Category — Development

Did “common sense” put Toronto in near-terminal decline? That’s the disturbing conclusion of veteran Toronto urban affairs writer John Lorinc, who traces Toronto’s crumbling transit infrastructure and fractured politics to Mike Harris’ Common Sense Revolution of the 1990s.

With Suzanne Anton’s NPA crew offering voters a Vancouver version of Harris’ “common sense” platform in the Nov. 19 election, Lorinc’s deep analysis of “How Toronto Lost Its Groove and Why the Rest of Canada Shouldn’t Gloat,” published in the latest issue of The Walrus, makes for unsettling reading.

Harris’ first blow came in 1995, according to Lorinc, with a botched amalgamation of a dozen cities into the Greater Toronto Authority, a “smaller government” scheme that left the region with 25 mayors, 244 municipal officials and a destructive competition among larger municipalities for economic development and senior government funding.

The second hit came in 1997 when Harris “relieved” municipalities of education funding obligations but handed them the cost of public transit and housing. (Although Lorinc holds up Metro Vancouver’s governance system as a model, it arguably has many of the same deficiencies.)

Of course, Vancouver is not the GTA and a Vancouver election is not the same as an Ontario election. But the “common sense” philosophy is a direct link between Harris, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the NPA platform. All in all, it’s a cautionary tale.

Tamara Frank installation at West Pender Place

When Dutch artist Tamar Frank turned on her major new light installation at 1409 West Pender in July, early reviews were so positive she declared herself astounded and “almost bashful at the way people are complimenting me on the work.”

Frank is an internationally-recognized artist whose work has been installed in many countries.

But that public acclaim was not forthcoming from some neighbours of four or five condo towers south of the new building just opened by Reliance Properties, which paid $400,000 for the light work as part of the public art program.

By early August, nearby residents were bombarding councillors with angry e-mails, insisting that the illuminated display, that lasted all night, was keeping them awake. In many cases, nearby residents lacked blinds and had the LED display flashing into living rooms and bedrooms.

(I met with some of the affected residents in August and went down at night to see the display for myself. From the street, the lights seem muted, but passersby have a hard time comparing that experience to that of neighbours, who see the building at close quarters from higher floors.)

So far, Frank’s work remains up for all to see, albeit on reduced hours. Take a look.

Have you got an idea that would transform the north shore of False Creek and the city’s critical False Creek flats, the eastern core of the city? If so, you could win $1,500 in Vancouver’s Re:connect ideas competition.

You can be the city planner and city engineer: create a new vision for key lands bounded by Yaletown, Chinatown, Strathcona and right out to Grandview Woodlands that ensure a properous future for the city.

City residents will vote on the People’s Choice idea in an online ballot Nov. 21 to 25.

The Wild Card prize is just one of three “streams” of prizes totalling $10,000 designed to trigger wide public involvement — and professional input — on the final development of these critical elements of the city’s future.

All the tools you’ll need to make your submission are on the city’s site.

The ideas competition flows from the two-year debate on the future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts, the remnant stump of a freeway project the voters rejected in 1971.

With an engineering report confirming that the Viaducts could be reduced or eliminated as rapid transit investments continue to reduce vehicle traffice, the way is open to a new plan for this area.

There are some boundaries: the city wants to protect the flats for jobs, goods and services must still flow, there are some view corridors.

 But the “wild card” option can be right outside the box — and could be the winner.

Despite city-wide anxiety about “spot rezonings” and density increases, only two percent of of the city’s 1,100 development permits in 2010 were the result of rezonings with higher density.

That’s a total of 23 rezonings totalling about 2.2 million square feet in the entire city.

The whole story was summarized at council today in these reports on revenues generated by development charge levies and community amenity contributions.

The other 98 percent of development permits were outright approvals without rezonings.

Total capital spending on public benefits totalled $390 million, with about $31 million from DCLs. The community amenity charges totalled an additional $27 million.

Those revenues help pay for amenities as diverse as public art, dayvare, heritage preservation and affordable housing.

Conclusion: despite the perception among some that City Hall has become a rezoning machine, relentlessly densifying the city, the overwhelming majority of development is not rezoning at all.

Equally significant: most public benefits are paid for from regular revenues, not density bonuses.