City Building

David Shiner the Toronto city councillor from North York a couple of years ago shelved a plan for an iconic pedestrian bridge from Stanley Park to Fort York in downtown Toronto. He had headed the Public Works and Infrastructure committee with the ability to shelve the project. Shiner's ward is about as far from downtown Toronto as you can get. Shiner a Mayor Ford supporter and former provincial Progressive Conservative candidate has been renting a Yogne-Eglinton 2-bedroom apartment, with 2-parking spots from a city developer for well below market rates. In 2013 he was paying $630 a month. He was also a registered federal lobbyist for a company that did business with the city, while being a councillor.

The problem with the right-wing politicians in this city is that they lack vision and an ability to think of long-term city building. Always looking for ways to squeeze a nickel out of the budget and letting transit and infrastructure suffer. The bridge would have been a visionary project costing $23M. He wanted the city to build a staid low budget alternative. Three years later no shovel is in the ground.

It is this limited race to the cellar that resulted in the current half-ass renovations at Nathan Phillips Square. The most important square in the city, arguably passed by Yonge-Dundas Square due to neglect, as a result is undergoing a minor face lift.

The right-wing councillors in Toronto and their penny-pinching mayor bitch about the costs of permanent, year-round umbrellas in an urban beach project, comparing them to cheap synthetic patio umbrellas that might last one season. It was this same thinking that lead former Premier Mike Harris to  fill in subway tunnels on Eglinton with cement.

This is no way to build a city. A North York penny pincher, living in a subsidised apartment from a developer, axing iconic downtown structures. We deserve better in this city. It is the same lack of vision that holds up projects like the Frank Gehry condos on King West. People on the left and right that are afraid of building heights and literally shadows. They complain that the King streetcars are already packed. The vast majority of people living at King & John will work within a 10-minute walk from their building. They are not taking streetcars. The naysayers are probably the same folks that travel to world class cities and marvel at the architecture and amenities.

No one that is an actual decision maker in this city has any vision. Too scared to propose tolls and a rise in the HST to pay for transit and infrastructure. Afraid of a public backlash when they know there is no other alternative to pay for needed subways and LRT's. We have mayoral hopefuls without the vision to call for true reform. Local councillors that you would not hire to budget your local bingo club are making $Billion decisions on city-wide issues while looking out for their backwater little wards.

One of the major problems are the public meetings that review each project. It is the "No" brigade of largely entitled, artsy, government funded height police that attend these meetings. Regular people would last about 5-minutes in that room before pulling out their hair. The result is that we have a city "run" by the extreme right and extreme left. Chaos and stagnation ensue. Think of any city in the world that would turn down private sector built Gehry structures? They will probably be built, but neutered and cut off at the knees to satisfy the navel gazing extremists that are scared of shadows and standout structures that differ from the bland. These same people sip lattes and complain about the lack of architectural gems in the city.