Breaking: Mayor Tory Steps Down.
- Thread starter Darts
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I didn't claim that The Eaton Center (TEC) is an outlet mall. The only ones that I'm aware that are close to Toronto proper are Vaughn Mills, Toronto Premium Oulets in Halton, and Dixie Outlet Mall in Mississauga. FYI, stores in an outlet mall usually have "factory store" or "outlet" in their name e.g. Adidas Outlet, Tommy Hilfiger Outlet, Gap Factory Store, etc. Therefore, TEC, Square One, Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Markville, Fairview, etc. are not outlet malls by definition.
Yes, TEC has a number of higher end businesses like Apple, Harry Rosen, Nordstrom and others. Yet it also has many mainstream stores like Gap, Old Navy, H&M, Shoppers Drug Mart, The Bay, etc that you would find at most other major malls. You are right that TEC is unique that it is very well served by transit. I didn't know that most of their parking spaces are rented to the tenants of the Cadillac Fairview Tower. Not quite sure how you know that specific info. Maybe the office tenants at TEC are partially subsidizing the mall or maybe not. None of us are really going to know either way.
How do you know that the people that shop at The Eaton Centre are not as price sensitive vs most other businesses? Did you conduct a survey of the tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people that go through that place in a year?
Where did you get the crazy idea that sports events downtown need to be "affordable?" Sports teams are businesses and they charge whatever they want including the crazy expensive food, drink and merch. A "cheap" Raps ticket is over $150 each at the back. Leafs tickets are always ridiculously expensive. It could easily cost a couple $400 to $500 just on the tickets. Not exactly "affordable." Toronto FC and Jays tickets are cheaper, but they are nowhere near as popular as the others. Having said that, taking a family of four to Jays game could get quite expensive after the tickets, food, parking / transit, etc.
I never said that we should keep people on the street and panhandling. Moving homeless people out to the suburbs and hoping for the best is not a good strategy either. If a person ends up on the street there are other issues like addiction that have to be dealt with first before they can sustain just a menial job. Which low skill jobs outside the city are you referring to exactly? Pouring coffee at Tim's? Those jobs have been disappearing for years because of automation. Even a garbage collector or janitor requires some experience.
If you're an employer looking for people, would you honeslty hire someone that has no skills, was homelesss for years and maybe has a record? Maybe there are a few that won't care, but I think that most employers would not hire that person.
It certainly is "common sense" to move homeless people to less expensive areas where they can find "low-skilled jobs." Ask yourself why we've never done that? Why do you think the "workfare" model has never worked for decades in many cities?
The reason we haven't built subsidized or public housing in "chepaer areas" is because they don't want them there. Does it make sense to you that Burlington to build subsidized housing or shelters and then accept Toronto's homeless population? There's nothing wrong with being a NIMBY on this issue BTW, and I think most people are like that deep down. At the same time, we've tried the "workfare" model you're proposing for decades and it's never worked.
He said he lives near the Gardiner and can see how the traffic changes through the day. My office also overlooks it and I can see the difference between sections West and East of Jarvis. We're talking about just that small section and not the whole thing.
Having said that, our personal observations can't give us an accurate picture of what's really going on with traffic. There are plenty of tools that can tells us what the conditions are: Google Maps, CP24, 680 News, and even the City's own RESCU system:
Road Restrictions & Closures
Keeping traffic moving is an important priority. The City has developed a number of programs and initiatives aimed at helping you get around Toronto’s streets safely and effectively.
www.toronto.ca
I'm willing to bet that the section East of Jarvis frequently has less traffic than the West and it's like that for most of the day. That makes total sense too because I don't think there are any major companies or destinations to the East of Jarvis.
I'm not proposing workfare. I'm proposing to move the workforce to where the work is.
The DVP is east of Jarvis. That's where people are going to or coming from, for the most part. Don't kid yourself, there is plenty of volume.He said he lives near the Gardiner and can see how the traffic changes through the day. My office also overlooks it and I can see the difference between sections West and East of Jarvis. We're talking about just that small section and not the whole thing.
Having said that, our personal observations can't give us an accurate picture of what's really going on with traffic. There are plenty of tools that can tells us what the conditions are: Google Maps, CP24, 680 News, and even the City's own RESCU system:
Road Restrictions & Closures
Keeping traffic moving is an important priority. The City has developed a number of programs and initiatives aimed at helping you get around Toronto’s streets safely and effectively.
I'm willing to bet that the section East of Jarvis frequently has less traffic than the West and it's like that for most of the day. That makes total sense too because I don't think there are any major companies or destinations to the East of Jarvis.
Maybe I misread you, but your suggestion sounds like workfare to me. You said that you want to provide free or low cost housing to people that neeed it to re-enter society i.e. homeless people. The homeless have virtually no marketable skills, which is part of the reason why they are in that state. Moving them to another section of the GTA even if there is free housing won't solve thier underlying addiction issues. I make the point again that most people are NIMBY's and would not tolerate a homeless shelter in their community for fear of disturbances, crime, and potential to lose property values. I can admit that I am one of those people especailly if the homeless are sitting around on the street being disruptive, smoking weed, shooting up, rifling through the trash, pissing on the street, etc. I do think some might be receptive to a shelter in their area if they can see that those people actually getting help and back on their feet.
What qualifies as "low-skilled" work to you? The only ones that come to my mind are restuarant and retail workers, cleaners, garbage collectors, delivery people, etc. On the other hand, even those jobs still require some skills. Perhaps you're talking about warehouse work, but there are few if any of those in Toronto proper. Amazon doesn't even operate in the city.
Anabrandy and I never said that there is no volume on that stretch of the Gardiner. We said that there is a different amount of volume on the Western vs Eastern sections and we can see it from above. Things look a lot different up high vs what you see at street level.
That's why I posted a link to the city's camera system so you can see for yourself.
This was the traffic conditions tonight at about 5pm. Sure enough, the higher traffic volume shown in dark red is on the Westbound lanes near Sherbourne and Jarvis Street. While the Eastbound traffic on the Gardiner and DVP shown in orange has less. No surprise that it's bad today because of the weather.
Here's a screenshot from last night around the same time. Sure enough, it shows basically the same traffic volume.
The morning commute will show the red lines in the Eastbound lanes just before Jarvis / Sherbourne.
That's why we think that spending $1B or much more on the hybrid option is a bad use of resources. That section simply does not have the traffic volume as the Western section. We already made that point many times.
I do understand that any option we pick (hybrid or demolition) will cause traffic chaos. That's unavoidable with a project like this.
I came here looking if the Toronto Sun has interviewed that 30-something fox who got an erection out of our ex-75 year year old mayor and instead people are talking about traffic cameras 
MP was right - TERB has lost its mojo
MP was right - TERB has lost its mojo
I came here looking if the Toronto Sun has interviewed that 30-something fox who got an erection out of our ex-75 year year old mayor and instead people are talking about traffic cameras
MP was right - TERB has lost its mojo
The face you make when you check CP24 - what the ACTUAL HELL happened in Toronto last nightI came here looking if the Toronto Sun has interviewed that 30-something fox who got an erection out of our ex-75 year year old mayor and instead people are talking about traffic cameras
MP was right - TERB has lost its mojo
Since this thread has morphed into a highway/road discussion, I'll add my 2 cents worth. I think it would be a traffic nightmare if you took down the Gardiner east of Jarvis and made it into a large boulevard with traffic lights. The DVP southbound currently has one lane exiting to Eastern/Richmond, two lanes continue onto the Gardiner westbound and one lane exiting to Lakeshore Blvd. Forcing DVP southbound traffic onto the Lakeshore to stop at traffic lights would create a huge backlog. Don't forget the Lakeshore currently carries east/west traffic.
While that section of highway may not be the most attractive thing to look at, it's efficient and moves a lot of traffic. The last thing you want to do is force more cars and trucks to sit idling which only does one thing, creates more pollution. The other thing people fail to realize, is every time they make changes to roadways that reduce the flow of traffic, you also slow down public transit, delivery and emergency vehicles.
It's also bothers me when I hear people tell others to get out of their cars and walk, ride a bike, take public transit. It's a free country and people are allowed to choose whatever form of transportation they like. Cycling as a main form of transportation is impractical in Toronto for all but a few people. Public transit is often unreliable and unless you've got a stop next to your house and one close to your destination, it often takes much longer than driving. I could take public transit to my business but when I factor in walking time plus 3 different busses, it takes 45 minutes by transit vs. 15 minutes to drive. I love the comfort of my car. Crank up the tunes, switch on the aircon in the summer or the heat in the winter and no crazy, drug addicted or homeless people to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I love to cycle but not when the weather is crappy.
Anyway, that's my little rant for the day.
While that section of highway may not be the most attractive thing to look at, it's efficient and moves a lot of traffic. The last thing you want to do is force more cars and trucks to sit idling which only does one thing, creates more pollution. The other thing people fail to realize, is every time they make changes to roadways that reduce the flow of traffic, you also slow down public transit, delivery and emergency vehicles.
It's also bothers me when I hear people tell others to get out of their cars and walk, ride a bike, take public transit. It's a free country and people are allowed to choose whatever form of transportation they like. Cycling as a main form of transportation is impractical in Toronto for all but a few people. Public transit is often unreliable and unless you've got a stop next to your house and one close to your destination, it often takes much longer than driving. I could take public transit to my business but when I factor in walking time plus 3 different busses, it takes 45 minutes by transit vs. 15 minutes to drive. I love the comfort of my car. Crank up the tunes, switch on the aircon in the summer or the heat in the winter and no crazy, drug addicted or homeless people to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I love to cycle but not when the weather is crappy.
Anyway, that's my little rant for the day.
Thank John Tory and his inner suburban car-centric councilors for the ongoing current debacle, that being moving that stretch of the Gardiner a few meters to the north, that you have described.
Not sure what you mean by moving the Gardiner a few meters to the north.
I'm also not sure how you can say Tory was "car-centric." The amount of roads that have been reduced from 4 lanes to 2 for the installation of bike lanes during his term is substantial.
Tory and his inner suburban councilors hired the Acme Elevated Expressway Moving Company to pick up and move the eastern stretch of the Gardiner a few meters to the north.
Just how much runway do u need? Ur not driving a jumbo jet on the roadways I hope?
A highway / road discussion is very relevant to Tory's legacy because he campaigned on it. He championed the so-called hybrid option where that part of the highway is going to be moved closer to the rail corridor. Something has to be done with the highway so it's going to cause traffic disruptions regardless.
How about using numbers and data to inform decisions vs casual observations. It's super easy to find that info for yourself.
The TTC has definitely become more unreliable and unsafe as the years have gone by. It's been on a death spiral for a long time. Is the solution to stop investing, cutting service and making it worse? Or do we upgrade the system by rebuilding stations, acquiring vehicles and maintenance, automation, platform doors to prevent people from being pushed, etc.
