Rae's Vertical Village Concept Has An Interesting Twist

Like the village of yore the leaders of the towns and villages knew that people, even those that walked or horsed to work, had a common need.....to relieve themselves of body waste and their leaders provided outhouses to meet these needs. This must be the approach Kyle Rae will be using when our antiquated infra-structure fails completely.

Vertical village
Ideas, Nov. 17
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Jane Jacobs may be twitching, if not rolling over, in her grave. Toronto faces tremendous challenges in accommodating growth, but we should never lose sight of Toronto's brilliance as an integrated network of urban villages. If Toronto is to continue to be a meeting place for the world, then the recent trend in condo towers needs to be carefully integrated into neighbourhood designs that encourage the daily face-to-face contact Jacobs espoused.

How are we doing so far? Not so good, I'm afraid. Take the redevelopment of the Etobicoke motel strip at the mouth of the Humber River. The condos are elegant, and there is a beautiful bike path alongside a butterfly garden. But there are no restaurants, food marts or any community amenities. It is the planning equivalent of a desert. I cycle daily past the new towers going up on the railroad lands at the foot of Spadina Ave. Same thing, and it's a long walk to King St.

Each of these new towers is the equivalent of a new neighbourhood. They deserve to be the centrepiece of a new urban village. And this is where the planning system lets us down. As Christopher Hume points out, Toronto's official plan promotes intensification along major transportation routes. It should also promote a stronger link between intensification and community development.

Be it downtown Toronto or the suburban fringe, we need a new approach that starts with an integrated and people-centred urban-village model. We need to support the development of community visions, empower citizens to be active stakeholders, and ensure that all new developments contribute to enhanced amenities and services.
Chris Winter, Executive Director,
Conservation Council of Ontario; Chair, Ontario Smart Growth Network, Toronto

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The latest media reports join Councillor Kyle Rae and others in praising the concept of building high into the sky in this city. Astonishingly, neither you nor the mayor and his colleagues on city council are making any reference to Toronto's shockingly inadequate infrastructure and its obvious inability to support the increasing number of new downtown residents.

The TTC is already overloaded, with a network whose extension is long overdue, and most of its cars and vehicles are antiquated. Toronto's lack of an airport rail link is unique for a city of this standing. No concrete and realistic plans to remedy these deficiencies exist. In a recent encounter, Rae claimed that the residents of future expensive highrises will walk or bike to their workplaces – an amazing fantasy.

When will Toronto's decision-makers wake up to address these problems, instead of promoting a development craze that is likely to further strain our infrastructure and make living here more intolerable? When will Torontonians begin to stand up to demand change?
Jurgen H. Racherbaumer, Toronto