The Towers are Coming

      

 

    By Kenneth Bagnell

  

             THE TOWERS ARE COMING  

 

                      “What happens  anywhere,”  a popular  theological thinker once said, “matters everywhere.” That’s why the development chaos breaking over our Toronto neighborhood — Yonge and Eglinton — matters beyond Toronto. It could be a trend setter for other Canadian cities, giving credence to a line ending an excellent essay on our crisis written by Richard Poplak in The Grid, an appealing new city paper. “The towers will stop for no one,” he writes, “They never do.”  So the reckless over-development we see may — if you and your neighbors don’t take a stand — be coming to where you live.

 

   Consider our situation. Starting at Merton Street, about a mile south of Eglinton, roughly eight new condo buildings are either in planning or already underway on Yonge Street. Then factor in other 20 or 30 storey buildings — already built, under construction or being planned close to the intersection — and it comes, some insist, to a total of at least 20 new towers. That’s beyond ridiculous. Why? Because the infrastructure can’t possibly cope with such excess. Already, at rush hour, people stand and watch three crowded subway cars pass, waiting for one they hope will have, at least, standing room. One study, using bureaucratic language, says of the main intersection: “Circulation at the crossroads of Yonge and Eglinton is currently over capacity.” Understated indeed. I cross it almost daily and on busy days feel it’s an unsafe intersection where seniors on walkers try crossing while teenagers, sometimes four abreast, almost shoulder them off the crosswalk into the path of cars and overly long trucks hauling huge excavation equipment. Now we’re inviting about 30,000 new citizens to keep us company at or near that intersection.

 

          The city council can’t do much about it: it’s virtually powerless because of a senior government – the province. Ontario planners in 2005 simply designated that the Yonge and Eglinton neighborhood is a “growth area” and that’s that. What’s called the Ontario Municipal Board encourages that growth, but over the city’s strong objections. Last year, two centrist councillors — Josh Matlow and Krystyn Wong-Tam – to their mutual credit put forward a motion passed by a very wide margin at city council asking the province to free it from the heavy hand of the so-called OMB.

 

   Councillor Matlow, a busy, sincere man, seems a bit discouraged. “Unfortunately,” he told me, “the provincial government seems uninterested in allowing this to happen.” Too bad. Yes, I realize it’s a coveted neighborhood with quality schools and attractive amenities. But I agree with the opinion of the respected journalist, who specializes in urban design at The Toronto Star, Christopher Hume, who regards the OMB as   “Secretive even shadowy… a 19^th century relic. The truth is the OMB should have been abolished decades ago.”  As Councillor Wong-Tam told Mr. Hume: “It has no sense of accountability. I’ve heard OMB adjudicators mispronounce names of streets and community centres. It shows they have no sense of context….” (Why? Many come from towns and cities very distant from Toronto and may even, given history and human nature, dislike it.)

 

          What can be done? I had a talk a short while ago with a friend, once a provincial planner, now retired but still an observer of the development scene. One point he made: residents must not give up. The community of Don Mills (where we once lived) is, he says, an example. It has for years, met developers in ways both sophisticated and  strong. So future towers were reduced in height.  Most notably, the large Don Mills Shopping Centre, redesigned a few years ago met with virtually outright confrontation. The residents were not its friends. But they did win important concessions. In the end the new plaza is more accommodating to seniors, but something else very important took place: the citizen opposition to the original plan gained coverage in Toronto’s media, thereby sending a message to developers casting an eye on future possibilities in Don Mills: if you choose our community for your plans, the message was, get ready for tough and wearying opposition. So try elsewhere.

 

          A week or so ago, my former planner friend, thinking about the future of our neighborhood, wondered why Toronto’s leaders and developers  don’t look closely at building smaller towers at other locations, reasonably distant from Yonge and Eglinton. I mean, say, ten story buildings located near intersections to the south and north of Eglinton, on streets running west and east. That way those who want the urban amenities and pleasures our neighborhood offers will find them. But, to everybody’s advantage, without the wrecking ball destroying what remains of a much appreciated quality of life.  

 

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