Yonge Street, North York Streetscape Improvements

[amnesiajune]

Right which means another vote in Willowdale (ground zero). Will be an interesting election in Willowdale. I suspect this will be the big issue here. I live in Filion's ward and that's where my vote is going.

These are the current and new ward boundaries:

David Shiner would presumably run in RW30, the ward where he lives/lived (his address from the last election was on Cusack Court, which has been demolished since then for a condo development). John Filion keeps RW28. The new vote is probably RW29. According to nomination papers (http://everycandidate.org/ has them in a google spreadsheet), Dan Fox (who was runner-up to Shiner in 2014) lives there, and David Mousavi (who was runner-up to Filion) lives across the street from the new ward.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

Not really. It's a net of one extra councillor in the city core. Downtown has three new wards, but one of the west end wards is getting taken out and there's a new ward in North York (David Shiner's ward is effectively being cut in half).

You're reading the "T" shape *split* of Councillor Shiner's Ward 24 Willowdale wrong,... it's not down the middle. Councillor Shiner Ward 24 Willowdale will only lose the Yonge to Bayview, Finch to Steeles square block to the new Ward (RW29)

Technically, it's Councillor Filion's Ward23 Willowdale that's being cut in half (into new RW28 & new RW29),... due to intensification within North York Centre Secondary Plan area causing population to double from 50,000 (last ward re-draw at amalgamation) to current 100,000 (target ~55,000 per ward).

Over the last 5 years or so,.... Councillor Filion has been preping (including more public exposure to the community) his Executive Assistant, Markus O’Brien Fehr, to take over and carry on with his vision if and when he decides to step down. But now with ward split, there's one for each,.... the only issue is they both currently live in the lower half (the new RW28 ward),... so I would expect one of them (likely Markus) to run in RW29,....

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

WARD 29 is pretty funky. Fox ran a good progressive campaign against Shiner last time but didn't really come close. Maybe he'd have a shot in a new ward.

Anyway if you look at ht voting map it's a few councillors in Etobicoke and Scarborough (as in the Gardiner decision) making the call for the rest of the city. I'm not optimistic that will change.

(see this thread from Twitter... https://twitter.com/g_meslin/status/978624228302913536?s=19)

 

[TheTigerMaster]

WARD 29 is pretty funky. Fox ran a good progressive campaign against Shiner last time but didn't really come close. Maybe he'd have a shot in a new ward.

Anyway if you look at ht voting map it's a few councillors in Etobicoke and Scarborough (as in the Gardiner decision) making the call for the rest of the city. I'm not optimistic that will change.

(see this thread from Twitter... https://twitter.com/g_meslin/status/978624228302913536?s=19)

People vote for councillors based on name recognition alone. Fox will have a much better chance in a new ward where he is not battling an incumbent that already has name recognition.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

People vote for councillors based on name recognition alone. Fox will have a much better chance in a new ward where he is not battling an incumbent that already has name recognition.

Define "name recognition",.... I think David Mousavi (Persian background) would have a better chance than Dan Fox,.... since the new RW29 ward to the north has such a high Persian demographic so call it "Tehranto"

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

A) he isn't running against someone who has specific name recognition (ie isn't an incumbent or named "Ford ), as opposed to the general ethnic recognition you're citing, which is different from name recognition
B) he'll have more recognition running a second time than he did the first

I knew Fox didn't have much of a chance but I had high hopes that Shiner, Mammo and some other useless councillors exposed by the Ford spotlight would get turfed. Oh well it's a new ballgame now.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

After loosing last election, most candidates generally disappear,... some like Dan Fox, I would spot once in a while at major Community Consultations events (or eating at EmeraldPark),... but others like David Mousavi are smart enough to keep their name in the community via on-going community volunteer leadership work and "Willowdale Matters" Community Newsletter (mailbox flyer),... that tells me, David Mousavi will be running again.

Councillor Filion usually win elections with about 80% of the votes! But in the past few election the margin of winning votes have decreased,... last time Councillor Filion got around 55% of votes while David Mousavi got 31%. Last time David Mousavi was backed by folks I called "monopoly players" (land assembly speculators) and most of their properties tend to be in the new south RW28 ward,... not the new north RW29 ward where David Mousavi would have a easier time.

 

[muller877]

Nothing is 100% either way. There are people who live on Yonge who support and there are those who opposes the plan. Of course this being UrbanToronto, the majority of the opinion will lean towards TransformYonge.

Yonge residents should support the transformyonge plan because it gives them a better street to stroll along. The bike lanes are just extras - they don't even need them because the entire NYCC stretch is within 1/2 hr walk.
Now if they are those who currently enjoy those quiet walks along the rings roads, say goodbye to that - at least according to those who says more traffic should be diverted off Yonge and onto Beecroft and Doris.

I wonder if the planning department looked at an even more drastic alternative.

1. Make Beecroft/Sheppard/Doris/Finch one big traffic circle (both Doris and Beecroft become one way).
2. No car can go straight through. Only stop signs are for pedestrians (and the number is limited) and bikes (only at Beecroft and at Doris...not straight through via Yonge)
3. Yonge (and all interior roads) become 2 lane road with taxi stands only (no parking). Plus a much smaller footprint for pedestrian crossings.
4. Will have a 1 lane turn from Beecroft & Doris to turn left/right onto Finch and Sheppard to get out of the traffic circle.

I believe this would increase the throughput of vehicles and allow for a more pedestrian/bike friendly Yonge.

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

I wonder if the planning department looked at an even more drastic alternative.

1. Make Beecroft/Sheppard/Doris/Finch one big traffic circle (both Doris and Beecroft become one way).
2. No car can go straight through. Only stop signs are for pedestrians (and the number is limited) and bikes (only at Beecroft and at Doris...not straight through via Yonge)
3. Yonge (and all interior roads) become 2 lane road with taxi stands only (no parking). Plus a much smaller footprint for pedestrian crossings.
4. Will have a 1 lane turn from Beecroft & Doris to turn left/right onto Finch and Sheppard to get out of the traffic circle.

I believe this would increase the throughput of vehicles and allow for a more pedestrian/bike friendly Yonge.

1: Rejected early on, Beecroft & Doris are 2km long local collectors serving local condos, so condo folks living on Beecroft or Doris can say drive south on their street when leaving but when coming home must go 400m away to other Service Road to drive north, then east-west another 400m,.... but why don't they just use Yonge, oh because of the lane reduction!
2: I have no idea what you're trying to say.
3: Hardly any taxi around here - only hang around Harlandale TTC exit and Finch Station - Bishop Ave
4: That's what we have now

 

[Edward Skira]

3: Hardly any taxi around here - only hang around Harlandale TTC exit and Finch Station - Bishop Ave

Lots of Uber however!

 

[sunnyraytoronto]

TTC main concern on Transform Yonge lane reduction is bus service (reliability, transit time, bunching, ridership, etc,..) affecting 1300 TTC Bus trips in & out of Finch Bus Terminal (just within Bishop project boundary). Primarily all the TTC, YRT-Viva, GO, etc,.. using Yonge between Steeles & 2 Finch bus terminals where Southbound Yonge lane reduction from 3 to 2 lanes create traffic bottleneck - back-up north of Bishop/Hendon Ave right where all those southbound buses are weaving from curb-side bus/taxi/3+ rush hour lane to left turn lane into Bus Terminals.

This part of Yonge Street from Bishop Ave to Steeles have 2200 TTC, YRT, Viva, GO bus trips per day (likely highest “people throughput (service volume) for any road in City); thus 1100 TTC, YRT, Viva and GO buses daily impacted by this bottleneck weaving to left turn lane trying to get into Bus Terminals.

Note: Northbound out of TTC Finch Bus Terminal, there's a last minute new northbound bus lane from the Pemberton exit.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

If only there was a away to get all those buses off of Yonge Street!

It's almost like if you fail to keep up with infrastructure needs there's a domino effect as the city and region grow and decades later you pay the price for your dumb decisions (or lack of decisions) and things can't evolve in a proper way.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Will they add any extra security measures in a plan since yesterday’s incident.

 

[innsertnamehere]

More bollards? I wonder if this will impact the vote on this at all next term.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Olive Square Park may see some changes.

From link.

Flowers and posters with inspirational messages for Toronto are being placed at Yonge and Finch, where a van plowed through pedestrians, killing 10.
From link.