Beautify The City.........

....while kids are going to school hungry, many kids can't get into organized sports, they will have less chance of jumping into a city pool, etc. etc. etc.

It's a wet dream Waterfront Toronto's expressway demolition will cost us

By Sue-Ann Levy

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong has watched the costs to operate six-year-old Waterfront Toronto escalate like crazy, particularly in the past three years.

In fact, he's discovered the agency's communications and public consultation budget increased by 632% between 2005 and 2007 and its overall corporate costs jumped 135%. He says there were four Waterfront Toronto staff making $186,289 in 2002; at the end of last year there were 65 earning $4,248,181.

He's also learned the agency (created jointly by the city, the province and the feds) has spent $106 million in city money on projects so far, for which he's seen very little return. "We've spent all this money and what do we have to show for it ... you look down there and see nothing," he said.

To get a better handle on the spending increases, Minnan-Wong has tried since January to obtain a list of all contracts over $10,000 the agency has awarded since 2001. He's had no success.

After asking Waterfront CEO John Campbell "nicely" three times, he put a motion before council.

Mayor David Miller, the only member of council who sits on the Waterfront board, referred the request to city staff last week for a report "later" in 2008 on a disclosure protocol. (In other words, they'll report on the 12th of Never.)

Yet the fast-talking Campbell told me last week "they're highly transparent," V-P Marisa Piattelli noted in the future they will disclose any contracts over $25,000, not stating when that might happen exactly.

"Waterfront Toronto has won awards for its public consultation," she added, sounding like the folks who conduct the spin at City Hall.

So, like me, Minnan-Wong has real concerns about Waterfront Toronto's projections of $300 million and eight years to take down the 2.9-km stretch of the Gardiner between Jarvis St. and the DVP -- the latest Waterfront wet dream to emanate from the Millerites and the steadily ballooning Waterfront agency.

I expect the plan to proceed with a $10-million environmental assessment on the partial Gardiner takedown being rubber-stamped at the agency's monthly board meeting this Thursday. The agenda for the meeting notes the item will be considered at 9:05 a.m. and completed at 9:35 a.m. (not leaving much time for heady debate, I'd say). It will then go to the June 27 (on the Friday before the long weekend) executive committee and to council in mid-July.

Not that it should. After all, this is the third kick at a Gardiner plan in 10 years. In 2000 former Waterfront Task Force head Robert Fung released a $1.5-million report calling for a $1.2-billion dismantling of the expressway. That went nowhere, as did a $1-million report released in 2006 which provided four options (none of which relate to the current plan) and stressed the $255-million-plus Front St. extension must be built to alleviate "catastrophic gridlock" in the Gardiner's west end if the expressway came down at Spadina.

Even the Front St. project's biggest advocate, deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, is singing a new tune. He said the project "had very few friends and a lot of enemies," he's "moved on" and the funding for the extension will be used for "public realm purposes."

Faye Lyons, municipal affairs specialist with the CAA is worried the new option contains no financial analysis and no plans to consult publicly with Toronto residents before the environmental assessment is approved.

She feels taking the 120,000 vehicles that currently use that stretch of the expressway and funnelling them onto a boulevard of 8-10 lanes will "create congestion, frustration and more pollution" -- an interesting concept for a council so obsessed with the environment.

'Rough estimate'

Asked what happens to the $300-million cost eight years from now, Campbell said it is a "rough estimate" and the environmental assessment will dictate what will be done. (Details, mere details.)

Minnan-Wong expects the takedown will be over $500 million, a cost the city can ill-afford especially with no money to address the $300-million backlog in road and bridge repairs (and city officials levying a roster of new taxes to pay for their pet projects).

I'd love a beautiful Waterfront like the next guy (er, gal) -- whether it means taking down the Gardiner or leaving it there. But like so many other plans that have come out of Socialist Silly Hall as of late, our would-be strong mayor and his anti-car cabal seem not to care whether Toronto's infrastructure continues to crumble and the city goes bankrupt.

No siree. It's all about them. It's all about their green schemes and Waterfront wet dreams.

sue-ann.levy@sunmedia.ca