When Toronto Tried to Eliminate Poverty (Again) | The Story of the Ward

Toronto built one of its most iconic landmarks on top of an erased neighbourhood. This is the story of the Ward, Toronto's first immigrant neighbourhood, and the first Chinatown the city ever had. For over a century, the Ward was where Toronto's newcomers landed first: Black refugees who escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, Irish famine survivors, Eastern European Jews, Italian labourers, and the Chinese railway workers who built Toronto's first Chinatown on Elizabeth Street. By the early 1900s, more than 11,000 people lived in this dense, self-sustaining community in the heart of downtown Toronto. Then, in the name of fighting poverty, the city spent decades trying to erase it, culminating in the 1940s with a plan to replace the neighbourhood entirely. Today, that land is home to Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square: one of the most photographed places in the city, and a landmark most visitors have no idea sits on top of a demolished community. This video traces the full history of the Ward: from its founding in the 1840s, through the 1911 public health report that sealed its fate, to the expropriation of Toronto's first Chinatown and the construction of Nathan Phillips Square. If you're interested in Toronto history, urban planning, immigrant history, or how cities decide what gets remembered and what gets erased, this one's for you. Soundtrack Credits: Decline by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300016 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Darkest Child A by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100783 Artist: http://incompetech.com/