Boy, I thought I was the negative one about our future
I don't buy it; I agree Toronto as a whole will likely be worse us, but such arguments apply to most other larger cities in Canada. They're essentially smaller versions of Toronto, and all lack infrastructure to the same degree.
GO service stands to be greatly improved in the next 20 / 30 years and growth looks like it's going concentrated in those areas.
So the future probably yields more decentralization, but with the continues growth of the core. At the same time, income disparity in the 416 and small parts of the 905 is here to stay, and as others alluded too will likely increase. Transit city may have helped, but I doubt it; They key is getting jobs to said areas, and even that isn't a sure thing, there are areas with lots of jobs where people don't live near by. A lot of these areas are already well served by transit compared to other areas of the 905 that have seen great commercial expansion, sounded by typical middle class suburbs.
You will NOT see what happened to American cities and if you do you'll really be witnessing something completely different for very different reasons.
For one, many of the hard hit US cities were very specialized in a few industries or heavily dependent on manufacturing; Toronto is none of these things, not even close ...
I think tax differentials have really hurt business in the outer 416 and a lot of the poverty is a result of that.
But one thing to keep in mind here ... why make out the income polarization as Toronto issue ... it's not ... many other Canadian and North American cities have undergone similar changes, and to even larger degrees.
Want proof ? Do the following in your favorite search engine:
"Income disparity in ***"
Replace *** with any city you like ...
It's not always the same i.e. in some cases it's more race based and not so area based, but there's always concentrations, and they're getting worse ... just like here.