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Toronto Expo 2025

MetroMan said:
You should get out more. Why were the PanAm Ganes so much fun even thought most people never even attended a sports event? It was the vibe in the streets, the activities all around us, the visitors seeing Toronto for the first time, bringing the city together, those CN Tower fireworks!

I was at the World Fair in Lisbon in '98 and I can tell you, the country was weeping when it was over. I can barely remember anything in the pavilions but I do vividly remember the feeling of being there, of expo98 dominating every conversation, of the theme of the oceans influencing me throughout my life since.

This isn't just a 2 week event, it'll be an event that defines the year 2025 for Torontonians and we'll want to do it again. It's that drive that will propel our city towards caring about built form, about public spaces, about being an international city, about hosting the world.
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Well said. Didn't care for the Pan Ams themselves per se, and seemed like it actually substantially reduced the crowds downtown during that time. But some of my greatest memories were the free events hosted around the city. The air was electric, and almost every tourist I saw had a smile on their face. Granted, this 'electricity' in the air seemed to carry the whole summer, and I think we can thank the Jays for a large part of that.

That being said, one of the main reasons why I believe an Expo shouldn't be considered an iffy gamble doomed to fail in drawing crowds is the simple fact that it's on TO's waterfront. This isn't Downsview, nor some nasty fields in landlocked Vaughan or Markham. We know locals and tourists alike are drawn to the lake, and we know that with improved access, infrastructure, and attractions they will be drawn even more (see QQW and the pandemonium last summer).
 
44 North said:
Well said. Didn't care for the Pan Ams themselves per se, and seemed like it actually substantially reduced the crowds downtown during that time. But some of my greatest memories were the free events hosted around the city. The air was electric, and almost every tourist I saw had a smile on their face. Granted, this 'electricity' in the air seemed to carry the whole summer, and I think we can thank the Jays for a large part of that.
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The free events were a big success and a perfect example of why we - don't - need Expo (or Pan Am, or Olympics or whatever). The cost was miniscule and they used facilities that were already in place. The audience was mostly local but there were a few tourists and everyone had a good time.

The city should run a free program like this every summer, without attaching it to a "mega" event that most people didn't bother to attend. The cost over the next ten years would be the same as a few hours of Pan Am security. There's no reason why we can't do it without wrapping it in something wasteful - and that's small thinking.
 
With Expo I can see the fast tracking of a few important long term transit projects: GO RER/Smart Trac stations at Cherry/Parliament and Unilever. We would no doubt get that intermodal station at Unilever, which would incorporate GO RER, DRL, and a north-south streetcar line. The Cherry GO would interchange easily to the new Cherry streetcar. Put flexity cars on both of these lines, in their own rights of way, add the east extension of the Harbourfront LRT, and we'll have a solid transit base for a large new community in the Port Lands.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
So the "Bringing the World to Toronto" document is the end result of the study?
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No - that was the result of the three-person advisory panel struck by the mayor last year after the Olympic bid fell apart.

There are now two studies in the works:

1. A privately-funded and -prepared feasibility assessment for Expo 2025 being prepared by the retired politicians and developers who stand to make bathtubs full of money if we win the bid. This is a minor expense that is nothing like the $10-20M we'd need to spend on a bid. This is due in August

2. A city-prepared study that lays out the ground rules for preparing a mega-event bid, including clarity on intergovernmental support. This is due in October.

The bid deadline for Expo is November, so at this point it looks like a glowing feasibility report will come in August, followed by a set of reasonable-sounding conditions in October. One assumes the bid people will be working in parallel to ensure the municipal, provincial and federal ducks are lined up in time to re-join the BIE and submit a bid launch letter in November. If the private sector agrees to pay the first tranche of bid development (and one expects they will), there will be no requirement to put this back in front of council or conduct a vote.
 

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TOareaFan said:
60% over budget....even though Premier told us in September that there was a surlpus.
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Where do you get 60%? I'm seeing closer to 15% in that article.

"The Auditor-General disagrees, saying that $242-million in remediation costs for the athletes’ village site in Toronto’s West Don Lands had already been spent and should not count as part of the Pan Am costs. Ms. Lysyk says the 2009 budget should have been $2.19-billion, and her tally puts the final cost of the Games at $2.53-billion, or $342-million over budget."
 
rbt said:
Where do you get 60%? I'm seeing closer to 15% in that article.

"The Auditor-General disagrees, saying that $242-million in remediation costs for the athletes’ village site in Toronto’s West Don Lands had already been spent and should not count as part of the Pan Am costs. Ms. Lysyk says the 2009 budget should have been $2.19-billion, and her tally puts the final cost of the Games at $2.53-billion, or $342-million over budget."
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The amount of provincial funding went 60% over budget - you're using total numbers.
 
rbt said:
Where do you get 60%? I'm seeing closer to 15% in that article.
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honestly, just saw it in a headline just as i was going to post that except from the Premier's interview in September.....so I carelessly used it without checking the math.
 
So because Council is so dysfunctional, we need to flush $1.9 billion down the toilet to induce them to fund the projects that should be approved anyway. Who exactly is going to benefit from this boondoggle? It certainly isn't Toronto taxpayers.
 
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The money shot, from the link above. The feasibility study (pdf at bottom): http://www.expo2025canada.ca/news/feasibility-study-announcement/

I think the Expo could definitely have some benefits in forcing the development of infrastructure and transit in and around the Portlands. Kind of how the Lisbon Expo created an entire new district in their own industrial areas.

Of course, not withstanding the inevitable budget overruns.
 
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