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hey hey hey...some of us don't have any other way to get downtown. The streetcar is still a great thing. I don't mind if it takes me 40 minutes to get downtown. I pay less than if I was driving and I don't have to worry about parking.
 
Rumour has it the demolition of Toronto Film Studios will be underway by the first of February, that equipment will roll in this week. Good-bye film industry. Toronto now has half the studio capacity of Vancouver. Well done those at every level of government. Well done developers. Well done. If this happened in the auto manufacturing industry it would be front page. In Toronto, you'll have to Google it, and you'll still find very little. Over twenty thousand families' livelihoods on the line and nobody cares. Only in Ontario.

P.S. Filmport is terrific and needed to supplement the infrastructure previously in place, but not at the expense of Toronto Film Studios. The industry had a future before Toronto Film Studios was leveraged to build Filmport, something the City should never have allowed.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Hmm...I believe I've already replied to that line of thinking in the thread above. Besides, your analogy is flawed, since it would more like someone living in Venice and complaining about the lack of waterways, since Toronto was built around it's carriage and then roadways. We had private transportation well before we had public transportation.
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are you then suggesting that you would exchange your car for a horse and cart because that was the prevalent mode of transportation in the late 19th Century when the area now known as Leslieville was built. Likewise, I'd wager that the majority of the population in the city did not own their own horse and buggy. :D Seriously though, if you look at city of toronto archive pictures circa 1900s (up until early 40s), you'll notice how few cars there are in comparison with streetcars, pedestrians and bicycles... Finally, you have not yet indicated what exactly is the major problem with you driving to Laird/Eglinton for a big box experience (especially since you seem to suggest that these are occasional outings)?

I have a problem with low density retail in a medium or high density neighbourhood. Why don't they build upward (3 or 4 storey mall) and downward (3 or 4 level underground parking lot). The reason is simple, they want to maximize their profits and do so at our expense. Same logic applies to the whole reason they want to convert zoning from industrial to mixed use. My understanding is that 1 acre of industrial at this location has a market value of $400,000 whereas 1 acre of mixed use has a market value of $800,000. The property was bought by TFS at a price based on Industrial zoning and now it seeks to line its pockets by having it rezoned mixed use... again, why should we be subsidizing their profits. Again, would they voluntarily surrender the difference in land value between existing and modified zoning to the City? Most likely not...

I won't even get into the added problems this will cause to the bike path on Lakeshore and traffic on Eastern Ave... Bottom line, I can live with big box in an urban setting so long as they are medium/high density developments with 100% of parking being underground and so long as the developer remits the windfall in land value resulting from rezoning to the City. If this was another Eaton Centre development (with possibility for commercial office towers), I don't believe there would be any dispute (but it's obviously not). :(
 
Smartcentres proposal refused

The Eastern Avenue decision was released by the Ontario Municipal Board yesterday. Not sure if it's up on their site yet. The Smartcentres proposal was refused.
 
No big box in Leslieville after all: City prevails over Wal-Mart at OMB

Posted: March 04, 2009, 3:59 PM by Allison Hanes


The city and grassroots opponents have prevailed in their fight against American retailer Wal-Mart's bid to put up a big box store in Leslieville.

The battle was a test of Toronto's growth and employment strategy, which does not permit retail construction projects on lands intended to encourage high-paying knowledge-based economy of industrial jobs.

The Ontario Municipal Board, which has the power to overrule municipal planning decisions, recognized the city's right to determine land use.

The city issued a press release proclaiming victory in the protracted legal imbrogilo:

‘‘OMB decides in favour of City on South of Eastern Avenue appeal

"The City of Toronto successfully defended its Official Plan policies today as the Ontario Municipal Board upheld the City's right to
maintain the area South of Eastern Avenue as an Employment District without large format, stand alone retail outlets.

'Preserving and protecting employment lands is an important part of Toronto's Official Plan,' said Mayor David Miller. 'This decision
recognizes that position and strengthens our ability to ensure Toronto can prosper now and in the future.'

'The OMB decision has found that the test to add large format stand-alone retail to employment districts is a difficult one to meet,' said Brendan O*Callaghan of the City*s legal division.

The OMB found that the functioning of other economic activities within this district would have been undermined if the Smart Centres application had been approved.’’
 
wow, check out the two comments at the end of the article...

by Darren in TO
Mar 04 2009
4:19 PM
"The battle was a test of Toronto's growth and employment strategy, which does not permit retail construction projects on lands intended to encourage high-paying knowledge-based economy of industrial jobs."

What a pile of crap!!! Everyone shops at a Walmart, poor to medium class citizens. Only the rich will benefit from a film studio. Your teenage child would have found a summer job at Walmart, but good luck getting a summer job at a film studio.

by fidel_castro
Mar 04 2009
4:32 PM
congratulations Leslieville hippies. You effectively drove away jobs in your neighbourhood for the smug satisfaction of being anti-corporate crusaders. Enjoy your humoungous hole in the ground while you wait for Google to build a eco-friendly biodome housing an aboriginal cultural centre.
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Ah. Darren B strikes again.

Wow, this is amazing news. Had expected it to go in Mitch Goldhar's favour.
 
Dilla said:
wow, check out the two comments at the end of the article...
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Amazing ... "only the rich will benefit from a film studio". The sheer ignorance and stupidity of anyone making such a moronic comment is astounding! Anyone I know working in that area, is often living paycheque to paycheque!

I find that these comment things on media websites, really bring out the dumbest comments, that you wouldn't get in a real discussion group, like this one.
 
nfitz said:
I find that these comment things on media websites, really bring out the dumbest comments, that you wouldn't get in a real discussion group, like this one.
Click to expand...

I've heard it said that the internet makes smart people smarter and stupid people louder. I would tend to agree.
 
I'm just reading the decision now. It's quite interesting that the Board refused to delve into the debate over retail jobs vs. "better" jobs (a "red herring" the Board said), and that although it ultimately ruled in favour of the city, the Board slammed the conduct of the local Councillor.
 
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