This is where I think as a person working and employing and running a business paying city taxes, I should get a vote as well, or maybe half a vote. Decisions that are made in this city affect my ability to carry on a business and employ Toronotonians and others commuting from outside the city, and yet, my voice is restricted to written and oral communication, and local Business organizations.
Do you own or rent property in the City, for commercial purposes? Because if you do, you do have a vote.
If not, it gets a bit ridiculous to let everyone vote in everyone else's elections. The airport sits on City land (in part)
The island airport is an asset to the city, it happened to be there long before any lakeside residences appeared, the islands are all park, except the coveted and select enclave of homes (perhaps they should be ripped down as well) and I would argue that yes, the city really needs parkland, but in a more central and accessible locations - so back to the rail lands
The rail lands would be vastly more expensive (you're talking 1.5B++ for aquisition, the deck and improvements) , for parkland that would be inferior, because it would be strata; you can never grow 100 year old trees on strata, because you have to scrape off the soil every few decades to re-do all the membranes.
Sure, but worth adding those lands are more than 1km west of the most western part of downtown, so they can't really serve the local park need very well. Also, the province owns Ontario Place and is doing with it what it pleases, irrespective of the City's wishes or those of locals.
, and perhaps some acquisitions. Add a 1/2 point to the property taxes and go wild. And perhaps spend some on upkeep and maintenance.
Land in downtown Toronto sells for over 100M per developable acre; that's some seriously expensive parkland. For the most part, buying a tower and tearing it down for park space is a non-starter, and would be even more expensive.
A single soccer pitch requires ~ 2 acres of land
Residents of downtown who wish to play, sometimes have to travel more than an hour to an available field.
The province has statutorily flatlined property taxes for multi-residential and commercial, in terms of mil. rate.
Raising Property tax solely on SFH is absolutely something that should happen, but you're talking a lot more than .5% to meet all the various needs of the City, never mind go on a buying spree for the most expensive land in the country (give or take some in Vancouver).
Part of the island experience is the ferries and the lack of cars. My vote would be to improve services but keep the mystique of the ferry ride.
The ferries have finite capacity. To some degree that can be enhanced by larger ferries, but they generally take longer to load/offload eating up much of the benefit.
To rapidly load/off load ferries we would have to have direct ramp access to every level of the ferry; that means very elaborate new ferry facilities not only on the mainland by also on the Islands.
