ABSTRACT
The first attempts at improvement, with the exception of the reconstruction of the water supply and sewage system, were almost entirely aimed at beautification of the city, in order to discard some of the more ugly aspects of the 19th century legacy. The result was the formation in 1947 of the Toronto and York Planning Board, York being the county which contains the Toronto conurbation. The suburban municipalities therefore attempted to promote industrial development by laying out properly serviced industrial areas, but not all municipalities succeeded in balancing their assessment in this manner. Gradually it became impossible to handle the volume of traffic, especially in the downtown part of the city where the great majority of streets originally were 66 feet or less in width. The railway pattern in the metropolitan area was established in the 19th century and is focused for the most part on the downtown area, not far from the waterfront.
