RT2020 said:
Really? From your very poorly written post, you've shown yourself to be very narrow minded.

I was waiting for just one suggestion! Nope, just negativity after negativity!! I would love to see what your ideas are, but I really don't think you have any.
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Well,.... various homeowners associations, the city and local councillors think I come up with some great ideas!

vz64 proposal of adding wider sidewalks on SheppardWest between Beecroft & Senlac isn't practical,... space doesn't grow on trees,... the wider sidewalks will either come at the cost of narrower road which vz64 is proposing to narrow down to 1 lane each direction,... which doesn't make sense, especially since Sheppard&Yonge area suffers from gridlock traffic.

If you want wider sidewalks,... you need to widen the entire street! How do you widen a street when you go against private property lines??? Basically, whenever a property comes up for rebuilding, the city would only grant that permission when the property owner agrees to hand over to the city,... the first 10 feet from the front property line adjacent to city property. This is exactly what's being done now on SheppardEast basically between Yonge and Leslie right now!,... where most of Sheppard East only has 2 lanes going each way,... the city would like 3 lanes of traffic going each way. Yes, it'll take many years for the city to accumulate all the extra space to put in another lane going each way along ShepppardEast,... but it will happen. Walk along SheppardEast,... look at the new developments along this stretch of SheppardEast, the new city sidewalks which generally marks the property line are further from the curb,... see how wide the boulevard are,... there's room there for another lane of traffic (in the future) and wider sidewalks!

NOTE: This stretch of SheppardEast between Yonge & Leslie that's being widened already has a subway underneath it!!! So it shows, vz64's idea of narrowing SheppardWest when a subway goes underneath it won't be practical at all,.... ever! This part of SheppardEast already has a subway underneath it and it still has still has terrible gridlock traffic at peak times because it's too narrow!!! That's why the city will now widen it from 2 lanes to 3 lanes in each direction of traffic!


RT2020,... here's an idea in that post you commented on,... so obviously, you didn't read it very well,....

sunnyraytoronto said:
vz64,.... some of your ideas are good,... but some are just terrible. You really have to ask yourself, would the majority of people benefit from this or not? And even with your good ideas,... they need to be do-able,.. work-able,.... you see, the city is basically broke,... the city focuses way too much on costly non-city issues,... if you want wider sidewalks and sidewalks placed on streets without sidewalks,.... you need to figure out who should pay for it and how,... who would benefit,... the economics has to be there.

In my personal experience,... when I present an work-able idea or concept at work or to the city or councillors,... if I can present it where the economics make sense,... where it actually saves money and produces much better results VS another project, where it cost less than an alternative, where its a win-win situation for all or most involved,... not only will they listen,... but then you're golden.

Look at SheppardWest between Beecroft and Senlac,... new 4-5 storey low rise buildings that are being constructed are constrained by parking,.... the city requires them to have x number of parking spaces because there are no on street parking nearby,... if there were on-street parking they wouldn't need as many onsite parking spaces and could actually build a bit bigger,... But lets say if the city were to place parking meters on some of the nearby side streets, would the residents be ok with that as long as some of the money generated from those parking meter goes towards building new sidewalks for them or better streetscape? See, that could be a win-win situation for the property owner on SheppardWest, the residents on the sidestreets and the city.
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Now expanding on this idea of mine,.... if the city were to place 100 metered parking spots along Bogart & Harlandale and some of the other smaller side streets near SheppardWest between Beecroft and Senlac,... and charge their standard $2.50 per hour (similar to $3/hr Yonge Street in this area),... and only allow parking from 10am to 4pm (minimize impact on neighbourhood since most would be at work during this time anyways) with a 3 hour limit (this discourage all-day parking for those who park here and then take subway downtown),... assuming each parking spot was utilized about 80% of the time,... this would generate about $1,200 per day,.... assuming 5 days (monday to friday) that would be $6,000 per week,.... $312,000 per year,... each and every year. This money is held in trust for this community. Minus one time cost of installing meters, sign, parking lines, etc,... and ongoing collection fees,.... that'll still leave a huge chunk of money to pay for sidewalks on streets that don't have them,... better streetscape,... maybe even local bike paths, trails maintenance for nearby ravine, computers and school supplies for neighbourhood schools.

With this idea,....
- property owners along SheppardWest would have less restrictions when rebuilding and can rebuild slightly larger with less onsite parking requirements since there are nearby onstreet parking,... lots of offices along SheppardWest, so there's lots of clients coming and going throughout the day to fill these parking meter spots,....
- households on streets with these new parking meters would get better new sidewalks and streetscape,...
- city get revenue from parking enforcement
- city have more funds for infrastructure improvement in this neighbourhood - ie bike paths, trail maintenance, school supplies, etc,...
- Homeowners associations now have a revenue source to help fund local projects for the community


See,.. this is a work-able and do-able idea,... vz64 & RT2020,... lets see you come up with an idea that is work-able and do-able that makes economic sense and would benefit most of those involved,....
 
February 18th/2013. Still a challenge shooting this site - excuse the poor photos.

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sunnyray, you did not address any of my other ideas and concentrated on something I admitted might not work or would be long-term solution (narrowing Sheppard). I like your idea about installing parking meters around Sheppard W, but, while it is very doable, it is not very efficient in terms of reducing a gridlock. We have too much of the local traffic; people driving back and force to get groceries or buy some other stuff. If Sheppard would turn into something similar to Yonge around Lawrence, that would help to reduce local traffic. Also, by allowing occasional corner stores and townhouses in residential-only streets would both increase density and vibrancy of the area. Re no-access to cars--I haven't proposed block the streets completely, but to give pedestrians access to the roads and allowing service vehicle to pass, but driving not faster than pedestrians. If someone has special need, then they would be able to pass too. Before you start your "it is ridiculous idea" comment, note that similar settings are used everywhere around the world with exception of North America and these limited car-access neighborhoods are great! Heck, entire city of Venice has no car access and they manage...

By your sarcastic remarks, it looks like you are driving that older red three-door coup? Sorry if I am mistaken... Actually, I am sorry that I started to use that sarcastic tone in reply to your mcmansion comments before, but I think that's what annoy people here when you start your condensending, know-everything remarks. BTW, our house is not your typical mcmansion--design-wise it is plain and boring, but is not done in a typical pretend-art-deco style most of the new houses built. And it is large (2500), but not huge by local standards, where is 4k-5k is a new norm. And I have a family with 3 kids, so I guess we are not waisting too much space. Solar panels--where the hell else we would put it? They are facing south. Should I put them on the north size so they would not work to satisfy your modesty test??? Well, if everyone would try to "show up" by installing solar system and geothermal, our air would be way cleaner...
 
Vz64,.... there you go again, trying to put words into my mouth!,..... I never suggested installing parking meters on Sheppard Avenue West,... that would be insane! Read my post# 977,... I suggested "lets say if the city were to place parking meters on some of the nearby side streets" near Sheppard Avenue West, so to reduce the on-site parking requirements for the office builings along Sheppard Avenue West,... in return those developers can build slightly bigger without being restricted by onsite parking requirements. The "locals" would be the parking revenue for neighbourhood infrastructure. Thus, this wouldn't cause gridlock issue on Sheppard West.


Hmmmm,.... now you do realize the streets of Venice are filled with water,... what happens to water in sub-freezing Canadian weather??? BTW, have you been to Venice,... it smells like a sewer! But then again, so does the Poyntz subway exit lately.

Where in the city of Toronto,... or anywhere in North America do they have your idea car-free neighbourhood?

Vz64,.... do you even know what you want????? You want WestLansing to become car-free,... yet you strongly support EmeraldPark being built even larger than it is now. The current EmeraldPark has 6 levels of underground parking with 802 parking spaces, with 181 commercial parking spaces and provision for 74 parking spaces to be shared with Lansing United Church. Wow, that's alot of cars into your WestLansing neighbourhood,... to put it into context that you would understand, you should walk along your street and count the number of cars in your neighbours driveway and garage,... figure out how any cars per household,... and how many houses on your street,... then you could figure out how many Poyntz Avenue worth of cars EmeraldPark will bring into the area! We're talking about 3 times as many cars that currently resides on Poyntz Avenue,.... so basically double all the cars on Poyntz Avenue, Johnston Avenue and Florence Avenue,... and maybe add some from Cameron! And you wanted EmeraldPark to be even bigger,... with more parking!


Now if EmeraldPark would have been built as an office complex instead of residential condos, it would not have had as much parking spaces,... it would have brought in about 7-8 times as many people into the area,... but they'd be office workers and 90% of them would be using public transit,... this is why EmeraldPark as 2 residential condo towers on the subway line with direct access to subway station is such a terrible waste of potential. Even the city planners realize how the lost potential and damage caused by EmeraldPark, HullmarkCentre and GibsonSquare.


Vz64,... It's great that you actually put your money where your mouth is,.... lots of people preach going green - getting off the grid and recycling,... You've actually done it with solar panels and geothermal,.... and you're probably the only house in WestLansing that have done so,... there are a few other in Willowdale,... so good for you. And yes, if you do it then show it off,... and put the solar panel on your roof in front of your house.

Anyone calculating the cost of installing solar panels and geothermal systems realize the initial sunk cost far exceeds the potential savings over the life of the systems,... currently. The technology is still relatively new and haven't reached it's mass production price points,... and I'm sure the vast majority of people would rather wait until it makes sense financially,... and as with everything, the longer you wait, the better the technology gets,.... just like cars,... And since it seems you don't approve of older cars,.... to make you happy anyone with an non-current year car should get a newer car,... yeah, more car for our neighbourhood!


BTW,... this past Saturday, I had to check if Hell froze over,.... there wasn't anyone working at the HullmarkCentre site,... but the EmeraldPark site was busy with construction workers! WTF,.. usually its the other way around,... I guess the EmeraldPark construction workers were playing catch up or trying to make up for a previous bad weather-day.
 
sunnyraytoronto said:
BTW,... this past Saturday, I had to check if Hell froze over,.... there wasn't anyone working at the HullmarkCentre site,... but the EmeraldPark site was busy with construction workers! WTF,.. usually its the other way around,... I guess the EmeraldPark construction workers were playing catch up or trying to make up for a previous bad weather-day.
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I noticed it too; Emerald Park tries hard to make it up working on Saturdays. But HC site is usually pretty active on Saturdays.
 
Indeed! The choice of cladding will be very important for this project, even though we shouldn't expect cladding for another few months.
 
Same architect, same developer, same design, so I expect the towers will look pretty similar to http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5700/136144701.0/0_81b31_cbe5a31d_-1-XXL

Aka, Ugly.

Re: traffic problems. What needs to happen is a series of cross streets similar to Dundas, College, Harbord etc downtown between a block similar in size to Finch/Sheppard/Bathurst/Yonge (aka Queen/Bloor/Bathurst/Yonge. Yes to parking on the street, yes to increasing the number of retail shops on side streets (small scale stores on side streets, larger ones on main streets perhaps?) Perhaps a sort of residential/retail hybrid suburban version of Kensington Market?

Wider streets don't solve traffic problems.

re: putting solar panels on the front to "show off." Maybe his house is on the south side of the street? Solar panels where the sun reaches more makes more sense, eh?
 
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Cross streets are certainly a solution but good luck up here. They put in a ring road to ensure that would never happen. And the ring road is now a major reason for the traffic. Nowhere to go but up Yonge really.
 
I agree about the ring roads.. they just create a funnel effect/bottleneck south of Sheppard on Yonge. It would be great if they could go south of the 401 but you've got massive ravines on 3 sides, so not really practical.

The geography of the area is more to blame for its traffic woes than anything else. It's proximity to 401 attracts drivers from the whole surrounding region (especially from parts north). It gets criticized a lot for having so much residential development instead of commercial, but it still remains the #2 employment centre in 416 after downtown so there is still significant inflow from offices.

No doubt added residential density doesn't help traffic matters, but one effect that never seems to get mentioned is that it increases the pedestrian population who want to cross intersections, and there are several such crossings in the immediate area that are well utilized by pedestrians, which also helps to slow car traffic (more lights needed and for longer, less ability for drivers to make turns).
 
The ring road via Doris to Tradewind could easily extend south of Avondale to Highway 401 via Oakburn Crescent and Burnwell Street,... but there's simply no political will to do so. It could have been done by putting a roadway under Tridal Avonshire condo or now the TDSB Avondale yard. But the local councillor is dead against directing more traffic through "established communities",... apparently new condo buildings like Tridel Avonshire are established communities before they were built.

As shame really,... because the new roadway from Tradewind Avenue down through Oakburn Cresent and then down Burnwell would have worked very well in conjunction with one of the proposed Yonge-Highway 401 interchange reconfiguration,... allowing residents of Avondale Condo community easy access to eastbound & westbound Highway 401 along with northbound and southbound Yonge Street,.... without having to wait queue through westbound Avondale to southbound Yonge,... which currently takes about 30 minutes in morning rush hour traffic.
 
They are working now on the second floor of the podium on the west side. Form today, March 29/2013:

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