{"id":43568,"date":"2013-05-13T16:51:10","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T20:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=43568"},"modified":"2013-05-13T19:45:22","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T23:45:22","slug":"a-win-for-pedestrians-in-last-weeks-messy-council-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/05\/13\/a-win-for-pedestrians-in-last-weeks-messy-council-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"A win for pedestrians in last week’s messy council meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0March<\/a>, I wrote about the planned reconstruction of Bay Street between Bloor St. and Davenport Rd<\/a>, which amongst other things, would widen Bay Street’s busy sidewalks, a project championed by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. Two city-owned lay-bys, where the roadway cuts into the sidewalk, were planned to removed on the west side of Bay \u2013 a TTC bus bay at Cumberland<\/a>, in front of the entrance to Bay subway station, and at the southwest corner of Bay and Yorkville Avenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pusateri’s, a local high-end grocery store, took exception to these plans, even though\u00a0local consultations had already concluded\u00a0and construction scheduled to start this month. The store claims that the lay-by is vital to their business; it currently treats it as its exclusive domain for\u00a0its valet and detailing service.<\/p>\n

Pusateri’s went as far as hiring prominent lobbyists Sussex Strategy Group and transportation engineers at LEA Consulting in a bid to maintain the lay-by in front of their store, rather than move the valet service to a nearby laneway as suggested by proponents such as Councillor Wong-Tam. The item was to be brought to council for the April session of City Council, but was delayed to allow LEA and Transportation Services to develop\u00a0possible alternative solutions to the lay-by removal or the status quo.<\/p>\n

Walk Toronto<\/a>, a new pedestrian advocacy group, joined Councillor Wong-Tam, the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area,\u00a0 and\u00a0local residents’ associations to remove the lay-by and complete the Bay Street project in its entirety. This was Walk Toronto’s first campaign since forming in February.<\/p>\n

In the back-and-forth discussion since March, LEA,\u00a0on behalf of Pusateri’s,\u00a0recommended\u00a0the retention of the lay-by.\u00a0However, it would be\u00a0built with the new granite sidewalk surface and removable\u00a0bollards to separate the three-car layby from the\u00a0narrow pedestrian area\u00a0\u2013 an alternative\u00a0in which, in the consultant’s words, “the full boulevard\/sidewalk can be used by pedestrians when vehicles are not present and when Pusateri\u2019s is closed.” For their part, Transportation Services staff recommended a shorter, two-car lay-by\u00a0\u2013 a “compromise” <\/a>\u00a0\u2013 that would have\u00a0mitigated the effect of\u00a0\u00a0the pinch-point between Pusateri’s seasonal patio and the lay-by curb. This was added to the agenda of last week’s Council meeting as an urgent item as the city in the process of tendering the construction contract.<\/p>\n

Last week’s four-day council meeting was most notable for its frustrating and irresponsible ‘debate’<\/a> on funding transit expansion, but by\u00a0late Friday afternoon, and with nearly half the councillors gone home, the\u00a0Bay Street\u00a0item was finally up for debate. In the end,\u00a0the staff report was received, and councillors\u00a0voted 19-8 in favour <\/a>of Councillor Wong-Tam’s amended motion that will eliminate the lay-by\u00a0in favour\u00a0of \u00a0the original plans. The affirming votes came from councillors across the city;\u00a0TOronto, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.<\/p>\n

A small, but significant, win for pedestrians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0March, I wrote about the planned reconstruction of Bay Street between Bloor St. and Davenport Rd, which amongst other things, would widen Bay Street’s busy sidewalks, a project championed by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. Two city-owned lay-bys, where the roadway cuts into the sidewalk, were planned to removed on the west side of Bay \u2013 aContinue reading “A win for pedestrians in last week’s messy council meeting”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":42427,"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":[2,32,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-streetscape","category-traffic","category-walking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA win for pedestrians in last week's messy council meeting - 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\/2013\/05\/13\/a-win-for-pedestrians-in-last-weeks-messy-council-meeting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A win for pedestrians in last week's messy council meeting - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In\u00a0March, I wrote about the planned reconstruction of Bay Street between Bloor St. and Davenport Rd, which amongst other things, would widen Bay Street’s busy sidewalks, a project championed by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. 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