Morning Brew: Island Airport Expansion, Mayor Miller's Book, Bill Blair's Candor at Jane & Finch, Students Protesting Police Presence, Webs on the Flag
Photo: "1" by Spirited_Away, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Will they pave the old Canada Malting silo site and put up a 600 space parking lot to serve the Island Airport? As rumours swirl about the potential for several more airlines (including US-based Continental) to operate out of the controversial downtown airport, Air Canada Jazz (who was evicted in 2006) is still pursuing legal action at the federal level against the Toronto Port Authority. If expansion is in the TPA's plans (and they're not in bed with Porter), shouldn't Jazz be a shoe-in?
Outgoing mayor David Miller is writing a book highlighting the interactions and experiences he's had with the people of the city during his tenure as mayor. All politics aside, I'm really looking forward to reading this when it comes out in June of 2010. I had the pleasure of hearing him tell a few personal stories about memorable Torontonians, and they were great.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair had what sounds like a serious and honest heart-to-heart with residents of the Jane-Finch area, regarding the issues of racial bias, stigmatization of the community, and challenges with curbing youth violence and gangs. It's a breath of fresh air to have a chief of police who isn't afraid to take the issues on in this way.
Students at Northern Secondary plan to protest police presence in their school today. The protest stems from the recent YouTube arrest video/incident, which I thought clearly showed who was to blame for the fiasco.
Wang "David" Chen, the Kensington shopkeeper who was charged with assault and kidnapping of a convicted thief, is finally in court today. His defense attorney is hoping to see the charges against him dropped, but if they're not, he plans to launch a constitutional challenge of our citizen's arrest laws.
And news out of an Oshawa Zellers store has us wondering whether draping the Canadian flag with ghouls and spider webs is extremely offensive, kinda gauche, or not worth being concerned about whatsoever.
Comments (34)
I love the Island Airport!!
Taking Porter again in two weeks to Thunder Bay.
Such a great convenience having it there.
Bring on Continental!!
The star article also mentions building a park and burying a parking lot underneath, which I think is a much more realistic solution. The silos are a huge eyesore on the waterfront and if there is a win-win to be found having a private company pay to build a park then I don't see a problem.
The Silos are one of the few unique and interesting buildings left on the waterfront. Without it, we'll just have endless rows of generic condos and empty 'park' spaces.
Unique in only the way the rebar reinforced concrete can be. You have to admit it's pretty damn ugly though.
First it was going to be an opera house. Then it was going to be a museum. Maybe they can save the bottom ten feet or something, but honestly..?
I would be fine with half parking lot, half park. Leave one silo up and build a circular staircase and/or elevator inside and have an observation deck on the top.
Expand the airport, but end flights at 10 pm and cut service on the weekend.
The flag is the flag. Don't whore it up with garbage. Don't turn it sideways and make it into gaudy car dealership banners. Don't wear it like a f*king cape on Canada Day and wipe the Jagermeister drool from your mouth with it. So no, don't put spiders and webs and crap on it.
The silos are the port's last remaining evidence of the famed, and now faded, Great Lakes industrial/agricultural belt. You know, the economic success story that gave rise to Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Rochester, Cleveland, etc etc. People emigrated to these cities from all over the world during that era. We will not regret it if we preserve the silos as a monument to that time.
Rome and Athens have a few crumbling old buildings from important points in history, too.
I think the malt plant is done. Honestly, it's a hulk that needs to come down and be used for more practical purposes to reflect Toronto's needs today.
A park won't generate revenue or tax dollars, but a parking lot will. So will a condominium, but I don't think anyone wants to live across an inlet from an airline hanger...or do they?
I just hope that the debate on the fate of the space is brief and does not drag on out until it becomes the next round of councillors' topic to discuss. I know that Toronto doesn't like to do much else than waffle but it's time to shit or get off the pot.
I agree with you but since there's still a silo further east with greater structural integrity than the Malt, would it make better financial sense to preserve the Victory silos instead?
The remaining stub of Victory Soya Mills could perhaps be cheaper to preserve than the much more impressive Canada Malting one.
Sigh. Why have Canadians become so accustomed to aiming low?
I'd really like to be able to get a streetcar to the Island Ferry, which is 200m from the existing tracks. Move the car park across the road, build a streetcar loop on the current parking and run either short-turning 509/511s or a new route running from Bathurst to Union via the Airport Loop.
WTF?!! Continental airlines wanting to land at the Island Airport??? You mean those normal sized commercial airlines??
Are we living in bizarro-land?? What with all those monstrous glass/steel condos in the skydome area, what's adding a few more thousands of people traffic to the area by letting gianormous planes land on the airport!!
WHO are these imbeciles at TPA???
No actually, you're completely wrong. If you read the article, it states that Continental also flies the Bombardier Q400 turboprop plane, the same one as Porter.
And to speak of the cilo, OBVIOUSLY if you allow continental airlines to arrive here, you'll need more parking spaces.
I mean, WHO TAKES the TTC ANYWAY!(*sarcasm)
Continentals fleet also includes the same size planes that Porter uses.
You really think they can land a 777 on the tarmac on the Island?
My bad Paul, thanks for the clarification.
If that's the case, why isn't Jazz allowed to fly there then?
No worries.
Jazz used to fly out of the island, ending around 2006. There has been much politicking between Porter, the TPA and Jazz since then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_City_Centre_Airport#Air_Canada_Jazz_eviction
The air traffic from the airport is limited by the size of the runway. Currently it is only prop planes, no jets, and I don't think that will really ever change.
Unless Jazz offers better rates and even freer booze on their flights than Porter does, then they can stay the F away from the Island Airport.
You're right paul, air traffic "is" limited to the runway this island has. So why more airlines and/or parking lots then? (Or "visible" once at least. I like the underground/with park on top idea)
And going by readers comments in the T.O. Star article, folks seem to "not" want more traffic out of there. So what's the TPA's problem?
DS: but I don't think anyone wants to live across an inlet from an airline hanger...or do they?
HAhahaaa... hmmm, maybe you should ask the thousands of people who choose to cram themselves into closet-sized condos in the spadina/skydome/waterfront area. I figure they don't mind a little noise. That's just my take.
I live on Stadium Rd. As close to the Airport as humanly possible.
And I for one couldnt be happier the Airport is there.
You do not hear the airplanes at all. What you hear is the screeching on the 509 streecar zipping down Queens Quay and the honking of car horns at jackwad cyclists who dont obey the rules of the road. Any whirl of a plane that I may hear is like white noise.
I love Porter and everything it brings and offers me as a passanger.
Re: Canada Malting Silos
Most Torontonians really don't give a rat's ass about their own history.
Someone should put together an 5-10 minute emotionally-driven powerpoint show about the destruction of heritage landmarks in Toronto and play it at the start of these meetings. It could use these photos from this Urban Toronto forum thread (http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=6947&page=124) and some deep voiced actor to dictate in a really symathetic manner (someone who you'd hear talking about volcanoes destroying remote villages on the Discovery channel). Then see how many people cheer at the suggestion of demolishing things like this.
They seem like boneheaded idiots to most of us, but I'm optimistic that a little education would go a long way.
Point taken Porter4Eva. I guess since the planes are propeller flown, you don't have too much noise.
Personally, i find highway noise way more disturbing. And yes, streetcars generally are screechingly loud(*not as loud as the buses though) so i hope the new LRT lines will provide us with quality/low noise transportation. People take city noise for granted sometimes(*I've lived in cities all my life) It's a slow death for your ear drums.
Amen to that. There seems to be a huge problem with the think-small mindset of many Torontonians. Does it stem from our frugal Protestant roots? If a building is no longer deemed useful, no matter its history, beauty or architectural significance, it is almost always deemed easier to tear down and build something new (and ugly, and uninspired, and cheap). Rare is the building or structure that gets repurposed or re-imagined. I can't help but wonder if that is why we have so little pride in our city, because its identity and cityscape is transient and forever New! New! New! Where are the architectural icons? People fall in love with the great cities of the world for their beauty, history and culture, not their parking lots and airports. Can we please start thinking big?
Nice to see Mayor Miller made it *official* that he's a lame duck. For a book coming out so soon I now feel like I know what Hairboy was up to instead of fixing the garbage strike.
Just because something once had significance doesn't mean we have to hold its value for ever. Things have their time, sometimes they can be brought forward and sometimes it makes sense to take them down and create something new.
Everytime a building is coming down you're whining. There are tons of buildings that have been preserved, reused, restored in the city, you don't seem to appreciate them if you dont see the balance between the heritage buildings that have been preserved and those being torn down for better use. Have you been to the distillery district? The roundhouse? Should we do the same with the Malt silos? What is your better vision for them?
Its because Toronto the city isnt old enough to have any historical significance compared to all these other cities throughout the world. The fact we still have an "old city hall" goes to show just how pathetic our architechural history is. You think saving some crumbling malt silo and fancying it up will put Toronto on par with Paris, Rome, etc? Come on. There are enough of those cities across the globe. Lets embrace technology and all that it incorporates and build a city for the 22nd century, not one to look like a city from the 17th century. We all get it, old buildings are pretty. But its time to move on.
The Toronto Star? You're kidding, right? They only print what fits with their agenda. With all of the development going up along Queen's Quay/Spadina/Fleet St., I'd say parking is going to be a desperate problem in that area. One large project's sales have slowed down because not enough parking spaces were alotted for each unit.
If Porter plans to expand (and other airlines use the airport, too), a parking lot only makes sense. If the city gets a park otu of the deal, so much the better.
No, I'm not so deluded as to compare Toronto to Paris, Rome, etc. I'm just asking that we at least try harder to make the city greater than it is. Why preserve old buildings? Because we don't have the money, imagination or will to build beautiful new buildings. Everything that goes up in an old buildings place looks like some kind of Walmart-grade template for architecture. With few exceptions (e.g. the OCAD building) we blow it time and time again. I'm not just talking about the sh-tty glass condos or office towers. Look at every new townhouse complex built in the last 30 years. They're all cheap and ugly replicas of Victorian Toronto instead of something truly new, cutting-edge and contemporary. I wouldn't hold onto the past so dearly if what was new was beautiful and of quality, but it ain't. I was told not long ago by a contractor that according to the lowest legal standard of residential construction, structures need only be built to last 7 years. We're worried about recycling pop cans when an entire community of homes can be worthy of demolition in less than a decade? Meanwhile, buildings erected 100++ years ago continue to stand strong. I've lived in this city my whole life and, while it has certainly grown more vibrant with the influx of immigrants and general boom in population, it has become progressively more ugly. I love my city, but only because it's home. I know it can be so much more.
View More Events
Suggest an Event
Join the blogTO Flickr group
Join the blogTO YouTube Group
RSS