May 30, 2008
Gardiner Going, Condo Coming, Pets Hiding
Waterfront Toronto has secured David Miller's support for knocking down part of the Gardiner Expressway, which currently looms over the waterfront like a massive prehistoric, um, highway. The teardown is likely to be delayed by a cost expected to be in the hundreds of millions, so Torontoist suggests doing a Berlin Wall on it—Sunday morning, we'll all meet down at the foot of Jarvis Street with our sledgehammers.
In an unrelated busting-stuff-up story, demolition officially began yesterday on the site of the future high-end condo hotel development at 1 Bloor East. Progress is all well and good, but where are you gonna get a hamburger made just the way you want it at Yonge and Bloor now? Nowhere, that's where.
As part of a long-standing policy to pull in as much revenue as possible in tiny little increments, the City has hired students as "animal service representatives" to go house-to-house finding visible cats and dogs, then leave warning notices if there's no record of a registered pet at the address. If you own a rogue pet, keep your blinds down and Fido muzzled unless you want to be serviced.
Nothing really new in the "scandal" involving former Defense Minister Maxime Bernier and bitter ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard, but that hasn't stopped the National Post from publishing their daily Julie-pic. To be fair, Torontoist couldn't find any unlicensed ones or I'd have posted them already.
Photo by sevennine from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Mr. Miller, open this waterfront. Mr. Miller...tear down this expressway!
Why bother? So we can get a better look at those ugly Condos? Yup the city is so flush with cash there are not far better ways to use our tax dollars then like you know helping our impoverished residents, more money for our schools, etc.
Win some, lose some: no more Front Street extension because of this. The good/bad news brought by none other than Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.
- It's not about getting "a better look at" the ugly condos, it's getting access to them and the surrounding waterfront facilities.
- The aesthetics of the condominium buildings in question are actually quite subjective. The Gardiner, on the other hand, is objectively fugly.
- People, believe it or not, live in these condos. If you want to avoid suburban sprawl, you have to build up. The only other option is subterranean housing. (Note: This option does not exist.)
- The city is not flush with cash. The city is broke. Nevertheless, maintaining the Gardiner costs a great deal of this cash. Tearing it down is a great future investment.
- If you want to increase tax dollars for schools and impoverished residents, aka the poor, you need to raise said tax dollars. Adding desirable real estate in appropriate areas has proven the best way to accomplish this.
Shortened version for the YouTube generation: LEAVE UGLY CONDOS ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!
Hey Skippy - please explain how taking away the only downtown highway corridor is a "great future investment".
I've lived out in Leslieville for over a decade now and I've only notice and *increase* in the amount of traffic on the Gardiner from there and back - my commute has gone from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and it's not 905's heading home, they're exiting at Lakeshore on the eastern end.
Even if you replace it with 10 lanes of traffic, there are still stop lights and crosswalks, so the traffic will be even slower than it is now.
Thanks the the NIMBYs, we only have two north-south highways as well, so really the city is crippled.
>please explain how taking away the only downtown highway corridor is a "great future investment".
>maintaining the Gardiner costs a great deal.
answer your question?
So let me understand this, build more horrid looking structures ( tell me all you want they are not, just wasting your typing), tear down one of of two the major highways into the downtown core , raise taxes by building even more unsightly towers that actually hamper access and block the view of our waterfront and we will transport all these goods into the City? by mule maybe. How is it blocking access to the waterfront? I keep hearing that inane argument how exactly is it blocking access to the waterfront? I been able to get to the waterfront now for over 40 years with no issues, since we have gone Condo crazy down there my access has become limited and my view is now hampered.
Thanks, torontothegreat. I would add that if it's not torn down, it's eventually going to need to be rebuilt at great expense.
Obviously traffic flow within Toronto is not working very well. One could argue that the city simply wasn't meant to handle the kind of traffic we have. Anyway, most projections show that rerouting traffic sans Gardiner should only add a few minutes of driving time.
There have been many alternatives to the Gardiner proposed. Whether we have the money or vision to accomplish them is another story. But I think this basic gesture, at the expense of some inconvenience to motorists, is still greatly beneficial and as I said before, a wise investment.
Road tolls would have been another sound investment. But Miller has already shot that one down for some reason.
I'm glad someone else is missing the Yonge/Bloor Harvey's.
I don't believe for a second that the reason no one accesses the waterfront is because of the Gardiner.
And Miller was against the idea in 2006 because it wasn't a priority. Now, a couple years later, and just passed a bankruptcy scare, NOW is the time to tear down the Gardiner.
Was he lying then? or now?
I miss the Yonge & Bloor Harvey's, but I don't miss the attitude there. Grumpiest service workers on planet earth—when they weren't screaming at each other.
Anyone else a little concerned about students peering in their windows looking for animals? I work at home, my bedroom is at the front of the house. Do I have to worry about a city-hired peeping tom?
I for one am glad that the Gardiner is being dismantled bit-by-bit. Good riddance!
This along with incremental additions to public transit, and the Gardiner will not be missed when it is finally gone all the way to the 427.
Tuds
I'm afraid that I don't see how the Gardiner is a greater barrier to the waterfront than:
Tear down The Gardiner and replace it with high rise condos. Win-win.