{"id":10533,"date":"2010-04-16T12:08:53","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T16:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=10533"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:20:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:20:00","slug":"open-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/16\/open-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to candidates about complete streets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4009\/4631157054_5bdb219903_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dear candidates,<\/p>\n<p>The individuals who have signed this letter met recently to discuss the theme of transportation in our city. We are a diverse group of people involved in all aspects of this issue who came together to help build a constructive consensus on this critical issue. We believe in transforming our city&#8217;s streets into livable spaces that function both as sustainable transportation routes as well as vibrant destinations. Complete Streets would bring us closer to Toronto&#8217;s stated goals of being green, clean, competitive and diverse.<\/p>\n<p>We do not believe that there is a &#8220;war on the car.&#8221; The Complete Streets model strives to provide room for everyone including drivers, cyclists, transit riders and pedestrians. It&#8217;s simply about offering choice, and ensuring that everyone can travel safely.<span> <\/span>If there is a war, it&#8217;s just a war on old thinking. A war on inefficiency. A war on traffic. A war on pollution. Cities around the world are making this shift with great success, improving the quality of life for all of their citizens and their competitiveness as places to live, work and invest.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To describe transportation issues in Toronto as a conflict between drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians is a divisive approach that does our city a disservice and misses the whole point. There are not two Torontos, comprised of cyclists or drivers. In fact, statistics show us that those who own bicycles are more likely to own cars than those who do not. We are one Toronto. We drive, we ride and we walk. The goal of Complete Streets is to ensure that our streets are designed to safely accommodate all users.<\/p>\n<p>This goal can be achieved by attracting more citizens into the process, turning neighbours into engaged informed advocates, and we are committed to working together collectively towards this goal.<\/p>\n<p>We encourage all candidates to embrace this comprehensive and democratic approach to transportation, rather than perpetuating or encouraging a divisive framing that unnecessarily pits Torontonians against each other. We can only build a green Toronto if we all work together.<\/p>\n<p>Signed,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jehad Aliweiwi<\/strong> \u2022 Executive Director, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office<br \/>\n<strong>Yvonne Bambrick <\/strong>\u2022 Executive Director, Toronto Cyclists Union<br \/>\n<strong>Rahul Bhardwaj<\/strong> \u2022 President and CEO, Toronto Community Foundation<br \/>\n<strong>Matthew Blackett<\/strong> \u2022 Publisher and Creative Director, Spacing Magazine<br \/>\n<strong>David Crombie<\/strong> \u2022 Chair, Toronto Lands Corp.<br \/>\n<strong>David Crowley<\/strong> \u2022 Vice President, Halcrow Consulting Inc.<br \/>\n<strong>Julia Deans<\/strong> \u2022 CEO, Toronto City Summit Alliance<br \/>\n<strong>Susan Eng<\/strong> \u2022 Vice-President, Advocacy, CARP<br \/>\n<strong>Jane Farrow<\/strong> \u2022 Executive Director, Jane&#8217;s Walk<br \/>\n<strong>Luigi Ferrara<\/strong> \u2022 Director, School of Design at George Brown College<br \/>\n<strong>Adam Goddard<\/strong> \u2022 Composer<br \/>\n<strong>Eti Greenberg<\/strong> \u2022 Wellington Place Neighhbourhood Association<br \/>\n<strong>Ken Greenberg<\/strong> \u2022 Architect and urban designer<br \/>\n<strong>Paul Hess<\/strong> \u2022 Professor, Geography and Planning, U of T<br \/>\n<strong>Ed Levy<\/strong> \u2022 Senior Transportation Consultant and Transportation Engineer<br \/>\n<strong>Roberto Martella<\/strong> \u2022 Owner\/operator, Grano Restaurant<br \/>\n<strong>Dave Meslin<\/strong> \u2022 Founder, Toronto Cyclists Union<br \/>\n<strong>Shawn Micallef<\/strong> \u2022 Senior Editor, Spacing Magazine<br \/>\n<strong>Eric Miller<\/strong> \u2022 Director, Cities Centre, U of T<br \/>\n<strong>Steve Munro<\/strong> \u2022 Transit Advocate<br \/>\n<strong>Gil Pe\u00f1alosa<\/strong> \u2022 Executive Director, 8-80 cities<br \/>\n<strong>Dylan Reid <\/strong>\u2022 Co-chair, Toronto Pedestrian Committee<br \/>\n<strong>Nancy Smith Lea<\/strong> \u2022 Director, Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation, Clean Air Partnership<br \/>\n<strong>Adam Vaughan<\/strong> \u2022 City Councillor, Ward 20<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> There is an excellent opportunity coming up to learn more about this concept at Toronto&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/torontocat.ca\/main\/completestreetsforum2010\">Complete Streets Forum<\/a> on April 23.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/torontocat.ca\/main\/completestreetsforum2010\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for details<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear candidates, The individuals who have signed this letter met recently to discuss the theme of transportation in our city. We are a diverse group of people involved in all aspects of this issue who came together to help build a constructive consensus on this critical issue. We believe in transforming our city&#8217;s streets into<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/16\/open-letter\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;An open letter to candidates about complete streets&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4010,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,8,20,6],"tags":[94,14820,1050,14817,14815,984,14814,655,1298,163,4511,14819,353,639,3771,22100,14821,352,14818,6130,14809,14811,5550,13889,1653,667,14822,3835,3234,818,4256,7026,4085,13511,14816,310,14813,1187,11228,14823,14810,19,4648,3253,589,224,14812,727,849,4948,5264,14808],"class_list":["post-10533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-politics","category-transit","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-2010-election","tag-adam-goddard","tag-adam-vaughan","tag-advocacy","tag-architect-and-urban-designer","tag-ceo","tag-cities-centre","tag-city-councillor","tag-co-chair","tag-complete-streets","tag-composer","tag-david-crowley","tag-director","tag-dylan-reid","tag-ed-levy","tag-editor","tag-eric-miller","tag-executive-director","tag-geography","tag-george-brown-college","tag-grano-restaurant-dave-meslin","tag-halcrow-consulting-inc","tag-jane-farrow","tag-julia-deans","tag-ken-greenberg","tag-matthew-blackett","tag-nancy-smith-lea","tag-paul-hess","tag-president-and-ceo","tag-professor","tag-publisher-and-creative-director","tag-rahul-bhardwaj","tag-roberto-martella","tag-school-of-design","tag-senior-transportation-consultant-and-transportation-engineer","tag-shawn-micallef","tag-spacing-magazine-david-crombie--chair","tag-steve-munro","tag-susan-eng","tag-sustainable-transportation-routes","tag-thorncliffe-neighbourhood-office-yvonne-bambrick","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-city-summit-alliance","tag-toronto-coalition-for-active-transportation","tag-toronto-community-foundation","tag-toronto-cyclists-union","tag-toronto-lands-corp","tag-toronto-pedestrian-committee","tag-transportation","tag-vice-president","tag-ward","tag-wellington-place-neighhbourhood-association"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An open letter to candidates about complete streets - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/16\/open-letter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An open letter to candidates about complete streets - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear candidates, The individuals who have signed this letter met recently to discuss the theme of transportation in our city. 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