Toronto Bloor Street Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Bloor-Yorkville BIA | architectsAlliance

Honestly, what do people expect? This was done in the typical Toronto "that's good enough" fashion. Anything more would have made us stand-out (god-forbid) and would most certainly be considered a huge waste of money by the Rob Ford's of this city. Let's look at this for what it is: a half-baked result as per usual in this beautiful city.

Where else can you have a brand new road paved, hacked up, cut and poorly patched all in the same month?

pfizzle..
 
Im pleased to hear all of the planters will be filled with seasonal and winter displays...instead of just standing emty...waiting for spring tree planting.
We might feel like in winter wonderland this December while shopping on Bloor street.
 
October 25th Update

I wasn't much in the mood to take photographs today, it was too busy when I was walking through the area.
All fencing along Bloor Street has now been removed except 3 areas where work continues (noted below), four lanes are now re-opened on Bloor Street, most planters have been filled with soil now except a half dozen or so between Belair & Avenue Rd. and of course flowers and tree plantings will be done next spring. Work continues at 120 Bloor East (n/e corner Church & Bloor) where granite slabs are now being laid (yay!), the hydro vault at the n/w corner of Bloor & Church and pavers are being laid in front of 2 Bloor West. Aside from what's noted above along with a few deficiencies and bench installations, work appears to be pretty much complete for the season. The staging area in the east lane on Avenue Road south of Bloor is still a big mess, I presume that should be cleaned up in the next couple of weeks. I want to say it looks great west of Yonge St. but I can't, I am confident that we'll be able to say that next summer once the trees and flowers have been planted.
 
I thought this time would be different, but not.I could not beleive my eyes. The asphalt paving in front of Harry Rosen and on the corner of Bay and Bloor has been cut in order to repare something underground. Not even two months after being done. Such a shame.
 
Zeiss said:
I thought this time would be different, but not.I could not beleive my eyes. The asphalt paving in front of Harry Rosen and on the corner of Bay and Bloor has been cut in order to repare something underground. Not even two months after being done. Such a shame.
Click to expand...

You mean granite paving ... this happens ... and it happens everywhere (for so many reasons) ... at the end of the day the key question is what do they do when they patch it up.

So until them I suggest we wait and see
 
Why do we spend the money to repave a road only to cut it up a few months later? Then it's patched and the patches deteriorate faster over time. It's such a waste and a slap in the face to anyone who sees road reconstruction as progress in terms of maintaining quality road surfaces. It happens all around the city.
 
junctionist said:
Why do we spend the money to repave a road only to cut it up a few months later? Then it's patched and the patches deteriorate faster over time. It's such a waste and a slap in the face to anyone who sees road reconstruction as progress in terms of maintaining quality road surfaces. It happens all around the city.
Click to expand...

Of course it's undesirablethat newly paved areas are reopened but these utility cuts usually happen because someone wants to change from electricity to gas and needs a gas connection or there is a water leak or a broken wire. The problem is not that utility cuts are made but that the City (who gets paid to make the permanent repairs by the utility companies - and the rate just increased sharply) is so slow to fix them permananently. I think the utility companies are responsible for the temporary cut until then but nobody seems to keep after them. (Toronto Hydro are busily replacing all (?) their metal-covered handwells - the area around St Lawrence Market is now covered by poorly patched temporary holes!)
 
I was discussing this project with a friend of mine and he said this project was a billion dollars over budget and that the tax payers were on the hook for it. I knew it wasn't nowhere near a billion bucks but I couldnt provide figures. I also told him that it was paid for by the BIA and what the city paid for was a loan.

Can somebody please elaborate on numbers so that I can back up my argument with real figures?
 
MetroMan said:
I was discussing this project with a friend of mine and he said this project was a billion dollars over budget and that the tax payers were on the hook for it. I knew it wasn't nowhere near a billion bucks but I couldnt provide figures. I also told him that it was paid for by the BIA and what the city paid for was a loan.

Can somebody please elaborate on numbers so that I can back up my argument with real figures?
Click to expand...

A billion dollars over budget?? People can be really clueless when it comes to project budgets.
 
MetroMan said:
I was discussing this project with a friend of mine and he said this project was a billion dollars over budget and that the tax payers were on the hook for it. I knew it wasn't nowhere near a billion bucks but I couldnt provide figures. I also told him that it was paid for by the BIA and what the city paid for was a loan.

Can somebody please elaborate on numbers so that I can back up my argument with real figures?
Click to expand...


It's $4.5-million over budget. Your friend is off by $995.5 million.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/05/19/council-oks-4-5m-overrun-for-bloor-street-redesign/


But that example, and syn's reaction, are interesting case studies in the how Rob Ford math rounds everything up to $1 billion. This project is now expected to cost $24 million.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top