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Originally Posted by highthief
I'm not an expert in Muni politics by any stretch, so these are just my impressions but it seems to me Toronto city government is a waste, compared to Montreal, Chicago, Boston and many other places where they get things done.
I'm sick of hearing Miller whine about the Island Airport because it "jeopardizes" the waterfront. Miller, have you been down to the waterfront lately? You and your predecesors have done nothing to promote the waterfront other than whine about the airport and the Docks. Do something about it (like stop building condo after condo and tear down the Gardiner and evict all those squatters on the Islands - heh) or shut the hell up!
Montreal builds Metro stop after Metro stop, redeveloped the waterfront and continues to do so. What sort of major infrastructure has a Toronto mayor initiated? Even Lastman, our cannibal fearing former mayor, started the whole Sheppard to Don Mills extension while in office as North York mayor. Hazel does amazing work in Mississauga.
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Actually, from what I have seen, there is a lot going on in Toronto. The waterfront *is* changing for the good these days. The big patch of land just east of the Distillery District is in full transformation mode. It will be an entirely new community in an area that was desolate brown lands only a few months ago.
Ontario Park, a new park running east west along Unwin between Cherry Beach and the Leslie Street Spit, is underway.
The reconstruction of the waterfront from Parliament to Bathurst was a approved and is underway (this includes the little experiment with Queen's Quay this summer).
The biggest stumbling block to development is that much of the lands in question are owned by three levels of government. That and the Port Authority has its head up its ass. Regardless of for or against the Airport, the underlying issue is that if the City wants it gone, they can't do anything about it. It is under the control of an arms length Federally appointed organization (Port Authority) that doesn't care what they city wants. Like most bureaucracies, it is interested in preserving itself. Losing the Airport would render its already thin mandate almost non-existent.
Another example of this is the Province's desire to locate a new natural gas power plant in the port lands. Yes we are going to run short of power, but plunking the plant there seems short sighted. The portlands have the potential to be some of the highest tax revenue generating property in Toronto... but not if there is a massive power plant in the area. Who wants to live next to that? There were alternatives proposed by the city but once more, it is out of their hands in the hands of the Province.
I think you can see the pattern there...
As for the subway system. Agreed in part. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. The top of that list though is restoring the funding that was cut from the Province and the Feds. The TTC is the *only* North American transit system that isn't subsidized by government. It has to find 80% of it operating budget from the fare box. Most systems hover around 40%.
There just isn't the money in a system like that to build new infrastructure.
As for the Sheppard line, it should never have been built. It should have been a dedicated streetcar/LRT right of way like what we see on Spadina. Much more cost effective and then it could have been extended out to the Zoo and connected to the Scarborough RT line. As it stands, it goes to nowhere.
More Spadina dedicated lines are the way to go everywhere else as well. A subway line to York is needlessly expenseive as well when you can run a surface route for a fraction of the cost.
Yes, Hazel has done some good work. But that's apples and oranges. You are talking about a bedroom community vs. a metropolian city. The infrastructure cost alone are more in the city without getting into the fact that those who live in the GTA largely enjoy the use of Toronto's infrastructure on a daily basis (ie they work there) but don't pay for it. The reverse is not true (i.e. those who live in Toronto do not use the outlying systems in nearly the same measure).