Agree 100%. In order of problems with the connection to the watefront my rough order from biggest problem to lowest is:
1. Not much to see or do on Waterfront - people would be willing to 'connect' if the waterfront was actually more of a destinateion. It's like making the 1-hour drive the reason you don't visit your crazy Aunt.
2. Rail corridor
3. Lakeshore underneath highway
4. elevated highway
My advice - Wait 10 years. Make the waterfont as nice as you can. Encourage more private development. People will come if they want to come. Stop blaming a highway or thinking there's a business case to tear it down.
The Gardiner crosses the entire downtown, running at varying heights and distances from the water. In some places it is very possible to blend the highway into the urban fabric, while in others it is more challenging. Taking a holistic approach is ridiculous as we can improve the highway's relationship to the city in different ways at different points.
For example:
- Decking over the Western stretch, or implementing better pedestrian bridges (or a linear park)
- Beautifying the underside in the central section, where the highway nestles between tall buildings
- Realigning the eastern stretch above the rail corridor, or looking at removal of this overbuilt and underused section of road
- And, of course, tunnelling is always a possibility, though not entirely necessary in my opinion (I think the maintenance costs to prevent flooding would be insane.)
In all cases we need to look at upfront cost balanced with potential ROI from increased development, tourism dollars, recreational and social benefits, etc.
The defeatist "Let's just do nothing" attitude in this town grates sometimes. Yes, the Gardiner isn't as awful as some urbanists make it out to be but surely there are of course ways to make things better.
