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Ep 32: Beyond the Water - Reimagining a Waterfront City

• Julia Pennella • Season 1 • Episode 32

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​​The transformation of Toronto's waterfront represents a microcosm of urban challenges and opportunities facing major cities across North America. Tim Kocur, Executive Director of the Waterfront BIA, takes us deep into how this iconic area is evolving while tackling some of the most pressing urban issues of our time.

Toronto stands at a crossroads of urban development. With housing prices soaring to globally significant levels and condos shrinking to "shoebox" proportions, families face difficult choices about city living. Kocur offers a refreshingly candid perspective on where urban housing must go: "We're very clearly only at the beginning of a generational or almost revolutionary shift in thinking about how people live in cities." He challenges traditional North American expectations around single-family homes and suggests density—when thoughtfully designed—can create highly livable communities, pointing to international cities like Seoul where apartment living is normalized across all socioeconomic levels.

Beyond housing, the conversation tackles the painful reality of homelessness and public safety—issues that affect not just resident quality of life but visitor perceptions and business viability. The Waterfront BIA collaborates with five other downtown BIAs to advocate for comprehensive solutions that go beyond band aid fixes to tackle issues of homelessness, crime and public drug use. Kocur addresses the funding challenges municipalities face, contextualizing recent tax increases within Toronto's decade of below-inflation tax adjustments and making a compelling case for how downtown Toronto's success drives national prosperity.

Despite these challenges, Toronto's waterfront buzzes with so much vibrancy and energy. From the Tall Ships Festival at Sugar Beach to expanded bike-sharing programs connecting to the Toronto Islands, the waterfront strikes a thoughtful balance between practical urban planning, community engagement, and vibrant tourist appeal. Kocur's vision demonstrates how urban waterfront spaces can serve as laboratories for the future of city living—places where density, sustainability, and livability converge to create communities that work for everyone.

Ready to experience Toronto's waterfront transformation firsthand? Follow the Waterfront BIA on social media to discover the latest events and activities that are reshaping this dynamic neighborhood. 

Learn more about the Waterfront BIA here:

Waterfront BIA

Check out the Toronto Board of Trade report published with the Waterfront BIA:

Ripple Effect: Unlocking Toronto’s Waterfront Potential 

Check out the Toronto Waterfront Festival Happening June 28-29, 2025 details here:

Toronto Waterfront Festival 

Julia Pennella:

Hey everybody, welcome back to let's Talk Politics, the podcast, where we dive into everything political, policy-driven and economic from across Canada and around the world. Today, we're zooming in on one of Canada's most iconic cities, toronto, a city known for its vibrant culture, endless global food options, the backdrop for your favorite Netflix series pretending to be New York and, of course, the birthplace of Drake. And just a friendly reminder, if you want to sound like a local, it's pronounced Toronto. We never pronounce the second T ever. Joining us today is Tim Kocur, executive Director of the Waterfront BIA. Since 2018, tim has been leading charge in revitalizing Toronto's waterfront by bringing together city councillors, businesses, residents and community partners to collaborate on the waterfront's future. The Waterfront BIA advocates on key policy issues and works with all three levels of government to work on public improvements, and showcases the waterfront's vibrancy through year-round events and daily promotion, from uniting stakeholders and championing light rail transit to reimagining public spaces and creating innovative ways to support local businesses. Tim and his team are working closely with partners across the waterfront to shape one of Toronto's most rapidly evolving neighborhoods.

Julia Pennella:

In today's episode, we're breaking down what a BIA actually is, how these organizations influence policy and the role they play in making cities work for everyone. We're also tackling big urban issues like homelessness, housing affordability, and Tim shares the latest innovations and events happening along the waterfront. There's a lot to cover, so let's dive in. So there's a lot of exciting innovation happening along the waterfront which we'd love to see, but I do want to point to, alongside that progress is a harsh reality. We're living in a housing affordability crisis. Toronto, along with Vancouver, are some of the most expensive places to live, not just in Canada but globally. And it's not just the price. We're also seeing the size and quality of the new housing coming up, and you know, many of these condos feel like shoeboxes, making it difficult, if not unrealistic, to grow or even start a family. And at the same time, we're seeing families pushed out of the city due to rising crime, increased homelessness and a lot of drug use in public spaces. So how do you think we can make urban living in Toronto family friendly again?

Tim Kocur:

Well, I think yes, I mean I guess I feel like I'm going to drift into personal opinion here. I guess I feel like I'm going to drift into personal opinion here, but I think that we're very clearly only at the beginning of a generational or almost a revolutionary shift in thinking about how people live in cities like Toronto, in countries like Canada, because I think we still have politicians very much talking about let's build more houses with yards around them that are so far out that you have to drive to them, but then let's also complain about there being too much traffic on the roads, like you can't. You can't reduce congestion and keep building more houses further away from the center of the city, and so I think what I should be getting to here is we are, in the future, going to be building more public transit that connects to more dense hopefully very livable, dense neighborhoods in our urban corridor, like when people come from other cities. We had a group of 100 people from Minnesota last year and multiples of them were just blown away by these clusters of massive buildings all over the city, and they're talking about Scarborough Town Center, they're talking about Mimico, mississauga and the fact that those are kind of emerging, because that's where you can build 70 story buildings, because we're not allowing people to tear down single family homes but, realistically, in the future, like to have more people living in the city.

Tim Kocur:

I used to live in seoul where even wealthy families of my students that were a doctor and a doctor they lived in a three bedroom apartment, like that's how wealthy people lived in a really major world city like Seoul, and we're going to get closer and closer to that, whether we like it or not.

Tim Kocur:

I think it's just a matter of how long until we accept that. I think my own personal opinion too is that we're just not doing a very creative job of building those houses, like I think that people want a yard for their kids to play in and everything, and I don't quite understand why we're not like stacking houses on top of each other so that they're staggered in a way that you still kind of feel like you're in a private yard behind you. I think that we obviously in the last quite a few years, built very similar condos downtown and that was probably the right thing to do now. But I think, yeah, I think civilization is kind of evolving into a new housing environment for places like Toronto, but yeah, we just can't expect to build houses further and further away from the city and then expect it to be a livable community.

Julia Pennella:

Yeah, and I, as someone who lived on the outskirts kind of the GTA and would commute in two hours one way, two hours back home, like to think I did that before is like crazy. But it's just, I think our concept of commuting and flexible work and work remote, all these things but yeah, to your point like, the thing that frustrates me a little bit too is, as I mentioned, I've been traveling a lot and Europe they have these beautifully transit systems that are so interconnected and Canada, when we first started in Toronto, especially like we had a fresh landscape I don't know what happened that we couldn't have integrated those similar processes, whether it is through transit Like the fact that we only have two lines in a major city for our subway is just bonkers to me and then even taking the streetcar, there's always these delays. But to your point as well, like shifting our mindset of how we build, how communities grow and what those family landscapes look like, I think is really interesting and going to be telling for the city.

Tim Kocur:

Well, Juliette, you have to say like, shout out to the waterfront. And they are sort of doing this, Like I've lived in multiple apartment buildings in the waterfront at this point and they're always very close to parks. I mean, the water itself is obviously a tremendous amenity. And then into the portlands you've seen the new neighborhoods that Waterfront Toronto and the city are building out, the new they now call it Equament, Minnesoteng, Favilliers Island, Like it's surrounded by an entire park, Like they've added a public space and hopefully very livable community into part of their massive city building project there.

Julia Pennella:

Yeah, I mean, that's great to hear, and I think, though too, isn't the waterfront still fairly untouchable price-wise for whether it be families or young professionals?

Tim Kocur:

Yeah, I'm probably not an expert on this, but yes, I mean some of the condo prices I see advertised are quite expensive. The city also. I mean they are effectively adding a lot of different affordable housing type units, including rentals and co-ops, and you're going to see that expand Post-pandemic here. There clearly isn't the rate of condo development as there was in the past. So yes and no, I mean yes, it's expensive, but they're also making sure that it's not just wealthy people living here. They're making sure that there's more affordable units as well.

Julia Pennella:

And we definitely need to see that push, I think, across all municipalities in Ontario right now. I want to talk about and a bit of a sore spot right homeless population. There's a lot of homeless encampments in the parks which is impeding the ability sometimes for people to access them, and I know the BIA doesn't directly deal with homelessness. But is there any insight you can share on what role BIAs and maybe even municipalities are doing to support creating affordable housing or helping get people off the streets? And the reason why I also bring this up is a lot of people experience homelessness in Toronto, sometimes aren't even from the city, you know they might come from places like Belleville or Hamilton because their hometowns don't offer those same supports that cities do. So is there any insight you can share into how cities, bias are working together to help maybe tackle this issue?

Tim Kocur:

Yeah, for sure, and I appreciate you mentioning other cities too, because that reminded me to mention something very important as part of this. I mean, well, for one thing, it's such a big problem that, yeah, it is something that we have to engage with. We have on-street reporting people that actually track where these encampments are and everything and work with the cities to report them right. We're also fortunate on the waterfront that we are not the major source of this problem in the city. I mean the doubt, so I haven't mentioned yet, but we're one of six downtown bias. They're all quite large, like two million a year plus budgets, and so for a couple of those neighborhoods I won't mention them, but they have pretty significant programs to deal with, like mental health issues on the street and homelessness, encampments and things. So we're fortunate that we don't have to spend that much time. We get to focus more on actual waterfront issues, which is a good thing of having Toronto split up into six different BIAs, because if there was one big downtown BIA for Toronto, I guarantee you they'd be spending a significant majority of their time on these problems. But we do when we're together as the six downtown BIAs, we do some advocacy and some reports together and this is a major topic, and we actually have been working on some ways to make the case that downtown Toronto specifically definitely should be getting I guess what the mayor was calling a new deal in terms of additional funding from other levels of government to handle these issues, and part of it is probably does need to be more policing. I mean, it's not just the homelessness and mental health problems on the street, like downtown Toronto has the most significant demonstrations, has the biggest Taylor Swift type events, has the major sports teams, like there's a lot of security requirements that downtown Toronto is funding without a lot of support from other levels of government, even though this is very clearly the hub for a lot of activity for the entire country. So that's one of the issues is, when you have this is the major economic generator, where 450,000 people work every day downtown, that money is then paid in property taxes and going to outside of the GTA as well and doesn't necessarily come back into the city of Toronto as the economic generator for everybody.

Tim Kocur:

But also, specifically on homelessness and street safety, I think that we actually. So the last couple of years, the downtown BIAs have been joining these delegations to Ottawa where we go speak to federal leaders about the problems on our streets and it's very much about like the same people are the problems over and over again and we need bail reform to make sure that the violent criminals are not getting back on the streets very quickly. Like it's a sad issue to talk about, because I think none of us want to see homeless people on the streets. You look at someone who's on the street and it's like that's someone's brother, that's someone's mother. It's so frustrating to deal with, but then you get numb to it when you're in Toronto because you see it so often.

Tim Kocur:

So I think that, trying to have a human lens on it, I think that we want to make sure that most people get help, but also we know, as the downtown BIAs, that it's the same few problem people that will not accept help. They're the problem. So things like involuntary care are the kinds of things that people are nervous about talking about right now, but we need to be taking steps towards. But in terms of actual supports, the BIAs have been advocating for what the city wants, which is these mental health and rehabilitation hubs, because we understand that we want to get people help. You can't have people getting safe injection to help get them off drugs, but then there's no police in the area around it and there's no wraparound services or a safe place to sleep that night. So then people go back out on the street and have to deal with 10 drug dealers again. Like it's, we clearly need some sort of a hub system, and so, seeing the levels of government work together on piloting that type of thing, we expect to be next.

Tim Kocur:

And hopefully the downtown BIs will be like a productive advocate for it.

Julia Pennella:

Yeah, and you're a hundred percent right, I agree with you. It's such a multifaceted issue and I was at a comedy show on Bloor Street the other day and the guy's set was unfortunately about the homeless population because, like you said, desensitized to it, like it's so sad because there's these reoccurring issues. And another big thing coming up in my conversations on the podcast is the role municipalities are taking on is really extended beyond what was, I think, originally put out for them. Municipalities can't run deficits, so they're dealing with all these increased levels of homelessness, affordable housing, health care. It's just piling up and they're really stretched thin for what they can do to help fix these issues and it becomes to be Band-Aid effects. So I take your point on that and it is unfortunate.

Julia Pennella:

And I want to ask you, as we're talking about the city and when it comes to these different services, mayor Olivia Chow proposed a 6.9 percent hike, bringing the total property tax increase to nearly 25 percent over three years. It's meant to help fund key city services, but it's also a big ask for homeowners and businesses. What's your take on these increases? Is it necessary? Do you think it's sustainable and how do they impact local BIAs and the small business ecosystem when they have to pay these much higher property taxes, especially if revenue, as we're gearing up for potentially a recession, might not be bringing in those revenue streams that they're expecting.

Tim Kocur:

Yeah, Well, I think it's part of the solution. I mean, it shouldn't be surprising that the new mayor has increased taxes for two or maybe three years in a row here, when we had 10 years of less than inflation tax increases in Toronto. I mean that was always going to get to a point where you had to significantly cut back some services or you had to have some year over year increases in the tax base. And, to be quite honest, I don't, I guess for work and even in my personal life, I don't hear a lot of complaints. I definitely hear people complain about tax rates, but when I asked them, like, what would you like to see cut? There's not I. We got nobody's ever proposing we get rid of any major city services in order to fund another service a little bit more or something without raising taxes. So I think that it's. You have to separate the complaints from the actual requests as well, and I think, like this year, the Parks Department got a pretty significant budget increase, but that was because they had been unfortunately the victim of a lot of tax increase or small tax increases. None of it had benefited them for about 10 years. Yeah and sorry, I said it's half the solution, because the other half of the solution is other levels of government probably need to recognize that the success of downtown Toronto really drives a lot of not just citywide but regionwide and even countrywide success and we want to make sure Toronto works as well as possible.

Tim Kocur:

We probably should be coming up with new funding mechanisms to bring money from other levels of government to support things in downtown Toronto, and that includes transit too. I mean, we really haven't talked about this yet, but perception of safety on the subway. I take the TTC every day now and I see issues at least once a week with someone getting screamed at and these aren't issues that are being reported. So I get quite upset actually, when meetings and people talk about like well, the crime rates are down, I'm like, yeah, but we know from the numbers the downtown BIs look at these numbers of perception of safety is down and people are still driving their cars to work post-pandemic because they don't want to be on the subways, because they don't feel safe there. So if additional funding to the government means a very safe environment on the subway, that will actually help in other ways to make people get out of cars and come downtown on public transit. Help us invest in more public transit improvements, and that probably has benefits for the rest of society.

Julia Pennella:

Yeah, and I will say I am a bit guilty of driving downtown for that fear sometimes especially, you know, depending on the time of night and stuff I love taking TTC, I love taking public transit. I think it's just it's so critical to our infrastructure in the city. But yeah, the safety piece is really important and I'm hopeful too that we can see more and you touched on it as well as more community street safe resources to help tackle some of these issues, whether it is homelessness or security and safety around the TTC. So I take your point on that and I want to lean into. We were getting closer to the summer session here. I know it doesn't feel like summer quite yet. In Toronto We've been having a lot of rain lately, but with the potential, as we talked about, recession, we have trade war and tariffs they won't get into that completely. So Toronto might be a hot summer destination, especially for our friends down south, but also, as we talked about internationally, we're very recognized as a fun city to visit. Is the waterfront ready for a tourist takeover?

Tim Kocur:

Well, we are certainly ready and praying every single morning for a tourist takeover, julia. Unfortunately, the weather in May was not particularly warm. We're looking at numbers that aren't a particularly strong start for the year, so certainly hope visitors will come back from Canada, our friends in Ontario. People are saying they're going to travel more in Ontario this year. We hope, though, is that thefront and support some of our businesses too, but, yeah, we also are more than happy to welcome back our friends from the United States. There's been a few signs that the decrease in visitation from US and bookings from US visitors are down, but it doesn't necessarily seem to be about geopolitics. It seems to be about recession worries. There was a conference in town a couple weeks ago where they had only about two-thirds of the number of people they usually send on a delegation to another city, and they all wanted to come to Toronto. It's just that companies weren't sending as many people on delegations this year. So, yeah, definitely hoping for a lot of visitors. We're certainly ready for it, that's for sure.

Julia Pennella:

Then you know, as we're just wrapping up here, I want to talk about how we're living in the age of staged Instagram posts and TikTok. So if you don't post it, did it even really happen? I think is the reality we're living in, right? So, from giant rubber duckies to pop-up art like, how do you at the waterfront try to curate and stay ahead of the curve and make sure that the waterfront keeps serving these buzzworthy kind of Instagrammable moments, while also supporting local businesses?

Tim Kocur:

Well, it feels like we get into like what to do down here. I mean, the BIA is not the only programmer down here, of course, there's a lot. I mean we just mostly work with people to try and have even more things going on in places, some of the new parks and things, as I said, but I mean just this season. Harborfront Center has a Saturday farmer's market during the day and then an underground night market on Saturdays every week through the summer and then they also. The Harbourfront Centre is very busy right now. They have an Ontario Science Centre exhibit is extended through, I believe, all the way through the summer. The Museum of Toronto has a basketball exhibit on the history of basketball in Toronto there and then the Power Plant Art Gallery their new exhibit that just opened just opened through the summer as well. The Tall Ships Festival will be at Sugar Beach for the long weekend before Canada Day, the Saturday and Sunday before the Tuesday of Canada Day.

Tim Kocur:

But also my most personal suggestion would be to get out on a bike or get out on a kayak. You can rent kayaks from the island side at Ward's Island or from Harbourfront Centre, and you can also. There's actually a few different ways to rent bikes now because the city has been expanding the bike share program, including to the islands. That was in the news recently. So they have 200 bikes on the islands that you're not allowed to take off the island. Leave it there, julia. But then there's also ways if you want to kind of upgrade your bike rental. There's a company at Ward's Island that is renting those tandem bikes like you and I on a bike together. So I feel like that's going to be a lot of Instagram photos this year. And then there's also, at the base of the Radisson, one of our favorite businesses. They rent bikes for multiple days, so I call it like the European traveler. They don't want to bike for like 40 minutes, they want to bike for two days, and so you can still rent bikes for an entire day as well.

Julia Pennella:

No, I love that and I can't wait to see all of these great different programs and I can't wait to just dive into the waterfront. I even saw on Instagram I think it was last summer but there's like the. They're kind of like a see-through kayak with like lights on it so you can go kayaking at night. Did you see those?

Tim Kocur:

Yeah, I can't remember where that was. I definitely saw that on Instagram. I can't remember where it is. That might be the ones that go from Cherry Beach. There's another company that rents kayaks over at Cherry Beach.

Julia Pennella:

Yeah, and it was so cool to just see, obviously like the iconic skyline of Toronto. Taking the ferry is always just my favorite part, coming onto the island and then just experiencing the quirkiness and uniqueness of the Toronto Island Just some of the best memories and fun of thinking of Toronto. And I mean, tim, we covered a lot here and I really appreciate it. We went from you know really important topics like homelessness and affordability to also just like the fun stuff that's happening in the waterfront. But I want to throw it to you Are there any other closing thoughts you want to share with the listeners today?

Tim Kocur:

Well, most of them are in question. Is Julia Piniella going to be on Queen's Key this summer? Are the businesses going to see her here?

Julia Pennella:

Of course, I already have my bar crawl planned out. I have all my friends coming down, so 100% you're going to see me there for sure. On my Instagram I'll be sure to tag you.

Tim Kocur:

Yeah, I guess I should encourage people. Please follow the Waterfront BI on social media. Jolene and Athena are pretty much busy every single day posting about what's happening. Especially through the spring and summer. There's a lot to promote, so it's always something we can tell you to do down on the waterfront. And, julia, thank you very much for having us on. I love this podcast too. I'm pretty sure I listened to this podcast a couple of times before I realized it was you and that I'd met you before, and so it's really exciting. You have a great mix of guests, like from pollsters and economists to a school trustee, and so I appreciate that you also were willing to bring on a policy related business improvement area on your podcast.

Julia Pennella:

I appreciate you, tim. That's kind of what I envisioned for the podcast. I want to bring different voices together, talk about what's happening, what are the issues, and also just celebrate some of the fun, because I think the policy, political world is a little chaotic. So just being able to hear about the vibrancy of what you're bringing to the waterfront, the work you're doing with other organizations out there and businesses, I think it's just a breath of fresh air and thank you so much for your kind words and I appreciate you coming on to share all the great work.

Julia Pennella:

So that was Tim Coker. He's the executive director at Waterfront BIA. Make sure to follow them on everything and make sure you check out the waterfront this summer. So be sure to tune in next week for my next special guest on let's Talk Politics. We'll catch you there. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of let's Talk Politics. Make sure you check out the Toronto Waterfront Festival happening June 28th to 29th 2025, located at Sugar Beach, 11 Dockside Drive. The tall ships are back, so make sure you go and tour the historic fleet and even set sail on one, enjoy live entertainment, interactive activities and, of course, delicious food. I'll see you there and make sure you tune in to the next episode of let's Talk Politics.