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W(h)ither Toronto
Jul. 18th, 2013 11:43 amTwo big decisions about what Toronto will look like are happening at the moment, and in both cases, the people in charge—who are not the people affected—chose wrong.
The first, and biggest, is the ongoing transit debate. The issue is the expansion of transit out to Scarborough, which is hugely underserved and car-dependant. The most sensible thing, most agreed, is to replace and expand the decaying RT line with an LRT line. This solution was extensively researched, mostly funded, and indeed was under development, when the Honourable Wife-Beater once again stepped in to fuck it up.
The HWB's other mantra (besides "gravy train" and "I am not currently smoking crack right at this moment") is the vastly creative "subways, subways, subways," which he constantly repeats in the absence of any tangible plan to actually fund a subway line in Scarborough. While you can see him celebrating "Scarborough getting a subway" in that link above, the fact is that he stopped an actual plan that was going to have rapid transit operational in 18 months for one that has no funding and will never happen. In other words, he's replaced an LRT that was funded and under development with something presumably better: an imaginary, invisible subway made out of unicorn farts. He presumably thinks that people in Scarborough are stupid enough to go for this.
While I do entertain fantasies of getting on the Bloor line and having one subway drop me at work in half an hour, this isn't going to happen. The unicorn-fart subway would cost $1 billion more than the LRT (which is why it will never get built), and even if it were built, it would have fewer stops, go a shorter distance, and take approximately forever to build. But none of that matters, because Ford's agenda was shamelessly transparent: Insist on an impossible subway plan, secure votes, throw his hands up after the next election when it's obvious the thing won't get built, and blame someone else. And it may have even saved his chances for re-election.
And this is why he's an awful mayor as well as being a crackhead.
Meanwhile, there are a bunch of interesting transit ideas that no one's paying attention to.
The other big story is the sale of Mirvish Village, which will not only replace the iconic Honest Ed's with something far less interesting, but wipe out much of the local small businesses that make the neighbourhood so vibrant. At risk are the Victory Café, where I have spent many a fine evening drinking while watching local theatre and music, Beit Zeitoun, the fabulous Palestinian art gallery and community activist space, Southern Accent, an excellent restaurant, Suspect Video, an indie video store, and the Beguiling, one of the city's best comic shops and one of the few places where you can find exciting new indie comics, as well as a bunch of other neat places. Even the Honest Ed's sign, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city, is apparently doomed. It's almost a given that these independent shops in quaint Victorian houses will be replaced by either a big box store, or faceless condos, or both. That's the way of development in Toronto.
The thing that these two stories have in common is that the monumental, city-altering decisions are not being made by those affected. Ford doesn't take transit other than for a photo-op every few years, and neither do the councillors who voted with him. He sure as fuck doesn't live or work in Scarborough. David Mirvish, who owns Mirvish Village, lives in New York; the Ontario Municipal Board is a faceless entity that seems to be some sort of robot existing only to approve the construction of yet another glass tower.
Ask anyone who actually lives, works, or uses this city, and they'll say that they don't want this. People who live here want walkable neighbourhoods, favourite cafés and bars, local unique shops, the spaces where memory and experience accumulate. There are corners of any Western city, Toronto included, that look the same as any other Western city, and we have enough of those already.
But people who live here are seldom seriously consulted, and this is the limit of liberal democracy. There is zero recourse for the community to reject being utterly re-written or for decisions on transit to be made by transit users. The market is the market, untouchable and inviolate, our only option to cast a vote every four years for politicians that will either be owned by the OMB or overruled by them. We have no say in what our city will look like, its increasing banality and provincialism. We are expected simply to sit back and accept what is decided for us, and if everyone hates big box stores and glass towers, so what? It's not like we can do anything about it, right?
The first, and biggest, is the ongoing transit debate. The issue is the expansion of transit out to Scarborough, which is hugely underserved and car-dependant. The most sensible thing, most agreed, is to replace and expand the decaying RT line with an LRT line. This solution was extensively researched, mostly funded, and indeed was under development, when the Honourable Wife-Beater once again stepped in to fuck it up.
The HWB's other mantra (besides "gravy train" and "I am not currently smoking crack right at this moment") is the vastly creative "subways, subways, subways," which he constantly repeats in the absence of any tangible plan to actually fund a subway line in Scarborough. While you can see him celebrating "Scarborough getting a subway" in that link above, the fact is that he stopped an actual plan that was going to have rapid transit operational in 18 months for one that has no funding and will never happen. In other words, he's replaced an LRT that was funded and under development with something presumably better: an imaginary, invisible subway made out of unicorn farts. He presumably thinks that people in Scarborough are stupid enough to go for this.
While I do entertain fantasies of getting on the Bloor line and having one subway drop me at work in half an hour, this isn't going to happen. The unicorn-fart subway would cost $1 billion more than the LRT (which is why it will never get built), and even if it were built, it would have fewer stops, go a shorter distance, and take approximately forever to build. But none of that matters, because Ford's agenda was shamelessly transparent: Insist on an impossible subway plan, secure votes, throw his hands up after the next election when it's obvious the thing won't get built, and blame someone else. And it may have even saved his chances for re-election.
And this is why he's an awful mayor as well as being a crackhead.
Meanwhile, there are a bunch of interesting transit ideas that no one's paying attention to.
The other big story is the sale of Mirvish Village, which will not only replace the iconic Honest Ed's with something far less interesting, but wipe out much of the local small businesses that make the neighbourhood so vibrant. At risk are the Victory Café, where I have spent many a fine evening drinking while watching local theatre and music, Beit Zeitoun, the fabulous Palestinian art gallery and community activist space, Southern Accent, an excellent restaurant, Suspect Video, an indie video store, and the Beguiling, one of the city's best comic shops and one of the few places where you can find exciting new indie comics, as well as a bunch of other neat places. Even the Honest Ed's sign, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city, is apparently doomed. It's almost a given that these independent shops in quaint Victorian houses will be replaced by either a big box store, or faceless condos, or both. That's the way of development in Toronto.
The thing that these two stories have in common is that the monumental, city-altering decisions are not being made by those affected. Ford doesn't take transit other than for a photo-op every few years, and neither do the councillors who voted with him. He sure as fuck doesn't live or work in Scarborough. David Mirvish, who owns Mirvish Village, lives in New York; the Ontario Municipal Board is a faceless entity that seems to be some sort of robot existing only to approve the construction of yet another glass tower.
Ask anyone who actually lives, works, or uses this city, and they'll say that they don't want this. People who live here want walkable neighbourhoods, favourite cafés and bars, local unique shops, the spaces where memory and experience accumulate. There are corners of any Western city, Toronto included, that look the same as any other Western city, and we have enough of those already.
But people who live here are seldom seriously consulted, and this is the limit of liberal democracy. There is zero recourse for the community to reject being utterly re-written or for decisions on transit to be made by transit users. The market is the market, untouchable and inviolate, our only option to cast a vote every four years for politicians that will either be owned by the OMB or overruled by them. We have no say in what our city will look like, its increasing banality and provincialism. We are expected simply to sit back and accept what is decided for us, and if everyone hates big box stores and glass towers, so what? It's not like we can do anything about it, right?
