Celebrate Strip Mall Main Streets with City Planning and plazaPOPS!

Join City Planning, plazaPOPS, and Eat More Scarborough (and some special guests) in a walk along Lawrence Ave E. to hear about the City’s study of strip plazas and explore plazaPOPS work turning parking spaces into people places. Experience the diversity and range of auntie-and-uncle businesses located within these 1950s-1980’s commercial-retail spaces, what makes them attractive and their importance to fostering local culture, and community. Learn about the different ways the City and plazaPOPS are looking to support strip mall main streets and the businesses within them as they evolve.

Participants can expect to learn the history of strip plazas in Toronto, their current landscape; importance to building local community connections, supporting culture and small business growth, along with the different ways the City is looking to support strip plazas and addressing mitigation to avoid displacement through redevelopment of these sites.

In addition, highlighting plazaPOPS work has had tremendous impact on transforming parking spaces into engaging people spaces and as a next step, will be working on guiding others to do the same with the knowledge and resources they can provide.