{"id":1505,"date":"2007-02-02T14:06:06","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T18:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2007-02-02T14:06:06","modified_gmt":"2007-02-02T18:06:06","slug":"does-the-redpath-have-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/02\/does-the-redpath-have-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Redpath have to go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

John Barber’s article in the Globe<\/em> the other day compared the Redpath Sugar plant to the Island Airport as a major stumbling block on the road to waterfront revitalization. Since the column is in the subscriber section of the paper I’ll post a few highlights here:<\/p>\n

People say that nothing is happening on the waterfront — and they’re mostly right. Despite a smattering of local improvements, huge tracts remain amazingly derelict — most prominently the parking lots and old sheds of the central waterfront east of Yonge Street.<\/p>\n

But government isn’t alone to blame. An arrangement with private enterprise has done its share in retarding progress.<\/p>\n

An overdue renaissance to the west remains paralyzed in utero due to the all-important need to shuttle a few dozen people a day back and forth to Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Across the bay, the regulations that Redpath Sugar lobbied for maintain the long tradition of keeping all neighbouring development at bay.<\/p>\n

In addition to their roles in retarding a waterfront renaissance, the island airport and the sugar plant share one significant characteristic: They are uneconomic.<\/p>\n

If the free market had its way, both facilities would have gone the same way as the flour mills, shipyards, warehouses and foundries that once crowded the same shores.<\/p>\n

Only political friction keeps them alive.<\/p>\n

Although it has suffered none of the bad publicity richly earned by the Toronto Port Authority and the island airport, the Redpath plant is another prominent dog in the manger — albeit one that offers a wonderful view down Jarvis Street when there’s a ship unloading, and which will be missed when it closes, as it surely will.<\/p>\n

Its inevitable end will mark the final demise of Toronto’s industrial waterfront. Once Redpath closes, there will be no more foreign cargo ships inching dramatically through the Eastern Gap on a summer’s day. There will be no more Harbour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a little later in the article:<\/p>\n

The big difference between Redpath and the island airport is that nobody will miss the latter when it goes. But neither escapes the deathwatch. Unless there is no limit to waterfront absurdity, there can’t be any future in using that much prime land for the trivial purpose of allegedly saving a handful of people a few minutes in the air.<\/p>\n

If there was a real demand for the service, Porter Airlines wouldn’t be struggling along with half-empty planes on two domestic routes, heavily dependent on government subsidies and patronage. The island airport would be a real going concern. But it hasn’t been that for ages, and it still isn’t. It’s as obsolete as the sugar refinery across the bay, and like it sustained by politics alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Redpath plant poses an interesting question for waterfront revitalization. It’s hard to argue that the plant isn’t an eyesore, and it does cut the city off from the lake at for a rather long stretch. On the other hand, it’s a link to the lakeshore’s industrial heritage, and may be one of those parts of the city’s history we regret demolishing later down the road.<\/p>\n

Image from tristanhomer’s<\/a> flickr page.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Barber’s article in the Globe the other day compared the Redpath Sugar plant to the Island Airport as a major stumbling block on the road to waterfront revitalization. Since the column is in the subscriber section of the paper I’ll post a few highlights here: People say that nothing is happening on the waterfrontContinue reading “Does the Redpath have to go?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4019,"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":[5],"tags":[997,1694,346,1269,1977,4500,4499,19,1275],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waterfront","tag-island-airport","tag-john-barber","tag-ottawa","tag-port-authority","tag-porter-airlines","tag-redpath-plant","tag-redpath-sugar-plant","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-port-authority"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDoes the Redpath have to go? - 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\/2007\/02\/02\/does-the-redpath-have-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does the Redpath have to go? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Barber’s article in the Globe the other day compared the Redpath Sugar plant to the Island Airport as a major stumbling block on the road to waterfront revitalization. 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