City
Morning Brew: Auto Insurance Changes, Downsview Park Dreams Diminishing, Sharp Candy, Canada Malting Silo Preservation
Photo: untitled by tomms, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
With auto insurance rates on the rise, Ontario Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan is making proposals to change insurance policies to allow drivers to get more competitive rates. One such change would be to lower the basic medical coverage limit below the current $100,000. Would you be willing to drop down to a $10,000 basic medical coverage insurance package, to save a few bucks each month, if it were available?
Remember the grand plans for a massive urban park at the former Downsview military base? The plan has morphed over the years, and in order to fund the park concept, residential development had to be incorporated. But now we're left wondering if the park will ever be, and by the time there are enough funds, how much will remain as park when it's complete.
Another year, another discovery of a razor blade and a needle in candy given to kids on Halloween. At least Toronto didn't fall victim to the feared armed mugging purple Teletubby, like London did.
Parking is hard to find in some parts of the city, but worse yet is that there are places that pretty much need to have ample parking but don't. New condos, the Brick Works, and Artscape Wychwood Barns are a few recent developments that fall into this category, and have me thinking that things are only going to get worse in this regard.
The Toronto Museum idea has been shifted away from the site, but can a combination of city monies and private funds save the Canada Malting silos at the foot of Bathurst? Are they worth preserving?
And here's what blogTO was doing this Halloween weekend, with the extra hour we earned when the clocks fell back an hour:
- Roger stumbled upon a great deal on ghoulish Devil's Night hair cuts at Grateful Head, and filled us in on the Toxic Avenger's arrival in Toronto.
- Hamish Grant got behind the scenes at the Good Lovelies' Zombie Prom show at Lula Lounge.
- Claire enjoyed Iberian-inspired tapas at the Yonge & St. Clair neighbourhood favourite, Cava.
- Christopher went on a hilarious Halloween quest to come face to face with the Devil at Puck's Farm in King Township.
- Lisa got brain-bent at the Creative Places + Spaces conference.
- Joe chatted with rockabilly outfit The Vanishers, about how they came to be, and the Hamilton scene.
- Beverly filled us in on the 31st annual Business for the Arts awards gala at the AGO.
- Tim pointed us to a bunch of soon-to-open restaurants and lounges, including The Garrison on King, Cherry Colas Rock & Roll Cabaret Lounge, John's Italian Cafe on Bathurst, The Wing Company, and Ozzy's Shawarma.
Discussion
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We took the bus across sheppard and whilst saw signs announcing the parks entrance, didn't really feel like there was any visual cues as to where to get off. Eventually, after driving around warehouse after warehouse, our driver asked us where we were getting off. "Here", we said, and duly disembarked.
With no idea where to go, we wandered for a bit, found the soccer fields, but still could not find any of our imagined greenery.
Some more wandering around, and we got back on the bus, wondering where on earth this park was actually supposed to be.
We had our picnic at home.
The thing I find interesting is that the building tends to attract a certain type of person, young professionals mostly.
Perhaps that is a small part of the intention with these new buildings. If they are designed for young professionals, perhaps it doesn't make sense to cater to groups that really aren't meant to be living there anyways or risk attracting the wrong type of person to your building.
2. we need better transit, not more parking. Sadly, it's a chicken and the egg problem.
It's been mentioned before, but it really doesn't fit in Toronto to have gigantic suburban-style parking lots, especially with so many historic buildings nearby. The lot at the Metro Plaza is ridiculous.
It's a bit sad about Downsview. But it sounds like a done deal, and perhaps really is necessary to make a park out of that piece of land. Perhaps development along the park perimeter nearby might even revitalize the space a little bit; give it more of a human scale (but then, they're probably going to be tall condos, so maybe not...)
Meanwhile, I suggest a trek to the Downsview Park to enjoy it the way it is right now. It's not for everyone (clearly Facebook User was not impressed), but it's a pretty unique experience, as I found out recently while taking a bike ride through the park. It's a place that has rugged character to it and a sense of urban abandonment, yet at the same time it has some really cool living stuff (like the aviation museums, the airport itself, the military vehicles etc.). The whole place has a really eerie feel to it, in a cool kind of way. If you want some solitude, that's a great place to go - yet it's only a short hop back to (relative) civilization. And oh, the view to the south (from certain points anyway) is not bad.
2) I agree, we need more parking (or vastly improved transit...)
3) Preserve the malting silos IMO.
I hope the new condos in the Distillery District do not affect the charm of that location. I wouldn't like it to become similar to Liberty Village (just as 'Joel M' commented above).
I wouldn't take the TTC if my life depended on it. I am not alone in this opinion. Unfortunately, those of us with this opinion also have jobs that keep us from picketting/protesting at City Hall. I have recently worked at 3 downtown condo projects and one has seen sales grind to a halt due to the lack of parking: customers are literally walking out when they find there is no more parking available. Nary a concern about bicycle paths and rarely inquiries about TTC access. The TTC sycophants and the bicycle lobbyists are spreading lies and poison, but apparently the public at large aint' buying it.
Another thing people should know is that there are more than 4,000 condo units planned for Liberty Village, south of King. Where are all those cars going to go? As anyone can tell you, taking the King car now is a joke. But developers don't give a damn; people are lining up to buy. The city is happy to take the development fees and piss them down the drain. I can't wait to see the looks on people's faces, say in 2014 when they are all completed.
I weep for this city. Our council's lack of planning over the past 30 years is going to bite us on the ass. (For example, with all the new development, King St. could have been widened as buildings were built, but that train has left the station - too bad.)
Now, for the usual suspects to make the usual comparisons to New York, London, Chicago...........