Uploaded on 2020-05-20 by Ian

As I mentioned in a previous assignment, a citizen motivated endeavour I would love to tackle would be to establish green roofs, community gardens and PV panels on the rooftops of inner-city housing projects. In my neighbourhood of Parkdale in Toronto there is a large quantity of affordable housing communities in large low and high-rise housing complexes. These buildings, peppered throughout the neighbourhood, are significant contributors to the heat index of the neighbourhood (Parkdale has been measured to be significantly warmer than the neighbouring Roncesvalles neighbourhood) there are no public spaces available for these residents and nowhere close by for families to have access to nature, with the exception of a park on the other side of the freeway. Most of the buildings have access doors for the large scale air conditioning units on their roofs. With the proper precautions, green roofs and community gardens like IKEA Lab’s spherical garden (https://www.archdaily.com/805835/ikea-lab-releases-open-source-plans-for-diy-spherical-garden-space10) could be added to the roofs to offer a place for residents to congregate and commune with nature. A financial plan could be delivered to landlords demonstrating reduction to cooling and heating costs, diminish the already intense UHI, and create a sense of pride in the neighbourhood.