Roads: Gardiner Expressway

[Midtown Urbanist]

Anyone care to do a summary for those of us who could not watch it today?

 

[nfitz]

St. Clair West disaster. Hilarious.

I lived on St. Clair West for years. St. Clair West was a disaster before. With seedy businesses, lack of development and poor public transit. The 512 isn't perfect, but the street has certainly seen a lot of reinvestment in recent years, and is much better than it was. Traffic? Please. I'm mostly a driver (work in construction) and the 512 barely affected traffic. If anything created a St. Clair traffic disaster it was all of the big box development in the stockyards area.

I suspect that people who cling to that phrase don't remember what it was actually like, or go there much now.

I can only hope for more St Clair Disasters. We should be so lucky.

Precisely. It's pretty clear that St. Clair is anything but a disaster - so anyone raising that as part of this debate is so utterly ignorant they should exiled to Wawa or something. Which out-of-touch dumber-Than-Ford councillor came up with that one?

 

[salsa]

Anyone care to do a summary for those of us who could not watch it today?

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...takes-council-in-weird-directions-keenan.html

 

[Edward Skira]

Quite the circus isn't it!

 

[BurlOak]

Nick Kouvalis puts Jen Keesmatt in her place: https://imgur.com/a/JNQWx

Why is it that Transportation Services General Manager Stephen Buckley is not quoted. After all, the Gardiner is about Transportation. Keesmaat can built all the condos she wants, but moving people is the responsibility of Transportation Services.

 

[TOareaFan]

As an outside observer this debate seems to be following the path (in general terms) of the Scarborough subway.

Start of debating which option to go with...rehabbing the existing SRT or build a new modern LRT....no real agreement can be reached...years of debate later come up with a more costly plan that no seems to originally support, costs more money and may not be the best solution but is certainly the most expensive one.

Here the debate is between one mid priced option and an upper mid priced option.....pull it down or amend it ....agreement is tough to come by but, hey, there is another option with (ironically) an underground component that is more expensive but might just end the debate...but not just yet.

 

[Electrify]

Not sure if this has been posted, but I think this article puts this whole thing into perspective:

Chris Selley: Toronto’s future doesn’t hinge on Gardiner

My comment:

IMO this is one of the best articles the Post has written! I'm on the keep side, but you are absolutely correct that the final decision made will not define Toronto's future. Old Toronto has lots of excellent waterfront spaces, though most of them are a pain to get to without a car. This one stretch will not make or break the city's future.

The real push for its removal is from developers, period. The hybrid option provides more than enough new space for development, but it is not enough to satisfy the neverending needs of uncontrolled capitalism. How many parks and other public spaces are included in the remove option? They can't develop on environmentally sensitive lands on the greenbelt, so they are going to build on public infrastructure instead, The funny thing is that the reason why developing here is so lucrative is that it is expected for public dollars to remove the Gardiner for them. If they had to spend their own money... well, let's just say the lobbying voices supporting this option would go real quiet real quickly.

And of course, the east end of this plan would still be very much cut off by the rail tracks. This is not an exaggeration. Not including the DVP, the next street going north of the tracks east of Cherry is Booth, which is 1.25 km away. A street could be put in about 1 km east though, but that is still a large distance without through streets keeping Toronto separated from its waterfront. If the Gardiner does go down, expect CityPlace East rather than a new Harbourfront Centre.

 

[Torontovibe]

Just a little video about traffic.
https://youtu.be/IzeI0lHQgwQ

 

[christiesplits]

According to @jpags Chin Lee has come in support of the hybrid. Big pick up for Tory.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Self explanatory

 

[DaveFlavanoid]

I can't seem to find the number, but does anyone know what the expected population growth is in the area in question/ portlands/ east end?

 

[44 North]

Self explanatory

Haha, why is he wearing a track suit. He's dressed like Ben Stiller in Royal Tenebaums. Or Run DMC.

Not sure if this was posted, but the Star has an animated GIF. I like these kinds of images...simple, but tell a lot.

 

[Edward Skira]

Ford proposed widening the DVP. The discussion is getting crazier by the moment.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Ford proposed widening the DVP. The discussion is getting crazier by the moment.

It's Crazytown for a reason.

AoD

 

[christiesplits]

The federal Liberal GTA caucus sent a letter to Mayor Tory urging that he support the removal plan. I wish they sent the memo to their municipal counterparts. So many card carrying Liberals like Di Ciano, Berardinetti and Nunziata are voting for the hybrid.