Toronto Garrison Crossing (was Fort York Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge) | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Pedelta

It's too bad that this has been blocked by the current Mayor and his team.
Toronto badly needs visible civic assets that give boost to its history, and all the intangibles that go with it - pride, identity, memory. Also directly in this case, politics - and the honouring of what went on at the site. The twentieth century treated the Fort really badly.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Yeah thats life, this city has gone through much worse times with useless politicians and survived..i wouldnt worry to much.:)
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Barely, and I think that's the point. The recession has left the city in a position that's enviable throughout the world: there's a window of opportunity right now that probably comes along once or twice a century.

Do we want to live in a city with beautiful architecture, or do we want to live in a city that's crappy and cheap?
Do we want a stunning core that's photogenic and admired by tourists, or do we want to nickel and dime our way to aesthetic irrelevance?
Do we want to sustain the city-building momentum of the last 5 years, or stand by as the list of missed opportunities rises and rises?

The point of this bridge was never a cheap and simple "point-a-to-point-b" design, but landmark architecture. It was supposed to raise the bar for bridge design throughout the city. It was supposed to built the kind of architecture that people will be proud of.

People today don't look at Foster's Milennium Bridge and kvetch about its price. Tourists admire it. Londoners look on it with pride. And I'm sure that more than a few Torontonians wonder why we can't build beautiful bridges too.

We can. They're not cheap. And unfortunately we're now saddled with a cabal who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

But apathy and resignation on our part will only assist them, to the detriment of our greater good.
 
Torontovibe said:
^^ Well said.
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I agree, we want the best for our city, but dont you think we should start first with burying our electrical infrasture, thats getting rid of ugly poles and transformers, fiixing our city roads from pot holes and also sidewalks from tarmac to concrete, cleaning graffiti and posters scattered all over the place, than having a couple of state of the art bridges in the middle of all this clutter. I dont know you let me know what you prefer.:confused:
 
Automation Gallery said:
I agree, we want the best for our city, but dont you think we should start first with burying our electrical infrasture, thats getting rid of ugly poles and transformers, fiixing our city roads from pot holes and also sidewalks from tarmac to concrete, cleaning graffiti and posters scattered all over the place, than having a couple of state of the art bridges in the middle of all this clutter. I dont know you let me know what you prefer.:confused:
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Look at what happened with St. Clair Avenue West when they were burying the electrical wires and transformers, fixing the water and sewers, and upgrading the neighbourhood. They thought Harry Potter Construction would just wave their wands and the wires would reappear underground without disrupting the neighbourhood.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Look at what happened with St. Clair Avenue West when they were burying the electrical wires and transformers, fixing the water and sewers, and upgrading the neighbourhood. They thought Harry Potter Construction would just wave their wands and the wires would reappear underground without disrupting the neighbourhood.
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Yeah, but it has to start somewhere..we are slowly fading into a 3rd world infrastructure. Scary
 
Northern Magus said:
Yeah, and it's quite arguably because our right wing politicians want 3rd world tax rates.
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dude, the guys been in power for 4 months, how is this possibly about right wing ideology? Toronto has looked like a dump for as long as I can remember, in fact, i'd say that it actually got worse during Millers reign.

Every day i take the streetcar past Old City Hall, one of our pre-eminent buildings and the grounds are an absolute embarrassment.. same with the fountains in the middle of University Ave just north of Queen.. you wouldn't see that neglect in a former soviet republic. Or, for another example take a look at the thread here about Queens Park. And all of a sudden people are up in arms about aesthetics because a bridge that was budgeted at 18 million is now looking like it's going to cost 22 million before it's even started. Why are people so oblivious to aesthetics anywhere else in the city but for this particular bridge it is somehow a critical issue!
 
nstuch said:
dude, the guys been in power for 4 months, how is this possibly about right wing ideology? Toronto has looked like a dump for as long as I can remember, in fact, i'd say that it actually got worse during Millers reign.

Every day i take the streetcar past Old City Hall, one of our pre-eminent buildings and the grounds are an absolute embarrassment.. same with the fountains in the middle of University Ave just north of Queen.. you wouldn't see that neglect in a former soviet republic. Or, for another example take a look at the thread here about Queens Park. And all of a sudden people are up in arms about aesthetics because a bridge that was budgeted at 18 million is now looking like it's going to cost 22 million before it's even started. Why are people so oblivious to aesthetics anywhere else in the city but for this particular bridge it is somehow a critical issue!
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Actually Toronto has improved drastically especially during the Miller years. Waterfront Toronto was created, development in downtown was strong, and we got new parks, new transit to some extent as well as a plan for both future transit and the entire waterfront. And no worries because the Fords will surely not spend a dime on making any area aesthetically or functionally more efficient, unless it is to allow property values to improve in areas that would vote for him. For example, Sheppard east subway future boondoggle.
 
mckarisma said:
Actually Toronto has improved drastically especially during the Miller years. Waterfront Toronto was created, development in downtown was strong, and we got new parks, new transit to some extent as well as a plan for both future transit and the entire waterfront. And no worries because the Fords will surely not spend a dime on making any area aesthetically or functionally more efficient, unless it is to allow property values to improve in areas that would vote for him. For example, Sheppard east subway future boondoggle.
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I love Miller then the next guy but attributing all the development downtown to him is a bit much ... again this seems to play into the common trend to correlate economic condition with politics ... sure the government plays a role ... but generally the role they play is extermely long term in focus i..e governments from many years back effect us today more then the current government.

Anyway, Miller had nothing to do with any of the developments downtown. He did a lot to push waterfront Toronto but it was going before he came around. I think he can be attributed to some the transit increase (i.e. how the TTC improved a lot of bus routes). But in terms of our sidewalks / the state of our parks / so on, he did very little rightfully or wrongfully.
 
The bridge wasn't planned yesterday. It's been in the works for years. It has nothing to do with putting infrastructure under ground. First, budgeting doesn't work that way; and second, this mayor is simply not going to entertain such an effort anyway.

The neglect of public spaces is done in the belief that it shows frugality. In effect, we are told that planned spending on reasonable projects that bring public realm improvement are not worth it. In effect, we are not worth it.
 
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