There are a few things going on here. First, Metrolinx talks a good line about working with the private sector and especially about Transit Oriented Communities, but they prefer to just take property and maximize profits for themselves to offset capital costs. With Corktown Station, it's City land for the most part, and they expect the City to just roll over. East Harbour is partly City land too, and the story coming out of Cadillac Fairview is that Metrolinx is not exactly easy to deal with - disorganized and arbitrary. In Liberty Village, they notified the landowners a year ago according to the Star, but don't seem to have been working on much of a compromise. For its part the City has not helped by trying to keep the land as "employment" rather than "residential". I have no doubt that once Mlx gets their hands on it, there will be an MZO substantially increasing its value AFTER they have paid for it based on current zoning and development potential. Another point here is that Mlx seems to be treating commercial landholders with the same cavalier attitude they use on single family residential owners. The bigger picture is that Mlx throws its weight around because they know QP will back them up so that Ford's pet project will be built. And Ford deserves to be bashed as often as possible.
Excellent! I'll take Metrolinx every day in that battle.
I think the point was that it shouldn't be a battle. CF has an extremely strong interest in that station and line getting built; they've got an $8B bet relying on it.
I get what you're saying and I was never a fan of Metrolinx under Wynne or the current regime. My post about the Star shouldn't be interpreted as particularly friendly to Metrolinx. It was just a small aside about a question which I usually tempted to jump into as Northern Light knows too well
Exactly. They used to be the voice of middle income, largely education, medical, and business employed professions. Somehow they are now the voice of the wealthy investor class. Stories are often of "First World Problems" and articles with stories similar to one of a supposedly average young couple dropping millions on a cottage seem common. The Star of 15 years ago would see the Ontario Line as public good and I get the anti-Metrolinx criticisms where it seems far more decisions are already solidified and inflexible prior to public engagement. However, I'm referring to something different... this is about a shift between the Toronto Star seeing their audience as a wealthier and more importantly less humble group.
It's the same thing as the Scarborough Subway. The Star Editorial Board gets an opinion in their heads and runs with it. For a while it seemed like the Star was publishing some "expose" about nothing for the Scarborough Subway every week.
canada.constructconnect.com
Thank you, George Carlin.
I suppose the The Star is trying to keep alive the myth that the Fords are all to blame for the loss of LRT in Scarborough. Or maybe writing Star transit editorials is Josh Matlow's secret second job.
Fair enough ... but ditto.
Because Doug Ford is intent on micromanaging everything even at the city level and wants higher density than the city has zoned.
It's the equivalent of the Scarborough LRT 'tearing up our roads for streetcars'.