...the cost would be minimal and the results would impact on the pipe dreams of the others!
How prominent Torontonians would make life here better
April 18, 2010Vit Wagner
Clockwise from top left: Linden MacIntyre, Brad May, Cathy Crowe, Gail Nyberg, Danny Marks and Olivia Chow
STAFF/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTOS, BILL WIPPERT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO (top centre)Danny Marks
RESPECT!Danny Marks, veteran Toronto roots musician, songwriter, blues guitarist and host of Jazz FM91's popular Saturday night program, BLUZ-FM:
We need to show a little respect for ourselves and each other. When I was growing up here, people referred to this city as Toronto the Good. No garbage on the streets; Sunday was a day of rest. Polite people. Now look at us!
I feel it starts from the ground up, literally. Look down and around. Let's each take responsibility for the street where we live/work. If we each cleaned up our area it would be easy. In some cities it's illegal to spit gum on the sidewalks. We walk through ashtrays, our streets and TTC vehicles strewn. ...
Let's be a good example. Mother used to say "love yourself." That could be the root of the problem. Let's respect ourselves, each other and our city.
Let's do more to protect unique buildings, businesses and neighbourhoods from so-called development. Downtown Toronto can still be saved. Even from a business standpoint, our uniqueness can help us prosper.
Spring time is rebirth. Rains will clean. Co-operate with nature, or she will wipe us out.
—Greg Quill
Olivia Chow
TRANSIT!Olivia Chow, NDP critic for Citizenship and Immigration, Child Care, Child Poverty and Public Transit, former Toronto city councillor and school board trustee:
Imagine more streetcars, buses, subways and electric trains, all financed with steady, predictable TTC funding through a national transit promotion policy.
Friendlier neighbourhoods and a more efficient, productive Toronto would be the result.
We'd have less congestion and pollution, and fewer asthma attacks. We'd have shorter waits in the cold and rain, and could leave cars home even when we're in a rush.
Seniors, children and the unemployed wouldn't have to stay home because they couldn't afford the fares to visit friends and enjoy the gifts our city has to offer.
—Tess Kalinowski
Gail Nyberg
INSURANCE!Gail Nyberg, executive director, Daily Bread Food Bank:
I had two ideas. What I hear most from clients, as well as food, is: "We need affordable, accessible transit."
I hear from people looking for jobs that, first of all, they don't have the money to get on the TTC, and if they did, if you're living in the far reaches of Scarborough and Etobicoke, going from one end to the other is a nightmare. It takes too long.
Most of the people we serve had low-income jobs in the first place. It's bad enough to have to (travel) an hour. I know some of these people were taking three hours going to a minimum-wage job and there's something the matter with that.
I'd also like to see the GTA treated the same as the rest of Canada for EI.
Seventy per cent of people who lose jobs in Toronto and the GTA don't qualify for EI in the first place. We're not treated the same. We need to look at the whole system.
In the meantime, if they're not fixing it, they need to treat Toronto and the GTA the same as they treat other areas in this country.
We have shorter periods we can collect and a longer qualification period than many areas in Canada, and that's just not right.
—Tess Kalinowski
Cathy Crowe
HUNGER!Cathy Crowe, street nurse, homeless advocate, author, former Ontario NDP candidate in Toronto Centre and recent winner of the Toronto United Church Council's Heart and Vision Award:
Normally I would be talking about homelessness. But now what is at the forefront is hunger. It's extreme.
The recent lack of action in the provincial budget heightened it. Obviously it's tied to poverty but it's expanded extremely beyond that.
The recession's very much the overlying factor. There's so much hidden around the effect it has had on people and people who try to survive through relatives or family help for a long time, or keep quiet about the fact that they're maybe now on employment insurance or doing multiple jobs ...
(The solution) has to be systemic. It can't wait for long. And maybe in the meantime we need an emergency fund that I would call an emergency recession fund.
—Tess Kalinowski
Brad May
SUBWAYS!Ex-Leaf (and current Red Wing) Brad May grew up in Markham but now lives in the Lawrence Park area:
More subways. With the cost of real estate and to get into the city centre area, (to live) is really expensive.
It's such a big area, it's sprawling. You need mass transit coming in. We have GO Transit, but maybe a couple more lines, service the suburbs. It's tough getting into town.
People have to buy in the suburbs because of the cost of real estate, but then you're four hours in your car commuting. What kind of lifestyle is that?
—Kevin McGran
Linden MacIntyre
TRANSIT!Linden MacIntyre, CBC-TV broadcaster and Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author last year for The Bishop's Man:
I would make a massive investment in public transit and bike lanes in order to relieve the increasing paralysis that is making the central part of the city almost a no-go zone.
To make that happen requires a vast amount of money from someplace other than property taxes. The provincial and federal governments have to begin to rethink what Toronto is. Toronto is not a city like the others.
Toronto is the first and in some cases the only face of Canada that many important cultural, economic and political people from around the world will see. Inasmuch as we want to make a good impression of Canada for these people, it behooves the whole country to make Toronto look as good and progressive and modern as possible.
The thing that is killing Toronto is the traffic congestion, largely attributable to the fact that it's one of the only major cities on the planet that doesn't support an important public transit system.
It's not just a matter of improving Toronto. It's a matter of keeping Toronto from deteriorating. Public transit is the absolute threshold for continuing to maintain the city as anything resembling world class or livable.
—Vit Wagner
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