Our version of the popular, post-WW2 suburban dream, I guess. People in big cities all over the first world were moving out of grimy, slummy downtowns to live in brand new houses and bungalows, or apartment buildings surrounded by park land, or in entirely new planned towns set up for them. In our case there was plenty of land available on the outskirts, and enough speculative developers to cater to that dream. Many of the houses on the Toronto Islands were demolished for park land, the Gardiner and the DVP were built to cater for a commuting society, and Cabbagetown was "renewed" by the creation of St James Town and Regent Park ... to feed the same appetite for renewal.