Your city, my city – which city?

Pino Di Mascio.

As I look forward and think about the kind of city I want Toronto to be, I can’t help but wonder what the geographic extent of that city will be. Where does it begin and where does it end?

I was born downtown, started school in the St. Clair/Dufferin area and grew up in Malton. My parents eventually moved to Brampton and then Woodbridge but I found my way to North York, the Annex and now Roncesvalles. I can ride my bike to work at Queen/Spadina but need my car to attend meetings in Vaughan or Whitby or Oakville. My kids have the luxury of walking to school but need be driven to birthday parties in Mississauga’s industrial parks or ski lessons in Barrie.

My city is both intimately small and extensively large at the same time. It is much more than the immediate neighbourhood in which I live and greater than the municipal corporation to which I pay my property taxes (which by the way are far lower than they should be or than others in neighbouring municipalities pay). We all need to come to grips with this reality – even those whose daily geography is quite small and compact.

Our ccity is a collection of many communities and many places with diverse populations and diverse issues, all spread over a vast land area of concrete, natural areas and countryside. The challenge is in how we interpret this landscape. Will we embrace the regional aspect of our city or will we see ourselves as a collection of kingdoms and moats?

Making regional connections at a municipal level is not easy. It requires being able to promote local needs but not resorting to parochialism. So, more downtown bike lanes are a good thing but they won’t make for a great city if we don’t invest in youth programs or improved services in our inner suburbs. Transit City is essential, but so are the Spadina and Yonge subway extensions and better GO service. Ongoing intensification is the most sustainable land-use planning policy we can implement, but if it doesn’t stop sprawl and the loss of farmland in places like Caledon or southern Simcoe County, how do we benefit?

As I wonder about the city proper and who will lead it over the next four years, it’s very important to me for those people to have a clear regional vision. We shouldn’t be exploiting the divisions that exist within the city the way previous municipal elections and municipal councils have done. Instead we should be celebrating our diversity by finding common ground on which to build a great city. This also means working cooperatively with our municipal partners outside of Toronto. Imagine that – a political landscape lacking in blame and and full of collaboration.

About Pino Di Mascio

Comments

[EF]

This city will not improve to any degree until we have a LEADER for a mayor and not an incompetent! It's a fine time of day when an 85 year old lady can rule a city and make it a far better place to live and the envy of almost any city in Canada. Maybe we should elect a retired business (person) to our mayors chair instead of these also-ran Liberals and phonies that appear to be coming out of the woodwork! The reason we can't get a decent person to run is the fact that we don't pay them enough (not that that is a good idea either) but the city has to get a person with a lot more moxie than our present mayor. Someone that can't suprise us with a $100 million "oversite", yet the taxes still rise and the licences still have a $60 premium. I have a feeling that the city will dive even deeper into dispair when the election is over. We can't proceed on Liberal Failures!

[JR Jake]

Unfortunately that is what happens when diversity becomes so much of the landscape there creates such divisions as you want your yard to look. That may seem like such a trite statement, but when so many object at others consent, there creates dissent.

Leadership is crucial and popular opinion needs to be steeped in the betterment of the society as a whole and not just partialities. Your ski mountains don't harbor industry for a reason. Your cities are for commerce as much as enjoyment. Your rivers supply your drinking water as well as your agriculture and sports.

You need to look at your strengths and provide safe harbor for those valued aspects in all respects. There are no such things as secondary objectives, just less primary, but there are tertiary obstacles that can impinge on the betterment of the whole.

[GTA]

OK so tonight's a little foggy trying to go home from TO or going into TO

Reliving the horror of the 401 fog

Where is Cheap InfraRed Technology for Auto's ???

& Railway crossings still don't have a direct Link to Dispatchers to Tell Controllers where trains are either etc. commented on August 30, 2009 13:45 PM

@ thestar.com

[Sonny Yeung]

Dear Pino; Toronto begins at the lake and goes north towards half of Steeles. Transit City is the way to go as we will once again hit triple digit oil prices where $75 U.S. is stable.

Look at GO Transit who will be raising fares with little outrage in the papers. It's not good transit but rather the system brings the outskirts into the city core and at the end of the day back to the perimeter.

Walk, bike, transit and car in that order! OR make small purchases to lug home.(smile)

[Federico Cartin-Arteaga]

Mr. Di Mascio’s commentary is, to say the least, bang-on. I’m certainly not an advocate of amalgamation old-regionalist style that the Province of Ontario has undertaken in the past decades. The tremendous myopia at Queen’s Park and at the GTA-municipal level in recognizing that the GTA is a deeply intertwined social and economic unit has cost us too much (can we baptize this as Hazelianism?!).

No other two things need to be better articulated in the GTA than transit and land use. Metrolinx will remain a failed attempt at solving transit issues if it can not plan and hinge local and regional transit as well. Places to Grow has somewhat addressed the need for regional land use planning. However, these two must come together and be planned for hand-in-hand. Queens Park has failed to recognise the need for vertical collaboration by dumping out local politicians from the Metrolinx board. It is healthy to have a good mix of civil society and government.

The big question is: who will champion and fund such a bold metropolitan undertaking? How can this be done in a way that is not imposed in the typical municipal-creature-of-the-province way but in a way that is democratic, bottom-up and that ensures both vertical and horizontal partnership?

[Dana Dvorak]

I would like to know why the City spends so much on developing and administering its City Plan when it is being flaunted every day. The most recent example is the City Council's approval of the Cadillac-Fairview application to build condominium houses at the location of the Don Mills Mall. Two of the proposed buildings are four times higher than the Central Don Mills Secondary Plan allows and the overall density will be, I think, a triple of what is permitted. Is this right? How dare we talk about urban planning! And how can we have a well planned and good looking city when deep pockets developers win every time?

[Nimalan Veerasingham]

‘City Museum’ is the crown that is missing.

Thank you Star, for the vital space that you have provided for the citizens to air their suggestions for the future of their city.

I have read recently in this space by a comment the need for an art museum in the City. No doubt it will raise the City’s outlook in the likes of many other leading cities where culture and contemporary life mingle to create sophisticated minds.

But what I see as a dire need is an actual ‘Toronto museum’ for the city. It is in fact a shame that the cultural capital and the economic engine of this country still lacks a museum, showcasing its almost 200 year history and the great contribution its citizenry has given in the fields of culture, science, philanthropy, business, athletics, architecture, social reforms, politics and Canadiana. Not to mention the history of many immigrant groups that had added to the city’s vibrancy and liveliness. It is indeed commendable to see individual artefacts preserved by various individuals and institutions scattered around the City, but the City certainly needs a centre point where locals and visitors especially the fellow Canadians who had been given nothing but mean views of the city, to see for themselves the greatness of the city’s contribution to the country.

As pointed out before in columns, I lament the fact that the Old City Hall, which is the ultimate sign of Toronto statehood both architecturally and in location, is not being put to use to glorify the City, other than in Hollywood movies. I would like to see not only this architectural wonder being put to glorify the history of this great City through housing the museum but also ways have to be found to connect Nathan Philips square with an extended overpass or burying a stretch of Bay street to create a large open people space between the old and new city halls. The created space in my mind would be an ideal ‘European Piazza style’ where people can mingle easily around a ‘Gathering place (Toronto) Fountain’ with ease and full of pride.

[Alan Shefman, Councillor, City of Vaughan]

Pino DiMascio, as usual is right on!

Over the last three years or so I have been very fortunate to work with Pino and his company as they developed the new City of Vaughan Official Plan. Every step of the way Pino has provided us with extraordinary insights at a variety of levels into our City. One of the most important understanding that I have gained is that while our City needs to transform itself to a much more walkable and compact form, it cannot do this in a vacuum. Critical to how we will develop over the next twenty years or so is access to rapid transit. As Pino says: "Our city is a collection of many communities and many places with diverse populations and diverse issues, all spread over a vast land area of concrete, natural areas and countryside. The challenge is in how we interpret this landscape. Will we embrace the regional aspect of our city or will we see ourselves as a collection of kingdoms and moats?"

As someone intimately involved in city building I have seen the gross stupidity and negative impact of the kingdoms and moats especially as it impacts public and rapid transit.

Let's take a first step into the future by breaking down the barriers - amalgamate all of the local transit authorities and create what we all desperately need - The Greater Toronto Transit Authority!