Torontonians, help us explore the gentrification battlefield in your city! Using GmapGIS, send us your personalized maps of what the frontline of gentrification in Toronto looks like to you. The results will be presented at the FORMS Festival on Friday September 30 at Rally Ossington.

Here in Amsterdam Noord we’ve been watching the borders of gentrification creep into our own front yard over the past few years. Back in 2010 we created Gentrification Battlefield — a fictional video game in which gentrification can be ‘played’ as if it were a real urban war. In 2011, the video was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

As gentrification progresses, we’ve been keeping an eye on key indicators and mapping the changing borders of the gentrification frontline in the city. By mapping the frontlines of a number highly-gentrified cities, we want to explore the possibility of predicting areas and the indicators of the next battlefield. Most recently we started mapping the gentrification frontline in Brooklyn, New York, and gathered some interesting insights that we shared at this years Northside Festival. Now, we will shift our focus to Toronto.

One of the frontlines in Brooklyn

Help us!

Where’s the frontier of gentrification in Toronto? We need your help to pinpoint the gentrification battlefield of Toronto! Using GmapGIS send us your personal outline of this city’s gentrification frontline. How to use it:

1. Go to GmapGIS
2. Click Draw → Line
3. Double-click to stop drawing
4. Save the map: Save as → Link
5. Send the link to mail@popupcity.net

We will then overlay these maps to gain a more collective understanding. Thanks a lot for your input!

If you are in Toronto in September be sure to come say hi to us at FORMS Festival! We will be there on September 30 as a part of the Travel Dialogues Series, speaking further about our gentrification project.