...somehow, every large European city survives without a grid of expressways. And so have we. Relative to every American city and even Montreal, Toronto has a tiny inner-city expressway network. Making it a little tinier isn't going to change much. Since none of the things you so fervently wish had happened 75 years ago (demolishing businesses and homes to make room for cars, that is) is going to happen now, we may as well solve our transportation problems in the only way that we know will work: by building more transit.
Also, there's always a bite-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face element to a lot of these roads-at-all-costs arguments. The reason Toronto has a lot of traffic is that it's an extremely desirable place to live and work. One of the main reasons for that desirability is that we never ripped apart neighbourhoods with freeways. You want easy driving? Check out Buffalo. They've got all the empty lanes you could ever want.
Yeah, let's drag out the tired old ' European cities this, European cities that' argument. This is not Europe.
For your uninformed information, if you look at either side of Bloor-Danforth, for example, one side was torn down and demolished in the past 75 years: the city could have the cajones in those days to 'set back' the property line 4 or 5 meters at that juncture and allowed for the street to have been '6-laned' Vancouver did. Hamilton did. Sao Paulo did. Silly Hall dropped the ball in the '20s and '30s and only woke up in the '40s when they laid out the freeway map to undo the damage done by previous councils criminal negligence, or just plain laziness. Take your pick.
Toronto is a tiny blip on the world stage. Three million doesn't even rank it in the top 50 cities in the world, yet we go off comparing ourselves to New York, L.A., London - whatever city suits the socialist cause du jour. Get a grip.
I"ve never travelled in a city with such horrible subways and traffic. We are becoming a joke. We have 'world class' problems in this city, yet the solutions are straight from Midland or Lindsay.
And don't get me started on Davis cancelling the Spadina: who, exactly, was he obeying? Have any of you sat through council meetings? Who sits in the public gallery? It is the same usual suspects, clamoring and breying for their version of utopia. Sorry, but the rest of us have jobs and don't have time to show up with placards.
This is going to be an election issue. I will personally see to it. When I chat up other dog people in Riverdale, most are aghast at the way this city is run, but they just shrug it off.
Miller has to go. Someone has to stand up to him and his sycophants.