[FutureMayor]

Public transit hot topic at 905 city's conference

Mayor pledges to review myriad ideas floated at meeting of city's community, business leaders

Sep 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Michele Henry and Teenaz Javat
Staff Reporters

Transportation stole the show.

Gridlock, urban sprawl and the nightmare of spending hours in traffic were on the mind yesterday at Mississauga's first-ever ideas summit.

A sizeable crowd of Mississauga executives and community leaders ruminated about issues facing the 905's biggest city – from how to cope with its aging population, to how to better welcome new immigrants – but a majority of the Mississauga Summit 2007 focused on how to make transit a viable option for car-dependent Peel Region residents.

"If we really want to transform our city from a suburban municipality, transit has to be a key component of it," said Martin Powell, Mississauga's transportation commissioner.

Still, Powell was shocked at how the issue took over roundtable brainstorming sessions at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, between panel debates and moderated discussions.

An afternoon talk about how to spend the $17.5 billion promised to GTA transit by the province – whether in building a rapid link from Pearson airport to downtown Toronto or a light rail line linking the 905 with the 416, or both –spawned myriad ideas from Summit participants.

Edward Sajecki, Mississauga's commissioner of planning and building, told attendees public transit wasn't on anyone's mind when officials began in 1970 to turn acres of cornfields into a city.

That's why steps are now being taken to build high-density housing along transit lines.

Square One, once a suburban mall surrounded by 7,000 parking spots, is now at the heart of a highrise condo community next to the Mississauga Transit terminal, a major step in the city's new urban intensification.

Sajecki said more than 10,000 residential units within a 10-minute walk of the city's downtown have been approved or are under review.

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion pledged to review all the ideas put forth at yesterday's summit.

"We have a great city, we have a lot of assets, but as we look down the road we have some major challenges. We need the help of the corporate sector, we need the help of the citizens."

Louroz - We can do it!

 

[FutureMayor]

A brave try at remaking Mississauga

Royson James

The more than 100 citizens, many of them corporate CEOs and upper management types, had gathered yesterday to "chart a brave, bold future" for their city. And the list of big ideas spilled out on the summit floor, as if unleashed from a dam:

Build up, not out.

Provide free recreation and transit to counter social isolation.

Promote a walkable city.

24/7 access to schools, libraries and community centres – making them a gathering place and community resource.

Brand us as the City of Children – where kids are protected and get top priority.

Hold "continuous street parties," carrying on the pioneer spirit of early settlers.

And where are we? Attending a city summit in Toronto? Try the Mississauga Living Arts Centre, across from Mississauga City Hall, at the first ever Mississauga Summit, dubbed a Meeting of the Minds.

So imagine: Mississauga, Party Capital of North America.

Amazing what one can uncover when citizens come together, bent on building a better future. That's what's happening these days in Mississauga, Canada's sixth-largest city, Toronto's sister city to the west, with a population multiplying like weeds, and arguably the most popular mayor of all time.

Predictably, for a city that has concentrated on physical development at the expense of the social bands that knit urban societies together – transit, child care, neighbourhood shopping and recreation – urban problems have surfaced.

Social services are nowhere near required levels. Transportation is a mess. And funding required to address the social deficit is shockingly below the regional averages – so far below that it is front-page news.

Some Mississauga residents took a page out of Toronto's book and yesterday organized their own city summit, convening business and social service providers and politicians and community activists to map out a different future.

"It takes 18 months for a learning disabled child to be assessed. That's a disgrace," said the executive who suggested Mississauga become the city of children. The city has to change this, "even if it means going into debt," he said, spouting the kind of heresy one expects to hear in Toronto.

The summit was the brainchild of Shelley White, CEO of the Peel United Way, and Brian Crombie, a pharmaceutical executive. Aware of the chronic shortage of social services and the unconscionable gap in provincial funding for services in the 905 region in general and Peel in particular, they've started a movement for change.

In summary, White asked the summiteers what they might do to take the issue further and suggested that they could "write letters signed by the 50 CEOs of the largest companies in Mississauga."

Loud, sustained applause greeted the suggestion.

A recent study showed 905 residents are grossly underfunded for child care, hospitals and health care compared with the rest of Ontario. Fast growth and traditional funding formulas leave areas like Mississauga with half the funding other Ontario municipalities get.

"We must get the funding gap on the political agenda," Crombie said.

White said Mississauga is "at the tipping point ... having emerged from a suburban town to Canada's sixth largest city. We have to change our thinking to being a sustainable and liveable city."

To fuel dialogue, the city will hold what it calls conversations about a 21st-century city, starting this fall. They will give voice to more ideas like yesterday's, ideas Mayor Hazel McCallion pledged to nurture.

Louroz

 

[CDL.TO]

Whew! That's a relief!

It sounded like a sure bet that this connection is a done deal for Mississauga, so this talk of not being able to extend the people mover line is probably pure speculation from some.

It's no speculation, it's simply the technology, Louroz. The airport people mover is cable-driven and has one vehicle per track and travels back-and-forth. You'd be tripling the length of the line. It's basically a horizontal elevator, you can't build a 6-storey building with 2 elevators then expand the building to 18-storeys and not expect there to be problems. The limit of the distance that the PM is capable of travelling noted on the website of the manufacturer's website was discussed on UT when this was first built. It would hardly reach the GO line (frequency issues notwithstanding), never mind Eglinton & Renforth, which is further.

 

[FutureMayor]

Again, it sounds like this is based on your own research and opinion.

The Airport as I understand it has always planned to have the people mover connect to the GO Line to the north, and now has committed to connecting it to Mississauga to the south. Either they have the technology and means to extend the line now, or as many have suggested here they have to retrofit the entire system to meet these new demands (which sounds totally illogical to me if the planned to extend the system all along).

I would like to proposed that we get right to the source and ask for an explanation from the GTAA itself about its future transport capabilities.

I will be more than happy to send an e-mail inquiring about the GTAA's plans.

Louroz

 

[Transportfan]

Remember this was a summit featuring Mississauga's top CEO's and leaders and they were asked to THINK BIG! The fact that the Monorail was thrown out as a BIG IDEA is fantastic. A direct, express connection between the Airport and our City Centre would be a huge economic boost. With a new convention centre being built, an entire new hotel district could be built around it with the new monorail bringing in visitors in from the airport in less than 10 minutes. With dozens of corporate headquarters already in Mississauga, a lot of executives don't even need to head to downtown Toronto anymore. A lot of meetings and conventions take place in Mississauga, so why not in our City Centre the CEO's asked?

This exaggererates the attractiveness of MCC. The truth is big business doesn't care much for the City Centre, as they haven't built an office tower there in years.

 

[taal]

I think a good point is being made here,

While I agree there are many business in the area - and this growing as well. How many are really located beside the City Center. From my counts not many at all - in a way the city is inverted from the conventional setup. With a dense concentration of people in the downtown area with little businesses and most of the business on the outlying areas. Even this hotel/convention center, where is this planed to be constructed?

 

[Observer Walt]

The hotel / convention centre is going on the block immediately north of the Living Arts Cente, on the west side of Duke of York Blvd. The idea is that space in the Living Arts Centre could be put to use as convention meeting space, helping to subsidize the LAC's operation.

The point about lack of office space in the City Centre is well taken. The problem has been the cost of providing parking, which is cheaper in locations like the Heartland and Meadowvale, where surface lots are typical. The City may need to reduce development charges for office space in the City Centre, which they have not yet been willing to do. It's discouraging that little office space has been built in the City Centre, even while the condos have been booming. It's becoming an unbalanced mix of uses.

 

[FutureMayor]

Economic Development in the City Centre aka Office Tower Projects was one of the major themes in yesterday's Summit. The fact that we had so many of Mississauga's CEO's coming together for the first time to talk about City Centre is a step in the right direction.

First off, Mississauga isn't alone, I can't think of any major City Centre in the GTA that has built a new office tower in the last 10 years, except for maybe that one in North York City Centre. Even downtown Toronto, for the longest time there was nothing being built, then suddenly the right conditions came into play and BOOM!

The right conditions are being set in Mississauga with new regional rapid transit lines, a convention centre/hotel, and a new college/university campus is being sought after.

Mississauga is studying the parking situation, and there is plan to start building municipal parking garages in the City Centre. The city of Mississauga is also looking at building a new office tower/leasing as a major tenant in a new development for the thousands of employees scattered throughout several locations right now.

Mississauga City Centre has great potential, its only a matter of time before it realized in the office development market.

Louroz

 

[Jackhammer]

MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL!

 

[ShonTron]

Next to the Mississauga Busway!

(Need I rehash my busway song here?)

That said, if the GTAA wanted to replace its cable-car technology to serve the GO line and ACC, that'd be great, but I'm skeptical at this point. I doubt the GTAA had serving the GO line in mind when they installed the current system - they even roughed in space for a Blue 22 stop instead.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

Way to go Mississauga, biting the hand that feeds . Would Mississauga be what it is today without it's proximity to Toronto?

The People Mover cannot be extended much further than it is today as it's one-directional for one meaning extending it all the way down to Eglinton would mean a round trip in excess of 20 mintues. Also the track's grade level would have to ascend to cross the 401 which is technologically impossible. Thirdly a BRT route could easily terminate at Terminal 3. If the airport-Square One link is so pivotal why end it at Renforth's endless swaths of vacant hydro lands?

A monorail?? If Pearson ever becomes a transit hub it'll need a multitude of services (subway/LRT, GO/VIA, regional local/express bus routes) plus some commercial interest (shopping complex, hotels, offices) to attract more than flyers/airport staff, directly inked to passenger pick-up/drop-off taxis and the people mover.

A monorail might work though on Eglinton West from the airport to about Black Creek Drive with spacing of stops aroud one kilometre where it would meet the proposed Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

 

[JasonParis]

Any talk of GO Train or VIA services to Pearson? That's what is needed to make this a true hub.

Good on Mississauga though for daring to dream!

BTW, I've also changed the name of this thread as it was a little misleading.

 

[khris]

This exaggererates the attractiveness of MCC. The truth is big business doesn't care much for the City Centre, as they haven't built an office tower there in years.

Based on how things are right now, yes, it is exaggurated.
But if things were different, and there was a better connection to the airport, where people would not have to take taxis to get to MCC, then business would be much more attractive there.

 

[BobBob]

^ True, though, in general, businesses locate in places like Mississauga not for the amenities but primarily for cheap land and low taxes, which explains the primarily residential development around the "city centre".

 

[FutureMayor]

Mississauga International Airport

I'm going to officially protest the renaming of this thread.

For one the thread title was right on topic: I talked about how the head of the GTAA made the comment of renaming the airport to Mississauga International Airport. Even though it was a joke, it related directly to the thread title.

Second, the fun of posting and reading UT are the misleading titles. The headlines capture and draw in potential readers into a post they might otherwise skip. I suspect if I had named this thread "Mississauga Summit 2007" as you just did, I wouldn't have gotten a big and immediate response like I did.

I'm going to request that thread be restored to original name: Mississauga International Airport.


Louroz