I am not sure if you are aware, but the municipal government of Toronto has been talking about possibly tearing down the Gardiner Expressway and making it run underground.
My friend, who works with CBC, was telling me about this and I was appalled! The reason why all of this talk is going on in the first place is because many Canadian citizens believe that the highway takes away from the beauty of the city. I mean, without the highway, there will be peace, quiet, cleanliness and complete openness to the waterfront. The Gardiner acts as an eyesore to many people and they believe that this is ruining the appearance of Toronto and will deter tourists from visiting overtime.
So, what should the government do? Is tearing down the Gardiner Expressway and making it run underground, the smartest thing to do?
I personally believe that if the tear down takes place, five years later, there will be a wall of condos up blocking the true beauty of the waterfront, resulting in the same problem that we have now. The result of tearing down the highway would be a vast amount of land worth a lot of money. Contractors and developers will jump on this opportunity and put as much money as they need to on the table to buy that land and make condos. If the city council can maintain a strong determination to limit high rise development, then maybe, maybe, it should be considered but I honestly believe that this so called “problem” will only be solved for a little while until big buildings are put up in place of the highway. I mean, developers and contractors will be offering big bucks to the government and since when does the government refuse money?
In addition to this, I highly doubt that Toronto will be able to deal with the traffic congestion problem that will result from the temporary destruction of the highway. What are the alternatives going to be? Are all commuters going to have to resort to using Lakeshore Boulevard for a few months? Think about all the traffic that would arise because of this! Downtown workers may as well sleep in hotels rather then having to continuously drive through congested traffic.
I’m all for the beauty of Toronto, but beauty and reality are two different things. Let’s be practical here…tearing down the Gardiner will not benefit anyone but the government.
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4 comments:
I think its stupid that the government is thinking of taking out the gardiner expressway. Like the author, I too agree that without the Gardiner how are people suppose to commute? Building a new route underground will take months if not years to build...so in that time what are the people living in downtown T.O or the people who work there suppose to do? Taking out a major route like that will make traffic on other routes unbareable! And the traffic problem is already as bad as it is. I think they need to keep the gardiner...even if its an "eye sore" To me personally our city is beautiful even with the gardiner expressway in the picture.
The government needs to focus their time and energy on more important issues; such as healthcare, education or safety. Toronto is a beautiful city regardless of the Gardiner expressway. The result of its temporary absence would be catastrophic, especially since outdoor construction is limited to only a few months of the year. If the government decides to go through with it, they should be prepared for a very unhappy city.
Given the Toronto government's current financial situation, an expensive project like this seems absurd. I mean just recently, they were considering introducing a municipal sales tax to help increase their budget. It just seems with all the other social problems the city has right now, a huge project that will "supposedly" result in a better environment, shouldn't be a priority.
Two words: "Big Dig". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig_%28Boston%2C_Massachusetts%29)
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