Cars are not the answer

Cars were a great invention as they expanded the mobility options in many ways.

They transformed the way we live, work and play. We could move goods and provide services as never before.

Unfortunately cars no longer fit onto our streets, as there is just not enough physical space to accommodate cars for our rapidly growing population.

Still waiting for the right candidate

Today I went to a walk-in clinic and the magazine on the shelf from this spring had on the cover George Smitherman’s face and the main article was titled: "George Smitherman vs. Himself" (Toronto Life, March 2010). This morning, six months later, all the papers had articles around, “Ford: His Race to Lose”.
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone had a race to win? A win-win proposition where all Torontonians could actually win?
Smitherman was winning, far ahead of all. The perception is that he thought it was a done deal. He even decided to adopt a baby in the middle of what would have been the biggest political race of his life. He was mostly out of the picture, while Ford was making wildly absurd negative remarks about the city and its current administration.
All of the sudden, Rob Ford was close. Smitherman, Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson panicked and decided to be Ford imitators, focussing on everything negative they could think of, not realizing the doomsayers have a limit, probably a third of the city, and they had already chosen Ford. Nevertheless, they went straight for the same group.
These candidates who apparently had a chance to win, forgot about the majority of Torontonians who like the City of Toronto. Actually more than one in two residents were born in a country other than Canada and made Toronto home. This was not because it is a terrible place but because it is a very good city; it can be better, as all good cities can, and we are looking for someone to lead our very good city into becoming a great one.
It is true that 30 years ago Toronto had a great reputation; it is equally true that it was a fraction of the current city so we would be comparing apples with oranges. We must also remember that just 10 years ago we had as mayor a furniture salesman who insulted Africans and made the worst of the process of amalgamation increasing all costs and decreasing all revenues, in other words assuming all the costs and none of the benefits.
Nevertheless in the last eight years, yes under Mayor David Miller, the city in partnership with the private sector and the non-profit has made impressive gains: the waterfront project is finally showing concrete results, Transit City is a doable and workable plan, its environmental achievements are internationally recognized, the priority neighbourhoods are moving forward in eliminating poverty, the AGO, TIFF and ROM became world class facilities, and many more.
Much more still needs to be done. But we do not need a saviour and we are not in crisis mode. Actually Toronto is one of the cities that has adjusted and thrived best in the middle of the world economic crisis.
We need a Mayor that will lead the process of moving from very good to becoming a great city.
There is still time to find a candidate to vote for and not against, to move us forward and not backward. The small minority of fatalists already have their candidate.

On the other hand, the people who love the city and want to make it even better, those who want a more vibrant, competitive, egalitarian, inclusive place to live, a city for people, are still waiting for the right candidate.
This is still a race to win.

About Gil Penalosa

Poverty is not just about the money

Last week Catherine Porter wrote an excellent column in The Star titled “Playground politics are unfair” where she explained how Thorncliffe Park lacks a playground despite having the largest child population in the city. Actually they had one, which “was ripped out in 2006 after it was deemed unsafe by city inspectors.” Its replacement is slated for: 2015. Yes, 10 years to get a replacement playground.

By coincidence, this week as part of the work that I do leading the non-profit 8-80 Cities, we had presentations, workshops and interviews with the Thorncliffe Park community. Not only was I able to confirm this sad reality, but also visited an elementary school which has over 600 students in JK classes; how can you provide personalized education in that environment?

Parks and small schools are becoming a luxury that only the rich neighbourhoods have access to and this is wrong. It seems very Canadian to pride ourselves on being an egalitarian society, but the social and economic divide is growing in Toronto and across Canada. More than one in five households in Toronto lives under the poverty cut-off, in Thorncliffe Park it is 47 per cent, almost one in two, and there are poorer neighbourhoods.

Next door, Flemingdon Park does not even have a grocery store. Both are terrible places for pedestrians, cyclists and transit is proportionally extremely expensive. The bus stops are dirty and deteriorated.

Who wants to live in a neighbourhood if you take your children to the park and you find out that there is no playground and its replacement will be installed in 10 years? How about in a place with no grocery stores, which means that you need to travel long distances just to buy eggs or milk, probably paying more for transportation than the milk itself? No wonder we found most people in a transitory mood, as if wishing to get a bit of money to get out of that neighbourhood as fast as possible. And this is very wrong.

Now the news is that the Harper government has decided to purchase 65 war planes at $160 million each for a total of $9 billion, which added the maintenance contract totals $16 billion. This is in the middle of an economic crisis and done by a government asking the citizens for austerity.

When we spend $16 billion in war planes and over $1 billion in security for the G20 meeting but does not have $120,000 for a playground in the neighbourhood with the highest rate of children in the city, we have a problem with our priorities. By the way, the money spent in one fighter plane could buy 2,051 playgrounds.

Last year the City of Toronto, the government of Ontario and the federal government joined forces to spend $2.6 billion to build 8 km of subway in Vaughan, which will not solve any major transportation issue in Toronto. A Bus Rapid Transit could have been done for 10 per cent of that cost or a Light Rail for 20 per cent, satisfying current and future needs and leaving money for all the pedestrian and protected bikeway infrastructure in the entire GTA.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they joined forces to end poverty in Toronto? They might not be able to provide housing for all in the short term, but relatively quickly they could provide magnificent public parks for all, as well as state of the art schools, safe and beautiful sidewalks, crosswalks, a grid of protected bikeways linking all places of origin and destination in the city.

This would certainly contribute to really having a more egalitarian city, with healthier and happier residents, who would strengthen their sense of belonging, for new and old Canadians alike. Along the way, they would also improve the transportation system, end up with a cleaner environment and have a more vibrant Toronto.

Ending poverty is NOT a technical or financial issue: it is political.

About Gil Penalosa

Should cars be banned from Queen St.?

There is much talk about creating cities for people and not just for car mobility. There is lots of talk about improving pedestrian safety, promoting cycling, improving public transportation, but not much doing.

The World Car Free Day celebration presents a wonderful opportunity to be innovative and actually do something relevant and bold in Toronto. Why not open Queen Street to pedestrians, cyclists and street cars and close it to motor vehicles during the week of September 20th to the 26th?

Queen Street is already poor for car mobility. It’s narrow, has too many parked cars and the street car makes it even slower. The amount of cars using this street could easily be absorbed by Richmond and Adelaide, from Niagara Street in the west to Parliament Street to the east. It’s just 3.8 kilometres but could be a magnificent pilot project that if successful, could become permanent in 2011.

Queen Street is a good street, but it can be better. It can become a world class street. The transformation of Queen Street, along with car diversion to parallel streets, can be a learning experience for many communities. Similar actions in comparable cities have proven to be extraordinary for local business, and magnificent for people of all ages and levels of ability who enjoy a great public place. In the process, we can imagine what a Toronto for people can look and feel like.

A great complement to this pilot project would be to do a ped/bike friendly treatment on Yonge St., by opening the right lanes in both directions exclusive for bicycle riders from Bloor St. to Lake Ontario, leaving the two centre lanes for cars and buses. This would complete the east-west and a north-south bicycle connection.

Smaller interventions should also be used to connect these two arterials to educational institutions, parks, Union Station, and other points of origin and/or destination.

This would be a celebration of Car Free Week with a great deal of impact, which would get everyone thinking about the role of the pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and cars, in a sustainable city. Special projects could be developed from elementary schools to PhD students, media coverage, public forums, etc. The monetary cost is small, as all you need are some signs, pylons, and politicians who have guts and aren’t afraid to think and act big.

Other cities have taken similar measures.

• In Bogota, Colombia, Car Free Day is celebrated on a Thursday in February by not allowing circulation of cars anywhere in a city of 7 million people (approved by referendum);
• in Brussels, Belgium, they also have a total ban on cars one Sunday per year.
• NYC transformed Broadway around Times Square into an exclusive pedestrian and cycling way.

Copenhagen, Paris and Portland also enjoy car free streets and closer to home, one of the nicest experiences for Vancouverites during the Winter Olympics was to have multiple streets open to people and closed to cars during the games; the experience was so successful for community building as well as for the business owners that Administration is evaluating the possibility of making it permanent.

Change is hard and it does not happen by consensus. We must change if we want to combat global warming, the obesity epidemic, economic crisis and traffic congestion, elements that are creating a perfect storm. We cannot expect different results by doing things the same way.

Why not take up this challenge and together, elected officials, city staff, and community members look for solutions to the problems that might arise with this pilot project and not for problems to the solutions and make it a wonderful celebration of life in Toronto?

Queen St. could really become the Jewel of the City, and in the process, contribute to having a cleaner environment, more vibrant business, nice recreation for all, real alternative transportation modes and more physical activity improving public health.

About Gil Penalosa

Can Toronto learn from Mississauga?

Today’s Mississauga can be a wonderful laboratory for political candidates across Ontario to learn what to do as well as what to avoid.

Mississauga could have been one of the nicest cities in North America. A little over 30 years ago when it was created by amalgamation, it just had some very attractive villages like Port Credit, Streetsville, Meadowvale, Clarkson and others. With just 200,000 inhabitants, most of the land was farm, with gorgeous creeks, woodlots and the Credit River crossing it and ending in beautiful Lake Ontario.

Three decades later, it has grown totally focused on car mobility and not on creating a people friendly city. It did grow to over 700,000 people, but not because it was great. Actually any municipality in the GTA that provides abundant development permits can grow at that pace. The extended GTA is expected to grow by 50 per cent in the next 22 years.

Most of the population growth has been immigrants and over half of the residents were born in countries other than Canada; 41 per cent of the population are visible minorities. Nevertheless there is not a single visible minority councillor and just one senior staff in the top 40 at the city; another worrisome symptom.

Mayor Hazel McCallion has been called “the queen of sprawl.” The city is not walkable or bike-able and the transit system is mediocre. The city centre has grown guided by a “law of the jungle,” each developer doing whatever they wanted. After all, the first city centre plan was “donated” by the developers of Square One who obviously were more interested in getting a successful shopping centre than a suitable people place.

It does not have any college and its only university is a U of T campus. It has built hundreds of kilometres of sidewalks and roads, as well as dozens of schools, parks, community centres, public libraries, but not one that would generate the envy of all communities in Canada. The public realm has not been a priority.

On the positive side, Mississauga seems to have done some things right. It has no debt and re-elects its mayor with more than 90 per cent of the vote. It has been hitting the “bull’s-eye” -- unfortunately it was the wrong target.

But proving that only rivers have no reverse, Mississauga seems to be making a 180-degree turnaround. To McCallion’s credit, she has had the courage to admit that if she had known 30 years ago what she knows today, the city would be very different.

Miracles do happen. In the last three years Mississauga has created a Strategic Plan with massive public consultation.

• A campus of Sheridan College is being built in the heart of the city centre.
• Plans are underway to produce a major road diet on Burnhamthorpe, a six-lane arterial in the city centre, which will be turned into four lanes plus transit.
• A Bus Rapid Transit system is under construction parallel to Hwy. 403 and designs for a Light Rail are on the way along Hurontario from Lake Ontario to Brampton.
• A major square has been built connecting City Hall to the Central Library, which came out of a Placemaking process where “the community was the expert” and told the city staff what they wanted.
• There is a new cycling plan and elected officials, staff and community members are pushing to have it all implementing in less than 10 years.
• A major change is the resurgence of enthusiastic, knowledgeable and visionary community groups that are partnering with the City to “push and support” good initiatives; an example of these groups are the ones on the waterfront, especially in Port Credit and Lakeview.

Yes, much of these are just plans, but many projects are already under construction.

Mississauga might become an example to many communities in Ontario that even if they grew giving developers all they wanted and creating cities more friendly to cars than to people, it is never too late to turn around.

Obviously the city will never be as marvellous as if it had had this vision 30 years ago when it had the opportunity to do it right the first time; for example, to develop a magnificent grid of greenways and people friendly neighbourhoods with complete streets.

This is another lesson for the municipalities that are building the communities for the additional 3.7 million people that will live in the extended GTHA; they do not have to do what Mississauga did and then turn around. The new communities can be people friendly from day one.

Despite some criticism, McCallion is smart, hard-working and committed to her city. For the past few years she has had an equally smart City Manager who has put in place a very good team, especially around the project Creating the City for the 21st Century. They are demonstrating that if given some room to manoeuvre, they make things happen.

Wouldn’t it be great if McCallion used her boundless energy and capacity to get things done and over the next four years accelerates the pace of change so that in addition to doing things right, her legacy would be to have done the right things?

Interesting challenge and a wonderful opportunity. Let’s hope they succeed, as it could have major positive implications not just for Mississauga but for the future of urban Ontario.

About Gil Penalosa

Bike lane plan spinning it wheels

Nice thought to have protected bikeways in Toronto, physically separating cyclists from pedestrians and from cars, making it safe for all.

Unfortunately the plan to do them on University Ave., from Richmond St. to Wellesley St. will not work. It does not connect anything to anything. It will just provide politicians like Rocco Rossi a wonderful excuse to say that “we are not a bicycle city,” as it will not increase the number cyclists significantly.

In fact, the purpose of having protected bikeways is to increase the current number of cyclists. It would allow people that are not currently cycling because of fear of cars an opportunity to try it in a safe way. This is especially attractive for children, older adults, as well as inexperienced adults.

Nevertheless in addition of having physical separation on arterials, when roads have speeds for cars of 40 km/h or higher and/or over 5,000 cars per day, you need to connect places of origin to places of destination. You need a minimum grid. Toronto is approximately 20 by 40 kilometres; it would be ideal to have a protected bikeway every 2-3 kilometres so that you would have 8 going East – West and 16 North South.

An initial trial should have at least one route North - South from Eglinton Ave. to Lakeshore Blvd. (along University or Yonge) and another East – West on streets like Richmond St. and Adelaide St. all across the city. Ideally the trial should have three in each direction -- a mini grid which then could expand.

People who are not currently cycling in Toronto will not begin to do so just because you have 1,300 metres of protected facility that does not connect places. The existing cyclists will be the only users, maybe adding a few that are using other roads and will move over to try this one, but they are not additional riders.

 It will not show any significant increase and it will not serve to make the case for protected bikeways in Toronto. Actually it will have the opposite effect.

The only positive aspect is that it will educate people on what a “protected bikeway can look like”, even if it is on the wrong side of the street. It should always be uni-directional, on the left, from slow to fast: sidewalks for pedestrians, protected bikeways, then slow car lanes, then fast cars.

Why is it that Toronto is so timid, so scared of thinking big and acting big?

We have one innovative pedestrian crosswalk at Yonge and Dundas, the “scramble” that allows a time for pedestrians to walk in all directions, and three years later we have two. In similar cities like Christchurch, New Zealand, they try one, it works, and within six months they have all the crossings along that main street as a scramble.

Toronto announces it is bringing public bikes and then the director of transportation announces on CBC that “the system is not proven” and the decision is postponed. He does not realize the places like Copenhagen have had it for 20 years; Paris has 20,400 public bikes for the last two years and Montreal now has its very successful Bixi program.

Finally we were going to get the first protected bikeway. We know that in addition to the bikeway itself, we need connectivity, a grid. We get 1.3 kilometres! Can you imagine cars or transit if they just had 1,300 metres of streets or rails at a time? Where could they go to?

Thinking small, acting smaller.

Let’s keep this in mind as we choose our candidates for Mayor and Council across Ontario. Toronto is already good; let’s elect the right people to make it truly great. Who has the vision, political will and managerial capacity to get things done? Who is not afraid to think big and hopefully to act big? There are some good municipal staff all over the GTA, and they deserve to have the best politicians providing the necessary leadership and support. The community has the obligation to think carefully who to elect and to participate in the process.

About Gil Penelosa

Pedestrians are the city's orphans

We can call it the “baby stroller effect”; when a mom pushing a stroller was killed by a car, it made the front page of all papers; much time in TV news was focused on it and everyone became concerned. Now pedestrian deaths are back on the forgotten pile.

Political candidates in the GTA, to both municipal council and for mayor, do not seem to have this on their minds, even though it affects everyone, young and old, rich and poor, urban or suburban -- all. What are they proposing to do about it? It is not about talking “war on cars,” it is about doing, creating cities for people.

We seem to justify pedestrians killed as a normal part of everyday city life in the 21st century; we blame it on the fact that he or she was “talking on the cellphone” or “listening to the i-Pod” or “probably jaywalking” or just “not paying attention.”

This common attitude might lower our concern and anxiety, but it is wrong. None of those actions justify getting killed! It is people like us, like our children and parents, our neighbours and friends, who are killed while they walk to their normal activities.

Everyday a Canadian is killed while walking (average last five years, StatsCan). Last year a pedestrian was injured by a car in Toronto every six hours (TO Police). There are more than twice as many pedestrians killed in Ontario as there are homicides by firearm.

Walking can and should be made safe for ALL. Period.

Walking is a mode of transportation. Even in the wealthiest and most sprawling neighbourhoods in the GTA more than one in three people do not drive: everyone under 17, 30 per cent of the over 60, and 15 per cent of the rest. In areas less affluent and/or denser, it can go above 75 per cent.

What are our political candidates saying about this? Who is the “champion of the pedestrians”? Who is willing to propose a one-line policy on the first day at work that “in this municipality pedestrians are first”? It would send a clear message to all stakeholders, municipal staff, developers, citizens, that everything that takes place in our communities should have pedestrians as a priority.

From the point of view of vulnerability according to modes of transportation, pedestrians are first, then cyclists, then transit users, and then car drivers and passengers. From the age point of view, children and older adults are most vulnerable, they are also the least likely to drive, which is why we need to create great cities for all (8-80 Cities).

But walking is not just about transportation; creating a great walkable community results in other benefits as a bonus: vibrant cities, healthier communities, great public places and happier residents.

Make sure that your politician makes a commitment to do whatever is necessary to make walking a normal part of everyday life, and to make it SAFE for ALL.

About Gil Penalosa

A visionary and a doer: a full glass

Gil Penalosa.

As we move forward towards a new municipal election across Ontario, we must think what is needed from the candidates, what characteristics would make a great mayor or councillor.

There are many useful qualities but two are absolutely necessary: to be visionary and a doer.

Visionary means to have the capacity to see where we should be in 20 or 30 years, as well as to know what needs to be done today, to get us there.

Nevertheless it is not enough to know where we need to aim; the politicians also need to have the managerial and political capacity to make the necessary decisions to get things done. A “doer”

Let’s see two examples of “successful politicians” in the GTA who each represents a half full glass: Hazel McCallion and David Miller.

Mayor McCallion has been very successful at doing things right, unfortunately not necessarily at doing the right things.

She took over Mississauga almost three decades ago, when it had a little over 200,000 residents, distributed over nice villages in Port Credit, Streetsville, Clarkson, Meadowvale, etc. Most of the land was empty, with beautiful creeks, woodlots, the Lake Ontario waterfront and the magnificent Credit River. Now it has over 700,000 residents.

What things were done right? Well, the city has no debt, home of many large businesses, and stability in the public sector.

At the same time, it seems impossible to find any area of the city where the new 500,000 people live which is quite as nice as the villages that existed long before the city was created.

It is not a pedestrian-friendly city, it's terrible for cyclists, has a poor transit system, and it has just developed as fast as the market wanted totally centered on the car. It is evident that the priority has been car mobility and not people’s happiness or healthy communities.

Another negative symptom is how it missed the opportunity when a few years ago all universities and colleges were building new facilities to satisfy the double cohort and it did not attract a single one, leaving just the UTM; no wonder so many parents complain that their kids want to move as soon as they can as “there is nothing to do in Mississauga.”

Another worrisome symptom is how although 51 of every 100 residents were born in another country and 41 per cent are visible minorities, amongst the councillors, city manager, commissioners, and directors (over 50 people) there is just one visible minority, which is not a proper representation of the city’s residents; no one is suggesting to have the same proportion of residents, but one is clearly not enough, and this is a time bomb.

On the other hand, Mayor David Miller represented a fresh change from the mediocre Mel Lastman, whose lack of education and world exposure made us look bad quite often. Toronto had the bad fortune of having had a mayor with neither the vision nor the capacity to get things done at a most critical time, which was the amalgamation, and excessive wrong decisions were taken with long term impact.

Miller represented a new politician: well-educated, visionary, with a great understanding of where Toronto was and what was needed to do to become a world class city.

Unfortunately, as he concludes the second and last term, it is evident that he did not fulfil the high expectations. He brought back the respectability and aura to the office and the city, but not much more; so many expectations and so little done.

This shows why it is important to elect mayors with both a clear vision and the capacity to get things done. Vision alone creates frustration, while action by itself results in chaos.

The democratic system provides us with the magnificent opportunity to choose our leaders. Let’s take full advantage of this privilege and over the next few months approach all candidates across Ontario to drill them on issues, knowledge and experience, in order to have the necessary elements to decide on who to vote for.

It would be an enormous privilege for any municipality to elect a mayor with Miller’s visionary capacity and McCallion’s ability to implement it. Those two half-full glasses would make one full with the real possibility of transforming any municipality in the next four years.

About Gil Penalosa