Last week, John Lorinc interviewed David Crombie about Toronto’s Waterfront, in the wake of all the stupid debate we’ve heard over the last month.. Here’s what the former mayor had to say:
When I hear people say they’re impatient about development on the waterfront, I don’t want to be unkind, but they are people who don’t go there. If you start at Mimico Creek and go straight across to Victoria Park and the Bluffers, the change is enormous. No, I’m not impatient with it. I’m impatient with those whose impatience is going to rush us to judgment.
It’s going now. Does it need to be done better? Anything can be done better. But, boy, this is a ship that is going. Want to improve it? Do that. But don’t blow it up.
via Crombie still sees magic in Toronto’s waterfront – The Globe and Mail.
But blowing it up might solve our short-term budget problems!
To add to that, a poster on the Urban Toronto forums (EnviroTO) put together a quick list of all the projects recently completed or currently under development projects undertaken by Waterfront Toronto:
Completed
– Flood prevention landform that allows development on most of the land to occur is complete.
– Sewer system through West Don Lands complete.
– HtO Park complete.
– Port Union Waterfront Park complete.
– Marilyn Bell Park and Western Beaches Watercourse complete.
– Mimico Waterfront Park Phase I complete.
– Sherbourne Common south complete.
– Waterfront Edge at Harbourfront complete.
– Three wave decks complete.
– Sugar Beach complete.
– Corus Quay complete.
– Cherry Beach renovation complete.Under Development
– Union Station second platform project under construction.
– George Brown college under construction.
– Canada Square under construction.
– Bayside Development contract signed.
– Parkside Development contract signed.
– Queens Quay LRT and street makeover EA complete.
– Cherry LRT EA complete.
– West Don Lands neighbourhood study and EA complete.
– River City Development contract signed.
– Pan Am Games development in advanced planning.
– Don River Park under construction.
– Underpass Park design complete.
– Keating Channel precinct plan complete.
– Mouth of Don design competition and EA complete.
– Lake Ontario Park master plan complete.
via Waterfront: East Bayfront – Sherbourne Common & Sugar Beach | UrbanToronto.ca.
All this and Doug Ford still calls it “the biggest boondoggle the feds, the province and the city has ever done.” Go figure.