Doug Holyday thinks so.
But as a socio-economic shift puts more and more families downtown, our city responds with infrastructure like what’s shown in the video below…
“I personally wouldn’t want to raise my kids on King St. or Yonge St.,” said the former mayor of leafy, suburban Etobicoke. “There are healthier places. I mean, I could just see now: ‘Where’s little Ginny? Well, she’s downstairs playing in the traffic on her way to the park!’ ” (From The Toronto Star)
Good for you, Doug, you decrepit old man.
Now go check your pager, make a call on a Bell payphone, and rent a beta-max cassette from ye old local video rental store to watch while eating a microwave dinner.
Or, get with the times.
Stop living in yesterday, and get with 2012.
If the world was perfect, perhaps every single family in Toronto would raise their children in a giant mansion on a tree-lined street in North Toronto.
But the world isn’t perfect, and there’s this thing called “inequality.” The world is full of it. There is, and will forever be, rich and poor, or richer and poorer, to cushion the blow.
A man like Doug Holyday isn’t thinking outside the box. He needs to realize that the urban sprawl in Toronto has begun its upward climb to the point where the sky is the only place left to put people, including families.
I’ve watched River City be built from the ground up, and the other night I passed by as a mother dropped off her son with a skateboard. I wondered where he was going, and low-and-behold, he skated under the bridge toward the brand-new skate park that had previously gone unnoticed by my eyes.
Not every child in Toronto can afford to be part of The Granite Club, The Royal Canadian Yacht Club, or any other fancy-pants club that their parents can drop thousands on. Maybe a basketball court and skate-park under a bridge at River/King isn’t the most luxurious way for kids to spend their time, but I think it’s absolutely fantastic for our city and the families that do live downtown.
I’ve never hidden the fact that I was very fortunate to receive a middle-class upbringing, that came with many perks, but I feel as though many middle and upper-classers are completely out of touch with our city as a whole, and have trouble seeing outside their bubble. For a well-travelled, seemingly-astute and informed man like Doug Holyday to make such closed-ended comments to the media about the downtown core being “a bad place to raise kids” only demonstrates how out of touch our political representatives are. And the biggest insult: he never offered any solutions.
I salute those at City Hall that do view Toronto from all angles, and those that have the foresight to put a basketball court and skate park under a bridge where nobody could ever argue there is a better use for the space. The above video clearly shows that we truly can make something out of nothing, which is what the space under a bridge usually is.
Every politician in Toronto should be forced to take a very simple course their very first day on the job: How To Shut Your Mouth, 101.
Joe Q.
at 9:06 am
David — I agree with you in general on this one… but I also wonder about the long-term effects of having so much non-family-friendly housing (i.e. small condos) in the downtown core.
George
at 10:07 am
The weird part of this argument is that some people believe the suburbs are some sort of perfect world for kids. You need a car to get anywhere in the suburbs, and last time I checked, kids can’t drive.
CS
at 12:22 pm
Totally agree with George – the suburbs are a horrible place to raise kids.
Groperty
at 4:57 pm
Toronto’s core might not be the ideal place to raise kids – but it is definitely better than a lot of places on earth. There are loads of amenities, people are generally friendly and drivers are defensive in nature. Go to any core of a third world city and compare. Toronto is fantastic.
johnny chase
at 11:13 pm
Geez – I don’t see any kids in your video… just a bunch 17 year olds probably smoking pot and… wouldn’t let my 5 year old play there in a million years. I have to agree with Doug on this one, but I would clarify that he was talking about King and John, not the Annex, Beach or Leaside.
Chuck
at 12:23 pm
I moved out of the Junction when I decided to raise a family. I saw so many issues with not only safety, but also infrastructure and leadership (as you’ve pointed out numerous times).
It just didn’t feel like home anymore in the city. And I was that guy who was record shopping downtown and spending a lot of time in the core. But it just lost something somewhere in the late 90’s. To me anyway. Toronto just seems lost and broken.
Still fun for a visit, but I just can’t imagine living there anymore.
I’m a happy 905’er who can run my business from my house, and I absolutely love it. While my yard is not massive, it’s great for the kids to play. And probably bigger than most of the stuff in the core. My home is seven years old, and I don’t worry about knob and tube wiring, galvanized plumbing or R-0 insulation in my walls. Nor do I need to wait 10 minutes for an elevator every morning, I don’t hear traffic, and the glass in my condo is not spontaneously exploding.
I can walk the streets at night, and the pace just feels slower. Maybe my choice isn’t for everyone, but I look at that concrete jungle under the bridge and it’s just not for me anymore.
David Fleming
at 11:05 pm
@ Chuck
Well said.
The concrete basketball court under the bridge is really a “best case scenario,” and people CAN do better.
Amazingly, the comment I moderated before yours said, “The suburbs are a horrible place to raise kids.” But that comment assumes that everybody in the suburbs lives/works/worships Toronto proper. You live, work, and play in Milton. So what’s wrong with that? You’ve got us all beat.
For those that live, work, play, visit family, and hang out in Toronto, then yes – raising kids in the suburbs is awful. If you’re driving 90 minutes to/from work, and shipping your kids to private school in the core, then yes – living in the suburbs is awful.
But not everybody worships downtown Toronto. I do, but I’m making a counter-argument here.
Who ever said that anything outside of Toronto is “suburbs?” Last time I checked, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Brampton – these places are out on their own.
Scott
at 12:56 pm
I saw this park the other night and was impressed by it also. I think it’s appearance points more to the idea of alternative uses of the spaces beneath the Gardiner. Since the idea of tearing it down has been deemed too expensive, why not reinterpret the space for public use. It doesn’t have to be all skateparks and basketball courts, but could be adapted for all sorts of use, which would make it a people friendly zone.
Here’s an interesting re-use of the old High Line in NYC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)
Even though this is a re-adaptation of the surface, it’s still an interesting example of an alternative approach to demolition that gives new value to the structure and the areas adjacent to it..
Phil
at 10:51 am
I on the contrary think it is cruel to raise kids in the boring suburbs, just for the sake of owning a bigger house and yard. The kids spend much less time with parents, who spent 3 hours communting each day, and are stuck in the homogeneous safe suburb unable to go anywhere with access to a car.
Yes, the kids have a “yard” to play in. What about when they are not 3 years old any more? Ask a 14 year old boy playing in the yard?
danny
at 3:40 pm
TORONTO IS THE WORST PLACE TO RAISE A FAMILY….ITS A CRIME INFESTED CITY, SHOOTINGS EVERYDAY, NO ARRESTS EVER, POLICE DON’T DO THEIR JOBS….CRACKHEADS, DRUG DEALERS, GANGS, HOOKERS, STDS ALL OVER TORONTO