Infrastructural reuse projects, lost spaces, and spaces of homelessness: a case study on the Bentway in Toronto

P. Hess and C. Stevenson-Blythe

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2025, vol. 18, issue 3, 419-438

Abstract: This paper examines The Bentway, an infrastructural use project creating a new high-profile public space in Toronto, Ontario. Infrastructural reuse projects transform transportation corridors, former industrial waterfronts, and, in the case of The Bentway, land under an elevated expressway into park-like, but often heavily programmed, curated spaces managed by non-governmental organizations. Through a series of interviews and policy analyses, this paper examines tensions between publicness, accessibility, and gentrification that are inherent in these projects. The Bentway followed rather than precipitate an enormous wave of urban development. Still, conceptualizing the Bentway as taking place in “lost space” obscured its impact on a space associated with homelessness. Infrastructural reuse projects should be examined for not only the ways they foster gentrification, but for the ways they transform public space itself without anticipating how this can impact marginalized people that may have formerly used them.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17549175.2022.2138950 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjouxx:v:18:y:2025:i:3:p:419-438

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjou20

DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2022.2138950

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability is currently edited by Matthew Hardy and Emily Talen

More articles in Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().