HousingNowTO
Senior Member
...check's 1966 METRO map of "Toronto's Rural Area" ----- can someone please check 2021 "Willowdale" for either a "Willow" --- or a "Dale"...? Thx!
- Thread starter Northern Light
- Start date
ma-93
New Member
The irony is most of you would oppose a development as such across the street from your lawn.... oh but my property value!! Easy to take the moral high horse when it doesn't impact your community. I find it strange that this development is targeting an isolated pocket that contains some of the only parkland on the Willowdale corridor when they could target several sites along Yonge St. which would provide the homeless better access to transit and shop fronts. Plopping them right in front of an old folks home and multi-million dollar homes in a residential neighbourhood seems quite strange. The example of Dovercourt is baffling, the density, the transit and the neighbourhood dynamics are completely different.
Northern Light
Superstar
Of course many people would find a development, probably any development directly across the street from them, that displaces some kind of greenspace undesirable. It would be the rare exception that it were otherwise.
However, that doesn't make it right.
****
Putting aside that I don't think there's any evidence this will devalue anyone's property............
I notice below, you don't seem to feel anyone on Yonge Street, with less green space still, should object........to have their condo/home, presumably worth less, devalued........in any way.
Hold on.................
As someone who has a very established track record of championing more and defending existing parkland.............
You don't think this statement is a just a wee bit hyperbolas?
Listen, I'll give you the time of day on an argument for preserving mature trees; moreso than most..............
But we are talking about that tiny corner next to the Cummer Lodge ......
Seems like there's a wee bit of other green nearby.
Right....so it's fine to de-value (in your mind, lack of evidence notwithstanding) an $800,000 condo, or 1.2M house.........near Yonge......but not a 1.8M house near Bayview.
Perhaps you could explain the relative fairness of that?
*****
For the record, the site was chosen because it's publicly owned; and appropriate to the scale of housing contemplated.
It would be rather silly to build 3-storey housing on Yonge.
Northern Light
Superstar
For the record...............there are few 'greener' sections of land in the City than this:
That's a screenshot from the chart below showing parkland per person, red being very low, orange being somewhat low, yellow being a bit low, light green being good/very-good.
The screenshot above shows the area from Yonge to Leslie, and Finch to Steeles.
Compare that to many other sections of the City.
Now listen, there are legitimate questions to be asked; and fair critiques to be offered; though in a housing crisis, few that would justify reconsidering this site.
But a parkland shortage in this area is not one of them.
That's a screenshot from the chart below showing parkland per person, red being very low, orange being somewhat low, yellow being a bit low, light green being good/very-good.
The screenshot above shows the area from Yonge to Leslie, and Finch to Steeles.
Compare that to many other sections of the City.
Now listen, there are legitimate questions to be asked; and fair critiques to be offered; though in a housing crisis, few that would justify reconsidering this site.
But a parkland shortage in this area is not one of them.
ma-93
New Member
Are we seriously comparing the assumptions regarding property value with a 600sq ft. condo on Yonge St. and it's surrounding amenities versus a 3000sq ft. residential home? My argument for the homeless is more-so that this pocket is very suburban and car heavy, would love to see how you address basic essentials like groceries and others with the homeless not having access to a car. Oh let them walk over 30 minutes-1hr through multiple blocks to hit either ValuMart at Bayview/Cummer which is not priced effectively or over an hour trip to No Frills at Yonge and Steeles. You are surrounding these at risk people in isolation and further decimating scarce parkland on Willowdale. I don't consider a hydro corridor with barely any trees to be considered parkland, especially when this pocket is used on the daily for the old folks residing in this home. Where are they supposed to go now?
I'm sorry you can try all your moral arguments, frankly I find placing the homeless in this isolated pocket to be rather more dangerous unless more transit or alternatives were provided. Let's not act like the stretch along Yonge near Cummer is built up to the top. The old Chrysler dealership and former LCBO retail lot has been sitting vacant for close to a decade and it's next to a 3-story strip mall with a Tim Hortons. Why couldn't these modular homes be placed on the vast vacant parking lot lands that dominate the Finch Subway station corridor, providing the homeless with access to cheap transit at their door step and more amenities?
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ma-93
New Member
Vacant swaths of land right next to a subway station, but let's decide to cram a modular housing block on top of an old folks home with their only accessible parkland.
bilked
Senior Member
Ah.. so your crusade against this project really is all about the welfare of those who might find supportive housing here?
Phew... because for a second there I thought you were concerned about your own property value!
Glad you cleared that up!
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
ma-93
New Member
No that crusade was clearly targeted at the hypocrisy on this forum, glad your sarcastic post confirms your guilt in that!
Great contribution too, by the way, lovely insight on the ongoing debate. Keep up the phenomenal posting bilked!
ma-93
New Member
I see you've never walked the neighbourhood, that path literally feeds into an unwalkable ravine behind the rehab facility there. Whatever distracts you again from the core argument to continue to push your agenda though.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Great then, let's build it there! I am sure we can make use of that parking lot south of Willowdale Manor and cut down a few trees that no one cares about.
AoD
Northern Light
Superstar
Yes. Why would the impact on someone with more money, rate as more important than someone with less?
This is actually a decent argument. Not to give you ammunition, but stick to this one........it makes you look less selfish and more aware of the needs of others.
This is a bad argument. You completely ignored the facts above.
Good, neither does the City in the chart I posted above. Dark Green are actual parks. That's not the colour of the hydro corridor.
A fine question; and one I would know the answer to, even if I didn't use google street view................because my best friend's mother spent some of her last days here............and I was a regular visitor.
Putting aside that sadly, most residents can't get out for a stroll on their own...........for those that can................this is the rear of the property.
As you can see, it runs behind all of the buildings:
It would probably benefit from a paved pathway to make it easier for those using mobility aids, and some benches...........you should raise that concern, since you care for the welfare of the residents/patients here.
The City doesn't own that land. I'm sure if you and your neighbours offered to buy it, this could be reconsidered.
Because housing under a hydro corridor isn't legal as a matter of law................?
And because the City doesn't own the land?
ma-93
New Member
And what about the fact that the homeless again are extremely isolated from local amenities?
bilked
Senior Member
It’s just tiring to see anti-housing activists frame their self-interest in the language of progressives. That’s all.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
I am more concerned about them being isolated from the one amenity that matters - a home. Surely, you are concerned about that too, now that we seem to have found a solution regarding that parkspace fronting Cummer?
AoD