Is there any way to build a condo in downtown Toronto without taking 1-2 lanes of roadway and handing it over to the developers for 18 months?
If not, the traffic in the downtown core is going to get worse and worse…
I guess I could have got that video from different angles.
Angles!!
“We already did the jiminy-jillickers scene. It took seven hours, but we did it.”
“Yes…..but now we’ve got to do it from different ANGLES!”
Free coffee to whoever can name the tv show that quote is from, although, if you grew up as a teen in the 90’s, it shouldn’t be tough at all…
I remember seeing the notice in my elevator at 112 George Street about the “lane restrictions” on George Street. Post House Condos is being built (about 3 years late…), and this notice in the elevator plainly, and so matter-of-factly said something like, “Lanes will be restricted starting tomorrow…..and lasting 22 months.”
Really? That’s it? It’s that simple?
The city will give a lane (or often two) to any developer building a condo?
We’ll just take four lanes and shrink them down to two, for two full years?
Hey – I wish there was a different way. I’m not adding much value here by saying, “I don’t know what else we can do,” but I don’t!
Toronto is insanely congested right now, and it doesn’t help matters when lanes are restricted by condo development.
Remember what it was like at Bay/Adelaide when both Trump Tower and Bay-Adelaide Centre were under construction? It would take you twenty minutes to drive one block.
I think we’re done to only ONE logical solution…
…..jet-packs…
They’re not as pricey as they used to be!
You can get one for $250,000 now! Check them out HERE.
Geoff
at 11:43 am
I can even name the episode – fall out boy.
That’s easy enough for someone to google. But who can say what the goggles do, in that same episode?
David Fleming
at 2:15 pm
@ Geoff
“The goggles do nothing! My eyes!!”
Jeremy
at 2:08 pm
Answer is the Simpsons. Geoff failed to name the show… so I think I should win on a technicality. Which is the best way to win something!
JB
at 2:54 pm
it’s the second best way to win something you mean. the best way to win is by default.
“The two sweetest words in the English language: De-Fault!”
Anna
at 2:46 pm
Jeremy is technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.
But that’s a different show. My head hurts.
Geoff
at 4:23 pm
If I’d named the show, there’d be no challenge to my goggles question at all…. however I’ll donate my virtual coffee to the children.
Won’t someone please think of the children?
WEB
at 8:35 pm
Probably nothing you can do about it, except one thing. Estimate a reasonable time to build a condo, whatever that may be. Allow a developer to use a lane on the road for this time at no cost. But once that time is up, start charging a daily fee to use the space. And make that fee hefty. It is hard to measure the cost of traffic, but we all know the cost is steep. So developers need to recognize the cost of blocked lanes and this is how it can be accomplished.
Graham
at 8:07 am
Developers already pay for a street occupation permit when they take over a lane of traffic or if anything related to construction encroaches into the city right-of-way.
Details: http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/construction_permits/t_ey_street_occ.htm
See Site Protection.
WEB
at 11:39 pm
The permit is just a nominal fee. How about $1,000 per day charge for any lane blockage after 1.5 years……that will get their attention! But that still won’t cover the loss from increased traffic.
moonbeam!
at 7:48 am
Why does construction progress so slowly? this is a general rule!
why do we see no signs of work being done for days at a time… why do we see heavy equipment sitting idle for long stretches… not to mention absence of workers on sites, or workers standing around doing nothing. What gives? why is this the norm??
whoopder
at 10:03 am
I’m in a line up to buy my jet-pack pre-construction for $245,000 – it’ll be ready in three years.
Lisa
at 1:34 pm
Up until recently I lived in that area. During rush hour traffic is horrible. After a Jays game it’s a nightmare. That’s with 4 lanes on Blue Jay Way. I cannot fathom how bad it must be now with traffic flow even more restricted.
Phil
at 12:06 pm
To be blunt, downtowners are not supposed to drive on a daily basis in the first place. Downtown should be for buses, streetcars, delivering trucks and cabs, not personal vehicles just because the owner is too lazy to walk a few blocks or too rich to take public transit.
If one wants to drive every day for everything, live in the burbs.
Vlad
at 2:34 pm
Nailed it. See New York City, for example.
Krupo
at 4:43 pm
The 4 Seasons lane om-nom-nom on Bay St is finally over. So happy, even though I don’t drive there all the time, but even that chunk of road being blocked was awful.
Worst lane occupation in the city, though it’s not for a condo, has to be the Bay/Front squeeze due to the Union Station project. I’m not complaining – the work has to be done – but the crush on traffic goes up almost all the way to Queen St on a bad day.
Also, to join in the pedantic nerd party, the Simpsons episode is actually named “Radioactive Man”, code [2F17] if you want to be super thorough. 😉
See you at “WOO HOO! Classic Simpsons Trivia” everyone…
www.YoungCondos.com
at 8:08 pm
Whether you like it or you don’t Toronto needs to accommodate all the immigration that is coming to Canada, and if you don’t want it to be done in the expense of our beautiful farm lands, than stick to the current intensification plan is the only way.
Polly
at 5:52 pm
There’s nothing you can do about it since a lot of companies now opts to build a condo especially in downtown than developing neglected places. I mean those places that seems economy is declining and homeowners are selling their properties at a very low price. Jet pack is nice but I don’t think everyone can afford that.
Patrick Smyth (@MisterSafetytoe)
at 1:36 pm
I wish we could see some intensification-to-date numbers. The way TO Council, and some Staff, have acted in recent years leads me not to trust any of them. For example, if the justification for intensifying ALL along Eglinton Avenue is that it is a major transit corridor, why has nothing been done along the Danforth? Is there a real NEED for more intensification or are we caving-in to a greedy development industry? If that is the case then we might just be building a whole slew of slums.