After barely surviving a forced amalgamation, a mayor notorious for bone-headed remarks, and the SARS outbreak, Toronto is having a renaissance of sorts. For the last few years, the civic discourse in Toronto has veered toward optimism. It’s a spirit that has been eloquently captured by the uTOpia anthologies, a series of titles published by Coach House Books that have drawn on the infectious can-do attitude of Canada’s largest city.

With Toronto: A City Becoming, Key Porter tries to add to this city-wide conversation. Though it lacks the grassroots energy of the Coach House series, the book has contributions from many of the city’s heavy-hitting journalists and thinkers. Linda McQuaig writes about finding a place for the poor in a city of condos and gentrifying neighbourhoods. Recently deceased and sorely missed Canadian Opera Company maestro Richard Bradshaw contributes a final, moving tribute to the power of the arts. Given that editor David Macfarlane was a columnist for The Globe and Mail, there is a predictably high quotient of contributors from that paper: John Allemang on the city’s disappearing churches, John Barber on Toronto pioneer Robert Baldwin, and Mark Kingwell on the creation of a just city.

The anthology isn’t without its weaknesses. Some of the shorter pieces in the book read as though they were written in haste. Macfarlane would’ve done better to have left them out altogether in favour of more photos from the likes of Michael Awad and Scott Johnston, two photographers who are reshaping our mental imagery of Toronto. (In a cheeky counterstroke, Macfarlane has also interspersed the forward-looking pieces with archival photos of Toronto, giving us a glimpse back while pondering what is to come.)

For the non-Torontonian, the self-congratulatory navel-gazing in Toronto: A City Becoming will likely be cloying. But for those of us who love Hogtown, Macfarlane’s book is a welcome addition to the growing list of pro-TO titles.