MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Lincoln Alexander lies in state, Doug Ford wants tolls, Bloor-Christie assaults news, separated lanes are safer, 3-1-1 absences, and saving churches
Former Ontario lieutenant governor Lincoln Alexander who died this weekend aged 90 will continue to lie in state at Queen's Park until 8pm tonight to allow mourners to pay their final respects. Alexander, Canada's first black MP and the province's 24th lieutenant governor, was born on Draper Street, close to King and Spadina. Two books of condolence are available.
Doug Ford says he's in favour of adding optional toll lanes to the Gardiner Expressway in an attempt to cover the rapidly increasing cost of maintaining the elevated road through the city. In the wake of a report that paints the crumbling highway as a danger to the public, Ford says adding toll lanes will help pay for the cost of new repairs. Would you pay to use a dedicated toll lane on the Gardiner?
Toronto police say they will make a "major announcement" in relation to the Bloor-Christie sexual assaults investigation at 10 am this morning. According to the CBC, police wouldn't confirm an arrest in the case.
In what might be the least surprising conclusion ever, a new report says cyclists are safer in separated lanes than on the street with regular motor vehicles. According to the Globe and Mail, the research from the University of British Columbia found bikers were ten times more likely to be in an accident on regular roads. Surprised?
The National Post says absenteeism at Toronto's 3-1-1 helpline is down significantly this year. According to the story, roughly 20 per cent of the service's staff were absent on any given day before new measures were put in place.
Churches in Toronto's industrial areas could be in trouble if a proposed bylaw amendment goes through. Roughly 22 per cent of Toronto's places of worship are located in buildings designed as factories and warehouses and it's feared future conflicts could arise over noise, dust and other annoyances from nearby industrial businesses.
Catering an event at the ROM is about to get a whole lot more expensive - the museum is asking companies to pay a $10,000 fee to be placed on a preferred list of suppliers. The catch? The fee doesn't guarantee any work.
GUESS THE INTERSECTION
Check out the "Geary for Mayor" poster on the side of the building. The poster refers to George Reginald Geary, the man who would successfully become leader of the city between 1910 and 1912. Can you place the streets shown here? Write your answers below.
IN BRIEF:
- Blue Jays let manager John Farrell go to Red Sox [CBC]
- Leave us alone, Humbertown residents say [Globe and Mail]
Photo: "toronto misc. - 50" by sarathofkhan in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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Speaking of, Doug Ford finally had to put his money where his mouth is and loves cars so much that he is willing to pay to keep driving on the Gardiner. Interesting. I didn't expect him to be knowledgeable about how other cities have town down their elevated freeways, or to come up with mass transit policy to compensate for no Gardiner, but I'm still a little surprised he admitted that a Tea Party-esque stance against all forms of new revenue was not sustainable.
The Gardiner is falling apart... existing lanes should have tolls put on them so that drivers using the Gardiner are the ones paying for the huge maintenance cost.
(Full disclosure, I didn't read the article because of the stupid paywall)
Once the tunnel debt is paid off every cent that isn't going in to maintenance should be put into transit.
Tolling some of the existing lanes might work, though it would create insane congestion in the untolled lanes, and they'd need to spend a bunch of money just to setup the tolling. I'm not sure it would be worth it in the long run, it's probably better just to toll all the lanes. Which would then create a bunch of congestion on streets that are alternates, but at least it might eventually produce a new and improved Gardiner underground or something.
As many in the G&M comments section have noted we need to be VERY careful not to allow the Fords/Hudak to sell off infrastructure for a one time pay out... in exchange for the many many many years of toll revenue which in the tradition of the 407 would probably amount to many many many times what the gov earned from the sell off.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/only-hope-reducing-traffic/315/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wacker_Drive,_3_levels.jpg
Never mind that this would be a disaster for people who actually live in Toronto rather than drive through it. (More pollution, more visible blocking of the waterfront, more cars clogging off ramps and overflowing local streets). Never mind that this is technically nearly impossible given the Gardiner's poor structural state. Never mind that it would take years to actually build this monstrosity, with terrible commuting in the meantime.
How can these man-children spout such nonsense? And be elected representatives?
Yes, toll the existing highway and dedicate funds to a Boston-style Big Dig or to improving GO Transit in this corridor. But both projects would require far more than what tolls could generate -- will everyone ante up the $$$ to pull this off?
It will be tolled soon, there are no other options for paying for it's repair, unless Ford finds $1 billion in gravy laying around.
Honestly, if you Fordites ever bothered to take the time to listen (or in this case read) what others are saying instead of just knee-jerk reacting to any perceived "attack" on Ford, you might discover that not everyone here is a hyper-partisan lefty socialist. Most of us are just looking for realistic solutions to dealing with the infrastructure challenges this City faces. I for one am receptive to any good idea in that regard - I don't give a crap which side it comes from.
I like that the Fords are finally waking up to reality that the magical infrastructure fairy isn't coming down from the sky to sprinkle billions of dollars to pay for infrastructure (including transit) and that we do have to finally start talking about tolls, fees or *shudder* taxes, along with any other tool at our disposal (including leaning on the private sector and lobbying higher levels of government) to get some of what we need done. Just as its not realistic to expect that taxpayers will pick up the entire freight, while the private sector gets a free ride in development fees, its also not realistic to think that the private sector will, on their own, solve our infrastructure woes for us.
I just hope the awakening isn't short-lived and that they fall right back into their old habits of promising billions in subways or other infrastructure without having any way of paying for it.