The big city fights the big box
If the city were serious about combatting climate change, it would ban big box stores from setting up shop within its borders. Monster retail stores, such as Wal-Mart, are well known for the cheap goods they sell thanks to cheap labour in China, not to mention their ability to wipe out small businesses in small towns. Less talked about, though just as grave, are the fossil fuels burned by big box stores’ car-dependent customers and the stores’ ability to transform pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods into smog-filled, uninviting messes.
But, of course, citizens banding together to fight Wal-Mart coming to their neighbourhoods is more of a small-town, suburban thing — until recently. Ever since SmartCentres (“Canada’s largest and most active retail developer and operator†according to the company’s website) bought a 50 per cent stake in the 19-hectare property where the Toronto Film Studios currently sit, residents in Riverdale and Leslieville have been bracing themselves for the worst. The developers finally submitted their plans to the city May 2 (because they were forced to) and as the area’s councillor, Paula Fletcher, put it, “I think the community will be very energized to say this isn’t an employment use that we want.†The newly released plans call for a “power centre†(read: multiple big box stores) with almost 650,000 square metres of retail, nearly 2,000 parking spots and three new traffic lights.
“We have a zoning problem in the east end of Toronto,†insists Fletcher. “We have an area that time and the planners forgot.†She says council passed an amendment to the new official plan prohibiting big box retail in the employment district that runs from the Don River to Coxwell Avenue, but that this application was made — though, for some perplexing reason, the aforementioned plans weren’t submitted — when the old official plan was still in effect.
In your face
What do city councillors with Facebook accounts think of the recent ban on city staff using the networking site while on the job? “With over 500,000 Torontonians on Facebook, it’s important that we try to utilize this medium to give the community information and provide them with an opportunity to give us their thoughts and questions,†says councillor Paula Fletcher, in response to a private thread I started on the site. Adam Giambrone’s assistant Kevin Beaulieu is just as positive about the site’s potential (though he was careful not to respond to my questions until after work). “I understand that there is a mechanism for city staff to be unblocked from Facebook if they can make a reasonable case that they need access for work purposes,†he says. “It’s a new tool, and I think that over the next while, organizations like the city are just going to have to figure out how to manage it effectively.â€
7 comments
Facebook: A website that makes you sign up and provide personal details before you can do anything useful with it.
What ever happened to the good old fashioned public Internet? Now we have people posting public event info etc. to websites like Facebook, hiding information from the public view.
Pretty soon we’ll have to use only certain types of computers and operating systems to access butt-ugly website full of Flash junk and millions of advertisements just to find out when some little local event is happening.
[/rant]
Vic> Facebook works because you have to register and go beyond that wall.
What personal details, you can give it as much or as little as you like. No conspiracy.
Best part, there is no junky Flash on facebook.
That seems like a rather arbitrary place for a new power centre (God forbid it goes through). Sure, there’s the right sized lots there, but I don’t really see any benefit beyond that. Further along at Leslie and Lakeshore, there’s going to be a Canadian Tire, and there’s a Loblaws/Tim Hortons there as well, but it seems like the proposed location for the new Power Centre is completely an ‘in between’, between downtown and the east end. Not to mention that it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing area in the city, and I can’t imagine why people would want to come all the way from X to shop there amongst run-down-ish warehouses, houses and the like when they can shop at a ‘spiffier’ Eaton Centre or STC.
Vic —
I agree with your sentiment, but almost everyone on the Net does not have the skills to make a blog, figure out how to host photos, organize events invitations. Facebook is a very powerful media tool that greatly expands what the regualr web surfer can do. You have a lot of skills and know how to manipulate web applications, but the common person doesn’t. Facebook allows them to do it under one roof.
And I agree with Shawn that you can rpovide as much or as little info as you want. In some ways, registering keeps people honest so they are not using sock-puppets (posting under an alias) to say nasty things.
Does anyone know if the plans are anywhere online?
The planning process is flawed. Developers are circumventing city planning input as well as resident input and fighting a war of attrition with the people and the city using their deep pockets. The problem not only exists on Eastern Avenue but in a smaller way in such areas as Annette Village where Plazacorp is proposing to put up a condo at twice the density permitted on Annette Street. In order to do this they went to Committee and called their variances minor arguing that the term “minor” can be interpreted in many ways. Their proposal was rejected and now there will be a 3 day hearing at the OMB in August. Let’s hope the City can come to the table with a defence and that the new Official Plan has teeth or else we are in big trouble.
The City has only itself to blame on the Eastern Avenue debacle. Toronto Film Studos tried to rezone their property into mixed-use to attract residents, retail, office, etc – all the ingredients for a good neighbourhood, we’re told. City planners adamantly refused to rezone and insisted it be kept “employment” only. Surprise, surprise, big box is considered employment, and if you read the NEW official plan, it’s easy to see why it would be permitted here. TOTAL UTTER FAILURE on the part of City Planning, who for all their supposed expertise, should have known this would happen.