...but I would remove all those "living" on the islands and turn it into a national park or a low cost theme park.
10 good ideas for mayoral candidates
Published On Thu Jun 17 2010
Everyone I’ve talked with about Toronto’s upcoming municipal
election has expressed dissatisfaction with the current crop of mayoral
candidates or their platforms, or both.
It may be too late to
recruit better candidates, but it’s not too late to discuss better
policies. My many discussions suggest that a candidate who embraces most
of the following 10 positions could well garner decisive support in the
election for mayor of Toronto:
• Contract
out TTC operations. Experience elsewhere, notably in Sweden, has shown
that moving to tightly regulated private-sector operation improves
service, raises productivity, increases customer satisfaction, enhances
employee morale and allows subsidies to achieve more.
• Rethink
Transit City within available funding arrangements.
The present plan is deeply flawed because it advances one solution
(light rail) to a wide range of transit opportunities and because it has
no complementary land use plan. Install subways where sufficient
development can be stimulated to justify them. For many other routes,
use electric trolley buses, which can provide most of the advantages of
light rail at one-tenth of the capital cost, thereby allowing
investments in transit to reach many more residents.
• Maximize use of existing transit assets. Most of
Toronto’s subway stations are in areas of relatively low density,
resulting in underuse of expensive infrastructure. The Spadina line
needs the most attention in this respect, both the present and the
proposed stations.
• Rethink our waste
collection system. Use of bins has created too many problems. They have
made our neighbourhoods ugly and our sidewalks impassable on collection
days.
• Privatize waste collection.
Through improved management, privatization could reduce costs and the
incidence of long strikes, and greatly enhance customer service. The
city administration could then focus on planning, regulation and
facilitation of waste services, and on the provision of accurate
information about waste, including what happens to material put out for
recycling. Our local government would be steering rather than rowing.
• Rethink the current focus on sending waste
to landfill when it cannot be reduced or recycled. Energy-from-waste
(incineration) is more environmentally sound and responsible, whether
from an emissions, energy-security or land-use perspective. Several
surveys have shown that Toronto residents overwhelmingly support
incineration over landfill.
• Put energy
considerations front and centre in all municipal decision-making. The
oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the strongest sign yet that we’re
reaching the end of ever-expanding supplies of inexpensive energy. The
challenge of maintaining comfort, convenience and efficient mobility in
an era of tightening energy constraints is enormous. Municipalities must
play a major role, particularly with respect to land development. To
reduce energy consumption in buildings and for travel, Toronto should be
accommodating most of the region’s population growth rather than a
small fraction of it.
• Change the plans
for Union Station. The present plans will result in a drab rail hub that
will be inadequate for the resurgence of train travel to be expected in
an energy-constrained world. The proposed underground retail concourse
will be an unwarranted burden on property taxes.
• Implement
a version of the 1970s’ Harbour City plan. This plan was devised by
famed Toronto architect
Eberhard Zeidler and endorsed by urban guru
Jane Jacobs. It could involve redeveloping the
Island Airport lands as a car-free community, linked to development on
several newly created islands, to the east and west, all as part of a
goal of substantially increasing Toronto’s population.
• Change how Toronto City Council is composed. We need
fewer ward councillors and some councillors elected at large. This would
address what seems to have become a surfeit of parochialism at city
hall.
Richard Gilbert, a Toronto councillor from 1976-1991, is
now a consultant on transportation and energy and the author, with
Anthony Perl, of the recently published second edition of Transport
Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil.
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