Final Thoughts — Urban Policy at Munk
Upon completing Urban Policy at Munk, I have realized how much opportunity there is in the urban policy sector.
I have three main takeaways, which were common themes across each class.
1) Defining a city is a difficult task
2) You don’t have to work for a municipality to work in urban policy
3) All Policy is Urban Policy
I will explain these thoughts further.
Defining a city is a difficult task
On the first day, there was much discussion about what a city is and how it should be defined. Furthermore, the boundaries of a city, especially a large metropolitan region like the Greater Toronto Area, make it hard to assign policy areas to the right level of government because the boundaries and borders are so fluid.
The influence of different government orders, sometimes competing with eachother, also influences this drastically, which can cause confusion at times.
This leads nicely to my next point.
You don’t have to work for a municipality to work in urban policy
Everyone does urban policy.
Like… everyone.
Obviously, municipalities make urban policy, but so does the province, the federal government, the private sector, and the not-for-profit sector.
There is so much influence on what happens in our cities from multiple perspectives. Most of the Canadian population lives in urban areas, so there is a reason for most of the policy in Canada to be directed at these cities.
Using the example of urban economic development, the Federal Government sets interests in spurring innovation, the province has interests in labour and job programs, and the municipalities are interested in regulating land-use zoning. All of these policies influence urban economic development, yet sometimes they can conflict with each other.
After talking to multiple alumni from the program about their careers and what they think of their role in urban policy, they all have different answers but can agree that they are, in some ways, urbanists.
All policy is urban policy
A common theme in this course has been that urban policy is the decisions made by multiple governments to address urban problems.
After the various exercises that we did throughout the course, we can easily apply this definition on top of most things that we think about at the Munk school.
When doing our final project for the United Way Greater Toronto, we tried to help them understand economic inclusivity in GTA in neighbourhoods. Our team quickly realized that this was an exercise in navigating multiple government orders to find answers. Money typically comes from the federal government, but planning policy can come from the province or city.
This is just one example, and there are many more to draw from.
Overall, no matter where I end up working and no matter what policy area I find myself in, I can look through the lens of an urbanist.
All policy is urban policy. By thinking this way and looking at an urban area by multiple definitions, there is ample opportunity to work in urban policy during my career as a policy professional.
