Vital Signs Summary

The guest lecture done by Rahul K. Bhardwaj along with the Toronto Vital Signs report were both interesting and insightful ways to learn a bit about the city. The report is an overview of the quality of life in the city of Toronto and, like the vital signs of an individual, this report gives the residents, businesses, communities and philanthropists of the city of Toronto an idea of the health of the city. It takes all the research and data done on the city’s performance in safety, education, economic health, financial equality, arts, etc., and strategically turns that data into stories which can be read and analyzed from different perspectives. The 2015 issue of the Vital Signs report not only highlights some of the achievements of Toronto like hosting the Pan/Para Pan Am Games and the creation of the Pan Am
As Rahul mentioned, Toronto is the fourth most livable city on the planet, yet it is the “13th least affordable of 86 global cities with populations over 1 million” (Vital Signs report Y5). Rahul mentioned that one major problem of the city is that there are not enough people experiencing the “fourth most livable city feeling.” Urban regions flourish due to their ability to house many cultural and entertaining spaces which is why they “must attract the new creative class” (Peck 740). The creative class has become highly influential in major cities like Toronto, so much so that “arts and culture contribute $11.3 billion annually to Toronto’s GDP” (Vital Signs report Y5). In our economy today, “human creativity has been the defining feature of economic life… [therefore] companies and cities must make purposive efforts to establish the right people climate for the favored class of creatives” (Peck 743). However, this lifestyle is only available to those that have the ability to really enjoy it; those that work unstable jobs do not have