{"id":346,"date":"2005-11-26T15:19:13","date_gmt":"2005-11-26T19:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=346"},"modified":"2005-12-01T12:05:25","modified_gmt":"2005-12-01T16:05:25","slug":"nathan-phillips-sq-and-a-gta-transit-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2005\/11\/26\/nathan-phillips-sq-and-a-gta-transit-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Phillips Sq. and a GTA transit authority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/thestar\/img\/051126_skating_rink_300.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><\/p>\n<p>Two items from the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star:<\/p>\n<p><strong> 1. Nathan Phillips Square renovations:<\/strong> In the words of city councillor, and vice chair of the city&#8217;s budget committee, Joe Mihevc, &#8220;We can decide to fix the leaks, and put cement in the cracks and just tread water with what we have. Or we&#8217;ll decide to rethink our front yard with a new vision. We can decide to swim.&#8221; City council has decided to fund $16 million worth of fixes to the square, and hope to get another $24 million to help re-think the entire plaza of city hall. There is talk that the $24 million could come from private money, which I think would be a mistake. The largest open square in Toronto, our icon to the world, should not be something that you put up for sale. I recognize the City is strapped for cash, but <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=291\">looking for corporate sponsors<\/a> like councillor <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=295\">Doug Holyday<\/a> suggested is crass and sends absolutely the wrong message of what Toronto is all about. Read more about the situation by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/NASApp\/cs\/ContentServer?pagename=thestar\/Layout\/Article_Type1&#038;c=Article&#038;cid=1132960212696&#038;call_pageid=968350130169&#038;col=969483202845\">clicking here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong> 2. The Greater Toronto Transit Authourity? <\/strong> Kevin McGran reports today, &#8220;Forgive us, but we&#8217;ve been down this road before: committees, panels, boards, authorities, all formed with the good intention of trying to sort out what&#8217;s in the best interest in terms of the planning and transportation needs of the Greater Toronto Area. All died. They were toothless, powerless to invoke real, lasting change&#8230;. George Puil, first chairman of Vancouver&#8217;s innovative Trans Link, shakes his head in wonder. &#8216;I was brought out to Toronto and spoke to all of your mayors and chairs. What I saw was homes being built on 25-foot lots using farmland and there was no transportation plan whatsoever. The sprawl was incredible. I just gave them holy hell. I was just appalled at what I saw when I went there.'&#8221; Read all about it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/NASApp\/cs\/ContentServer?pagename=thestar\/Layout\/Article_Type1&#038;c=Article&#038;cid=1132960211340&#038;call_pageid=1012319932217&#038;col=1012319928928\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two items from the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star: 1. Nathan Phillips Square renovations: In the words of city councillor, and vice chair of the city&#8217;s budget committee, Joe Mihevc, &#8220;We can decide to fix the leaks, and put cement in the cracks and just tread water with what we have. Or we&#8217;ll decide<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2005\/11\/26\/nathan-phillips-sq-and-a-gta-transit-authority\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Nathan Phillips Sq. and a GTA transit authority&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[24,2,8],"tags":[1064,1066,1068,756,655,408,949,1065,1063,983,552,1062,339,19,341,1067,1069,391,54],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-politics","category-transit","tag-and-vice-chair","tag-and-vice-chair-of-the-citys-budget-committee","tag-cement","tag-city-council","tag-city-councillor","tag-councillor","tag-doug-holyday","tag-first-chairman","tag-george-puil","tag-head","tag-joe-mihevc","tag-kevin-mcgran","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star","tag-transportation-needs","tag-transportation-plan","tag-usd","tag-vancouver"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nathan Phillips Sq. and a GTA transit authority - 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\/2005\/11\/26\/nathan-phillips-sq-and-a-gta-transit-authority\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nathan Phillips Sq. and a GTA transit authority - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two items from the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star: 1. 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