Wong-Tam proposed a motion at Planning & Growth Committee today and it was unanimously passed:


Not quite sure what good it will do if the site is already cleared but ....

I think this may be all she can do without the blessing of Council, but with Council only debating this on February 2nd, it very well could be too late. That is not really the speed I meant when I suggested getting an urgent interim injunction - I was more thinking along the lines of an emergency motion being prepared today and heard tomorrow. Hopefully that is closer to the speed the Friends move at in seeking their injunction.
 
It would be worth forwarding some of these images to Wong-Tam's office or "Friends of the Foundry." Showing conceptual images that don't destroy the heritage component could be a big help in selling how corrupt the Ford government is. These are very valuable marketing materiels. There is high quality fine grain urbanism here too.

-might need a big header that says "conceptual"
on it, happy to make more studies. Wong-Tam has already retweeted it.
 
was inspired by your plan, as I was thinking this is exactly how the site should be laid out. created a quick 10min diagram. it's not much, but its more than the Provincial government is offering us right now...View attachment 295120
This is fantastic! Yes! the site is actually way too big for just 3 tower so the heritage buildings fill it out!

Got Dougs email? I think he could use a look at this....
 
was inspired by your plan, as I was thinking this is exactly how the site should be laid out. created a quick 10min diagram. it's not much, but its more than the Provincial government is offering us right now...View attachment 295120

I am obsessed with this. I would not do anything differently. This can be a big win for everyone, for the province, for market housing, for affordable housing, for the community, and for a developer with vision.

The province is simply being corrupt and short sighted.
 
The level of unprofessionalism is a tell that they are concerned about fallout - a sign of weakness and dithering.

AoD
Keep in mind that this is a writ-large version of the 98 Superior demolition--that is, a property owner feeling the heritage heat acting quickly in the name of "nyah nyah, you can't do anything now". Which is just the kind of heritage-deplorable tactics one'd expect a FordCon to engage in.
 
I sent a sternly worded email to Doug as well, but i tried to be persuasive also, likely to no benefit. Still, enough emails sends a message. I basically said I was an NDP voter who sympathized with the hardships of working a gov though a pandemic, but that any empathy i had was being quickly eroded due to short sighted and poorly thought out development tactics. Any inroads he may have had with Toronto residents and voters would quickly evaporate with tactics like these.

Anyway, worth a shot.
 
I think this may be all she can do without the blessing of Council, but with Council only debating this on February 2nd, it very well could be too late. That is not really the speed I meant when I suggested getting an urgent interim injunction - I was more thinking along the lines of an emergency motion being prepared today and heard tomorrow. Hopefully that is closer to the speed the Friends move at in seeking their injunction.
Unfortunately that is not really the way City Council works. To consider it earlier they would have to call a special meeting, which is within the purview of the Mayor, who sadly hasn’t responded to this issue. The Councillor indicated that the City Solicitor is considering bringing the injunction application in advance of the February 2 meeting. I hope so.
 
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The more I look at this, the more frustrated I get. It's no wonder Toronto is so banal. How is it even an option to consider tearing these buildings down?

Are we a great city? Absolutely, I am glad to call Toronto home! But, OMG...we just lack that vision to put us at the next level and it's so frustrating.

Just look at what Cambridge is considering with their Foundry. Looks pretty good doesn't it? And we are demolishing ours? This should be criminal.

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The more I look at this, the more frustrated I get. It's no wonder Toronto is so banal. How is it even an option to consider tearing these buildings down?

Are we a great city? Absolutely, I am glad to call Toronto home! But, OMG...we just lack that vision to put us at the next level and it's so frustrating.
I've got plenty of problems with how the city manages planning, but to be clear: this is not a Toronto problem - this is a provincial problem. The province is the one tearing down the buildings. City councilors would like the buildings to stay and be considered for alternate uses.
 
I've got plenty of problems with how the city manages planning, but to be clear: this is not a Toronto problem - this is a provincial problem. The province is the one tearing down the buildings. City councilors would like the buildings to stay and be considered for alternate uses.
Agreed.

However, my comment was not politically motivated nor was I pointing fingers. I am just bummed that these things happen in Toronto and we live with an infrastructure that enables it (at any level of govt or policy) to happen.

☹️
 
It always seems silly to suggest it, but the frustration has gotten to me. Feel free to excuse my generalized rant - but can we get a Province of Toronto already?

Governments will change sure, but the manner in which we’ve seen the current Ontario govt. smash the local electoral ridings prior to a municipal election, (completely out of spite) and the whole MZO debacle, tells me that Toronto needs to be protected from the province.

Looking at election results, Toronto didn’t vote for these people, they definitely didn’t vote for their mandate, nor do they agree with their actions that weren’t in any mandate whatsoever.

A city is a living and breathing human project where people live, it’s not simply a collection of tourist attractions, sports stadiums and investment opportunities. But the city part of Toronto has long been governed by the suburbs and the rest of the province, who seem to see it that way.

I don’t see a lot of innovation springing forth from having the city governed by tourists, folks who are keen on visiting, trashing the joint and stashing their problems here before taking a highly subsidized highway out of town (Woodbridge looks like it has plenty of room for affordable housing, and would be great for addiction and rehabilitation centres, let’s get on that no?)

this pandemic has shown glaring weakness in all levels of government, ironically because people’s general mistrust of all levels and parties in government. Even in their most earnest of hours, governments here can’t take a necessary hardline with the public, because the public has seen them overreach, act in corrupt fashion and remove any and all confidence. So here we are rounding the corner on a full year of “lockdowns”. Folks suffering and dying because nobody can get it together.

I’m not saying that it would have made things over the last year any better, but man, I think of the candidates who were running for municipal seats before council was culled, and I think of the wide array of new voices that we would have had at city hall helping fight this.

Instead, Corktown, Canary, the Distillery, we get less representation, a back hoe through heritage buildings, months of all night construction and billions poured into a little-used expressway extension, all the while we’ve been paying increased property taxes for a white elephant subway extension in Scarborough.

Toronto needs to stop being governed by Vaughn and Oshawa, Thunder Bay and Etobicoke, all according to what THEY want to get out of a city. We live here dammit, and this city belongs to us.
 

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