{"id":51893,"date":"2015-05-25T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=51893"},"modified":"2015-05-24T23:07:13","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T03:07:13","slug":"lorinc-can-kumbaya-moment-gardiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/05\/25\/lorinc-can-kumbaya-moment-gardiner\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Can there be a Kumbaya moment for the Gardiner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the wake of the intense session at the public works committee<\/a>, the Gardiner East battle was joined by North York councillor James Pasternak, who is said to be shopping around a toll proposal<\/a>, and then city planner Jennifer Keesmaat, who on Friday set planning tongues a wagging by publicly breaking<\/a> with Mayor John Tory and\u00a0backing the remove option.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether either of these will influence undecided councillors.<\/p>\n

Pasternak\u2019s move looks to me like a half-baked ploy meant to assuage right-of-centre suburban councillors who are feeling squirmy about the high cost of the hybrid. Perhaps Pasternak reckons he can firm up the pro-hybrid faction with some kind of motion asking for a study on tolling options\/revenues, etc., etc. But I\u2019m guessing his supporters would go to ground at the first sign of trouble \u2013 e.g., directed robocall campaigns, talk radio call-in sessions, etc.<\/p>\n

As for Keesmaat, my feeling is that she\u2019s preaching to the choir, and everyone at 100 Queen West. understands that fact of council life. Initially, it seemed vaguely scandalous that such a senior official would break with the chief magistrate. But her views on planning issues are nothing if not well known. In any event, she would have been asked the question when the Gardiner debate starts in council. Unless her boss John Livey decides to bench her for the duration, Keesmaat would have expressed her professional opinion. She just did it a few weeks early.<\/p>\n

The question I have is whether council is prepared to consider some kind of middle ground \u2013 an art-of-compromise deal that splits the difference by assuaging the suburban right\u2019s concerns about traffic and cost, and the downtown left\u2019s critique of highway building.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, public works chair Jaye Robinson told me a few days after the committee session that she wants to see a third option emerge. \u201cI\u2019m hoping there\u2019s some kind of middle ground. That would be exciting to find.\u201d And, as she added at the time, \u201cWe have three full weeks, so there\u2019s lots of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s view is significant. She was one of the first councillors to break with former mayor Rob Ford when his brother Doug sought to commandeer the waterfront revitalization file. Robinson\u2019s critique flowed from her concerns about the fate of the lower Don revitalization, and the way the Fords\u2019 scheme\u00a0ran roughshod over years of intensive public consultation.<\/p>\n

Her council status is also significant. Then, as now, she was a member of the executive committee, and thus constrained in her capacity to break with the mayor on a major issue while maintaining her status in his inner circle.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little question in my mind that Robinson is uncomfortable with the hybrid option. During private briefings\u00a0before the committee meeting with the mayor and senior staff, she said she needed to understand the impact of the hybrid on the Lower Don Revitalization, which is expected to cost almost $1 billion. \u201cThat was the first question out of my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the proposed configuration of the hybrid, she told me she\u2019s \u201cnot crazy about\u201d the fact that it now swings down to the Keating, an alignment that did not figure in\u00a0developer First Gulf\u2019s original conception<\/a>, circulated last fall during the election campaign. Lastly, Robinson said she was surprised by the fact that the hybrid route would pass through land slated for private development \u2013 a detail Robinson claims she didn\u2019t discover until developer Alfredo Romano and his lawyer deputed at the committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Okay, so what does middle ground look like?<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s information requests, which are appended to the motion that has been forwarded without recommendation to council, offer a few clues: she wants to know more about additional lane capacity and measures such as pedestrian overpasses for the portion of the boulevard that cut through the Keating precinct before meeting up with a tamed\u00a0Lakeshore Blvd. near\u00a0Cherry Street.<\/p>\n

At first glance, such moves are hardly ideal and point to the prospect of a large, over-engineered arterial road. But it seems to me that if we take the long view, it\u2019s better for the city to build a wide surface road that\u2019s set back from the water and can be narrowed later on, as opposed to\u00a0an extremely pricey elevated highway that permanently compromises\u00a0the viability of the water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

Shelley Carroll, in fact, offered up a thought-provoking way of reconceptualizing\u00a0the planning implications of a broad boulevard in a note to constituents<\/a> sent out after the committee meeting:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Committee is made up of staunch Tory supporters\u2014most of us are\u2014but they heard a strong case for the ‘Boulevard’ option (also known as the ‘Removal’ option) and a weak case for the expensive ‘Elevated’ option. I call the ‘Removal’ option the ‘Boulevard’ option because it is important to note that under this option we are talking about a completely redesigned, high capacity boulevard that offers the City a new downtown business park<\/em>\u2026. [italics added]\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve certainly never heard anyone at or around Waterfront Toronto describe the northern portion of the Keating precinct \u2013 i.e., the part that hugs the rail corridor and would be bisected by the boulevard — as a \u201cbusiness park.\u201d Quite the contrary. WT\u2019s vision<\/a>\u00a0is one of mixed use residential development, streetscapes and public spaces.<\/p>\n

The question implicit in Carroll’s description is this: what would happen if that area was developed in a more workaday way, with light industry, unremarkable commercial buildings, back-office uses, and maybe even a few smaller box stores? Is there anything wrong with that kind of development?<\/p>\n

Absolutely not. Cities aren\u2019t just made up of condos and Class A office buildings, even though it often seems like we only care about those forms in this day and age. We need zones like Eastern Avenue or Adelaide Street West or Dupont Avenue \u2014 lunch bucket urban spaces that aren\u2019t designed to be lively pedestrian\/retail zones populated by the slim-legged denizens\u00a0of Photoshop Nation.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if we re-think the mandate of that cramped corner of the Keating precinct, and resist the temptation to shoe-horn pedestrian-friendly building forms into every nook and cranny of the waterfront, then we can begin to think differently about what \u2014 and what not \u2014 to expect of this new surface road. Perhaps, for the time being, a big ol\u2019 noisy bit of road is okay, as long as it sits on the ground. Not great, but better than the alternative on the table.<\/p>\n

Over time, the city will figure out how to grow into this challenged landscape. Eventually, desultory low-rise buildings may yield to better buildings, which will beget streetscape improvements and perhaps even lane reductions. But the trade off, from where I sit, seems to be\u00a0more than worth the price: an unobstructed Keating, continuous residential\/recreational development along the waterfront, where it belongs, and lower capital costs that allow the city to spend on other things.<\/p>\n

Kumbaya redux? Who knows? But in a tough, city-building contest in which so much is at stake, I\u2019d say that a broadly supported compromise is preferable to a narrow and divisive victory.<\/p>\n

photo by Brendan Lynch<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the intense session at the public works committee, the Gardiner East battle was joined by North York councillor James Pasternak, who is said to be shopping around a toll proposal, and then city planner Jennifer Keesmaat, who on Friday set planning tongues a wagging by publicly breaking with Mayor John ToryContinue reading “LORINC: Can there be a Kumbaya moment for the Gardiner?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":51964,"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":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-traffic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Can there be a Kumbaya moment for the Gardiner? 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