Bicycling
• Bike riding is bliss in Copenhagen [ Toronto Star ]
• Bike death spurred lawyer to take action [ Toronto Star ]
• New bike lane symbol of city’s commitment to the bicycle, Heaps says [Toronto Star]
• No war on cars, mayor insists [ National Post ]
• John Moore: If it’s a war on cars that you want… [ National Post ]
• Big Step for cycling, small step for cycling kind [ National Post ]
• Rider crashes bike lane party [ Toronto Sun ]
• Amicable separation: the case for separated bike lanes [Now Magazine]
• For the love of Jarvis [ Now Magazine ]
• The fast and the furious [ Now Magazine ]
• Miller denies waging ‘a war on the car’ [ Globe & Mail ]
• Road rage [ Eye Weekly ]
Toronto’s Streets
• High Park street gets limit on daycares [ Toronto Star ]
• Help inner-city kids goof around, right in their own backyard [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto council passes controversial changes for west-end street [Globe & Mail]
• Dundas: out most famous regular street [ Eye Weekly ]
• Signs of change [ Eye Weekly ]
Other News
• Glacial pace of equity costs our cities [ Toronto Star ]
• Crowding not a problem, despite record ridership: TTC [ National Post ]
• McGuinty, Peterson ready to present Toronto’s bid for 2015 Pan AM Games [ National Post ]
• Electric Circus: Is Metrolinx ‘s new study on ditching dirty diesel just a smokescreen or the real deal? [ Now Magazine ]
• Jailhouse flock [ Eye Weekly ]
2 comments
Regarding the ongoing discussion on this site regarding the viability of the industrial/commercial sector in Toronto, here’s a link to a story in today’s National Post that touches on this issue.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/05/27/emery-village-needs-jobs-not-homes.aspx
Looks like what has already happened in downtown Toronto (the conversion of industrial commercial sites into residential land) is happening in the City’s suburbs. Most of the discussion on this issue seems to be in comparison of tax rates between Toronto and the outer GTA municipalities… but the issue also has huge implications from an environmental perspective. The end result of this trend is that on average, employed people will be travelling further and further to get to their job. A city that claims to be committed to an environmentally sustainability would take this issue much more seriously… But of course wanting to be green and wanting to seem green are not the same thing.
samg,
You hit the nail on the head about the importance of perception over reality for this council.
Have a look at page 50 of this report……
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2005/agendas/council/cc051026/pofedp2rpt/cl001.pdf
Even in the core the percentage of people who travel outside of the city to work has increased. That is why, today, more people from Toronto work in the 905 than the opposite. LRT’s and bike lanes will not serve this growing segment. In Ward 20 alone the percentage climbed by 22.6%. Translating to more than 13,000 more people commuting outside of the city to go to work between 1991 and 2001. I would imagine that this accelerated post 2001 with a larger influx of condo residents and a still stagnant Toronto job market.
As you noted though, the greenest thing the city could do is stop killing the non residential sectors. To bad Mayor Miller hinted that the glacial program to reduce business property tax might be slowed. I guess he is waiting to see how much real estate “Build Toronto” can sell so as to use the proceeds to hide the structural deficit once again.