it’s my second day back in toronto, the best city in the world. and the talk of the town these days? the recent musings at city hall and the toronto waterfront board regarding a $300 million project to remove the eastern leg of the infamous gardiner expressway east of jarvis street. this is a daunting task and one that has been debated since 2000 when a more easterly section of the aging highway was removed and replaced with a local, albeit wider than normal, local road. the plan is calling for the removal and it’s eventual replacement with an 8-lane local road separated by a boulevard. what’s the idea behind all this? an opportunity to give back the waterfront access so many torontonians crave these days
it’s a laudable goal indeed. but really, it stops short of any real action. the new plan has enough to appease advocates of any teardown but at the same time keeping the suburbanites from all-points-west of the city who “rely” on the highway each day happy. to quote royson james from the toronto star, its a typical toronto compromise, the perfect decision for a city bent on incrementalism rather than real progressive change.
i’ll admit, however, that even i agree that the full removal of the gardiner would be almost impossible and astronomically expensive. and i question whether such a plan would in fact open up greater waterfront access for torontonians. the real issue is the poor planning of condo developments along lakeshore than has essentially resulted in the privatization of the waterfront. how can people get to the lake when the have people yelling at the them from the 15th floor to get off their terrace?!
then there’s are the questions of traffic and congestion, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. would the removal of the gardiner do anything to mitigate these? without coupling such a project with a heavy investment in efficient, reliable, and cost-effective intercity public transit or commuter trains (the GO service is deplorable) to give people an appropriate alternative to get into downtown, congestion could increase and spill over to other arteries throughout the region. i feel like crawling into a ball thinking about all the GHG’s that would be produced by so many idling cars throughout the GTA.
in the battle to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, gain better access to the waterfront and make the downtown more aesthetically pleasing, the demolition of one section of an elevated highway can only do so much. the bigger picture and the bigger picture solutions and ideas need to be considered in such projects to meet these much needed goals and objectives.
so, where to from here? it looks like the toronto waterfront board will make a decision in mid-june regarding the terms of reference for an environmental assessment of the project. if the board gives the green light then the city could give the official go-ahead by july.
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it’s my second day back in toronto, the best city in the world. and the talk of the town these days? the recent musings at city hall and the toronto waterfront board regarding a $300 million project to remove the eastern leg of the infamous gardiner expressway east of jarvis street. this is a daunting task and one that has been debated since 2000 when a more easterly section of the aging highway was removed and replaced with a local, albeit wider than normal, local road. the plan is calling for the removal and it’s eventual replacement with an 8-lane local road separated by a boulevard. what’s the idea behind all this? an opportunity to give back the waterfront access so many torontonians crave these days
it’s a laudable goal indeed. but really, it stops short of any real action. the new plan has enough to appease advocates of any teardown but at the same time keeping the suburbanites from all-points-west of the city who “rely” on the highway each day happy. to quote royson james from the toronto star, its a typical toronto compromise, the perfect decision for a city bent on incrementalism rather than real progressive change.
i’ll admit, however, that even i agree that the full removal of the gardiner would be almost impossible and astronomically expensive. and i question whether such a plan would in fact open up greater waterfront access for torontonians. the real issue is the poor planning of condo developments along lakeshore than has essentially resulted in the privatization of the waterfront. how can people get to the lake when the have people yelling at the them from the 15th floor to get off their terrace?!
then there’s are the questions of traffic and congestion, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. would the removal of the gardiner do anything to mitigate these? without coupling such a project with a heavy investment in efficient, reliable, and cost-effective intercity public transit or commuter trains (the GO service is deplorable) to give people an appropriate alternative to get into downtown, congestion could increase and spill over to other arteries throughout the region. i feel like crawling into a ball thinking about all the GHG’s that would be produced by so many idling cars throughout the GTA.
in the battle to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, gain better access to the waterfront and make the downtown more aesthetically pleasing, the demolition of one section of an elevated highway can only do so much. the bigger picture and the bigger picture solutions and ideas need to be considered in such projects to meet these much needed goals and objectives.
so, where to from here? it looks like the toronto waterfront board will make a decision in mid-june regarding the terms of reference for an environmental assessment of the project. if the board gives the green light then the city could give the official go-ahead by july.
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