City
Morning Brew: April 28th, 2009
Photo: "untitled" by Squeakyrat, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
A small group of protesters (including Toronto Councillors Adam Vaughan and Olivia Chow) showed up to speak out against plans by Porter Airlines (endorsed by feds Jim Flaherty and John Baird) to build a new terminal and double they fleet at the Toronto Island Airport [G&M]. It's likely little consolation for the downtowners who oppose the plan, but 10 new turboprops running from the island likely means a few less jets flying over Mississauga and a few hundred less taxis driving to and from Pearson.
If you were an immigrant business owner and got a phone call demanding that you send them thousands of dollars to a foreign country or face violence, what would you do? Police are hoping that rather than obliging, victims of extortion cases like this (in Markham and Richmond Hill) report the incidents instead.
High Park dog walkers are going to be part of a pilot program that aims to have pooch poop diverted from landfill - by offering paper poopie bags and green bins throughout the park [Star]. A few problems may prevent this from working out, including the questionable suitability of the paper bags for larger pooping dogs, squeamishness on the part of poop-picker-uppers, and the potential for plastic bags ending up in the poopy bins anyhow. Poop.
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I'm having a hard time making much sense of this news piece [CityNews]. Apparently a Toronto woman who fell ill in Mexico (and NOT with swine flu) is being told by an unknown person or organization that she can't return to Canada because there are no beds for her back home, even though there are beds available and she's in stable enough condition to fly. Did I get that right?
University Avenue is closed to traffic again today [Sun], as Tamil protesters continue to peacefully occupy the streets. It's not certain when the protests (and the minor inconveniences to Torontonians) will end, or when the downtown stretch of road will return to normal. Will the message of the people in Toronto be heard by the U.S., Canada and the United Nations and create action in Sri Lanka? I guess time only will tell.
And Build Toronto is continuing to earmark various locations around the city that are "ripe for development" [Star]. It would be great to see some of this land used for TTC commuter lot expansion.
Discussion
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"It's likely little consolation for the downtowners who oppose the plan, but 10 new turboprops running from the island likely means a few less jets flying over Mississauga and a few hundred less taxis driving to and from Pearson."
Interesting and seldom-heard points.
In my humble opinion, the energy spent on opposition to the airport would be far better spent on protecting the next big area that is slated to be filled with condo towers: the old port lands.
I have flown Porter many times, and am excited to see them expand - especially with the new link to Boston. Connecting Toronto with NYC, Chicago, and Boston is crucial to the vitality of our startup community in Toronto, and kudos to Porter for not only providing this service but actually being successful despite the economy.
For me, the real casualty in the fight against Porter was the island bridge. I agree with keeping all cars off the islands, but a bridge could have made it a lot easier for pedestrians and cyclists to access the islands. The current passenger ferries are fun the first time, then impossibly frustrating in the summer with hoards of tourists.
To get to the park from the proposed bridge, you would have needed Transport Canada security clearance to get on the airport apron, and tower clearance to cross the runways. I can't see many cyclists or pedestrians dialing up 121.7 on their VHF radio to get that.
Toronto Island residents are exclusionists, plain and simple. That sort of statement will be ignored and again and again they'll claim there are noise problems that don't actually exist.
I've been ON a porter turboprop and sitting about 10 feet away from the engine I can tell you that its quieter than when a jumbo jet flies overhead several thousand feet.
It is the more enviro friendly. I can take the streetcar to it, and have. My alternatives was driving to Montreal or getting driven and picked up form the airport (4 car trips total) to get on another bigger plane.
So let's say you have 60 passengers going to Montreal on a porter flight. That's potentially 60 cars off the road. Making round trips to Pearson.
There is nothing peaceful about passive violence.
"We have to <i>be</i> the change we wish to see. Unless we change individually, no one is going to change collectively. For generations we have been waiting for the other person to change first. A change of heart cannot be legislated; it must come out of conviction." - Gandhi
Porter is better because of their vastly more efficient planes.
So does Porter save trips to the airport? Of course. Does it save any short-haul flights which are arguably quite terrible for the environment. Nope. That's the problem in my mind, and that's less of a problem with Porter than it is with airlines and people in general.
A full train is more efficient, but when do you expect to have a reliable service between Toronto and Montreal/Ottawa, much less anywhere else?
It's the same issue transit in this region can't seem to get around; time versus cost is the issue most people take into consideration when travelling. That's been Porter's advantage over Via and the Island Airport's over Pearson.
Tamil protests: what country would allow its main street to be closed by a bunch of thugs! Why don't the cops just purge them already? You want to protest? go to Nathan Phillips plaza!
A lot more attention is garnered by shutting down a big street than by protesting at city hall.
The trees they destroyed are already long gone you say, well the same mentality can be used - that flight is gonna fly there whether your on the plane or not.
Its like moving to the city, moving into club district then filing noise complaints against the clubs and bars.
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Lighten up, people. http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4390/swineflunoticee.jpg
Can we hold all protests on the island from now on? Seems that the voice of the residents there is louder than anywhere else.
The noise complaints are insane - I'm within a 10 minute walk of YTZ (far closer than almost all of the Islanders) and never hear the planes. I constantly hear the street cars and the noise from GO and VIA trains makes Pearson sound peaceful (damn diesel turbines are loud going uphill). But that's what you get living in the heart of the city and within walking distance of enarly everything.
The Feds should expropriate and evict the islanders. Too bad the politicians caved into the hippie squatters back in the day. Islanders are nothing but greedy criminals who've converted public land for private use and hold the city hostage to maintain their utopian idyll.