Torontomatic

All my life I have lived in the GTA and not much has changed, in terms of urban planning. I am not an expert by any means. But can someone tell me what the experts have done? Sure, probably a whole lot for the city of Toronto and beyond. I am just the average GTA resident that has to live with those wonderful decisions. Please don’t tell me that I should simply “consume less” and live downtown in an 800 sq. ft. condo for half a million (I’m exaggerating here). Not that anything is wrong with a smaller condo. I used to live in one, but that’s not the point. With our patchwork of cities and “Band-Aid” solutions it’s a miracle that I can get from point A to point B in 1 1/2 hours. But I digress! We still continue to build without true planning amongst GTA towns and cities. We still continue to think that we have a lot of time to solve our urban issues. It’s another example of much “precious little time” we have for the GTA.

In some ways I wonder if the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) is a victim of its own design. We essentially have one large city surrounded by a lot of “wanna-be” cities. Okay, I’m just kidding! I’m not against these towns and cities, since I live in one of them. We have Pickering, Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Brampton and many others. No, I did not forget “THE blessed state of Mississauga“, run by her worship Hazel McCallion. Also, less we forget all of the other wonderful towns and cities that spread from the city of Toronto, like weeds! However I wonder, is this a great layout? Is this the way it should be?

We cannot change anything now, unless someone decides that it is a good idea to “amalgamate” again. Now that was a great idea? Toronto city council is still complaining about a lack of funds and money. In some ways I cannot blame the “little rulers of their kingdoms”. By design, we zone more land for development, which of course brings in more “TAXES” to the coffers of municipal governments. More people, more cars, small vision and more problems. We are our own victims! Years ago people should have demanded proper planning, however little was done to prevent sprawl. Some would say that sprawl is fine, as long as public transit goes along with it. However, lets be practical here, this is not the case. Especially for all of those people stuck on the 401 trying to get to work and pay their bills.

The Government of Ontario has come up with the “Greenbelt”, which it hopes over the next few decades will curb our urban sprawl. But they continue to loose the point on transit, which should be a precursor to development anyway. I have to spend an entire article on the Greenbelt alone, at a later date. The “Town of Markham” has come up with the idea of a “mixed-used” development called the new Downtown Markham. But I have to wonder? Is it too little to late? Only time will tell!