News   Jan 06, 2025
Cold and Wet… and Darkly Shiny
 25     0 
News   Jan 03, 2025
Best of 2024: Winners of UrbanToronto's 11th Annual Year-End Poll, presented by Sapphire Balconies
 1.7K     1 
News   Jan 03, 2025
43-Storey Proposal Adds to Growing Node Around Weston GO
 2K     0 

Waterfront: General Topics

Riverdale Rink Rat said:
Assuming that you're not just pulling our collective chains, there's a Babies R Us conveniently on the subway line at Eglinton and another at Dufferin Mall, both inside Toys R Us. As for Dollar Stores, there's a huge one at Sherbourne and Queen and another going into the Toronto Sun building, apparently. All of these locations will be closer to you and more convenient to transit/parking than Etobicoke or the Port Lands.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&um...JAg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CCEQtgM

There are also many and varied independent children's stores all over the frickin' place.

Last, and certainly not least, for the new folks needing to drive to a store from the Port Lands, there's a ginormous Canadian Tire, as well as other big box retail at Leslie and Lake Shore. Given that T&T probably will not be moving any time soon, there's also a great, Asian-centred large grocer already on Cherry.

But... you're pulling my chain, right?
Click to expand...

The ones you listed are Toys R Us not Babies R Us. If you go on Toys R Us website and go into Babies R Us section. Then do a search for location. You will know what I mean.
As for the big box Canadian Tire and what not stores. Like I said they don't carry all selections. Try calling up CT, Sears, Bay and ask if they have Britax. Your answer will be "No".

I don't know about the dollar store located at Sherbourne and Queen but it's quite a ways to walk there unless you take the bus. The Toronto Sun building is also quite a walk from The Toronto Sun building I think? I don't know where that building is located.

T&T has asian foods, but it doesn't have everything. Loblaws, CT, price chopper etc are quite a distance to walk as well I think. You could say the same thing about Cityplace area. Why does it need a Longos or Sobeys. There's Chinatown you can walk to. Or there's Metro at St. Lawrence Market and Loblaws at Jarvis. Why build another loblaws at Queen and Portland and Queens Quay and Bathurst? Why bother with resturants, there's many of them a long King St. But so many people bitch about how badly planned Cityplace area is. They're built like a suburban place. Nothing keeps people in the area, they have to walk out of the area to get access to places. The same issue will happen to portland area. It will become a suburban place where no one hangs around because they all drive their cars to buy things.
 
Last edited:
Yes, Doug Ford's plan to let the private sector drive development of the Port Lands will almost inevitably result in an outcome very much like CityPlace or the Central Waterfront. That's why this is so infuriating: we have tried this strategy before and no one was happy with the outcome.
 
A lot of this pro-Doug-Ford-scheme argument seems to hinge upon the notion that he can get things done, fast, without bureaucracy & stuff getting in the way.

I guess it's all like nostalgia for the 1960s, where a private consortium could replace old Penn Station with a spanking new ultra-modern complex including a new Madison Square Garden within a few years time. These days, they'd have to work around hysterical preservationists and likemended special interest groups and figure out how to thread so many urban-planning needles that nothing'll get done, and NYC would be stuck with that dingy old hulk forever to this very day.

Of course, it's more likely that the Ford-scheme cheerleaders don't even have a clue about the 60s Penn Station controversy; and they don't care a whit. Ignorance is bliss.
 
So a lot of talk on how bad this is, and I agree, but what do we do to stop it? What are the chances that council will actually pass this through? Letter writing to mayor and council doesn't seem to be bearing fruit.
 
ttk77 said:
So a lot of talk on how bad this is, and I agree, but what do we do to stop it? What are the chances that council will actually pass this through? Letter writing to mayor and council doesn't seem to be bearing fruit.
Click to expand...

Here's an idea: Find out who the biggest campaign supporters are for those councilors and boycott those businesses. Most of the city councilors are spineless and will switch allegiances if their position in power is threatened.
 
EMP1729 said:
Here's an idea: Find out who the biggest campaign supporters are for those councilors and boycott those businesses. Most of the city councilors are spineless and will switch allegiances if their position in power is threatened.
Click to expand...

Boycotting won't work. Finding out which developers supported Ford's campaign and are now bidding on the Portlands, and then releasing that information to The Star or the Globe would be much better at generating outrage and suspicion.
 
Boycott -> Forcing campaign contributors to put pressure on the councillors in the hopes that they'll be more effective than individual citizens writing letters... That may work if done in a targeted manner. It's not likely to have much effect on councillors who won their wards by a large margin or those who are firmly committed to Ford, but there might be some hope if applied against those in the mushy middle, those that may be wavering in their support for Ford, or those who had tight races. This all assumes that enough people could be convinced to effectively boycott their businesses.

Discrediting Ford as jje1000 suggested may be better at distancing a large number of councillors from Ford and his policies, but how easy would this information be to find? Are you sure there is even something to find?

Somehow councillors need to be convinced that voting for the Ford waterfront "plan" is not in their best interest.
 
I know that there wasn't a vote on the discontinuation of Transit City, but we should remember the councillors who enabled the loss of improved transit to isolated areas of the city only to now support a monorail to a Ferris Wheel.
 
If there wasn't a vote on ending transit city, is there any chance that this idiotic port land scheme could be pushed through without a council vote?
 
On a side note: We're spread pretty thin with 'Ford' Threads.

Could the 'Ferris Wheel & Mall', etc., thread be merged with the previous 'NFL stadium whim' thread.
Perhaps Love/Hate Ford could be put together with 'Mayor Ford's Toronto'? - as they're much the same thing.
 
ttk77 said:
If there wasn't a vote on ending transit city, is there any chance that this idiotic port land scheme could be pushed through without a council vote?
Click to expand...

Transit City was able to die without a council vote because Metrolinx and the province saw the writing on the wall and realized they couldn't push forward with a transit plan denounced by a recently-elected Toronto mayor with popular support.

A similar thing could happen with Waterfront Toronto -- if the mayor's office refuses to play ball as a partner in Waterfront Toronto, it becomes very difficult to build support for their initiatives. Remember that Waterfront Toronto's plans too are very much contingent on private sector developers coming on board, and nothing spooks the private sector like political uncertainty.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top