{"id":14026,"date":"2010-09-13T14:03:34","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T18:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=14026"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:12:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:12:39","slug":"lorinc-rossis-newest-tunnel-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/09\/13\/lorinc-rossis-newest-tunnel-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Rossi’s newest tunnel vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Where to begin, or, perhaps more accurately, where to end?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question Rocco Rossi\u2019s troops flatly refuse to answer about his newest pledge to commission a study on constructing a highway tunnel between end of the Allen and an un-named location along the Gardiner.<\/p>\n

The grinding sound you\u2019re hearing is Jane Jacobs coming back from the dead.<\/p>\n

Tellingly, the campaign won\u2019t say what it will cost, who pays, where or how many other exits will be built, what will be the impact on congestion, and whether they\u2019ve consulted the thousands of homeowners who live on the presumed path between Eglinton and Gardiner. \u201cThose details are not even available,\u201d said Larry Archer of Rossi’s campaign team. \u201cWe put out no numbers today because we don\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a plan for a new piece of urban infrastructure, Rossi\u2019s so-called Toronto Tunnel is little more than a fantasy, and an exceedingly expensive one at that. But coupled with his other recent pronouncements \u2014 especially his plan to somehow slash the size of council \u2014 this latest gimmick reveals Rossi as a candidate so desperate for a bump that he has jettisoned all traces of good judgment in the pursuit of a fleeting news hit. True leaders are made of stronger fibre.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Toronto Tunnel, from where I sit, officially puts Rossi in the fringe candidate column. He\u2019s no longer to be taken seriously, which is regrettable because Rossi\u2019s candidacy began on a far more sober note. You may not have agreed with his plan to privatize Toronto Hydro, but it was a serious idea. The tunnel isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

All this is good to know, because his judgment in advancing an impossible and destructive highway building scheme shows that Rossi would be an attention-craving mayor for whom petty politics would trump all else.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine a mirror image of Rossi\u2019s Toronto Tunnel \u2013 e.g., a highway tunnel linking the 401 and the 407 and running under some unfortunate collection of Scarborough and Markham neighbourhoods. Such a proposal would never happen, because those are votes he wants. Apparently, those south of the Allen, not so much.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Sarah Thomson\u2019s new bike plan<\/a>, released last week, offers a highly revealing contrast to Rossi\u2019s tunnel vision.<\/p>\n

When it was announced early in the race, Thomson\u2019s subway plan was rife with gaps and factual errors<\/a>. But she\u2019s clearly grown as the campaign has evolved, and her impressive bike plan reads as if it had been written by a team that\u2019s done its homework and consulted those who know a thing or two about the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBike City\u201d cites the need for bike boxes, more extensive sharrows, physically segregated bike lanes on Richmond\/Adelaide and University, among other pledges. Thomson\u2019s political naivet\u00e9 is still in evidence: she believes that if city council approves a four-year bike strategy, the naysayers will retreat into defeated silence.<\/p>\n

But the broader point is that Thomson has shown herself to be a candidate who has sought to better understand the city\u2019s current problems and how they may be solved in a sustainable, cost-effective and urban-minded manner. Rossi\u2019s proposed tunnel, by contrast, is about reviving old fights and pumping more congestion into an already congested core. Forty years after the Spadina Expressway fiasco, it seems we may have to learn those lessons all over again.<\/p>\n

photo by Toronto Archives<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where to begin, or, perhaps more accurately, where to end? That\u2019s the question Rocco Rossi\u2019s troops flatly refuse to answer about his newest pledge to commission a study on constructing a highway tunnel between end of the Allen and an un-named location along the Gardiner. The grinding sound you\u2019re hearing is Jane Jacobs coming backContinue reading “LORINC: Rossi’s newest tunnel vision”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"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":[18,2,9],"tags":[94,662,15925,504,15926,10726,15924,14677,89,15923,4446],"class_list":["post-14026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-politics","category-traffic","tag-2010-election","tag-adelaide","tag-attention-craving-mayor","tag-jane-jacobs","tag-larry-archer","tag-rocco-rossi","tag-rossis-toronto-tunnel","tag-sarah-thomson","tag-scarborough","tag-toronto-tunnel","tag-urban-infrastructure"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Rossi's newest tunnel vision - 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\/09\/13\/lorinc-rossis-newest-tunnel-vision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Rossi's newest tunnel vision - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where to begin, or, perhaps more accurately, where to end? 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