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Rob Ford wants subways, not streetcars

say what you want about air rights but I personally think selling them is a great idea. Sure it is not a lot of money to be made but it is certainly better than getting nothing. Plus, they are paying you to put a trip generator on the roof of your subway station. i think it is a win-win.
 
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hkric88 said:
Great to see him at least understanding this **TRUTH**, PEOPLE, normal people who need to work every day and arn't LRT fanboys, just want to get HOME at night and not wait outside in blowing snow and rain for a glorified streetcar that can't go faster than a bicycle and gets stopped at traffic lights.
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This forum is getting more ridiculous by the day. Seriously, do people actually believe penny pinching Rob Ford will be transit's savior and blanket the city with subway lines?
 
You also have to question Ford's commitment to subways when his campaign is being run by the same Harris guys who cancelled the Eglinton line and stubbed Sheppard. Also among those MPPs who voted to stop work on those lines was Doug Ford, Rob father.
 
In November 2005, Christ Church in New York sold their air rights for a record US$430 per square foot. Let's call that CAN$5000 per square meter. At $250,000,000 per km, you need to sell 50,000 sq.m. per km of air rights (50m wide corridor). You might be able to pay for part of a station by selling it's air rights, but you won't fund a subway on it.

Better than nothing? That depends if you own it already or not. As the TTC doesn't own many titles along proposed corridors, you're looking at government buying with one hand and selling with another. Why not just skip building the subway altogether and buy every undeveloped piece of land that comes on the market in Toronto and sell the air rights?

Listen to what is said, not what you want to hear.
 
Mapleson said:
In November 2005, Christ Church in New York sold their air rights for a record US$430 per square foot. Let's call that CAN$5000 per square meter. At $250,000,000 per km, you need to sell 50,000 sq.m. per km of air rights (50m wide corridor). You might be able to pay for part of a station by selling it's air rights, but you won't fund a subway on it.

Better than nothing? That depends if you own it already or not. As the TTC doesn't own many titles along proposed corridors, you're looking at government buying with one hand and selling with another. Why not just skip building the subway altogether and buy every undeveloped piece of land that comes on the market in Toronto and sell the air rights?

Listen to what is said, not what you want to hear.
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what do you mean own it or not? The TTC is not buying anything, its just selling the rights over what it already has. Air and a blue sky will not give you money.
 
An alternative to selling air rights, one that was proposed for the first attempt at the Eglinton Subway, is to have a special fee paid by developers along the new subway route. Any new project built along the subway line would have to pay a sum of money to the city. Property owners get a considerable financial benefit from a new subway, so it makes sense that they help pay for the line. This won't pay for a subway, but it will bring in a lot more than just air rights would. The main advocate for the scheme back in the 1990s was Joe Pantalone, so it will be interesting to see if he comes out with something similar for his mayoral campaign.
 
nfitz said:
The guy is the laughing stock of city council. Anyone who would vote for this alcoholic, wife-beating bigot really needs to think about the bigger picture.
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While I am no Rob Ford fan, I take issues with comments like this. Does his character matter or his platform? Winston Churchill was a cigar chomping, womanizing drunk and a bigot. Hitler was organized, eschewed exemplary personal manners, never smoked, never drank, didn't eat meat and was fairly loyal to to his mistress. Who would you have rooted for?

In this day and age, I don't think most of our fathers of confederation or many of the great leaders of the past would have made the cut.

Heaven forbid we judge politicians on their platforms, their ideas and the job performance. Perish the thought.
 
Mapleson said:
In November 2005, Christ Church in New York sold their air rights for a record US$430 per square foot. Let's call that CAN$5000 per square meter. At $250,000,000 per km, you need to sell 50,000 sq.m. per km of air rights (50m wide corridor). You might be able to pay for part of a station by selling it's air rights, but you won't fund a subway on it.

Better than nothing? That depends if you own it already or not. As the TTC doesn't own many titles along proposed corridors, you're looking at government buying with one hand and selling with another. Why not just skip building the subway altogether and buy every undeveloped piece of land that comes on the market in Toronto and sell the air rights?

Listen to what is said, not what you want to hear.
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Nobody said that air rights would pay for the entire subway line. I don't think Rob Ford said that. Every little bit helps. That's the point. Why not bring all ideas to the table so that we can at least generate more money to improve transit?
 
I recall the TTC studying the selling of air rights a while back, and found this article on Transit Toronto. I seem to recall that in the end it didn't actual amount to that much money to be made. Not that I am saying we shouldn't examine it, but I think practically it wouldn't generate that much revenue.
 
Ansem said:
WOW!!!!
Spoken like a true "Toronto is the centre of the universe" guy!!!

So if Major cities around the world (I mean the same cities that Torontonians and its politician likes to include themselves in) build subways over streetcars is because they are ignorant and clueless about LRT...WOW

If Montreal choose subway to extend the blue line East On Jean-Talon Street instead of building Streetcars is because their ignorant and clueless about streetcars????WOWOOW!!!!!!

LRT???please...besides Eglinton, its a streetcar PERIOD....
Even LaPResse from Montreal are calling the lines streetcars when months ago they were calling the Metro lines...

Every medias are waking up to that fact and yet you call pro-subway ignorants and clueless...
WOW WOW
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You're definitely one of the clueless I am referring about. You guys are so desperate for a subway, you're willing to vote for anyone with a dubious plan. It's kind of sad to read, really.

And who cares about Montreal. Since Montreal is so amazing, go and live there. Rob Ford is playing you, and subways advocates for suckers. If you think he is going to build subways in his term as mayor, with his idea to sell air rights, you really are blinded with subway fantasies.
 
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I suppose that character doesn't really matter that much, but I don't support his platform so the fact that he's a buffoon doesn't help.

He wants to stop "construction" of any new bike lanes on major roads. This may work downtown where there are straight streets such as St. George, but in the suburbs the arterial roads are the only ones that go in a straight line. Believe it or not, people actually use bicycles as transportation so they take the most direct route. As well, arterial roads are faster than side streets because they have traffic lights that are synchronized. In my area, the traffic lights are synchronized for cars going 50, so if you bike at 25 you get all the lights green.

He want's to remove the vehicle registration tax. This tax doesn't even come close to the amount that the city pays for road maintenance so I don't think 60$ to drive a car is too much to ask.

The land transfer tax is nice because it mainly generates income from something that most people do very rarely. However it does help curb speculation and housing bubbles.

If we remove these taxes we have two options. Either we make up the money by raising other taxes, or we reduce spending (which is what he proposes to do). If we don't have enough money for subways now, how on earth will we if they cut taxes? Alternative funding can only do so much.

As for transit, he thinks that making the TTC an essential service will somehow make the buses come on time.
 
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If his supporters (illiterate Toronto Sun readers... no, this is not an oxymoron) knew that this self proclaimed penny pincher was campaigning for subways that cost several times more than light rail, I'm sure they would like to have a few words with him.

But hey, Rob Ford has never been one to shy away from whoring himself for populist attention.
 
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