Well those hoping for a good 2008 cycling season saw that challenged by their dentist as she was trying to clean out the debris from seven smashed teeth in their mouths. The grass roots campaigned to get a bike lane on Bloor St was struck a severe blow. Then the City is going for a repeat of the Martin Goodman Trail at the Boulevard Club insult, just in a seven times grander scale.
Bloor St between Avenue Rd and Church St is going to be refurbished at the behest of the Bloor/Yorkville Business Improvement Association. They do not want bike lanes so they will not be installed. A developer wants to install a big box store complex in between Lakeshore and Eastern near Carlaw Ave. This would create seven new Boulevard Club style entrances and exits across the MGT.
Still feeling good about 2008? It gets worse.
Bloor St is a done deal, needing only final approval. Expecting our advocates at City Hall to bring our concerns and desires to the forefront? Better wake up and smell the carbon monoxide.
There will be no input from cyclists on the matter cause, according to Hamish Wilson, the Chair of the Cycling Advisory Committee Councillor Adrian Heaps decided he did not want to waste staff time on it when it could take away from his plan to install 50 kms of bike lanes this year. This is the same person who stood with us at ‘Bells on Bloors’ and told us he supported us. Just enough support to make it through the photo op, probably out of his mind by the end of the ride.
Will we have a chance through the other members of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee(TCAC) to have our position advocated? No, not even TCAC will have an opportunity to even see the plans. Mr. Persaud of Technical Services for the City of Toronto says the plans have not been sent to TCAC for comment. Mostly because they have already gone to tender. The final decision goes before the East York Community Council before the next TCAC meeting.
The story on the Lakeshore is pretty much the same. There have been some lame attempts to stop it. Councillor Fletcher is pushing for a bike lane on Eastern to make it difficult to build the big box stores. Instead of the usual speed bumps we are being used here as a roadblock to development. How about treating us as living breathing residents of this grand city. Personally I am not against development, I think it is up to the consumer to decide what type of shopping conveniences they use and suffer the consequences for them. Yet at the very least, if those boxes go in they need to build automobile underpasses for their exit/entrances and bear the costs of them. As with Bloor, final permission is at the same Community Council meeting.
Who will advocate on our behalf?
Councillor Heaps? He has his own agenda, cyclists be damned.
TCAC members? Heaps et al. are purposely keeping them out of the loop.
You? Well that is what it is down to. Until the Cyclists Union ramps up there is no group to speak for cyclists as a whole. The Lakeshore has a group fighting for improvements but their hands are full. Hamish points out who to contact to voice your concerns:
“Please apply political pressure to Mayor Miller, Councillor Rae and Councillor Heaps, and your own local Councillor, especially if you live in the TEYCC and downtown. Tell them you want bike lanes included in the Bloor/Yorkville reconstruction.
Email is Mayor_Miller@toronto.ca
councillor_heaps@toronto.ca
or councillor_lastname@toronto.ca
To find out who your councillor is call 416-338-0338 or go to the cities councillor listing . You can get their phone numbers here as well. Phoning is ever better than email.
Please think of whomever you know in Councillor Rae’s area and get in touch with them to pressure Mr. Rae to bring a bike lane to this Bloor/Yorkville reconstruction.”
Another thing you can do is talk to businesses in the Bloor/Yorkville area and ask them why they do not support bike lanes. Many of the larger businesses claim to support the environment through a host of public relation policies. Ask them to put them their money where their mouth is. One of the larger businesses in the area is the Hudson Bay company who make all sorts of noise about respecting the environment. The person to call is Katherine Raso (416) 861-6691, you will need to be pretty persistent to get a hold of her. Be persistent, be polite, it will get you heard.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Luke // Mar 25, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Ouch. Didn’t expect bike lanes on Bloor and so wasn’t shocked by the news of none going in. However the fact is worth an email to Councillor Rae if for no other reason than to register our presence and opposition to the refurbishment. I urge others to follow suit. If enough voices join the choir politicos will find it impossible to turn a deaf ear.
The proposed development at Lakeshore and Carlaw, with its seven — SEVEN!!! — bollard obstacle courses a la the Boulevard Club is a travesty. What a joke. If the proposal is implemented it will reaffirm just how submissive our council is to developers — no problem, we’ll just externalize the costs of the Big Box complex by further obstructing cyclists. I wonder if seven sets of traffic lights will be installed on Lake Shore Blvd. as well. Yeah, right.
2 sunshineandmargaritas // Mar 26, 2008 at 9:17 am
The development in the east end is not a done deal and either is the proposed cyclist slalom along the Lakeshore bike path or Eastern. The city is considering the green belt way along Lakeshore to be a park and therefore can’t be dissected by dive ways and the development is being challenged by community organizations and the city. The fight with the developers at the OMB starts May 5th. Check out http://www.nobigbox.ca and http://www.easttorontocommunity.org.
3 sunshineandmargaritas // Mar 26, 2008 at 9:21 am
The development in the east end is not a done deal and either is the proposed cyclist slalom along the Lakeshore bike path or Eastern. The city is considering the green belt way along Lakeshore to be a park and therefore can’t be dissected by dive ways and the development is being challenged by community organizations and the city. The fight with the developers at the OMB starts May 5th, hopefully people get involved. Check out http://www.nobigbox.ca and http://www.easttorontocommunity.org. Besides an inappropriate choice of tenant, a Wal-Mart, the development is also including 2000 parking spaces, just to ad the the already heavy car traffic in the area. It is going to be a cycling nightmare.