Comrade Miller Wants Ideas From The Masses

This will make how many projects Comrade Miller asked input from the "masses and how much of this input was actually put into place? Councilor Holyday pretty well sums it up........

Landmark a train wreck City's Union Station plan off the rails

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

When Mayor David Miller urged the masses last week to "get on board" his latest scheme to revitalize Union Station, I was tempted to rail at the absurdity of it all.

The new recommended approach from the administration at City Hall -- fast becoming a train wreck -- is in actual fact more of the same grandiose visions we've come to expect from the Miller pipe dreamers, with few concrete details.

The approach proposes the city manage and fund the station's repair, transportation, and heritage restoration needs but that private-sector partners (i.e. pension investors) be wooed to subsidize the development of an ambitious underground mall of shops, services and restaurants beneath the Bay St., VIA and York St. concourses.

It also recommends increasing the access points in and out of Union Station not just for commuters but for Torontonians seeking a "gateway" to the waterfront.

But, as is typical at City Hall, there are no timelines for when anything will be done, no indication of which private sector partners might be involved or whether funding will come from the feds or the province and no thought as to how a city facing fiscal freefall can afford to invest in a station with such a long list of repair needs.

All we really know is it will cost $177 million over the next 20 years just to bring the station up to a state of good repair. Some $85 million of that has been allocated in the city's five-year capital plan -- money the city can and must "mobilize," Miller insisted.

"The City of Toronto has a very serious and significant operating budget problem," he said.

"We also have capital challenges financially but not to the same degree," he added. "We have a duty to this building ... we can't allow it to deteriorate."

When I asked how much of that $85 million will be debt financed (which impacts on the city's operating budget) Miller said all the financial details will be in a report to the Nov. 26 executive committee. Or maybe next February. That, too, was unclear.

"A great deal of capital money is borrowed but we actually pay it off very quickly," he added. "We've been audited ... we're the most efficient in the province ... the TTC's been audited and it's the most efficient in North America."

Oh please. Spare us the spin.

I guess that's why the TTC station at Yonge and Bloor looked like a pigsty last week and the Yonge train southbound was packed to the rafters even at 10:30 a.m.

DEBT SOARING

I guess that's why the city's long-term debt is slated to rise to $2.6 billion and counting next year, $1.5 billion more than when Miller took office four years ago.

Nevertheless the mayor insisted the plan can achieve "realistic goals in reasonable time frames.

"This is a great facility that's languished ... we have the chance not just to bring it back to its former glory but to make it a destination that people choose to go," Miller said.

Now I hate to be a spoil sport but if Hizzoner was so darn concerned about Union Station languishing in disrepair, why the heck did he derail a bold public-private partnership with the Union Pearson Group (UPG) to restore the station more than 18 months ago?

In exchange for a 100-year lease, UPG had planned to sink $150 million in much-needed improvements into the 80-year-old landmark -- plus provide the cash-strapped city with a "guaranteed minimum rent" of $500,000 a year.

Why would the private sector even think about doing business with the city given the way UPG was treated?

Coun. Doug Holyday, who sits on the public advisory group, was also skeptical the ambitious plan would get off the ground.

"I just hope that something happens," he said. "We've made so many announcements over this ... but nothing seems to happen."