Mimico waterfront disaster

Mimico waterfront: Another “wall of condos” disaster in the making?

In 1997 Doug Holyday, then mayor of Etobicoke, announced plans for a new neighbourhood: Humber Bay Shores. The former “motel strip” — a seedy area south of Lake Shore Blvd. W. and east of Park Lawn Rd. — saw its first new condo a year later.

Since then, highrises have sprouted like toadstools.

“There’s very large numbers of people in buildings that are just higgledy-piggledy scattered across that area. There’s no coherent pattern of public spaces, there’s no shopping or retail,” says Ken Greenberg, an architect and urban designer who has consulted for Waterfront Toronto.

“It’s one of the most egregious, terrible examples of lack of any kind of decent planning one can think of.”

Some may disagree. But many in Mimico — the next community over, where a massive revitalization plan known as “Mimico 20/20” is underway — look east to Humber Bay Shores as a warning.

“The multi-multi-multi-storey buildings? It scares me,” says Bob Poldon, president of the Mimico Residents Association.

…

Via The Star

Having lived in the area for several years, I truly believe that the high-rise condos on the water are the last thing Mimico needs.

Why can’t our city learn to capitalize on one of our greatest assets (the lake) and instead allows unimaginative, greedy developers permanently change the face of the city? Why are we building a shoebox of a city instead of a tourist destination?

Do you think ten years from now Toronto will take the top spot in National Geographic’s Top Trolley Rides? With a view of hideous concrete and glass – I doubt it.

Toronto doesn’t lack imagination – it lacks leadership to translate it to sound development policy.

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The other day I learned that São Paulo, Mexico City and Tehran are sister cities to Toronto.

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Is Rob Ford really that popular?

Amongst likely voters who have decided who they would vote for, 45.6 per cent say they would make Ford the next mayor.

Via CTV

It boggles my mind someone like Rob Ford can have so much support in the city. Why? Actually, wait, I’m not all that surprised. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of other candidates (all of them), but Ford is an illiterate clown. I am not going to dissect his platform in this post, but I do want to give you an idea of how the reported support statistics give us a skewed idea of his widespread support.

• There are 1.5 million electors in Toronto’s municipal election.
• Population of Toronto is close to 2.5 million.
• Voter turnout in the 2006 election was 39% – 585,000 in today’s population.

Assuming a similar turnout, I estimate that 46% Rob Ford votes will come from approximately 269,100 city residents (46% of 585,000). Based on that assumption, we are letting approximately 11% of Toronto residents elect Rob Ford to lead this world-class city.

Ford doesn’t seem all that popular once you break down the numbers. But obviously he struck the right chord with quite a few voters. There is no easy answer to who should lead Toronto -  selecting the right candidate isn’t easy when the choices are so limited. Unfortunately I don’t find the other candidates to be more promising so it’s a tough choice to make.

But, there is a real possibility of Rob Ford becoming a mayor. And that’s scary (to me).

Whether you support him or not, take a look at the data, do some research and take 15 minutes out of your day to make an educated vote – don’t let others do it for you. Otherwise you let the 11% minority opinion run your city for the next 4 years. I am an eligible voter and taxpayer and believe that he doesn’t represent the majority opinion in this city.

Statistics: City of Toronto, CTV
Photo: CCUE