New look for the Victoria Park subway station (Brown and Storey)

[scarberiankhatru]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

The number of connections with arterials and the length of the blocks will be about average for that part of Scarborough, whose street grid is made of long rectangles meaning short blocks in some places but long blocks in others. Eglinton just east of Yonge has some very long blocks on the north side of the street. Dividing Warden between Mack and where it crosses the subway into 13 blocks would result in unnecessarily short blocks - Yonge between College and Bloor is a slightly longer distance but only 10 blocks. I think a couple more streets than planned would be great, though; 7 streets would be perfect there, but not 13.

 

[green22]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"The number of connections with arterials and the length of the blocks will be about average for that part of Scarborough, whose street grid is made of long rectangles meaning short blocks in some places but long blocks in others. Eglinton just east of Yonge has some very long blocks on the north side of the street. Dividing Warden between Mack and where it crosses the subway into 13 blocks would result in unnecessarily short blocks - Yonge between College and Bloor is a slightly longer distance but only 10 blocks. I think a couple more streets than planned would be great, though; 7 streets would be perfect there, but not 13."

In this section 13 would be higher than Yonge. I was referring to merely following the proposed and existing street pattern. For example the existing Chespeake Ave,Trinnel, Newlands Ave, Santa Monica blvd. and the many unnamed proposed streets and pedestrian streets. (I am not advocating direct connections through existing houses for these streets, but re-establishing them or their dimensions in the new development). Poor planning since the 50's has meant that houses or fencing are placed in the way of direct connections between various subdivisions.

The way I came up with 13 streets is by tracing the scale of the existing and proposed streets. I see no reason for streets not to continue on to the arterial as a general rule.

The entire development covers Warden from Mack to Fairfax cresent. The distance is almost double College to Bloor. They propose a total of 7 streets including the existing St. Clair. This is less than half of the crossings on Yonge. My proposal to let existing streets all touch Warden would result in 17 streets. Considering that Yonge has 10 crossings in a little under half the distance they seem pretty similar. I would be able to compromise on having less streets interface with the arterials however I do not find the trend helpful.

"Eglinton just east of Yonge has some very long blocks on the north side of the street."
True, there are 2 long blocks on the north side of the street. We should probably not seek to make extremes the norm, unless there are positive attributes to them.

"The number of connections with arterials and the length of the blocks will be about average for that part of Scarborough, whose street grid is made of long rectangles meaning short blocks in some places but long blocks in others."

Travelling northeast in Scarborough the arterial roadways are almost this bad in areas depending on whether the area of Scarborough was settled before or after the suburban patterns emerged. People began to realize that if most travelled in cars then the length of the block and the directness of the route were not important, speed was.

To the northeast of this site some newer streets began to avoid the arterials and travel in alignments that were less direct, whereas the older majority are still direct grid streets. It is an area with streets, avenues, roads, boulevards, courts, drives etc.
Given the fact that the neighbourhood was near a subway station, initiated by the TTC in a new urbanist fashion, I would have wished they would have designed the principle roads as main streets, not arterials which limit access. It probably would have been worse if Warden or Danforth were labelled as major arterials in this area.

The proposed limited access pattern alone will ensure that Warden will remain a fast unpleasant street. Arterials with few crossings are not the kind of places that people will want to sit out and drink lates or beer, they are the kind of places that require buffering. Main streets are usually neighbourhood assets whereas arterials are neighbourhood liabilities.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"I would be able to compromise on having less streets interface with the arterials however I do not find the trend helpful."

You're gonna have to compromise - look at a map. Some of those streets cannot be continued west. No new streets are possible between where Santamonica should be and the TTC parking lot north of St. Clair - that's over 600m.

The subdivision northeast of the site predates the subway. On a suburban arterial, it really does not matter how many ways a pedestrian can have access as long as there's a direct route to a bus stop...what exactly do they need access to? An excessive number of streets just slows down traffic, reduces the variety of housing stock, and lowers density. Neither Warden nor Danforth has been cited as an "avenues" opportunity. Even if 50 new streets were to connect with Warden here, it'd still be an arterial road with parkland along its entire western side.

 

[adma]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

I don't think there's any way Warden Station can be improved unless it is demolished and rebuilt from scratch. I've said it before... I think Warden is the ugliest station in the system.

The ugliness is more in the industrial-wasteland context IMO--allowing for that, I actually don't mind Warden's mild megastructural-infrastructural flair. Y'know, the variegated tile pattern, the concrete-beam roofs, the multiple levels, the bus-concourse "basilica", the concrete arch ped bridge. It's almost as if the barren context and "terminal" situation gave the TTC's design/engineering staff a chance to flex its muscles a little. I guess in terms of 1968, I'd practically term the station "groovy"...

 

[green22]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"An excessive number of streets just slows down traffic, reduces the variety of housing stock, and lowers density. Neither Warden nor Danforth has been cited as an "avenues" opportunity."

-avenues-
If the city is aiming to change this area into a transit-oriented development then it should not try to write off the main streets, just because they were not specifically labelled as avenues in a plan.

-slows traffic-
There is an opportunity cost to not slowing down traffic, as can be seen on any high speed arterial in Toronto or elsewhere. The area is not fully developed and Toronto wants to add more residents- by letting traffic engineers make the decisions to maintain this street as an access limiting arterial, we are inhibiting the opportunity for Warden to become a pedestrian-friendly community asset.

-Reduces density-
Downtown Toronto has pretty high densities and it's street pattern hasn't been an obstacle to increasing density. About the only things that couldn't fit within the street grid was the suburban Eaton Centre Mall and certain plazas and underground parking garages for office towers.
larger blocks are generally associated with lower densities, the industrial areas, airport, highway zones etc. whereas the densest cities and areas the world over are filled with street connections.
I think it is the width of roads, not road network density which has been the principal factor in lowering densities in most urban areas. Reducing road connections puts pressure on the few roads which do connect. This puts pressure on authorities to widen these roads (suburbs?). Both wider roads and a lack of road connections suppress pedestrian movement.

-Reduces variety housing stock-
As stated, my proposed road interval for Warden south and north in the development were similar to the intervals on Yonge from College to Bloor. In this area there are many forms of housing stock such as houses, townhouses apartments and even a Loblaws proposal. There are certain land use forms which would not fit within these intervals like a one story SuperWalmart, the CNE parking lot, Canadian Tire offices in Brampton (didn't pick on Mississauga this time)

"On a suburban arterial, it really does not matter how many ways a pedestrian can have access as long as there's a direct route to a bus stop...what exactly do they need access to?"

Long blocks and lack of connections would mean indirect longer routes and longer distances between bus stops. When you don't drive everywhere there are plenty of other destinations besides transit. Where I live, if I'm going to library, gym, coffee, groceries etc, etc. I can walk one short block north to Queen or one block south to King since none of the streets are blocked from touching the arterials (main streets). Let's imagine that there will be places on Warden now or in the distant future that people will want to walk to, instead of allowing the transportation department (not) to do this planning for us.

My wife uses transit and she can walk directly one block east to a bus stop on Dufferin, one block north to the streetcar stop on Queen or one block south to the streetcar stop on King. This level of connection to arterial streets is unheard of in suburban areas built after the 1960's because it causes conflicts with moving vehicles.

Pedestrians hate to walk the long way around things. People generally prefer walking/ shopping/ dining or crossing streets rather than high speed arterials. Although high speed arterials suppress the desirability of walking, they do not suppress auto based shopping like drive-thoughs, strip malls, box stores etc. Transportation department policies make our roads fertile grounds for these types of low density developments.

"You're gonna have to compromise - look at a map. Some of those streets cannot be continued west. No new streets are possible between where Santamonica should be and the TTC parking lot north of St. Clair - that's over 600m."

Santa Monica Blvd travels north south and then bends east west. For my calculations I began the proposed street just west of the subdivision barrier. Using the east west Santa Moncia Blvd. alignment as a basis for a potential street location. All of my proposed streets connections were fully within the area of the proposed subdivision. No expensive bridges, removals of buildings or pushing roads through existing housing. I just imagined that the subdivision was a grid instead of planning street alignments around how to limit access to Warden or Danforth.

 

[green22]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

It will be a little difficult to clarify my position since the proposed streets are not named, but I will try my best.
Streets are labelled from north to south along Warden street in southern half of proposed development.
(Existing)= existing in present proposal.
(proposed)= my extensions of existing streets to meet Warden.

1-Newlands ave (existing)
2-Santa Moncia Blvd extension (proposed)
3-Unnamed street on south side of proposed supermarket(existing)
4-Unnamed 1 block long street (proposed)
5-Unnamed street (existing)
6-Unnamed 1 block long street (proposed)
7-Firvalley court (existing) *traffic light
8-Unnamed 1 block long street (proposed)
9-Cataraqui crescent pedestrian path change to street (proposed)
10-Unnamed 1 block long street (proposed)
11-Unnamed street (existing)
12-Pedestrian path change to street (proposed)
13-Unnamed 4 block long street (proposed)

In the current proposal only 5 connections, if all streets were allowed to connect with Warden there would be a potential for 13
These street connections were not omitted in order to increase density or to add to the variety of housing types, but because of your last complaint (traffic speeds). It is current city policy (available on the city website) and would be readily admitted to by the transportation department.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"If the city is aiming to change this area into a transit-oriented development then it should not try to write off the main streets, just because they were not specifically labelled as avenues in a plan."

It won't be possible to turn a suburban arterial road lined with parks and industrial areas into Queen Street in one easy step. The middle ground is going to look more like Warden as it exists now than Queen Street, especially since the entire western side of Warden will remain unimproved parkland, but achieving a middle ground here is still an accomplishment, not a write off. The real fight will be places like Eglinton and Sheppard, streets that actually do have the potential to turn into real urban avenues.

"I think it is the width of roads, not road network density which has been the principal factor in lowering densities in most urban areas."

I'm not talking about most areas, I'm talking about this block...all else being equal, more streets = less room for houses and parks. Cramming in thousands of tiny rowhouses along alleyways would work fine downtown but I don't know if that type of environment would sell well in Scarborough, hence the inclusion of plenty of semi-detached and some detached houses and some medium sized lots.

"Santa Monica Blvd travels north south and then bends east west. For my calculations I began the proposed street just west of the subdivision barrier. Using the east west Santa Moncia Blvd. alignment as a basis for a potential street location. All of my proposed streets connections were fully within the area of the proposed subdivision. No expensive bridges, removals of buildings or pushing roads through existing housing. I just imagined that the subdivision was a grid instead of planning street alignments around how to limit access to Warden or Danforth."

The grid is partially continued - there's a street roughly where Newlands would run - but what is the use of slavishly continuing a grid when the lot sizes of the two subdivisions are radically different?

"Long blocks and lack of connections would mean indirect longer routes and longer distances between bus stops."
"My wife uses transit and she can walk directly one block east to a bus stop on Dufferin, one block north to the streetcar stop on Queen or one block south to the streetcar stop on King. This level of connection to arterial streets is unheard of in suburban areas built after the 1960's because it causes conflicts with moving vehicles."

The blocks proposed north of Mack are less than 200m long and even at that length not every block will get a bus stop, yet you propose 13 blocks within a span of less than 1km...I'm sure patrons of the Warden bus will appreciate a bus stop every 70 metres. At most I'd put a street across from Cataraqui and one just north of Mack - 7 streets in total. Maybe Santamonica will get its own bus route, and then the superb street connections will be worth it. If Dufferin, Queen and King can support TTC routes, why not Santamonica?


Also, the supermarket should have gone farther south into the neighbourhood so that it is closer to more people, freeing up the block closest to Warden station for denser housing. I would have two more streets connect with Danforth and one/two more connect with Warden north of St. Clair. The street network on the interior of the block seems to favour T-intersections, which makes a bit of sense as a straight grid wouldn't work due to Danforth running at such an angle.

 

[green22]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"The street network on the interior of the block seems to favour T-intersections, which makes a bit of sense as a straight grid wouldn't work due to Danforth running at such an angle."

T intersections mean that pedestrians do not have direct routes unless the T is merely a jog (such as Bay at Queen that was eliminated). A couple of T intersections may not cause a problem, however the suburban pattern where T intersections work to impede access to the arterials (as well as other areas) impedes pedestrian movement (and transit).

The suburbs are full of T intersections, because they are recomended for moving traffic without conflicts (stopping). In fact traffic engineers manuals actually say to avoid 4 way (let along 5 way) intersections, as they often result in crossing conflicts which can slow traffic movement. 4-way crossings are recommended for arterials, and acceptable at the junctions of arterials and collectors, not local roads and arterials. How many local roads intersect with highway 7? The pattern is not a coincidence, or just a scheme by developers.

Before the traffic planning ideals were put into a place connected streets were the norm regardless of whether a street travelled perpendicular or diagonal. Example, Dundas street W (Toronto), Kingston street (Toronto). There were no attempts to limit access to arterials (called main streets etc.) until transportation planners devised several codes which contained provisions limiting access and acknowleging the primacy of swiftly moving traffic as the main goal of roads.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_roads
Our transportation textbook had a version of this diagram, and all transportation planners have been tought this since the 50's or 60's.

"The blocks proposed north of Mack are less than 200m long and even at that length not every block will get a bus stop, yet you propose 13 blocks within a span of less than 1km...I'm sure patrons of the Warden bus will appreciate a bus stop every 70 metres."

You acknowledge that every block will not get a bus stop and then say that patrons of the bus will not appreciate closely spaced bus stops. Not sure of your point. Perhaps you are saying that access to main streets should be limited to wherever a bus stop exists. As my point above states, for those who walk in their communities there are often many more destinations on a main street to access besides a bus stop.

Personally, I advocate easy walking access to arterials over the quick traffic movement of motor vehicles in areas which one day may have the potential to be pedestrian friendly neighbourhoods. Unfortunatly, the transportation department has their own opinions.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"A couple of T intersections may not cause a problem, however the suburban pattern where T intersections work to impede access to the arterials (as well as other areas) impedes pedestrian movement (and transit)."

There will never be transit here other than along Warden and Danforth.

"You acknowledge that every block will not get a bus stop and then say that patrons of the bus will not appreciate closely spaced bus stops. Not sure of your point."

If a suburban bus route stopped every 70 metres, no one would use half the stops and if they did, it would slow down the buses so much no one would take them. Since placing bus stops 70m apart for 13 blocks in a row is silly, arguing for streets to connect with arterials every 70m so that pedestrians can access transit makes no sense. Most other streets in Scarborough average bus stops every 350-400 metres.

"Perhaps you are saying that access to main streets should be limited to wherever a bus stop exists. As my point above states, for those who walk in their communities there are often many more destinations on a main street to access besides a bus stop."

Warden is a suburban arterial and will remain one even with these improvements. I'm not saying limit access to arterials - I suggested 7 streets but there'd likely only be 3 bus stops. People are sometimes smart - they can walk 20 metres left or right if they need to...and its the suburbs, so they're used to it. Downtown, people collapse into the fetal position and bawl if their usual sidewalk is closed due to construction, but this doesn't happen in the burbs. Even if this stretch of Warden is lined with stores (and Warden will be fronted by some townhouses, according to the preliminary proposals), people will want to walk the length of it, anyway, so being able to access every store in a straight line form their home is not needed.

 

[Darkstar416]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

More about this from the National Post...

TTC re-examines ravines
Robert Ouellette

The city's ravines could be to Toronto what canals are to Venice: a unique and inspirational way to navigate the city.

Yet, for about a century and a half we have done our best to bury or otherwise rid the city of its ravines, with varying degrees of success. We overlaid them with sidewalks, streets, bridges, highways and rail lines. Nonetheless, they survived our city-building onslaught intact enough to provide a wilderness antidote to an otherwise predictable city grid.

In many ways, the TTC's subway system represents the worst of our relationship with the ravines. This 20th-century engineering system moves millions of people every year. Designed to minimize topological variations, it is our efficiency-driven triumph over Toronto's water-etched landscape.

Early Torontonians admired the ravines. For example, Dentonia Park, at the TTC's Victoria Park subway station, is a historical treasure. Toronto's powerful Walter Massey and his wife, Susan Denton, viewed the hills there as a perfect site for their late-19th century model farm -- a place that united the latest techniques of scientific farming with idealistic social concerns.

To combat typhoid fever outbreaks in Toronto's children, Massey's Dentonia Farm produced the first pasteurized milk in Canada. It became the home of Toronto's City Dairy, the model for Canada's early-20th century milk distribution system. (Ironically, Massey died after contracting the disease; his widow bequeathed part of the property to the city.)

An example of Toronto's engineering-driven modernity, the Victoria Park station paid little respect to Dentonia's landscape when built in 1968. The predictable high-density tower buildings that followed further divorce the station from the pastoral vision of Massey's farmland ravine. One of the TTC's busiest stops, the streetscape around Victoria Park station became meagre, uninviting and more than a little threatening.

Now, the TTC is intent on improving the way its stations relate to the neighbourhoods and landscape around them. After extensive studies on both the Victoria Park and Warden stations by Planning Alliance, the TTC engaged Richard Stevens and Brown + Storey Architects to redesign the subway's relationship to the surrounding environment.

James Brown and Kim Storey, adjunct professors at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, have long championed the importance of Toronto's ravines to our urban experience. Their study of the forgotten Garrison Creek system began the discussion on what to do with the city's neglected or buried ravines, rivers and streams.

The public spaces around Victoria Park station -- described by Mr. Brown as ''mushroom spaces'' -- are dark and poorly designed. The station ''gets a lot of public use at all hours and there hasn't been a lot of consideration given to the way it connects with the surrounding community,'' he says.

''You have a ravine that runs through the area which is both historic and central to the topography of Toronto and you have the infrastructure of the subway system itself," he comments. ''What we want is an improvement between the Victoria station, housing, the parks, the way these areas are lit, safe walkways, proper building frontages, a redesign of bus stations and a more clearly defined relationship between all of these elements.''

The architects will present their preliminary design report to the TTC on Jan. 19.

As esthetically important as these changes are, the TTC is not being entirely altruistic in making them. They want these improvements in part to increase the value of developable lands they control.

Still, we have to applaud the TTC's initiative, because it reinforces the importance of the ravine system to life in the city. And any time the economic value of quality urban design is acknowledged, it promotes others to do the same.

Robert Ouellette publishes the daily blog www.readingtoronto. com. He is the president of Forum Bureau, a strategic consulting and Internet firm in Toronto.

© National Post 2006

 

[samsonyuen]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

I agree with VP and Warden needing to be reoriented to their surroundings. I hope that will come at Warden when the new development comes.

 

[mark simpson]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

"I've spent some time at that strip mall at Vic. Park and Danforth, and there's something about that I like as well."

You do realize what this "strip mall" represents to the Toronto landscape being the first air conditioned mall in the city, the first suburban department store (Eatons) , and the birthplace of a national drug store chain that loves the big box format (hint: the plaza is called Shoppers World)

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Re: TTC hires Brown & Storey to reconfigure Vic Park Sta

From the Globe:

Even subway stations need makeovers

The mission: To turn two TTC behemoths into local destination points The rescue team: A dynamic duo that believes in the power of public space

By IVOR TOSSELL

Saturday, January 21, 2006 Page M2

Special to The Globe and Mail

Kim Storey and James Brown have made a name for themselves taming Toronto's mean streets. The pair of architects were the creative force behind Dundas Square, which has reshaped the city's downtown core, and their design for St. George Street reclaimed University of Toronto's main thoroughfare as a working boulevard.

But today, they're grappling with a challenge of suburban proportions. The Toronto Transit Commission has engaged the firm to help redesign the cityscape around two giant subway stations in Scarborough, Warden and Victoria Park.

The project, the plans for which were presented to the TTC on Thursday, is no small undertaking. The two stations are trapped in the past: built to cater to the suburban lifestyle, but located in ever more built-up parts of town. They're concrete fortresses, each surrounded by a moat of parking lots, windswept empty spaces and arterial roads. For pedestrians, they wouldn't be much less welcoming if cauldrons of boiling oil were waiting on the ramparts.

Now, with the city growing around them, the TTC is redeveloping these stations to address their shortcomings and drum up ridership. To make sure the urban landscape didn't get short shrift, it brought in Brown + Storey.

"I think these are critical junctures in the idea of the city of Toronto," Ms. Storey says of the two stations, where renovations are set to run from 2007 to 2009. "I think how well we start integrating these sites is going to make the city great or mediocre. I know the waterfront's important, but I'd argue that this stuff is far more important."

The thousands of commuters who trudge through the dimly lit stations each day might agree. And their numbers are likely to grow; the work at Warden station will be funded by the sale of some parking-lot lands to developers, and the TTC is betting that more residential development near the subway will mean more ridership.

The question is, how do you retrofit a car-centric, suburban area for a pedestrian-friendly future? For Ms. Storey and Mr. Brown, the trick is to provide a "public realm" -- and not to skimp on the details.

They envision "transit plazas" at both stations that will serve as focal points for each neighbourhood and will give pedestrians "a recognizable place where people can meet or ignore each other, if they want to." At the moment, neither station has so much as a recognizable front door.

When Warden and Victoria Park were built, the "fine-grained linkages" -- details like walkways, road crossings and station entrances -- were built on the cheap, if they were built at all.

For Mr. Brown and Ms. Storey, these are the connective tissues that tie the stations to the neighbourhoods around them, and they're critical to making the stations work.

So are widened sidewalks, bordered by new buildings and thick plantings of trees, to provide pedestrians with a sense of enclosure.

Most of all, the architects seem enthusiastic about making the stations respond to the landscapes around them; they're unabashed fans of the ravines nearby.

While the Massey Creek ravine is steep and foreboding, the architects propose a system of terraces that would invite pedestrians into Warden Woods Park and Byng Park. And the ravines themselves should be reflected in those thick plantings of trees by the sidewalk -- "three deep" is their rule of thumb.

"One line of trees just isn't a sufficient response to that kind of gorgeous green stuff around it," Ms. Storey says.

"Nor is a single bench, or a single light," Mr. Brown adds. "They're clichés."

If all goes according to plan, their work will establish a new design vocabulary for suburban redevelopment. "It's quite hostile right now," Mr. Brown says. "So we're trying to put a template in place that's going to secure the kind of environment that's friendlier and better-connected."

AoD

 

[billonlogan]

New look for the Victoria Park subway station

New look for the Victoria Park subway station

www.insidetoronto.com
DAVID NICKLE
12/14/06

The grey, bunker-like Victoria Park subway station that marks the border between East York and Scarborough will be getting a major facelift over the next few years, as the TTC voted to spend at least $26 million and as much as $28.4 million on the revitalization project.

The revitalization can't come too soon for residents and local politicians on either side of the Victoria Park Avenue divide. Commissioners at Wednesday's Toronto Transit Commission heard a litany of complaints as they were considering the $26 million project that TTC staff are recommending.

Residents told the TTC that the station, which sits between the Teasdale highrise community to the east and Crescent Town to the west, is ugly, unsafe and impractical.

Although the station is above ground, there are no easy street entrances, a pedestrian "skywalk" crossing Victoria Park that carries 5,000 travellers a day is too narrow and badly lit, and another walkway, heading east toward the Teasdale community, is just dangerous, particularly for women coming home at night.

"The skyway has some dim lights, but it's very shabby and dark in the night," said Naren Gupta, treasurer of the Crescent Town Community Association.

Sharif Ahmed, a resident in the Teasdale community, did not mince words.

"I have been using this subway for a long time, and it has been very unsightly, very unfriendly and very unsafe," he said. "This subway station has been long overdue to be fixed."

The changes to the station's exterior will be profound.

Bus bays, which are currently located on the roof of the station and accessed via a ramp, will be moved to the ground floor. A new pedestrian entrance will be built along Victoria Park and the station will be made accessible with elevators. Sidewalks will be refurbished along the length of the station.

And with $2.4 million in additions that the TTC agreed to consider in its budget process, the skyway will be rebuilt and widened and a new entrance for Teasdale commuters will be constructed.

Ward 31 Councillor Janet Davis (Beaches-East York) and Ward 35 Councillor Adrian Heaps (Scarborough Southwest) both pushed for those improvements at the commission.

"This is the station now," said Davis, armed with a grim set of photographs.

"There is absolutely no connection to the street, there's no identity that it's a subway station, it is ugly. It is not accessible. And Crescent Town and Teasdale are one of our 13 priority neighbourhoods. There's a high concentration of low-income newcomer populations and this is a community that is in need. It is a community that deserves good public services and good TTC space."

Heaps pointed out the station, like his ward, has been neglected for too long.

"The last time this station was addressed in any coherent form was 30 years ago," he said, adding safety is a real issue for the many who use the station.

"Teasdale has four huge building, like St. James Town," he said. "Fifteen thousand people live there and directly across the road, there are three other buildings who also utilize the walkway."

He said the walkway is a worry for everyone who uses it - including himself.

"The Teasdale walkway is one of those areas where there's been drug-related incidents and assaults," he said. "I've been threatened there a couple of times and there are single women who avail themselves of that station."

The refurbishment is only part of the redevelopment of the station, however. The TTC is also planning to create a parcel of land in the existing parking lot for high-density, transit-friendly redevelopment.

When that happens, Heaps told The Mirror he would like to see a new library branch incorporated.

"One thing that's come up a few times talking to the community is a new library," he said. "There isn't a library even at Crescent Town
-------------------------

Not soon enough, that station is scary. The walkways are covered in litter and filth and the station is poorly laid out.
I like the idea with high-density, transit-friendly redevelopment. I would like to see more of this with all the land available at some suburban stops.

 

[SD2]

Great news. This should be a nice boost for the area.