New Transit Funding Sources

[am29]

I was walking around Tommy Thomson park and the Leslie street barns area this afternoon and I could help but notice how much that place sucks. With such a great and close location to DT does anyone know why this area hasn't been densified residentially or even as areas of office employment?

 

[salsa]

I was walking around Tommy Thomson park and the Leslie street barns area this afternoon and I could help but notice how much that place sucks. With such a great and close location to DT does anyone know why this area hasn't been densified residentially or even as areas of office employment?

Change takes many years. However the central waterfront used to be a wasteland but not anymore. Today it's the East Bayfront and West Don Lands that is redeveloping. When that's done, eventually development will come to the Portlands as well but we have a long way to go.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I was walking around Tommy Thomson park and the Leslie street barns area this afternoon and I could help but notice how much that place sucks. With such a great and close location to DT does anyone know why this area hasn't been densified residentially or even as areas of office employment?

OT - It's industrial, and given the history probably have contamination issues - and they are planning for changes already:

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=4b4452cc66061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

WT is also working with TRCA on the so called "baselands" at the foot of Leslie:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/expl...e_ontario_park/lake_ontario_park_quick_starts

AoD

 

[am29]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated!

 

[BurlOak]

It looks like Vancouver votes against the transit tax. only 38% in favour of the tax.

http://electionsbcenr.blob.core.windows.net/electionsbcenr/results.html

Not sure if it is because Vancouverites do not want to pay the 0.5% more, or if the money was going to a transit plan that was not popular.

 

[gweed123]

It looks like Vancouver votes against the transit tax. only 38% in favour of the tax.

http://electionsbcenr.blob.core.windows.net/electionsbcenr/results.html

Not sure if it is because Vancouverites do not want to pay the 0.5% more, or if the money was going to a transit plan that was not popular.

That's unfortunate, and certainly doesn't bode well for any other Canadian cities who want to follow a similar model. Vancouver probably had the best chance for something like this succeeding in Canada.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

That's unfortunate, and certainly doesn't bode well for any other Canadian cities who want to follow a similar model. Vancouver probably had the best chance for something like this succeeding in Canada.

Though at the same time it's questionable whether plebiscite is the best way to do that, especially one timed a government that has spent months slagging the very body that would be doing to legwork.

AoD

 

[W. K. Lis]

51.09% bothered voting. Which means 48.91% of those in BC didn't care one way or another.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From this link:

 

[ssiguy2]

That's unfortunate, and certainly doesn't bode well for any other Canadian cities who want to follow a similar model. Vancouver probably had the best chance for something like this succeeding in Canada.

Don't be so sure as there was a lot more at play.

I strongly support transit but voted NO. According to gasbuddy Vancouverites pay 14 cents a litre more than Torontonians for gas which is almost exclusively due to the Translink gas taxes. Vancouverites pay the highest gas prices on the continent so people were curious as to where all that money was going.

People south of Fraser already have 2 tolled bridges and are about to get 2 more meaning the 800,000 in the area will have just one non-tolled bridge connecting them to the rest of the region and the tolls are $3-$4 each. There is also a lot of politics at play. The biggest discussions right now in the city are transit and housing prices. The city flat out rejects and notion for higher demolition fees for teardowns little alone put a halt to them. The real estate developers who fund the mayors' campaigns were strictly off limits but they had no problem with a 0.5% sales tax which is the most regressive tax known to man.

It wasn't the transit tax per se but rather Vancouverites already feeling pinched by Translink and the inequity of the tax itself none of which was helped by Translink's poor reputation.

 

[crs1026]

The media was quick to hypothesise that BC's transit agency was the cause of the No vote, by virtue of past performance and spending gaffes. If true, there's a cautionary tale in there for Metrolinx and TTC escpecially.

However, it also seems that there was a City-Suburbs divide in the voting. I wonder if that parallels the GTA's politics. So far I have not heard downtown Vancouverites declared an elite, nor have I heard the debate muttering about a war on the car. One wonders if BC suburbanites remain autocentric, and simply haven't seen the impact of public transit on their lives.

Enough GTA residents have become accustomed to for example taking the GO downtown for a ball game occasionally, so that even if they use their cars for commuting and daily lives, they understand the value transit has. I would hope the result might be different in the GTA.

- Paul

 

[ssiguy2]

The urban/suburban split was really pretty small considering that Vancouver city was getting the bulk of the spending.

I don't think you could use this as a gage for the GTA. The sales tax increase has NOTHING to do with transit or transportation as opposed to gas taxes. people begrudgingly accept the gas taxes because they raise revenue and are seen as fair and productive..........the more you drive, the more you pay.

This was seen as a cash grab by the local corrupt politicians by an already impoverished populace that applied the same tax rate to someone on the Downtown Eastside as it does to someone with 6 empty Westside houses.

 

[W. K. Lis]

A request has been passed on from City Council to the TTC, to be presented at the next TTC meeting. From link.

City Council Decision in Consideration of 2015 Budgets

Does anyone has more details on this "Closing the Gap"? Is this an attempt to get a version of the Waterfront West LRT built?

 

[salsa]

I oppose this insanity.

The government's response: “It’s going”, says Wynne on Hydro One sale.

 

[44 North]

Does anyone know if this, um, investment strategy is being directed to certain projects specifically? Or is it more for general coffers, with the promise that the $3.3-5.3bn will go to roads, bridges, and transit?