The Heart of Toronto: Corporate Power, Civic Activism, and the Remaking of Downtown Yonge Street

From the 1950s to the 1970s, downtown North America was reconfigured for the suburban age. The Heart of Toronto follows one example of efforts to address the problems and possibilities of city centres: downtown Yonge Street. Attempts to keep pace with, or even lead, urban change included the street’s conversion into a car-free public space, a clean-up campaign targeting the sex industry, and the construction of North America’s largest urban shopping mall. Linking these projects to postwar decentralization, economic restructuring, and cultural transformation, Daniel Ross reveals the politics and power dynamics involved in reinventing the heart of Toronto.