Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award 2007
For the individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the public realm over many years and in more than one field, thereby gaining reputation and acclaim for their vision, passion and impact.

Photograph by Mia Klein (c) 2007

Moses Znaimer

Twenty-five years ago, with Speakers Corner, Moses Znaimer anticipated the viewer generated content that has made YouTube and MySpace a sensation. With his insistence on first-person hand-held TV reporting, he anticipated and then helped to define the video, especially the music video. With Citytv, MuchMusic, MusiquePlus, Bravo!, Canadian Learning Television, BookTelevision, FashionTelevision and SexTelevision, among others, he redefined television style and content. And, in originating them all in simultaneous, perpetual flow from a single place, he redesigned the Television Factory and put it right on the street, smack in the middle of town (not out there where the land is cheap).

Perhaps most importantly, long, long before it became politically correct, or legally necessary, and propelled in part by lessons learned from his own experience as the refugee son of Holocaust survivors, he made multiculturalism and multiracial representation the centre of his work.

"For me, diversity in all its cultural, societal and economic forms and each individual's freedom to choose among them to create a vital, healthy life - these are urban issues!" said Mr. Znaimer. "It's long been my opinion that the political formations that matter the most in the world today are both larger and smaller than countries: the United Nations, the European Community, NAFTA. But, it's in the two dozen great cities of the world, and the intercourse between their peoples, that the New Economy and the New Culture are constantly being born."

For many Torontonians, Moses Znaimer's name is synonymous with Citytv, the unique TV conglomerate he co-founded in 1972. Often described as a Media Innovator who changed the way we view our cities as well as TV and as a champion of the rich cultural mix that is Toronto, he is renowned for reflecting the city's variety and vitality, on air and off.

Over the past 35 years or so, this maverick has come to symbolize progress, growth and a new vision of Toronto. In his TV work, Moses Znaimer introduced a novel approach to bringing programming to the people. The CHUMCity building reinvented the TV studio as an open, street front/heart of downtown, perpetual performance space that demystifies the television process in a way that helps democratize the medium. It is perhaps best symbolized by Speakers Corner, television's first answer to the Letter to the Editor. But he also developed such firsts as "studios on the street" and "videography and videographers" - terms Mr. Znaimer is credited with having coined.

People quickly took notice of Citytv and its pioneer pop video offshoot, MuchMusic. Today, their brands have been extended to include stations in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Ont., Barrie, Ottawa and Montreal. Whatever the subject, wherever the geography, each channel or station functions as a lively mirror and instigator for its community. Nor is his broadcast impact limited to communities across Canada. He has also taken his innovations beyond our borders with ventures and licences in Botoga, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Helsinki and has sold programs in over 125 countries.

But don't think for a minute that Mr. Znaimer is just another driven, numbers oriented business guy. He's Chief Creative Officer, or "Executive Producer" of all his enterprises. He is also the on-screen presenter for Citytv's syndicated first person television portrait series, "The Originals" and for the "ideaCity Specials".

Today, he is the new owner of English Canada's only commercial classical music radio station 96.3FM in Toronto and 103.1FM in Cobourg, Ont.; the President/Executive Producer of MZTV P&D, a boutique independent TV production and distribution company; and the founding Chairman of Cannasat, a pioneering medical marijuana company.

Like many Torontonians, Mr. Znaimer was born elsewhere, but has made Toronto his home since 1965. Born, stateless, in Tajikistan, Moses Znaimer and his family arrived in Canada as DPs "displaced persons" in 1948. They settled in Montreal, where he eventually read philosophy, politics and economics at McGill (Honours BA) and followed that with a Masters in Government from Harvard. Then he moved to T.O.

Moses Znaimer has left his mark on the city in ways beyond his broadcast innovations. His adaptive renovation and reuse of the heritage building at Queen and John, for instance, spawned a radical transformation of that part of the city. Refitting it to house his unique way of organizing and producing TV, the ChUMCity building is home to a "department store of TV channels", has become an interactive landmark, and remains the finest example of industrial Gothic architecture left standing in Toronto (designated under the Ontario Heritage Act).

Mr. Znaimer is a man of endless inspiration and creativity, and is tireless in his quest to inform, enrich and engage our collective spirits. In 2000, he established Toronto's annual ideaCity Conference, which has become a celebrated venue for three days of listening to an amazing line-up of 50 speakers from a variety of disciplines and walks of life, exchanging ideas and discussing a huge range of topics, in an unusual free-form kind of way. The Globe and Mail once described it (April 16, 2002) as, "Mind Aerobics with Moses...Toronto's annual intellectual summer camp for grownups."

As for Mr. Znaimer's 10,000-piece collection of vintage television receivers and related memorabilia, arguably the world's largest, his MZTV Museum and Archive comprises 70 years of North American visual devices and associated popular culture and is available to scholars, students and the general public in Toronto and Montreal. His exhibitions have appeared at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Hull, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal.

Among Mr. Znaimer's many honours are the Urban Alliance on Race Relations Diversity Award; Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Medal; the Republic of France's Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; and he is the only Television Channel Creator and Operator to have received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

Moses Znaimer transformed an existing medium to tell the everyday stories of the urbanization and ethno-cultural diversification of our major urban centres. In doing so, he has entwined his legacy with the defining trend of Canada's 20 th century. Given his energy and intellectual curiosity, the only question that remains is...what's next?

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Derek Ballantyne www.torontohousing.ca

Derek Ballantyne

Vision, determination, imagination and collaboration are words often used to describe the Regent Park revitalization project. If you added "tenacity" to that list, they could also be used to describe Derek Ballantyne.

Mr. Ballantyne is the CEO of Toronto Community Housing (TCH), one of the largest public housing providers in North America. TCH owns and manages a housing portfolio of about $5 billion. It has 164,000 low- and moderate-income tenants in 58,000 households, 360 high-rise and low-rise apartment buildings and about 800 houses and duplexes throughout the city.

Derek Ballantyne was CEO of the Toronto Housing Company from 1999 to 2001. Before that, he was General Manager, City Living, City of Ottawa Non-profit Housing. He was also a founding Board member of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association, and Chair of Raising the Roof, a national charitable organization dedicated to finding solutions to homelessness. He has had a varied career in the private sector and as a self-employed consultant.

In charting a vision for the revitalization of Toronto's social housing, Mr. Ballantyne and Toronto Community Housing have focused on revitalizing more than just the aging buildings - his is a vision of community renewal and integration. The Regent Park revitalization project is a 14-year undertaking that will result in a mixed income community providing housing for the same number of tenants as in the original buildings and additional units for purchase and rental at market rates. It will be integrated with surrounding neighbourhoods and feature roads and streetscapes with commercial uses, retail outlets and green space. Regent Park will incorporate award-winning design features and sustainable building technologies for managing heat, energy and water. It will be built in partnership with a private sector equity partner, incorporate training partnerships with the carpenters union for youth in social housing and build leadership and community capacity. Regent Park is a prototype for neighbourhood renewal and the transformation of large publicly owned housing communities in Toronto.

Making all of this work will require a strong team and many partners. And it will take a leader with the tenacity and determination to see it through. That person is Derek Ballantyne. Contact him at tel: 416-981-4222; email: Derek.Ballantyne@torontohousing.ca

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The Distillery Historic District www.thedistillerydistrict.com

Cityscape Development Corporation, Matthew Rosenblatt, John Berman, David Jackson, James Goad, principals

Founded in 1832 by brothers-in-law William Gooderham and James Worts, the Gooderham and Worts Distillery eventually became the largest distillery in the British Empire. For many decades, this important piece of Canada's heritage languished in neglect as a storage facility and occasional location for the film industry. Now, the 40-plus buildings set on 13 acres in downtown Toronto constitute the largest and best-preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America and the Distillery District is a national historic site.

Today, the Distillery District is an area associated with creative thinking and expression. It is a critical example of culture-led regeneration. Through a unique partnership with Artscape, Cityscape and partner Dundee Realty signed a below-market, 20-year lease for two buildings on the site. The initial scepticism in the arts community and media faded quickly and, in little more than a year, virtually all of it had been leased.

Following a $3-million renovation, Artscape moved 60 arts groups and related tenants into 440,000 square feet in The Case Goods Warehouse and Cannery Building in March 2003. The area has come alive with new cultural venues, such as the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, home to the Soulpepper Theatre Company and George Brown College's Theatre School. The Distillery has also attracted internationally acclaimed galleries, artists from all corners of the arts spectrum, restaurants, cafés and boutiques.

The project is a case study in complex urban renewal. It involves culture-led regeneration, brownfield redevelopment, heritage preservation through the creative reuse of historic buildings and the creation of a neighbourhood through the provision of housing for a variety of household income levels.

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Andy Barrie

Andy Barrie

Andy Barrie has the distinction of being able to say that more people in Toronto probably wake up with him every weekday than with anyone else. As host of CBC Radio 99.1's Metro Morning, Mr. Barrie speaks to more than a quarter-million listeners a week. He has long been the voice of Toronto - and was the master of ceremonies of the annual Urban Leadership Awards luncheon for its first three years. His dedication to his craft is evident in every interview he does, always applying his trademark integrity. His genuine delight in the diversity of the region and the cultural complexity of his guests and his audience is also evident.

Mr. Barrie studied theatre at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. After university, he served the usual apprenticeship: staff announcer here, street reporter there, finally getting his own program with Metromedia Radio in Washington, D.C. Happily for Toronto, Mr. Barrie was given conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War and decided   to leave the United States for Canada.

He worked in radio in Montreal and in 1977 moved to Toronto where he worked at CFRB. In 1995, he joined the CBC. Since then, Metro Morning's audience has grown and it has become the top-rated radio show in Toronto.

Toronto is a city enriched by a constant succession of new arrivals. As part of the wave of Americans who came to Canada in the sixties and later as part of the exodus to Toronto from Montreal in the late seventies and early eighties, Mr. Barrie has been part of two waves that immeasurably enriched this community. As a broadcaster and humanitarian, Mr. Barrie is part of the daily pulse of Toronto and truly one of the keepers of the city's soul.

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www.cccgt.org

The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto

The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto (CCC) is a non-profit organization that dreamed of building a cultural meeting place for residents of the Greater Toronto Area. That dream has become a reality, and has transformed the southeast corner of Sheppard Avenue East and Progress Road.

The Chinese Cultural Centre was completed in two phases. Phase 1, which houses a library, a community centre and an art gallery and features symbolic architecture and design elements, opened on May 2, 1998. Phase II followed eight years later with the P.C. Ho Theatre and a multipurpose hall, which opened on September 9, 2006.

The CCC's goal is to bridge the gap between the Chinese and Canadian identities and it is proud to act as leader in numerous community events. Through programs like the Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival, a spectacular display of traditional illuminated lanterns at Ontario Place that attracted more than 200,000 people, and the Friendship Program, which brings together Canadian adoptive families with families of recent immigrants from China, the CCC reaches out to all Torontonians. The CCC organized the first Chinese New Year Celebration at Toronto City Hall and was a cultural partner in the "Watched by Heaven, Tied to Earth" children's shoe exhibition with the Bata Shoe Museum as well as in the hugely successful Club Crew World Dragon Boat Race Championships on Toronto's waterfront.

CCC also took the lead in forming the Community Coalition Concerned about SARS during the SARS outbreak when more than 60 community organizations worked together to help victims and address other related issues. CCC also worked with the Canadian Multicultural Council, Asians in Ontario (CMC) and Citytv appeal for South Asian Tsunami victims.

The CCC's new Performing Arts Theatre has hosted numerous performances for Canadians of different cultural heritages to promote cultural exchange. And, in the past year, the CCC has hosted a fundraising dinner for relief for the Indonesian Earthquake in conjunction with the CMC and another for the Filipino Mudslide disaster, also with CMC. When Toronto's Chinese Cultural Centre reaches out to the rest of the world, it demonstrates the standards of integrity and excellence that truly reflect the soul of our city. Visit www.cccgt.org for more information.

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City Livability
Actions that make our cities more livable from finding new ways and means to improve our healthcare, education and the environment to enhancing public places and spaces and instilling confidence about our personal safety and security.

Kitchener City Council, 2003-2006

Kitchener City Council

In September 2006, Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Social Work opened its doors in the renovated red brick shell of the former St. Jerome's High School, across from Kitchener City Hall. The City of Kitchener contributed $6.5 million from its $110-million Economic Development Investment Fund towards the purchase and renovation of the building. Bringing the School downtown will drive $3.3 million in spending in the local economy annually and provide 53 new jobs.

Another new arrival in Kitchener's downtown is the University of Waterloo's Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. It will house the first School of Pharmacy to open in Ontario in the last several decades. It will also include an Integrated Primary Health Care Centre with as many as 12 family doctors; the Centre for Family Medicine, where residency programs for new family doctors will be developed; a satellite School of Medicine to be operated with McMaster University; an Optometry Clinic; and the International Pharmacy Graduate Program, where foreign-trained pharmacists receive upgrading enabling them to practice in Canada. The campus was made possible by a $30-million contribution from the same Fund.

Kitchener City Council - Mayor Carl Zehr and Councillors John Smola, Berry Vrbanovic, John Gazzola, Michael Galloway, Geoff Lorentz, and Christina Weylie - collectively had the vision to reinvent downtown Kitchener. Their unique approach, including the Fund, which contributes land and cash to attract knowledge industries, is paying dividends.

University of Waterloo spokesperson John Morris says it expects the influx of 1,200 students, staff and faculty into Kitchener's downtown core to generate significant economic benefits. Kaufman Lofts, the imposing 80-year-old former Kaufman Footwear factory on the northern edge of the downtown that stood empty for years, is sold out. The former J. C. Snyder Furniture factory loft-conversion is 90 per cent sold, and the former Arrow Shirt factory is being converted as part of a significant new residential development.

As David Johnston, President of the University of Waterloo, put it, "Kitchener has set the standard for Canadian municipalities reinventing themselves for the 21 st century." Contact: tel: 519-741-2300; www.kitchener.ca

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Andrew Pride, Vice President, Energy Management

MintoUrban Communities Inc.

Today, MintoUrban Communities Inc. is an internationally recognised industry leader in sustainable urban development. When it began in the 1970s, it was a true pioneer in green building and design.

Having built the first LEED-certified multi-residential building in Canada, Radiance @ Minto Gardens, Minto has helped raise the bar and stimulate growth in sustainable urban development. Its commitment to green-building practices began in the late 1970s, when the company created its Energy-Wise standard of new home construction. In 1992, Minto built the Innova House for Natural Resources Canada to demonstrate the features and benefits of R-2000 homes. In 1999, Minto created Minto Energy Management to undertake a retrofit program to improve the energy efficiency of its rental units.

Since Minto's involvement in the Canada Green Building Council, the number of developers building to LEED standards has increased dramatically.   Continuing to break new ground in the industry, Minto has been involved in a number of research and development projects in conjunction with Natural Resources Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Enbridge Gas, City of Toronto and Ontario Power Generation. It has been involved in the research, development and implementation of innovative technologies, such as the HRV fan coil system, co-generation micro turbines that produce combined heat and power, innovative rainwater harvesting systems, and green roof technology.

Minto has continually set new standards for sustainable, energy efficient building in the Toronto region and leads a market transformation that is not only sweeping Canada, but the rest of world as well. Minto's continued commitment to environmental leadership will improve the quality of life for residents and play an integral part in creating healthier, more livable cities for all. Contact: tel: 416-913-2077;
email: energy@minto.com

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City Initiatives
Innovative initiatives, within the past three years, that should make a significant impact on the public realm.

www.thementoringpartnership.com

The Mentoring Partnership Program,Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC)

When Rahul Bhardwaj, then President and CEO of York Region United Way, approached lawyer Karen Rubin, a 28-year veteran at Amex Canada's Markham headquarters, about the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) mentoring partnership program, she wholeheartedly agreed to participate. She was partnered with Nigerian lawyer Oluseun Odunlami, who had worked in municipal government and banking in Africa.

The two women met weekly for several hours over four months. During that time, Ms. Odunlami polished her résumé and was introduced to a network of Bay Street lawyers, who offered invaluable professional advice.   Her confidence in herself and her abilities was restored. Today, she is working in Toronto's financial district and was accepted at the University of Ottawa's special program for lawyers with foreign credentials.

The Mentoring Partnership is a program of TRIEC, a multi-stakeholder council working to improve access to employment for immigrants in the Toronto region, so they are better able to use their skills, education and experience in Canada.   The Partnership is an alliance of corporate partners and community organizations. More than 40 corporations, including TD Bank Financial Group, the City of Toronto and Deloitte, provide mentors while partner agencies deliver services in the City of Toronto and the regions of Peel, York and Halton. Through the program, skilled immigrants receive occupation-specific mentoring from professionals who give 24 hours of their time over a four-month period.   Since its launch in November 2004, the program has matched over 1,600 new immigrants with experienced business professionals and helped over 650 immigrants find employment in their chosen fields. The Partnership now has over 1,400 registered mentors.

In York Region, COSTI Immigrant Services delivers The Mentoring Partnership program. In Toronto, the program operates through members of the Consortium of Agencies Serving Internationally Trained Professionals, including Access Community Counselling and Employment Services (A.C.C.E.S.), COSTI, Humber College, JobStart, JVS Toronto, Seneca College, and Skills for Change. In Peel Region, the program is delivered through lead agency Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre (Mississauga), in partnership with Malton Neighbourhood Services and A.C.C.E.S. (Brampton). In Halton Region, mentoring services are delivered through Sheridan College.

The Mentoring Partnership is funded by Employment Ontario, TD Bank Financial Group, The Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Maytree Foundation, Region of Peel and United Way of Peel Region. Visit www.TheMentoringPartnership.com.

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Nuit Blanche

For one sleepless night - from sunset on Saturday, Sept. 30 to sunrise on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006 - the familiar was discarded and Toronto became the artistic playground for a series of exhilarating contemporary art experiences.

Over 425,000 people encountered the city in a unique way and explored Toronto through public art commissions, all-night exhibitions, live performances and creative programs featured throughout the city. This cultural rendezvous opened the doors to hundreds of museums, galleries, institutions and unusual spaces each featuring free art programs all night long.

Toronto's inaugural Nuit Blanche, produced by the City of Toronto and sponsored by Scotiabank, was a free all-night celebration of contemporary art that took place this past fall. Nuit Blanche refers to a natural phenomenon that occurs at high latitudes where dusk meets dawn. It is a night without darkness. Introduced in Paris in 2002, Nuit Blanche is now an international event that occurs in a number of cities, including Brussels, Rome, Riga, Montreal and Madrid.

Nuit Blanche was a Live With Culture initiative developed to demonstrate the City of Toronto's commitment to the arts. Live With Culture is a 16-month celebration of Toronto's extraordinary arts and cultural communities. From September 2005 to December 2006, Live With Culture showcased the vibrant and diverse cultural activities happening in the city each and every day. Events initiated by the City of Toronto and the community were united under one umbrella campaign to raise awareness of Toronto's thriving cultural scene. And, clearly, people are paying attention. Visit www.livewithculture.ca for more details.

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City Youth
Outstanding contributions to any aspect of the public realm made by individuals under age 30.

Danielle Francis

Every organization, club or community needs someone to be the glue that holds everything together - that knits together the good intentions of everyone involved and makes things happen. By all accounts, Danielle Francis is that person.

In high school, Ms. Francis was president of the Unity Club - a multicultural organization that promoted awareness of other cultures and created inclusion within the student population. In university, she was Co-Chair of York is U, a multicultural association; a member of the Student Council; the Programs and Events Coordinator of the Economics Students' Association; Office Manager of the York University Black Students' Alliance; Co-coordinator of the York University 1st and 2nd Annual Income Tax Clinic, where students were able to have their taxes filed for free; and Treasurer of the Student Centre Corporation.

After university, Ms. Francis continued to contribute to the community through the United Way, where she was a member of the African-Canadian Committee and Volunteer Coordinator of the 2005 Harry Jerome Awards.

Today, she is a board member of the Toronto Training Board; Chair of the Young Professionals Committee of the Black Business and Professionals Association; a member of the Jamaican Canadian Association's Youth Affairs Committee; President of the INROADS Toronto Alumni Association; and a member of the Coalition of African Canadian Organizations.   In her spare time, Ms. Francis mentors a small group of young men and women, and volunteers at various youth conferences and events around the city.

Ms. Francis also works in Staff Planning & Community Mobilization at the Toronto Police Service. Community Mobilization plays an integral role in delivering specialized services across the city on diversity and race relations. She is the Program Coordinator for the Youth in Policing program, which provides jobs throughout the Service - and more importantly professional training and experience - to 100 youth from Toronto's 15 priority neighbourhoods.

Danielle Francis is a doer. Her actions speak volumes about her passion for people, her care for the community and her commitment to building understanding and unity in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

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Adam Garnet Jones

"When I was in my early teens, and I started making video, it felt like I was being listened to for the first time," says Adam Garnet Jones, adding, "If I hadn't found my voice, I don't know what would have happened to me."  

Mr. Jones has certainly found his voice. His film Can You Love Me?, co-directed by Sarah Kolasky, was called the "perfect short film" by The Globe and Mail. And his most recent film, Cloudbreaker, was screened on Parliament Hill on March 21 to mark the United Nations Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Canada's March 21 anti-racist campaign.

Adam Garnet Jones has worked as a film programmer for the Canadian film festival's InsideOut, Out On Screen and imagineNATIVE. He has taught youth video workshops for the Access to Media Education Society, the Gulf Islands Film and Television School on Galiano Island, B.C., Seventh Generation Image Makers, and several film festivals. He received a BFA in film production from Ryerson University in Toronto, where he won the 2006 Nick Holleris Memorial Award for originality in screenwriting and the 2005 Award for Outstanding Community Service. Before that, Mr. Jones studied at Gulf Islands Film and Television School.

An activist with a strong social conscience, Mr. Jones has coordinated InsideOut's Queer Youth Video Project and is a mentor to aboriginal youth with Seventh Generation Image Makers. In the summer of 2006, he ran a film-making program through Toronto's Native and Child Family Services organization geared to at-risk inner-city youth.

Born in Calgary and raised in Edmonton, Castlegar, and Victoria, Mr. Jones also attended Vancouver's Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design before coming to Toronto. His work is equally well travelled, having toured in a festival every year since he was 14. This year, watch for his work at the Toronto International Film Festival. Visit his website at www.cloudbreaker-film.com

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Local Heroes
Individuals who have had a profound and lasting impact on the quality of life in their community or neighbourhood.

Herbert H. Carnegie

Out of adversity has come a great triumph for Herb Carnegie - his personal philosophy has inspired thousands of young people, helped improve their lives and made the world a better place.

For 50 years, the Future Aces Creed has helped young people develop the self-confidence and self knowledge that enables them to take control of their lives and use their abilities in a positive way. Herb Carnegie has visited hundreds of schools promoting the philosophy's 12 tenets centred on attitude, ability, courage, confidence, education, service and sportsmanship. "We get maybe 400-500 letters and emails a year from young people who tell us how going to their school has made a difference in their lives," says his daughter Bernice Carnegie.

Herb Carnegie's experience as a highly talented African-Canadian playing semi-pro hockey in the 1940s and 1950s is a reminder that the colour line so infamous in baseball and other American sports was prevalent in Canada's national game as well. For 16 years, Herb Carnegie pursued his love of hockey and his dream of playing in the NHL. Three times, he was named MVP while playing for the Sherbrooke Saints. But he was not allowed to crack the barrier of racism, intolerance and prejudice that governed the NHL.

Herb Carnegie turned what must have been a great disappointment into a life of unparalleled accomplishment - hockey school founder, successful financial advisor and amateur golf champion, eight Hall of Fame Awards including Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the Harry Jerome President's Award, Order of Ontario, Order of Canada, York Region's Honorary Chief of Police and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from York University. In 2001, the North York Centennial Centre was renamed the Herbert H. Carnegie Centennial Centre in his honour.

Courage, sportsmanship and community service have defined Herb Carnegie's life. His legacy will be that he has shown us how powerful we can be when we care for each another. Visit www.futureaces.org or email info@futureaces.org for more information.

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Steve Charest

For the first half of the 20th century, Brantford was an important Canadian industrial center. Once the third largest city in Ontario, restructuring of the manufacturing sector in Ontario in the 1980s and 1990s was not kind to Brantford.   Massey Ferguson, White Farm Equipment, Harding Carpet, KeepRite, Chicago Rawhide, Kohring Watrous all closed their doors leaving thousands unemployed and creating one of the more economically depressed areas in the country.

Recently, however, some good things have started happening in Brantford. Companies like Proctor and Gamble and Ferrero SpA have located in town. New highways like the 403 connect Brantford to the North American grid. By all accounts, the mood is decidedly upbeat. And no one is more bullish on Brantford than Steve Charest.

The Kitchener Waterloo-born businessman was one of the first to recognize the potential of the town's abandoned industrial sites, or brownfields. His company, King & Benton, has redeveloped the former Harding Carpet site on Morrell Street and revitalized the former Work Wear site on Wellington Street into the YMCA Family Program Centre. Mr. Charest remembers the impact the Y had on his youth and says he could not see Brantford without this important institution. As he told Vibrant magazine, "Having the Y close permanently or temporarily was not an option."

Mr. Charest's company has also donated space to local institutions like the Why Not Mission, the local food bank, the Brantford Little Theatre, the SPCA and the Brant United Way. He sees these efforts as linked to the revitalization of the downtown core and the economic development of the community. By attracting commercial activity and jobs to the city's redeveloped brownfield sites, more support can be afforded to non-profit organizations and community activities that contribute to Brantford's revitalization.

Steve Charest's work in brownfield redevelopment has allowed Brantford to recover and grow. His social conscience has benefited many local organizations and made Brantford a better place. As Steve Charest puts it, "At King & Benton, we want to come up with ways to make things better."
Contact: tel: 1-866-728-3126; website: www.kingandbenton.com

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Don Cousens

From 1994 to 2006, Don Cousens served four consecutive terms as the Mayor of Markham, a city of about 275,000 in York Region north of Toronto. Under Mayor Cousens' leadership, Markham has evolved into one of Canada's most progressive urban success stories. Markham has put into practice many of the most progressive urban ideas of the past decade - smart growth, new urbanism, sustainable development, district energy and a pedestrian-friendly downtown.   It is a testament to Mayor Cousens' abilities that these ideas, embodied in the city's "New Urbanism" planning principles, have been accepted by the development industry. Markham has received numerous awards from organizations like the Canadian Institute of Planners, the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, Communities in Bloom, and the Heritage Canada Foundation. Today, Markham is "Canada's High Tech Capital" and home to over 900 high tech and life sciences companies, as well as a leader in the development of community assets for sport, recreation and community services.

Don Cousens has always sought to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people at local, national and international levels. The mayor's Youth Task Force was launched in 1995 and now has 400 young people involved in raising awareness and celebrating the accomplishments of youth. In addition, Mayor Cousens has been actively involved in York Region Children's Services, Markham Transit for the Disabled Foundation, is national chair of the Canadian Mental Health Initiative and director of the CNIB. As the founding chairperson of the Markham and York Character Community Initiative, he has seen it grow to encompass the school boards of York Region and the Region's nine municipalities. Recently, the Province of Ontario announced that it will support the expansion of the Community Character Council in school boards across Ontario.

Under his stewardship, Markham's diverse communities have come together to build a city that is a model for edge cities. Contact: www.counselpa.com

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Pier Giorgio Di Cicco

It is somehow fitting that Toronto's poet laureate be recognized as a "local hero". Typically, Toronto's poet laureate serves as the city's literary ambassador. As an advocate for poetry, language and the arts, the laureate attends events across the city to promote and attract people to the literary world. At any rate, that was the way it was before Pier Giorgio Di Cicco.

He has extended the role of poet laureate beyond the area of arts advocacy and into the realm of "civic aesthetic", a term he coined to define building a city through citizenship, civic ethic and urban psychology. Mr. Di Cicco's urban philosophy has found popularity in forums ranging from the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities and The Creative Cities Project of the Ontario and Toronto governments, to the Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and international conferences on urban sustainability. He is also a Roman Catholic priest, Curator of the Humanitas Museum and Center for Global Cities and teaches at the University of Toronto. 

Mr. Di Cicco urges all of us to incorporate art and poetry into the business of living so that daily life is inspired by intimacy, zest and sociality. This creates a daily renewal of passionate citizenry - open to new ideas, new languages, and new ways of looking and seeing. In turn, he believes, this will be reflected by inclusive and open public places and processes.

This spring, watch for Mr. Di Cicco's latest work, Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City (Mansfield/City Building Books, Toronto and Comedia, United Kingdom). Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, says of it, "This book captures the essence of the creative community, its great potential, its contradictions, and the challenges we all face."

Mr. Di Cicco has taught us that it is "the soul of citizenship that makes a city stand head and shoulders above the others." Visit: http://www.toronto.ca/culture/poet_laureate.htm

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P.C. Ojo Tewogbade

The first time the Police Leadership Forum (PLF) of Canada ever presented an award to an individual with the rank of constable was to 13 Division Const. Ojo Tewogbade in a ceremony at police headquarters last November. The last Toronto officer to win the coveted PLF Leadership Award was Deputy Chief Robert Kerr in 2000. PLF president Supt. Glyn Wide, of the Hamilton Police Service, noted, "Our motto is that leadership is an activity, not a position."

P.C. Ojo (as he is known in the community) has faced adversity in his own life with dignity and perseverance. From his early life in Nigeria through his journey from parking enforcement to police officer, he has always made time to ensure that young people have the means to help themselves. He has organized large-scale projects like weekly basketball activities and the complete outfitting of a computer club in 13 Division. He has helped restore several churches, fundraised annually for a children's camp and held clothing and food drives in Toronto and at First Nations reserves across the province. P.C. Ojo also organized a golf tournament to raise funds to build a decent police facility for the Anisinabek First Nation.

He has a huge talent for befriending people and networking his immense circle of friends. "If you're walking along Eglinton Ave. W. with Ojo, prepare to spend six times the amount of time it would normally take you," said Insp. Ken Kinsmen. "He can't walk a half a block without acknowledgement or someone stopping to talk to him. People love his smile - it never seems to leave his face," he said. "It makes him approachable and he has excellent communication skills that can probe an individual to find out what their needs are."

P.C. Ojo is a community advisor, mentor to at-risk youth, facilitator of community programs and generally viewed as a trusted intervener in circumstances where police come into conflict with segments of the black community.

His message is straightforward: "When it comes to youth and helping people, you put in as much as you can." Contact: pager: 416-237-6502; email: Ojo.Tewogbade@torontopolice.on.ca

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