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Backwards waterfront

Councillor Doug Ford says there’s “nothing” to do in Toronto, so he’s suggesting building a football stadium for an NFL team and a giant Ferris wheel on the waterfront.

Great. A huge parking lot so people can go watch football five months of the year will really spruce up the Port Lands. Can’t wait.

It gets better. The Ward 2 councillor, whose younger brother happens to be mayor, also envisions huge department stores on the water’s edge. Macey’s and Gucci, to be exact. Glorious.

No doubt a few developers are already lining up to cash in on Ford’s suggestion that the city sell off its stake in primo waterfront lands – maybe even a few who share his NFL football dreams. I seem to recall a visit from a handful of suits with briefcases full of the promise of big cash shortly after Ford’s aforementioned brother Rob, moved into the mayor’s chair.

The mayor has also signaled his administration’s intentions to pull the plug on the waterfront – or, more precisely, on the city’s involvement in not only the board of Waterfront Toronto, but other arm’s length agencies that manage the city’s stake in properties on the water’s edge. Among them, the Toronto Port Lands Company and (maybe) Build Toronto.

For all of Ford admin’s supposed business smarts, its haste to shrink the size of government at any cost, is worse than myopic. It’s just plain dumb.

Billions have already been pissed away in provincial funding for Transit City, a light rail network across the city, for a few kilometers of subway instead (great deal, huh?), so what’s a few bil more in valuable land holdings?

Call it pig math, a twisted version of pig Latin only with the numbers ass backwards. The bottom line: Ford’s friends slop handsomely at the trough, while Toronto taxpayers get screwed.

It’s pretty simple. If the plan is indeed to jettison city properties to spur private development, then zoning will have to be changed, ie: allowable building heights increased appreciably, to maximize the city’s return on investment.

In which case, it’s back to the future all over again on the waterfront. We’re about to repeat the mess that was made in the 80s, when developers were allowed to build a concrete curtain across the lakefront. That’s where we’re headed.

It’s sayonara to those green corridors to the lake, medium density-dominated development and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes envisioned under current plans for precincts along the lake.

The signs of a huge sell-off have been hinted at for months.

During the election, the mayor wondered aloud why any city money or staff time should be tied up in agencies involved in waterfront development.

He showed his complete lack of interest in waterfront issues by not only leaving his seat on the Waterfront Toronto board vacant – he didn’t even bother to appoint a designate.

Then last week at council, during a debate on the future role of city agencies, boards and commissions, City Manager Joe Pennachetti offered up the clearest clue yet that the Ford admin is set to cut all city ties to waterfront development, suggesting during questioning from Councillor Paula Fletcher that there may not be a future role for the city in any of the waterfront agencies. A report on that front is expected in six months.

Unlike his predecessor David Miller, who made it a point of putting himself on the Waterfront Toronto board to shape the course of crucial development along the lake, mayor Ford has shown little inclination to steer the course on the waterfront, killing plans for a stacked rink shortly after taking office.

Instead, he seems prepared to sell off valuable city assets and relinquish control of the future shape of our city to save a few million in staffing costs. (Much has been made of the fact some 25 of the 68 Waterfront Toronto staff make $180K a year.) Talk about mortgaging the future prosperity of our city.

There’s much at stake (see earlier story here). Get waterfront development right, and the city prospers. Get it wrong and there’s no fixing the damage.

Unlocking the potential of the waterfront is a delicate task. Much thinking has gone into creating the desired mix of development to create employment hubs for the new knowledge-based economy. Work has already been done to put in place infrastructure and deal with contaminated land. Award-winning designs have been approved.

The fruits of those labours are starting to show with the additions of the Corus building, Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common in the Bayside precinct between Lower Sherbourne and Parliament. The foundation for George Brown’s new waterfront campus has been poured.

Bigger plans are afoot. Much hangs in the balance. Condos and big box retail are no formula for success. The Fords, though, continue to play their fool’s game, pretending to save taxpayers money, while selling out the future.

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