blacktrojan3921
New Member
Found this rather interesting opinion piece on the Globe and Mail regarding ways to revitalize Toronto into a world class city.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...-city-again/article23681575/?click=sf_globefb
Seven ways to make Toronto a world-class city again
JOE BERRIDGE
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Mar. 30 2015, 8:43 AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Mar. 30 2015, 9:25 AM EDT
Two decades ago Toronto was not in good shape. A persistent recession, wearying amalgamation struggles and senior government cutbacks were then compounded by the SARS scare. But out of those crises sprang a remarkable series of initiatives. Half a dozen new major cultural buildings, notably the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario College of Art and Design and the Four Seasons Centre, arrived with great architectural enthusiasm. The MaRS Project was born, Luminato sprang onto the scene. The long awaited regeneration of the city’s relationship to the lake finally got underway with the establishment of Waterfront Toronto. An unsuccessful Olympic bid was transformed into this year’s hosting of the Pan-Am/Parapan Games. Pearson Airport got a magnificent makeover. And those are just the headline events; many other important educational, job training, immigrant settlement and similar ideas got started from which we are still benefiting.
Today the picture could not be more different. Toronto is now in good shape: 2015 is going to be a great year for the city. The waterfront is going to look wonderful, tied together by the new promenade along Queens Quay. Union Station is being re-born as a magnificent transportation terminal. The AirRail Link to Pearson Airport will open and Torontonians won’t believe how they could have managed without it. Much of the relentless grind of downtown road construction will be over. The Games look like they will be a heck of a lot of fun. The new mayor seems competent, civil, and sober. And The Economist said Toronto is the best place in the world to live.
Yet as far as I know, no comparable set of big ambitions exists for the city’s next two decades.
The grinding transit debate has sucked all the energy out of the city. Understandably, as transit, along with the daunting need to reinvent Toronto’s public-housing system, are major challenges. They are, however, not all a big city is about. And make no mistake, Toronto is now a significant global city. The stakes are higher: the city’s current boom was not accidental, and continued prosperity cannot be taken for granted. It depends on investing to maintain that position.
Continued.....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...-city-again/article23681575/?click=sf_globefb
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