided a lot of inspiration for those of us who were young and optimistic, where we celebrated our idealism, unbridled enthusiasm and liberated lifestyles dancing til the wee hours in alternative nightclubs hidden in empty downtown warehouses. Can you imagine the Fashion District and Queen West at Spadina being virtually empty and devoid of any inhabitants?

Fortunately, in 1993, Toronto council had the foresight to recognize that, in order to embrace a post-industrial economy centred on finance, information and technology, the city would have to re-zone the two major swaths of land on either side of the central business district lining Lake Ontario into a more flexible ‘Live/Work” zoning. This initiative created the ability for entrepreneurial development teams, myself included, to convert vacant century-old industrial warehouses into loft condominiums. The 1990s and early 2000s saw a number of loft retrofits ranging from ten to fifty units (The Monarch Building on Wellington West, Gotham Lofts on King West, The Industrial Revolution on Richmond West) to larger projects containing hundreds of lofts (The Candy Factory on Queen West, Brewery Lofts at 90 Sumach and The Merchandise Lofts on Dalhousie Street). As the Canadian economic engine recovered through the growth of our post-industrial economy, by the late 1990s developers had stopped converting these spaces into living environments for the less costly and more profitable retrofit of these building into commercial spaces that served technology, media and tertiary services for the financial core.

Having been one of the pioneers of the Innovative Space market in an era when the desire for loft living was marginal at best, creating the allure for a cool living space in an edgy location required enticing buyers with the cheapest price for the largest ‘raw space’ and the promise of a custom-design build package completed for nominal charge. It was the only way to entice Torontonians to take the risk to live in a former industrial area with zero amenities. Now that these buildings are located in highly-prized and coveted location, it’s mind-blowing to think that was only 15 years ago.

Click HERE to see a great article by Derek Flack in BlogTO called “That Time When Toronto Was A City Of Parking Lots’. It’s astonishing, like the picture below of Wellington and John in the1980s.

Toronto was never a one industry city like Detroit was. Does Detroit have the ability to experience a rebirth? I hope so, cuz there are dozens of spectacular architectural edifices which would make very cool living spaces.

~ Steven

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