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"If the City can find $70 million for bike lanes it can find $100 million to build underground," said one angry resident

I have to say... it's hard to argue with that statement.
 
AAAAWWWWW, but there is so much money to be spent, and when money is being spent then there are many who gain money, and those who gain this money lobby us, and so we benefit in tearing down your community. Miserable pests, daring to oppose what a few of us thought up. hmph! [/sarcasm]
 
Eug said:
"If the City can find $70 million for bike lanes it can find $100 million to build underground," said one angry resident

I have to say... it's hard to argue with that statement.
Click to expand...

is $70 million for 200 km of bike lanes frivolous, compared to $100 million for 1 km of tunnel?
 
kettal said:
is $70 million for 200 km of bike lanes frivolous, compared to $100 million for 1 km of tunnel?
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No, you missed it. There are some 26 properties affected... perhaps as many as 100 people. Surely you wouldn't suggest there are more than 100 cyclists in this city.
 
kettal said:
is $70 million for 200 km of bike lanes frivolous, compared to $100 million for 1 km of tunnel?
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Anyway, ain't no way they will actually spend the $70 million by the promised 2013 - unless they start bribing business owners to give up their street parking. Come to think of it, why don't they do that?
 
Prometheus The Supremo said:
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/l...l-moving-costs-in-connection-to-expropriation

there's some errors in the article but the gist is that the underground section will end around keele? street instead of west of weston road where the ROW gets wider.
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I thought this came up a while ago. I remember reading about it. My interpretation coming out of it was more of York-South Weston NIMBY'ism refusing any kind of transit except subway. Wonder how they'd feel if it were elevated instead.

Come to think about it, these are the kind of people that are needed in the Shppard E corridor. Subway or bust!

** Edit found the link **

http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showpost.php?p=352346&postcount=1908
 
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York-South Weston NIMBYism stems from a legacy of cheap or neglected infrastructure and it's not surprising that the people living there have become hostile to new projects as they're pitched by authorities who have served them quite poorly. It's a place where infrastructure either gets neglected or built to the cheapest standard possible, more so than in other parts of the city. A drive or walk down St. Clair West in the city ward 11 reveals a road should have been repaved 15 years ago. The St. Clair West ROW project reduced the main arterial to one lane in each direction at the CN railway subway between Old Weston Rd and Keele. A walk or drive along Weston Road reveals a walkable but rather ugly street which never received much in terms of upgrades.
 
I don't know the area, except to say I've shopped in some of the appliance stores near Weston and Eglinton. Is it because it's just narrow?

If their argument is they're being shafted because their area just happens to be narrow, then they have every right to be pissed off. Other neighbourhoods which have a narrow Eglinton stretch are getting the full underground treatment.

P.S. As a cyclist myself, last I checked I can actually ride on the road where bike lanes don't exist. I support bike lanes, but I don't support pushing people out of their homes and businesses to build them.
 
Eug said:
P.S. As a cyclist myself, last I checked I can actually ride on the road where bike lanes don't exist. I support bike lanes, but I don't support pushing people out of their homes and businesses to build them.
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Who the hell is being pushed out of their home or business to build a bike lane? It's like three feet of pavement and a painted line. Are there people who live in tiny houses located on the shoulder of arterial roads? Because that was probably a bad idea even before bike lanes entered the picture.
 
Yes, there are some houses no more than a few metres from the curb. There isn't really much space that could be taken away without seriously affecting those properties.
 
GraphicMatt said:
Who the hell is being pushed out of their home or business to build a bike lane? It's like three feet of pavement and a painted line. Are there people who live in tiny houses located on the shoulder of arterial roads? Because that was probably a bad idea even before bike lanes entered the picture.
Click to expand...
Do I really have to explain every simple ironic remark? The point is it's easy to support bike lanes when you're not talking about taking away someone's home to do so. With public transit with the Eglinton Crosstown corridor, it's not so simple, because it seems we are pushing people out of their homes and businesses. At least on the surface, with this particular group of residents I can understand their complaints because they are not being offered the same underground option as people who happen to live in similarly narrow but wealthier areas of Toronto.

This is not NIMBYism. This is don't-throw-me-out-into-the-streetism. There is a profound difference between the two.
 
if they use the richview ROW instead of putting the LRT in the middle of eglinton, they can probably make enough savings to pay for extending the tunnelled section west of weston road. west of this point, the LRT can travel on the side of the road. it would be very scenic done this way and easier to connect with traversing bus lines.
 
There's no easy solution around Weston and Eglinton. Either expropriate a couple of dozen properties to build the ROW and bike lanes for many millions, or build an underground station for many more millions. Piss off the local residents, or piss off the taxpayer in general.
 
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