November 13th, 2009
Friday’s headlines
By Katia Snukal // 2 Comments
OSSINGTON AVENUE
• City restricts Ossington's growth [ Metro ]
• Inspectors shut arts venue in Ossington crackdown [ National Post ]
• Off the street, into the garage [ National Post ]
ICE TIME
• Battle over ice time is a crisis of demand, not gender: critics [ National Post ]
• Girls shut out for this season [ Toronto Star ]
OTHER NEWS
• Stamp salutes T.O. [ Toronto Sun]
• Joblessness dragging downcity: experts [ National Post ]
• Demand for TTC tokens continues to grow [ National Post ]
• City seeks office space as payroll still growing [ Toronto Star ]
• Will drivers swallow road tolls' bitter pill? [ Toronto Star ]
• Hume: Can a new Market save its old digs? [ Toronto Star ]
• Proposals to loosen restrictions on street food [ Globe & Mail ]
• Correction and apology [ Toronto Sun ]
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Have to say that Shelley Carroll is quite the card.
Last week she is telling the public about all the empty seats at City Hall and this week she's out there telling us they need more office space. I am getting more and more convinced that City Leadership and Staff have an allergic reaction to restraint and saving. After all if the political and corporate messaging is that there is no fat to cut or efficiencies to be made, staff would be on the political and union firing line for suggesting otherwise. It's alot safer to stick your head in the sand and stay low. Thinking is dangerous in a bureaucracy.
Have also noted that the Mayor isn't selling the shtick about all the awards City Administration is winning. Did some searching and it looks like the event died with Shirley Hoy who appears was the primary organizer while Toronto was the primary sponsor. Toronto wins prizes at its' own event that seems to have been a Municipal Union fun fest where anyone who put in a proposal got a prize and because Toronto is so much deeper pockets it got the most prizes. But there doesn't appear to be independent review or comparison, just who puts on the best presentation.
Anyone have any knowledge please tell.
"City seeks office space" - the City should look at locating some of these jobs outside downtown. After all, if the Downtown Relief Line isn't going to be built any time soon then new jobs should go to where there is sufficient transit or transit under construction/soon to be constructed.
Having 225,000 sq ft of city workers in there would underpin a substantial development - about 7 floors of a building with the footprint of Bay-Adelaide Centre before you include any co-tenants or retail/support on the concourse. There are four publicly owned sites that come to mind immediately - Islington Station, Steeles West Station, Kennedy Station and Eglinton Surface Bus Terminal. Islington and Eglinton are already slated for development.
In Islington's case it would encourage counter-flow commuting on the Bloor Danforth line.
In Eglinton's case would create an imperative to not delay the Eglinton LRT any further.
Integrating such a building into the impending rebuild of Kennedy Station would have a building with (ultimately) Bloor Danforth, Eglinton LRT, Scarborough Malvern LRT, Scarborough S/LRT and Kennedy GO.
Steeles West having a major employment centre right next door would reduce (somewhat) the likely losses to Toronto/TTC on the Spadina Subway Extension - which are contractually determined to be borne by Toronto at an estimated $14m/year - an alternative would be to locate it at Sheppard West/Downsview Park TTC-GO Station which is in the middle of not very much at the moment.
Comment by Mark Dowling
November 13, 2009 | 12:41 pm