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Originally Posted by The_Architect
I see the gorgeous London-based Rob Ford "subways subways subways St. Clair disaster" brigade has arrived.
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I actually grew up in North York, and most of my friends and family still live in and around Toronto, and I still have to come back to work every summer since the rest of Ontario has slowly turned to shit. Trust me, I'm working hard to find a way out. I'd rather not have to care about this transit rubbish or deal with the wretched commute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Architect
Construction would be disruptive, yes, so would the construction of a subway, but there are many examples where a surface LRT improves areas by having more frequent stops for people to disembark and go to the shops they saw along the route.. Despite what your obese messiah says, the St. Clair separated streetcar line has improved that area tenfold, and a good amount is because of the improvements they made. This would be the exact same on Eglinton and Sheppard with the LRT line. There's a reason actual intelligent people have done studies and come up with this being the best solution. But I guess you're right, the Sheppard stubway that cost more and served less was a better idea.
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One of my best friends from High School lives near St. Clair and Dufferin, and I still visit that area occasionally. From what I can see not much has changed, aside from a centre median that annoyingly blocks access to several sidestreets. Business owners still seem pretty pissed off about it, because even though things are back to normal (emphasis on "normal"), the construction caused them a lot of grief. The street is beginning to come back, but a lot of St. Clair West still looks like shit. It still takes about 30 minutes to get to Yonge from Keele, which is better than what it used to be (something around 45 minutes) but is still not great. To put things into perspective, a typical subway would take 10-15 minutes to cover the same distance.
Now Sheppard... my has that street ever changed. I guess if you were not regularly tootling around North York in the early 2000s you wouldn't know, but back then it was almost universally low-density, home to a Canadian Tire warehouse, with a few commieblocks scattered around. Now, there are dozens of new condo towers that have gone up in the past 10 years. But as soon as you hit Victoria Park Avenue everything goes back to normal... no new investment, no major construction, nothing happening at all, because you're back to the same old lousy Sheppard Avenue East, complete with vacant lots and sparsely placed apartments. Finch and York Mills (Ellesmere) have also undergone very little change in the same timeframe. It's clear as day that all that densification and investment took place because of the subway. A high-cost item indeed, but one that produces tangible and noticeable positive externalities. And boy am I ever glad to see the 85 Sheppard put out to pasture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Architect
Transit City was the best plan the city has seen in decades, cancelled by a stupid mayor who has no idea what he's talking about, supported by even more braindead suburban councillors and voters who would be better served by it than the downtown, just because of who brought it forward, and brought back recently because people realized that it was the only smart transit plan this city has. Despite the stubbornly ignorant "gravy train" voters who remain in Ford nation beyond all logic, this will happen, and it will make the city better by doing so. Put subways where they're needed, like a DRL, not an underused stubway that goes 4 km and serves 20 people.
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