Ideas to make Toronto better (Commentary)

[M II A II R II K]

Ideas to make Toronto better


Mar 12 2010

Vanessa Lu

Read More: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/779208--ideas-to-make-toronto-better

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The Star’s Your City, My City project on how to build a better Toronto and region has brought in many comments and suggestions since last Saturday’s launch. The response shows a real passion about the city, its people and how to make it more successful. Some ideas were predictable, including more funding for transit, or imposing road tolls or congestion fees to fix gridlock. Some were simple to do, and without a big price tag, such as creating a Paris-like atmosphere by adding a few chairs and tables and a small stage to a neighbourhood park.

- Others tackled tough issues, such as the lack of affordable housing, with a suggestion that 5 per cent be set aside in any new condo or apartment building with more than 100 units for rent-gear-to-income housing, a move that would require permission from Queen’s Park. Still others weighed in on the controversial subject of whether Toronto’s homeowners should pay more property taxes. When compared with their neighbours in nearby cities, they’re getting a deal.

- Marit Stiles, who serves on the board of her child’s non-profit daycare, says parent volunteers are struggling to understand complex finances, including the city’s threat to eliminate rent subsidies. “Right now, we are in the midst of trying to figure out how to keep the daycare afloat, trying to ensure that once the much-welcome all-day learning comes to fruition, we will still have enough daycare spaces — throughout the city — to accommodate the infants and toddlers and preschoolers. “So, hello surplus. I welcome you with open arms and hopeful heart,†Stiles wrote. “Tell the city to shelve the plan to cut the rent subsidy. And celebrate the fact that things at least didn’t get worse ... â€

- “Advocates point out that for every additional $1 invested in the city’s arts organizations, roughly $15 is injected into the economy from private-sector sponsorships, donations, ticket sales and grants from other levels of government,†said Hewitt Smith, adding she shudders when she hears candidates promising to do more with less.

- There were the usual comments about cyclists who don’t obey traffic rules and drivers who deliberately edge their vehicles closer to the curb, squeezing out cyclists. There were also calls for separated bike lanes or putting bike lanes onto secondary roads — both hot-button issues. Other ideas included giving people a rebate or tax incentive to cycle to work, and looking at whether parking should be banned on major streets such as King or Queen.

- Other ideas included giving people a rebate or tax incentive to cycle to work, and looking at whether parking should be banned on major streets such as King or Queen. “While hundreds of cars, thousands in public transit and who knows how many pedestrians go by, there are just a few cars that sit motionless, taking up two entire lanes serving only a few people,†wrote one reader. “Take a look and count the number of cars parked. See how many people this lane serves versus the other lanes. Does this make sense?â€

- Scarborough resident Nimalan Veerasingham suggested sprucing up Rouge Park, noting it could be turned into the likes of New York’s Central Park or Montreal’s Mount Royal Park, so tourists would venture to see more than just the CN Tower or Chinatown.

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[Hipster Duck]

I would advocate that all future "how do we make Toronto a better place?" suggestions be thoroughly analyzed using systems thinking and complexity theory so that we understand that you can't do one thing here without [often adversely] affecting something else over there. Very often making a change for the supposed better negatively impacts an equally "progressive" initiative somwhere else.

A professor I once knew asked the class whether, despite all the injustice and destruction, we actually lived in a 'Panglossian paradise' - not a perfect world, but the best one possible given the alternatives. At the time I dismissed this theory off-hand but, nowadays, at least from time-to-time, I begin to see that he might have had a point.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Toronto’s Linked Needs


Mar 16, 2010

Ken Greenberg

Read More: http://www.themarknews.com/articles/1135-torontos-linked-needs

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None of Toronto's basic challenges exist in isolation. We know that a sense of inclusion and belonging contributes to productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability. Cross-sector collaboration and strategic partnerships are essential as we reinvent our economic base, retool our infrastructure, expand our cultural sector, and plan for an aging population. We cannot deal with transit, traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, and the economic vitality of our retail strips in isolation. Intellectually we know that these things are connected but, to our detriment, our bloated civic machinery often still functions as if these challenges occupy separate spheres.

By embracing a perspective of convergence and pulling these issues out of their silos, it becomes possible to accomplish more with less, aligning priorities to achieve multiple goals.

Frankly, we can no longer afford to solve one problem at a time. When we make expensive investments in transit infrastructure, for example, we also have to make the corridors serviced by transit denser. We need to do this not just with planning permissions but with proactive development initiatives to get more people living and working at the “hubs†that increase ridership and get more people out of their cars. Otherwise, these investments are seriously underperforming.

We need to use our existing civic buildings and spaces more effectively. We used to have shared-use “Community Schools,†which were available outside of school hours for evening classes and community recreation, a better use of scarce resources than buildings that sit empty for long periods of time.

As new issues arise, it is much easier to keep adding new layers of regulation, new agencies, new “secretariats,†to keep putting more players on the field than it is to take a hard look at the ones we already have. Paradoxically, in many cases we can accomplish more by just subtracting the old structures that are no longer useful and are getting in the way of creative solutions. There are many areas where we could apply sunset provisions to arcane restrictions and unblock the hidebound internal workings of the city.

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