Sean Marshall

Category: Politics

  • Bloor Street blues

    Bloor Street blues

    Bloor Street, entering Mississauga from Toronto

    On Friday, May 10, Mississauga City Councillor and mayoral candidate Dipika Damerla posted a message and video on Twitter/X, stating that “it will be up to the residents to decide on who best represents the vision of the Mississauga they want.” She followed that by saying that she “will not be silenced in my opposition to remove two lanes from Bloor Street and create more gridlock in Mississauga.”

    In the video, she is standing on Bloor Street West at Yonge Street in the heart of Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville business district, 16 kilometres east of the Mississauga border at Etobicoke Creek. Needless to say, this is a very different built environment than anywhere in Mississauga.

    Toronto’s Bloor-Danforth bike route, which stretches from Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road on the east to Bloor Street West at Aberfoyle Crescent (near Islington Avenue) is very well used by cyclists, including commuters, couriers, and casual riders. There is also a subway paralleling the entire corridor. Behind Councillor Damerla, there is heavy traffic, but it is unfair to blame the bike lanes for this congestion. The vehicles are stopped at a red light at Yonge Street, one of the busiest intersections for pedestrians and cyclists in the city. There’s a dedicated scramble crossing at the intersection, which does reduce the green light time for traffic on Bloor, though it makes it safer for pedestrians, who outnumber all other road users there.

    There is also considerable construction in and around the intersection. Work continues on the troubled “The One” condominium tower, blocking off some of the southwest Yonge-Bloor corner. Just east of Yonge, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists are squeezed as the TTC works to expand the Bloor-Yonge Subway Station below.

    Furthermore, before the bike lanes were installed, the curb lanes were used by stopped cars and delivery trucks; Bloor Street was never a traffic clearway, and it is a ridiculous argument that the bike lanes have caused congestion.

    Construction on Bloor Street is the cause of some of the congestion in the area

    In Mississauga, Bloor Street is a minor arterial road that extends as far west as Central Parkway. Between Etobicoke Creek and Royal Orchard Drive (just west of Dixie Road), Bloor is lined with rental and condominium apartment buildings and townhouse complexes. From Royal Orchard to Cawthra, the street is lined with low-density dwellings, a shopping plaza, and a high school. The western-most section is lined with fences as the houses back onto Bloor, more typical of major suburban arterial roads.

    Bloor Street in Mississauga
    Looking west towards Central Parkway and the Mississauga City Centre skyline

    The City of Mississauga was already planning to resurface Bloor Street, but took advantage of the timing to completely study the corridor with the goal of promoting active transportation and improving road safety while maintaining traffic flow.

    After extensive community consultation, Mississauga city staff recommended Alternative 6 for Bloor Street which widens the sidewalks, adds new separated cycle tracks, and a boulevard for trees and street lighting between the roadway and cycle tracks and the sidewalks and property lines. A continuous two-way left turn lane would allow motor vehicles to turn in and out of side streets and private driveways without conflicting with through traffic. This was approved by City Council in June 2023. Construction is scheduled to begin in October 2024.

    Council-approved redesign for Bloor Street in Mississauga

    This plan balances the needs of all road users, particularly students and seniors. It is great to see suburbs like Mississauga and Brampton rethink their streets to better serve all of their residents.

    Bloor Street, looking east from Havenwood Drive. Note the “school route” sign and the cyclist using the sidewalk in the distance.
    Yellow lawn signs with the slogan “Save Bloor Street.” Note the SUV parked in a way that partially blocks the narrow sidewalk.

    Bloor Street, whether it be a residential roadway in Mississauga, or a commercial street in Downtown Toronto, is not a place where drivers should expect nor be given ultimate priority over pedestrians, cyclists, or public transit riders.

    Luckily, many Mississauga politicians already get it. Reporting for the Mississauga News, Steve Cornwell noted that fellow councillor and mayoral candidate Alvin Tedjo “stands by the approved Bloor project”, while Carolyn Parrish, another city councillor running for mayor declared that a reversal of last year’s council vote would not pass, saying that the “issue’s dead” at one mayoral debate. Ward 3 Councillor Chris Fonseca — whose ward covers most of Bloor Street — championed the changes.

    Though Parrish has led several polls (with Damerla and Tedjo in second and third place), it is unfortunate to see a top-three candidate and sitting councillor using the Bloor Street redesign as a wedge issue. Mississauga is growing up. Some of its politicians should too.

  • A review of Metrolinx’s April 2024 service changes

    A review of Metrolinx’s April 2024 service changes

    With a GO train serving as a backdrop, Premier Doug Ford, along with Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, announced major changes to GO Transit service, with 300 new weekly trains (a 15% service increase). The service changes will take effect on Sunday, April 28, 2024.

    Though most new trains will be added on the Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East, and Kitchener Lines (the Milton Line gets just one additional weekday round trip in the peak direction), the media event was held in Milton, where a byelection was called to replace outgoing PC MPP Parm Gill. With a competitive race between PC candidate Zeeshan Hamid and Liberal candidate Galen Naidoo Harris, the choice of venue made it an especially political event.

    News of the pending service changes was publicized in regular Metrolinx email newsletters in March, but was since taken down, likely to allow for the news to be shared first by the premier and minister of transportation. It is quite clear that Metrolinx is entirely beholden to the provincial government these days, where communications are tightly controlled by its political masters.

    The new GO Transit schedules are now available online. Though there is plenty of good news, some of the added trains are merely restoration of previous service levels. Meanwhile, there will be a significant service cut for two Toronto stations.

    Lakeshore Corridor

    Fifteen-minute train service returns on the busy Lakeshore line on weekend afternoons and evenings, between Oshawa and Oakville Stations only. Service will still run every half-hour on weekdays, weekend mornings, and to Bronte, Appleby, Burlington, and Aldershot Stations, and every hour to West Harbour GO in Hamilton.

    However, weekend 15-minute service starts late in the afternoon. Frequent service from Oakville to Union starts at 2:30 PM Saturdays and Sundays and at 3:14 at Union Station. This additional service starts too late for family day trips to the city or for getting to afternoon Blue Jays games.

    Bus route 18K, which operates between Aldershot, West Harbour, St. Catharines, and Brock University, is renumbered to Route 11.

    Milton Corridor
    Map of Route 21

    There will be one new peak-period round trip leaving Milton at 6:43 AM and leaving Union at 4:10 PM.

    More importantly, Route 21 will return to its previous routing, operating directly into Union Station Bus Terminal. When I wrote about the April 2023 changes, I commented that the changes simplified the complicated Route 21 while improving reliability and predictability for Milton Line passengers. However, the changes proved to be unpopular, with poorly timed connections between buses and trains.

    But with the Gardiner Expressway down to two lanes between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue for long-term construction, and with downtown Toronto’s traffic, I am wondering how much better the ride will be.

    Route 21A, which ran between Milton and Oakville, will be replaced by Route 22, which offers much more limited service — every two hours, weekdays only. Route 21A offered useful connections to GO buses at Trafalgar Road Park & Ride for Highway 407 services to McMaster University, Downtown Hamilton, Square One, and beyond. It is a shame to see that service reduced, though perhaps Milton Transit should begin serving it.

    Kitchener Corridor and UP Express
    New UP Express service pattern

    The good news? There will be new weekday half-hourly train service between Bramalea and Union Stations during midday and early evening periods. (Hourly service between Bramalea and Union will remain in the counter-peak direction.) There are no changes to rail service between Kitchener, Mount Pleasant, or Union Station and only minor changes to connecting GO buses. Not all trains will stop at Etobicoke North, which only has one platform.

    The bad news? UP Express service will be split into express and local services, with non-stop service between Union Station and Pearson Airport every 30 minutes, and local trains every 30 minutes stopping at Bloor and Weston. Both local stations will see improved weekday GO service, but this still amounts to a service cut, especially at Bloor, an important connection to the Line 2 Subway and local TTC services. This is also at a time when the connection between Dundas West Station and Bloor Station is finally being improved.

    Other changes

    Weekday evening train service will be restored on the Stouffville Line on April 28.

    Elsewhere, there are minor schedule adjustments — it’s always a good idea to check your trip before you depart.

    One last thing worth commenting about is a brand new, well-designed GO Transit bus map that clearly shows each route and how they connect to the rail network. Bus routes are sorted into “core” and “train support” services, a useful distinction.

    My only criticism is that they should show frequency or level of service — some “train support” routes run hourly or better, seven days a week (like Route 30) while some of the “core” routes do not operate evenings and weekends.

    Regional bus map
    Finally

    Apart from my observations and criticism above, I would have liked to have seen more changes to the bus network. For example, service to Peterborough remains too slow, while there should be weekend service between Kitchener, Guelph, and Hamilton. Hopefully, there will be more changes in September.

  • Whose line is it anyway?

    Whose line is it anyway?

    Light rail construction on Hurontario Street at Derry Road, February 12, 2024

    Less than two weeks ago, I wrote about the politics of renaming of the Hurontario LRT for Hazel McCallion, a long-serving mayor of Mississauga and close political and personal ally of Premier Doug Ford.

    Though much of the information I received was redacted, I was able to learn that the Cities of Brampton and Mississauga had already come up with a brand for the new transit line. Metrolinx and the provincial government had to reimburse them for the costs once the Minister of Transportation intervened to force a new name upon the project, which cumulated with a love-in photo op on February 14, 2022.

    Among the information redacted in the information package sent to me, six months after my initial Freedom of Information request, was the LRT line’s colour and number. They were redacted under Section 18(1) of the provincial Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act, citing economic and other interests of Ontario.

    Redacted line colour, number, and logo

    At Derry Road, though, the secret is out. The Hurontario Line will be Line 10, represented by a bright blue colour similar to the former Line 3 Scarborough RT.

    Derry LRT station under construction

    Line 10 is a good choice for this corridor. Hurontario Street and Main Street through Mississauga and Brampton used to be part of provincial Highway 10, which was later bypassed by Highway 410 and downloaded to the two cities between the 1980s and the 2000s. It will also be the first Metrolinx-managed rapid transit project completely outside the City of Toronto, where Lines 1 through 6 are already assigned to the existing subway and the Eglinton-Crosstown and Finch West LRTs (with Line 3 reused for the Ontario Line when it opens).

    Brampton Transit and Miway currently operate bus services with that route number (10 South Industrial and 10 Bristol-Britannia), but those should be easy to change in advance of the LRT’s opening, which will take place in late 2025 or early 2026, given the construction progress so far.

    I remain puzzled and somewhat annoyed that this information was kept secret, and for what reasons. Revealing a line number and colour in a freedom of information request should not have been important. If it was to protect for another government photo opportunity, then that is now moot. Who is the Hurontario LRT for? The Doug Ford-led provincial government, or the people who will ride it?

    Finally, I note that like the shelters going up for the Finch West LRT and the surface stops of the Eglinton LRT, there is very little protection from the elements at the Hurontario LRT stops, with only a canopy and a single wall supplying shade and cover from the rain or snow. Compare the Derry Road LRT stop with older Brampton Züm shelters, which include enclosed waiting areas, benches, and even winter heating.

    Brampton Züm stop with full glass enclosure, benches, and a button to activate a heater in the winter
    One more thing…

    To my longtime followers as well as my occasional readers, thank you for your interest and support. Last year’s FOI request cost me $525.00. Sadly, freedom of information isn’t free. If you like my work and want to contribute to my online mapping and webhosting costs, please consider buying me a coffee.

  • Heavy interference in a light rail transit project

    Heavy interference in a light rail transit project

    Banner promoting “The Hazel McCallion Line” on Hurontario Street in Brampton, January 2024

    Previously on this website, I wrote about the renaming of two GO Transit stations: Oshawa and Brampton. I explained why renaming transit infrastructure is problematic, especially when they violate wayfinding standards, which call for simple, accurate, unique, and self-locating names.

    Both GO Transit stations were renamed by provincial agency Metrolinx, on behalf of the provincial government. Metrolinx operates GO Transit buses and trains, the UP Express airport link, administers the Presto fare payment system, and oversees the construction of new rapid transit projects in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The Hurontario LRT, which is currently under construction between Port Credit GO Station in Mississauga and Steeles Avenue in Brampton, is just one of many transit projects managed by Metrolinx.

    On February 14, 2022, at Cooksville GO Station, Premier Doug Ford, then Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, then Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, and Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster joined former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion announcing the name change from the Hurontario LRT to the Hazel McCallion LRT. The occasion also marked McCallion’s 101st birthday.

    Hazel McCallion with Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster, February 14, 2022 (Metrolinx photo)

    This is the first rapid transit line in North America to be named for a person, contradicting established standards for transit projects.1 Though McCallion was a formidable and popular mayor whose political career spanned seven decades, she was also very close to the Ford government in the last few years of her life. She also had many other public facilities named in her honour — a senior public school in Mississauga’s Streetsville neighbourhood, the library at University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, the City of Mississauga’s central public library, a walkway leading to Square One Shopping Centre, and the Mississauga campus of Sheridan College. There is also the Hazel McCallion Auditorium at Mississauga Valley Community Centre and the Hazel McCallion Hall at Vic Johnston Community Centre. There was no need for yet another civic asset to be renamed for her.

    In Toronto, most former mayors have just one public asset named for them: David Crombie, Art Eggleton, June Rowlands, and Barbara Hall have parks dedicated in their honour. Mel Lastman — mayor of North York for 24 years before being elected mayor of amalgamated Toronto for another six — and Nathan Phillips have major public squares.2 In Mississauga, there was no need to rename yet another piece of civic infrastructure for the same person.

    Furthermore, there was no public consultation about the name change — even officials at the cities of Brampton and Mississauga were kept in the dark — while the name itself contravenes Metrolinx’s own naming conventions.

    In July, 2023, I submitted an access to information request to Metrolinx, the second time I went through the freedom of information process to find out more about the light rail transit project. There were several delays, and I did not receive my requested documents and communications until late January 2024.

    A deep dive into the background of the Hurontario LRT project, the person it is being renamed for, and my findings and impressions follow.

    (more…)

  • Mapping the 2023 mayoral byelection

    Last week Monday, I was at Spacing’s election night party at a pub in the Annex, watching the results of the election roll in after 8PM. Public polls consistently saw former Toronto city councillor and NDP MP Olivia Chow leading an especially crowded race of 102 candidates for mayor. It was the most exciting election I’ve followed since at least 2014.

    Former three-term councillor Ana Bailão, one of former mayor John Tory’s protégées, was consistently in second place, followed by former Toronto Police Chief (and provincial PC candidate) Mark Saunders, sitting councillors Josh Matlow (who ran as a progressive) and Brad Bradford (who ran to the right), and right-wing columnist Anthony Furey. Though Bailão, a centrist, had the endorsements of multiple sitting councillors, Liberal MPs and MPPs, and several public and private sector unions, she had difficulty positioning herself as the presumptive centre-right challenger, especially with Premier Doug Ford backing Saunders.

    It was not until the advance polls had closed that Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, the Toronto Star Editorial Board, and then Tory himself endorsed Bailão, likely spooked by Chow’s continued lead. (David Rider and Ben Spurr at the Star wrote a great article about the leadup to Tory’s endorsement.) Tory, who resigned after admitting to a long-term city hall affair, hummed and hawed over providing his endorsement, and hid from reporters even while robocalling Torontonians pleading them to vote for his appointed successor.

    It is quite possible that Tory’s endorsement came too little, too late for Bailão. Nearly 150,000 electors (representing 21.7% of all votes cast) already voted in advance polls or by mail, and their votes were locked in. But the late push for Bailão was able to convince at least some election day voters to choose strategically — the percentage of voters who chose Saunders, Furey, and Matlow fell, while Bailão’s share grew on election day. Indeed, Bailão placed first among election day voters. But Chow, whose campaign encouraged advance voting, carried the day in the end.

    For example, Josh Matlow placed a close second in Ward 12 in the advance polls (with 30.6% of the vote), where he’s a popular local councillor. On election day, Matlow placed third behind Bailão and Chow, with Chow eking out a narrow win overall there. In every ward, Chow placed first in the advance polls, but when all votes were counted, she placed first in 14 of the 25 wards. The table below shows how the vote shifted.

    Table of ward-level mayoral byelection results, showing advance poll and election day results for the leading five candidates. PDF version here.

    Chow won with 269,372 votes (37.2%) to Ana Bailão’s 235,175 (32.5%). Saunders, Ford’s pick, got just 8.6% of the vote despite his positioning as the only candidate to “stop Chow.” Furey placed a distant fourth, with 5%, and Matlow got 4.9%, acknowledging that Bailão’s late surge draw support away from him and towards Bailão and Chow. Brad Bradford was the biggest loser of the night, netting just 1.3% and placing fifth in his own ward.

    “Saunders is how you stop Chow” sign

    Though I was skeptical of Olivia Chow’s second run for mayor after an uninspiring run against Rob and Doug Ford and John Tory in 2014 (she placed third), she proved herself worthy this time around. She was more relaxed, more herself, and certainly tapped into a desire for change after eight years of Tory’s dull austerity and four years of chaos under Rob Ford (enabled by his brother Doug).

    I fear Toronto’s political establishment — both Conservative and Liberal — will try to make Chow’s term as mayor difficult, even though their low-tax, low-spend agenda caused many of the problems that she will have to tackle. But for now, I’m pleased we will try it her way.

    I created an interactive map showing the results of the election at the ward and electoral subdivision (poll) level. For the wards, I provided information on the advance and election day poll results.

    Note that not all polls are mapped. Until the City of Toronto releases revised electoral subdivision boundaries (I suspect due to poll consolidations), there are some missing polls. However, 95% of all polls are depicted, and the results are interesting.

    I look forward to your feedback as well; I approve all reasonable comments and reply to most emails.

    Link to map

    Thanks to David Del Grande for pointing out a needed correction.

  • Voter turnout in the 2022 municipal election

    Ever since John Tory was elected mayor of Toronto in 2014, voter turnout in municipal elections has been in decline. In 2010, the year Rob Ford was elected mayor, turnout was 50.4 percent. Four years later, 54.7 percent of all eligible voters went to the polls to elect a new chief magistrate. However, in 2018, just 40.9 percent bothered to vote, and in 2022, turnout fell further, to just 29.7 percent.

    With the recent release of detailed voter statistics from the 2022 municipal election in the Toronto Open Data catalogue, it is now possible to see how much turnout dropped in each ward.

    I dig deeper into the last election’s dismal showing, and what it might mean for the upcoming mayoral by-election, at Spacing Toronto.

  • Sean’s strong mayor agenda for a new era

    Who knew, just two weeks ago, that Torontonians would be returning to the polls to elect a new mayor of Toronto?

    Looking back on John Tory’s last eight-and-a-half years in office, the biggest disappointment might have been that he spent so little of the political capital that he had accumulated after decades as a backroom power broker, corporate executive, provincial party leader, talk radio host, and supporter of NGOs such as CivicAction and the United Way. Despite his promise as a business-friendly, progressive conservative leader who knew how to build partnerships and work with other levels of government, there’s little to show for it. SmartTrack? That was always a fantasy which has now been mostly forgotten. An improved public realm, including a new Rail Deck Park? That never happened either. Heck, we can’t even get a decent WiFi connection in the subway, never mind a cell signal, despite the mayor’s close ties with the telecommunications industry.

    To be fair, there are a few things one can point to that got done during Tory’s tenure: new bike routes on Bloor-Danforth, Yonge, and University Avenue, some improvements to the TTC surface network, the King Street transit priority pilot, and surprisingly good pandemic responses, including excellent city-run vaccine clinics, weekend street closures for active transportation, and new street-level patio space to help restaurateurs recover from pandemic shutdowns.

    But in 2022, the ActiveTO street closures faded away, partially due to influence from the Toronto Blue Jays management (note: the baseball team and its stadium are owned by Rogers), the King Street transit priority corridor deteriorated from neglect. As the homelessness crisis worsened, Tory and his allies backed repressive and violent clearances of public parks, without supplying enough alternatives for housing or supporting the most vulnerable in this city. A series of municipal budgets in which property taxes were kept low while other expenses piled up has caused this city to become reliant on the support of the province and federal governments to bail us out.

    With Tory gone — brought down by his own error in judgment — we will have thirteen lost years in which Toronto will have to catch up. That’s a tall order.

    I can’t claim to have all the answers, but I have a few ideas to share to help make Toronto a safer, more fun, more comfortable, and more humane place to live. If I were a mayor with strong powers, here’s what I would do:

    • A progressive property tax system. An unfortunate reality for Ontario municipalities is that they have very limited tools for raising revenue: property taxes, user fees (like TTC fares and recreation fees), and in Toronto’s case, vehicle registration fees. Municipalities are also given grants from the province and federal government for specific purposes, such as providing mandated services. Unlike sales, income, and business taxes, property taxes do not grow with the economy, so municipalities must raise the property tax mill rate every year to keep up with inflation and/or fund new or expanded services. However, no matter the assessed worth of the property, the tax percentage remains the same.

      A progressive property tax system can be used then to raise more money from higher-valued properties. For example, for residential properties, a basic tax rate could apply for the assessed value up to $1 million. Beyond that first $1 million, a higher bracket comes into effect. Such a policy could minimize tax increases for those in smaller or starter homes. To encourage the construction of secondary suites, high-value properties could then get tax breaks for every additional self-contained unit on site, provided they are inspected and meet fire code. A progressive property tax system could help raise revenue, encourage the construction of more housing units, and provide a more equitable revenue source.
    • A real Vision Zero plan. Putting up “Senior Safety Zone” signs and lowering speed limits on four and six lane streets does little when the roadway remains designed for high speeds, and motorists race through intersections with limited enforcement. To protect pedestrians and cyclists (as well as other drivers and their passengers), the roads themselves must be re-engineered for lower speeds. This means “daylighting” pedestrian crossings by ensuring crosswalks are always well-lit, crosswalks raised where possible to improve visibility and curbs extended to both reduce the amount of roadway that pedestrians must cross, and signal to drivers to slow down. Furthermore, a blanket right-turn-on-red prohibition, like those in New York, Montreal, and Mexico City, would eliminate a common cause of pedestrian-motorist collisions and make those new leading pedestrian intervals at Toronto’s street corners fully effective.
    • Prioritize transit and clean up the TTC. When I say “clean up the TTC” I don’t mean throwing more cops at the problem of safety on our subways, streetcars and buses. Under CEO Rick Leary’s leadership, it feels as if the TTC has given up on many of the gains brought forward by Andy Byford. Customer service has fallen by the wayside, wait times have increased, the streetcar network is faltering with trams running slower than ever before, communications have become unreliable, and customer confidence in the system has fallen. When customers no longer feel valued, they themselves give up.

      After cancelling upcoming service cuts contained in Tory’s last budget, one of the easiest things to do to show that transit riders matter is making King Street great. This means installing permanent streetcar platforms in the curb lanes along the streetcar priority zones and making it even more clear that drivers are prohibited from using King as a throughway. Eliminate the night time taxi exception to simplify signage, and automate enforcement with video cameras mounted at intersections and on streetcars themselves, as is done on some Select Bus Service routes in New York.

      Haffiz A., via Twitter, shows how King Street could look:

      https://twitter.com/trainguy89/status/1627147434802520066?s=20

      The TTC also needs to modernize its street railway infrastructure so that streetcars no longer have to stop and crawl across every track intersection. Electric dual-blade junctions and wayside signals — used just about everywhere else — allow streetcar operators to know which way the track is pointed ahead of the intersection and can allow streetcars to glide through junctions at regular traffic speed.

      Finally, get TTC staff and all councillors riding the TTC on a regular basis. Meet passengers. Let them know they matter, and inform them of improvements, and be visible.
    • Build affordable housing. Lots of it. Use increased revenues from the progressive tax system proposed above to build more affordable housing directly (instead of just relying on market solutions like inclusionary zoning), including the co-operative home model. While doing so, shame the provincial and federal governments for pulling out of funding new construction in the 1990s. The city owns lots of land in good areas, such as Green P parking lots, TTC stations, works yards, suburban office spaces, and even on parts of municipal golf courses, which, of course, should be converted to general year-round public spaces.
    • Stand up to the bullies at Queen’s Park. One of Mayor Tory’s biggest failures was to ignore the province’s meddling in Toronto’s affairs and impose the province’s unpopular plans upon the city. This city should have the right to decide the composition of its own council; there was not nearly enough protest from city leadership when Doug Ford forced a cut in council from 47 to 25 (which will likely go down to just 24 in 2026) after an unprecedented level of public consultation in shaping the approved boundaries. Instead of waiting forever for a ministerial zoning order that was never going to come for a modular housing project in North York, real leadership would have gotten it built, the province be damned. Call their bluff.

      Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford — the man Tory beat to become mayor in 2014 — is imposing his own ideas on Ontario Place, provincially owned public lands on Lake Ontario. If one could not get Rail Deck Park built, Ontario Place could have been the site for a renewed public realm, much like some of New York City’s new waterfront parks. Some vision, some willingness to spend political capital, and a good advocacy campaign could have stopped the plans for an overbearing private megaspa that effectively closes off major portions of our public waterfront.
    New York City’s “Little Island” could have been an inspiration for a renewed Ontario Place

    There will be some people who will be happy that I am not serious about running for mayor. For one, I don’t have the people skills, the connections, nor the energy to make a serious bid. But if I see some of the ideas suggested above make it into a mayoral platform, I would not be above making a personal endorsement.

  • Mapping the results of the 2022 Toronto municipal election

    How Toronto voted for mayor. Areas shaded in blue represent electoral subdivisions (polls) where John Tory placed first. Areas shaded in purple represent polls where Gil Penalosa placed first. Click here for the interactive version.

    As has become my tradition after Toronto’s municipal elections, I mapped out the poll-by-poll results of the mayoral race and some of the more interesting council races. After creating maps for the 2014 election and sharing those on social media, it was suggested that I have a website to host these maps. That is how this website came to be.

    This time, I created an interactive map showing the results of the mayoral race, along with six council races: Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ward 4 Parkdale High-Park, Ward 5 York South-Weston, Ward 11 University-Rosedale, Ward 18 Willowdale, and Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest.

    I offer more thoughts over at Spacing Toronto, as part of a series mapping the municipal election.

  • GO Transit is broken – and other transit updates

    GO Transit buses stuck in Downtown Toronto gridlock in July, 2022

    While travelling through the Northeastern United States this spring and summer, I found myself feeling lucky to be living in Toronto. Though the New York City Subway and the PATH trains between New Jersey and Manhattan were operating pretty much as I remember them, in other big cities, the mass transit systems were in rough shape. In Washington, underfunding and incompetence led to the long-term withdrawal of over half of its Metro cars. During our visit in April, we were treated to long waits and crowded trains, though at least the system was clean. When we visited Philadelphia in late June, it was clear that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) had given up: poor communications, lengthy waits, unsafe subway stations, and general apathy among staff and passengers made my spouse and I resort to driving on our last day there.

    In Toronto, at least, the subway was still running frequently (with only minor service cuts due to the pandemic), the buses and streetcars as (un)reliable as ever, and despite more anti-social behaviour on some of its surface routes, I almost never felt afraid for my well-being when riding the Rocket, compared to my experience in Philly. GO Transit responded to the pandemic very well. Though it was forced to suspend many of its train and bus trips due to a sudden plunge in ridership, it maintained a basic service level on nearly all of its routes, slowly restoring certain services in 2021 as ridership slowly rebounded. Some corridors, like the Kitchener Line, had more service in the early Fall of 2021 than it did prior to the pandemic. As Metrolinx continued planning and construction of major transit projects like GO Expansion, the Ontario Line, and several LRT corridors, the future looked bright. In Spring 2022, GO Transit introduced a special weekend day pass for $10 per day or $15 per weekend, to help grow ridership.

    Unfortunately by late June 2022, GO began to fall apart.

    (more…)

  • It’ll always be the Hurontario Line to me

    Metrolinx map of the Hurontario LRT route

    On Monday, February 14, Premier Doug Ford, Transportation Minister Carolyn Mulroney, and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie attended a photo-op at Cooksville GO Station to announce a new name for a transit project. With former mayor Hazel McCallion in attendance (who was celebrating her 101th birthday), it was no secret what the new name was going to be.

    It was disappointing that the Hurontario LRT, a provincially-funded transit project operating within Brampton and Mississauga and intended to be part of a regional transportation network, would be named for a divisive former mayor of only one of the two cities the Hurontario LRT is supposed to directly benefit. 

    In North America, and around the world, transit lines and stations are named (with a few misguided exceptions) to reflect the geography of the route it represents and to provide optimal wayfinding, especially to visitors and people new to transit. In Greater Toronto, bus, streetcar, commuter rail and subway routes are named based on the major street they run on (the 501 Queen Streetcar or Line 4 Sheppard), the neighbourhood they serve (the 56 Leaside bus) or the destination it runs to (the GO Milton Line or 900 Airport Express).

    Even new projects follow these conventions. The Crosstown LRT, which operates under and along Eglinton Avenue, is a crosstown route across the middle of the city. Even the Ontario Line partially gets its name from its two end points (Exhibition Place/Ontario Place and Ontario Science Centre). The Hurontario LRT reflected the name of the main street it operates along, even if it changes its name briefly though central Brampton.

    The “Hazel McCallion Line” does not accomplish any of these goals.

    Given Peel Region’s diverse population of over 1.4 million residents, it is also disappointing that a major project intended to unite the region is named for an affluent white public figure that already has two libraries, a public school and a college campus already bearing her name.

    Furthermore, McCallion’s legacy as a longtime mayor of Mississauga is tarnished by racist statements after visiting a local hospital in 2001, two conflict of interest scandals, her recent involvement with a troubled for-profit long term care provider, and by land use policies that kept taxes low for decades, but did little to ensure a financially or environmentally sustainable future for the city. 

    I suspect Premier Ford wanted to celebrate a political ally a few months before the next provincial election, but naming the Hurontario LRT after Hazel McCallion sends the wrong message. 

    Post script: The Hurontario Line may not be the only Metrolinx transit facility that will see its name change. In a MERX posting dated February 15, 2022, Metrolinx is looking for Expressions of Interest for station naming rights opportunities for at least four existing GO Transit rail stations. The summary is quoted below:

    Expression of Interest

    Expression of Interest No. RFI-2021-CCMX-097

    Metrolinx is accepting Expressions of Interest for Station Naming Rights Opportunity.

    Metrolinx is an agency of the Government of Ontario, overseeing GO Transit, PRESTO, and UP Express. We are embarking on a massive transformation of the GO Rail network – the backbone of regional rapid transit in the region – to give customers a faster, more convenient way to connect with the things that matter.

    Metrolinx is seeking proposals from interested parties in any category for the Station Naming Rights Opportunity at the following stations:

    Whitby GO Station
    Exhibition GO Station
    Clarkson GO Station
    Oakville GO Station

    Metrolinx will consider proposals for other stations not listed here at the request of interested parties.

    For more information about the GO Transit network and stations, please visit www.gotransit.com. We are committed to working together to create a partnership that will meet shared objectives, such as increase revenue, increase market share for our partners and provide a positive customer experience on public transit.

    All four stations listed are on the Lakeshore Line, the backbone of the GO Transit rail network. Exhibition GO could be especially attractive for renaming, as it will become a major hub with the future connection to the Ontario Line and local TTC services. It is also worth noting that Metrolinx will entertain proposals for additional stations in the bid process.

    It is hard to blame Metrolinx for these specific transit naming decisions; it is very likely that the Ford government demanded the McCallion Line and is pushing for the sell-off of naming rights. But it is ironic that after hiring consultants and going though a complex naming process for the Crosstown LRT, that previously held principles are quickly abandoned at the whim of Metrolinx’s superiors.