Ward 19 (Trinity Spadina) Issue Profile

Downtown Ward 19 boasts some of the city’s most vast and iconic public spaces. From Fort York to the Exhibition Grounds, Trinity Bellwoods Park, up to Christie Pits and the many parkettes in between.

The residents in this neck of the woods tend to be quite fond and protective of their favourite outdoor space and their way of life. With the number of condo towers, particularly in the south end of the ward, residents are wondering how that population influx and increased use will play out, not just with parks, but the commercial amenities and an already burdened transit system.

“We want to ensure anything built should also consider how these residences will shop for food, commute to and from the ward, how they will spend their leisure time, and increased traffic,” said Joshua Shang, the co-chair of the Trinity Bellwoods Community Association. “We want the community to not only be self sustaining, but also have an opportunity to enrich nearby neighbourhoods through almost a cross-pollination of people between ours and theirs.”

When Joe Pantalone, the longtime councillor for Trinity-Spadina’s Ward 19, announced he was running for mayor, it opened up the race to nine political hopefuls with big ideas for the ward.

Rosario Bruto, a banker and consultant, said tracking community concerns and requests will make all the difference in the ward’s planning, parks and beyond. Bruto said he would have a tracking system, which will help issues get resolved and identify where problems persist.

“Essential to all the issues is communication with the people (who) are already there,” Bruto said. “A representative is a representative. We are here to actually listen and carry out their wishes.”

He said, if elected, he would have office hours, both locally and at city hall, and make himself personally available to constituents.

Mike Layton, who holds a master’s degree from York University in participatory planning, said the difference is made in the planning process.

“We need to sit down as a community and plan out where we think the pressures are going to be, because we know where the potential development sites are going to be,” Layton said. “Let’s talk about how we can improve, over the long term, and what we think might be an appropriate scale, so it doesn’t over burden the local services.”

Layton, who is the son of federal NDP leader Jack Layton, said it is also vitally important to ensure the City of Toronto keeps investing in things like transit and parks.

“We don’t start cutting city services, we don’t take our transit plan back to Square 1 and start planning all over again just so even further down the line, all over the city, we will be behind in traffic,” Layton said. “We can’t promise tax cuts that we can’t deliver without service cuts.”

Jim Likourezos said he is unequivocally against high-density building and it is something he feels the community should be worried about.

“I don’t think Toronto has to mimic New York to be world class. What is wrong with urban sprawl? I know a lot of people want to be in the downtown core, but there is only so much room for everyone. I don’t think that over crowding people is necessarily a good thing.”

Many of the condo units become rental units, but Likourezos said if density must be increased then they should be looking to attract people who will invest in their properties. To achieve that, Likourezos said he would advocate that these areas be built in a way that is geared more toward families with schools and parks.

“Any future development should require a commercial portion and we should allocate community space in these buildings as well. Everyone talks about us wanting families down here, but from what I see condos are first-time buyers… or older people (who) are retiring,” Likourezos said.

On top of better allocation and spending of tax dollars so there can be more money for parks and public spaces, Sean McCormick said he is interested in moving people around more effectively.

The pedestrian link, namely a bridge over rail corridors that will connect King Street West to Liberty Village, is a crucial piece of the puzzle according to McCormick, and said it needs to be finished immediately.

“We need to build this. There is already extreme gridlock in Liberty Village,” McCormick said. “It is not just about cars, it is about alternative methods of transportation. I am not anti-car by any stretch of the imagination, but I think we need to provide a viable link for pedestrians and cyclists to get back and forth.”

McCormick, a former television broadcaster and the founder of the Queen West Musicfest, held in Trinity Bellwoods Park, said he is already circulating a petition, because whether he wins or losses the election, he will continue to push for it at the municipal level.

Karlene Nation, a diversity producer who came to Canada in 1976, said she believes a solution to increased usage of public parks could be to offer up naming rights.

“The resources to parks need to increase, it is not a frivolous expenditure. I would look into developing a two-tier system in terms of managing parks with public funding and source out private funding,”

Nation said. “I would be willing to offer up naming rights to certain parks for X number of dollars for X number of years… That money would go to ensure proper maintenance and clean-up of these parks and to plant trees and plant flowers.”

Nation also said she would plan to streamline transit, increase transit service, add more parking and manage congestion in the ward.

George Sawision, a longtime community activist who also ran in the ward in 2006, has an ambitious plan he said he has been fostering since 1978. Sawision wants to enclose the railway tracks that cut Liberty Village off from King Street thereby creating usable green space over top.

“It is called the Green Links project and it would create a new park from King Street and as far as Spadina if the budget allows,” he said. “This would create bike paths, eliminate the noise. It is similar to projects done in Chicago and New York. It works.”

In addition, Sawision said he would advocate converting a portion of these tracks into a subway line to service residents.

Karen Sun, the executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) and who has a background working in policy making at the city, said she believes it comes down to the need for better planning.

“In residential areas, we have main streets that have grocery stores, retail, restaurants and things that bring people in from other parts of the city as well as serve the day-to-day needs of the everyday residents,” she said.

“If you are going to put up a 20-story tower with a first-floor retail with a Rabba and a Blockbuster, that is not a community. If we are going to build towers why don’t we take the first five or six floors and turn the bottom two or three floors into a mall.”

Sun said she would also advocate for better transit options for people in that area, increasing employment lands and sprucing up lesser-used green spaces in the ward to take pressure off the popular ones like Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Despite attempts, Toronto Community News was unable to arrange interviews with candidates David (Ted) Footman and Jason Stevens prior to press time Tuesday.

- Erin Hatfield

Posted in Downtown, News