Maybe a dumb question: For the underground LRT stations (like Don Mills) will riders be able to cross the tracks to switch sides (like you can at Queens Quay station) or will there be a mezzanine?

Residential parking is a bit odd downtown these days. City by-law minimum is about 0.7 spaces per unit. The city requests developers build around 0.8 per unit (minimum) because they don't belive their own by-law. Developers frequently want to build less than 0.7 or 0.8 per unit with mixed...

Interesting thought. This 'cap and trade' is kind of happening now with the large number of informal parking leases in the City. For example, a lot of the downtown apartment buildings have way too much parking, so they lease out the surplus to people who work in under-parked commercial...

I'm 90% sure it's six levels of basement. The top two levels of basement are 75% retail / 25% parking (the retail is east of the truck ramp, parking is west of the ramp). The bottom four levels are all parking. The retail is on two levels of basement but it is actually only a single level...

The new ramp was built to access the loading area for College Park temporarily. The old ramp will be removed and replaced with a permenant ramp that will be part of the structure of the parking garage. The temporary ramp is fairly steep and will be there for a while, which is why they paved...

I was being sarcastic. Although I have no real problem with affirmative action if it's handled right I've always found it ironic that the charter of rights and freedoms makes special provision for certain types of discrimination.

So the authors of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be prosectued? "(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race...

Sorry, I meant in terms of overall quality of construction, not aesthetics. I’m well aware of Tridel’s ability to build ugly yet nice-to-live-in buildings.

Developers need to make thousands of descisions through the design and build process that affect the quality of the building. Sometimes they lean towards lower quality (to save cost) but, to be fair, it is often architects who resist changes that improve quality because of a reluctance to...

Great to hear they’re starting. They won’t need full hoarding for a while so the chainlink will be there for the shoring and early excavation. The big outdoor ramp you see on Gerrard is the loading ramp. It will be relocated temporarily (still accessing Gerrard) while the permanent ramp...

Except that the develepors won't be paying for this, buyers will. This cost can be quickly worked into a pro forma and the cost of the units adjusted upwards. Don't pretend develepors will take the hit for this. All this is going to do is help push development away from transit nodes by...

Keswick and Georgina are not part of Toronto from a cultural standpoint. It's a mutual understanding between the two communities. Torontonians travel to Keswick to ice fish. Keswickians travel to Toronto to fight their third D.U.I. charge at Old City Hall court house. "You see your...

My favourite part is: "The policy states the cost of the metropasses cannot be passed on to the condo buyer". Right, you think at the end of the day tridel is paying for this? All in all, I think it's a dumb policy (wasn't walking supposed to be better than taking transit?) but it's...

I've heard from city staff and contractors that this is often little more than a scam. The police dictate when and where they are required, and the contractor has no control over whether the police actually do anything. If you actually watch the police providing the service you'll notice 90%...

My theory on multicultural Toronto is our city is where people come from racist places all over the world, get jumbled together, and become less racist over time. It doesn't mean there's no racism, it just means we're doing okay compared to other places. My european grandparents said some...

Probably a service/truck elevator. I've never seen the site plans for this project but Loblaws even by itself would be a tight fit for such an urban location. Loblaws is still very much a suburban format store. Big trucks, lots of free parking, etc. It'll be really interesting to see how...

I saw the connections too. My theory was that the City was trying to find a way to buy smartcentres off in exchange for smartcentres not suing them for the stuff the City pulled during the approvals process for the walmart site. The drama regarding that site can't be done yet.

30.9 times density! Holy crap. My guess is that's about as dense as anything ever built in Toronto. Anyone know what Trump's density is? A quick read of the staff report suggests planning and urban design staff will tear this thing to shreads even before Walker gets his hysterical little...

So basically he's saying excactly what every other PM has said on the issue: "we'll do it the minute we can afford it". Yet he has the guts to make that part of his election platform?

My thoughts on the council approval: 1. The City has approved a major residential development without parking for the first time. Big news and a huge shift in culture. 2. Council has, in effect, passed a new policy "you don't need to provide parking if you have a decent excuse" over the...