james t kirk

My personal opionion is "thank Christ they killed Spadina"

Toronto needs another expressway like it needs a hole in the head.

It was the dumbest idea ever in the history of this city. It would have killed Toronto as we know it today.

Long and short of it, it was to be built to aid commuters who don't even live in Toronto!!

But Toronto taxpayers would have to pay for it???

Thanks to Jane Jacobs, and people like her, the madness was killed. I remember seeing an interview with Colin Vaughan who was an architect at one time and when he met Jane, she asked him what he was doing to stop the Spadina Expressway and at the time, he hadn't given it much thought.

She wisened him up.

I believe that cities, great cities, are about a place to live, a sense of community. Cities are not supposed to be about building expressways to "whisk 905 commuters home to the suburbs for dinner by 5 pm."

That's 1950's thinking that killed so many other North American cities - Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinatti, et al (hell, even Hamilton where I grew up.)

The result has been devastation of the inner cities.

Toronto needs improved Transportation, yes, I am in full agreement, however, that should come in the form of new subways, GO Transit, etc. Never ever ever more expressways.

The Gardiner, in my eyes is the only exception. I get a bit of a giggle out of the guys who want to tear it down. I am all for tearing down the Gardiner, but you have to replace it with a couple of giant tunnels out in the lake or something to that effect.

Besides, the greedy developers would just build more crap condos like they are doing down at Harbour Front / Sky Dome. Cold, desolate, uninhabitable, unfriendly places where no-one hangs out.

Build a Gardiner Tunnel from the CNE to the DVP, nuke the elevated structure and build a huge green belt.

Life would be grand.

If they were to nuke the Gardiner and build more box condos instead, I pick the Gardiner. At least you get a great view of the city coming in from the west end.