Got some responses to the latest issue of Price Tags that didn’t make it into the “Comments” but are still worth posting:
From Andrew Curran:
Fantastic work on the “Vaughan” issue. Having grown up in the 905 belt myself – I agree that it is an amazing place indeed. And Vaughan is truly one of the most remarkable 905 municipalities, taking pedestrian hostility to another level entirely. Indeed, the proliferation of these anti-places is what drew me into the field of planning in the first place.John Barber – city affairs columnist for the Toronto edition of the Globe and Mail – has written several excellent articles on Vaughan that you would find interesting including:In the latter article he refers to Vaughan as a “stain upon the civic escutcheon” – a phrase that I now regularly make use of when touring the 905! A metropolis that knew where to draw the line
From Keith Thompson:
The lower mainland has been pushed down the path of intensification a little earlier than Toronto if only because of the ALR – which was reviled by its opponents at the time it was introduced and is now being chipped away.
What we don’t have is a transit system to rival Toronto’s. People whine about the subsidies involved in running the West Coast Express, for instance, but don’t see twinning the Port Mann etc., as subsidies for cars. Urban areas with good transit systems are more efficient, free people to move around at lower cost, and get a lot of economic benefits from that mobility of the work force. Urban areas dependent on auto transportation incurr increasingly higher costs in the form of pollution, travel time and costs, and reduction in quality of life. Sprawl requires cars – lots of em!
From David Peterson:
Here’s a companion piece to your current PriceTags. In the article linked below, from the Republic of East Vancouver mini-newspaper, last summer, Kevin Potvin explored the possibility that the region you’ve profiled has special political significance in Canadian federal elections. If true, that fact may be even scarier than what you’ve unearthed about the planning and design. Who knows, maybe there’s some cause/effect connection between the two.
A shot from Michael Gordon of his perception of the GTA near Gravenhurst:
From Shirley Spaxman:
Fascinating issue – thank you. I do spend time in these areas when I visit family in Toronto and surrounds – twice yearly. Last year I got lost in the Colossus Centre – round and round looking for a certain restaurant where I was meeting my nephew, who lives in Stouffville. Thank god for cell phones – he found me and led me through the massive “landscape” to our destination spot. And at night, in the winter, all covered in snow, forget about it – impossible to tell one place from another.
From Deb Jack:
Have you seen Highway # 10 in Surrey, lately? You may have known that the province was widening it. Seems to me to be a near perfect example of “uglification.” It is as if there have been a series of channels laid down through the centre of the city. “the concrete walls” as one woman said, offering no appreciation of fencing. There are slabs of concrete, painted grey, (the precise colour we need during our winters), ostensibly replicating wooden fencing due to the vague markings. There is no planting done, simply the green grass seed spray at the base. The slabs are really big, I do not know if they control the traffic sounds or not.
I’d stopped using #10 in Surrey with the construction but had occasion to travel it 1/2 each on Thursday and Friday last week. Am still recovering from the ghastly visual experience. On the other hand, it could be construed to be an example of the primary driver of civil engineers, that all be “straight and grey.” (It all reminds me of “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.”)Further info re the interchange of Highway # 1 and 200 Street in Langley. In the northwest cloverleaf there is, or was several years ago, if I recall correctly a special-built infant/daycare centre. Encircled with fumes, particulates and detritus of trucks and cars all day, every day, it included grassed areas for the children to play outside. But it was allowed to be there by the health authority, and was new and brightly coloured.
