{"id":1512,"date":"2009-07-10T21:22:59","date_gmt":"2009-07-11T02:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2009-07-11T01:21:43","modified_gmt":"2009-07-11T06:21:43","slug":"the-walkable-city-toronto-transit-car-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/07\/10\/the-walkable-city-toronto-transit-car-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"The Walkable City:: Toronto, Transit, & Car Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crossposted on <\/em>Rhizomicomm<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1959, my Chicagoan parents visited Toronto, Ontario and the city left little impression upon them. \u00a0Architecturally nondescript, it was seen as an unfortunate product of postwar growth in an uninspired age. \u00a0I remembered this and when I was driving from Montr\u00e9al to Los Angeles<\/a><\/strong> in 1992, I didn’t even stop to visit Toronto. \u00a0My only recollection of the city was seeing a cluster of highrises in the distance while on a huge swath of a highway with express and collector lanes, the mighty 401. \u00a0Living in Toronto over the past few summers, I’ve found the city to be much more fascinating than I gave it credit and a lot has to do with how much of the downtown core is walkable. \u00a0I’m reading a book, Walkable City<\/a><\/strong>, by Mary Soderstrom that draws heavily on Jane Jacobs<\/a><\/strong>, a key urbanist figure here in her adopted Toronto. \u00a0Toronto from its inception, started with a grid::<\/p>\n

\"York
York {Toronto}, 1803<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto’s grid, unlike that of New York City’s Manhattan, consisted of short streets and encouraged the development of neighborhoods and community. \u00a0Jos\u00e9’s blog earlier this year notes how grids are safer than dendritic street patterns<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Jane Jacobs helped to thwart a freeway project, the Spadina Expressway<\/a><\/strong>, which would have taken cars from the mighty 401 allowing them access into the heart of the downtown core. \u00a0The expressway would have encouraged more sprawled developments outside of the core, but some have argued that Toronto’s anti-car policies have driven development out towards the suburbs, with cheaper land and lower taxes. \u00a0One of the outcomes of the Spadina Expressway failure was the creation of the Spadina subway line<\/a><\/strong>, which focused development along that corridor.<\/p>\n

Flying into Pearson and seeing maps of the Greater Toronto Area, there is no mistake that there is sprawl. \u00a0The Toronto I’ve encountered is one of surprises, as the downtown core is walkable and much can be accessed on foot. \u00a0While I complain about the local mass transit, the TTC, particularly since it’s often crowded and expensive {cashfare of $2.75 CAN is one of the highest in Canada}, it works. \u00a0If you live in the downtown area, one doesn’t need a car and like in Manhattan, a car is often a liability, rather than a convenience. \u00a0Nevertheless, I see Toronto as at a city at a crossroads. \u00a0Increasingly dependent on automobiles in an era of volatile oil prices, with an infrastructure dependent on gas taxes and registration fees. \u00a0Toronto is the largest city in Canada, comparable in size to Boston, but runs the risk of being gridlocked and subject to the “tyranny of the automobile,” as a prescient 1966 Toronto Planning Commission warned. \u00a0From a marketing point of view, I see glossy developers’ ads enticing residents with more space and lower prices {and possibly lower taxes} outside of the downtown core, which I’m sure are compelling to many. \u00a0Unfortunately, many of these developments aren’t factoring in walking. \u00a0While they may be close to mass transit, they often aren’t in vibrant communities with mixed-use {housing and businesses} and adequate amounts of affordable housing. \u00a0I’m afraid the thinking is still along the lines of modernity’s arboreal tree, as opposed to the Deleuzean rhizome, but A City Is Not a Tree<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In discussing public financing of infrastructure, a curious split occurs. \u00a0When discussing freeways, there’s often a mentality of built more to alleviate the strain. \u00a0Like Internet bandwidth, there can never be too much carrying capacity. \u00a0The minute one talks about mass-transit, there’s often a discussion of whether or not usage and fare revenues will be sustainable. \u00a0Transit-oriented development might be a solution, if increases in property values from proximity from mass transit can be leveraged to finance its construction {an overview of this is here<\/a>}<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the past few years, I’ve come across a microculture of mass-transit afficionados. \u00a0Some go as far as to create “fantasy” transit maps<\/a><\/strong>, particularly of subways or light rail::<\/p>\n

\"Fantasy<\/a>
Fantasy Toronto Transit Map-2030<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think this stuff needs to get plugged into a Sim-City-like environment, but like any abstraction, it’s only as good as its assumptions<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0My utopian vision of Toronto is one with concentrated development along corridors and with a direct connection to Pearson {Airport}. \u00a0My idea was a line that went from Pearson to downtown, following Queen in the downtown core, and eventually looping back up to the Bloor-Danforth line.<\/p>\n

Any thoughts on your town\/city? \u00a0Is it walkable? \u00a0Does it matter?<\/p>\n

Twitterversion::<\/strong> WalkableCity-#Toronto,Transit& CarCulture.Can TO dvelpmnt be shaped,creating vibrant communities sans cars? http:\/\/url.ie\/1zuk #ThickCulture @Prof_K<\/a><\/p>\n

Song::<\/strong> Come To Milton Keynes – The Style Council<\/a><\/p>\n

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Crossposted on Rhizomicomm In 1959, my Chicagoan parents visited Toronto, Ontario and the city left little impression upon them. \u00a0Architecturally nondescript, it was seen as an unfortunate product of postwar growth in an uninspired age. \u00a0I remembered this and when I was driving from Montr\u00e9al to Los Angeles in 1992, I didn’t even stop to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1627,1628,1629,1633,1634,1632,1630,1626,1631],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-automobiles","tag-city-planning","tag-come-to-milton-keynes","tag-jane-jacobs","tag-mary-soderstrom","tag-spadina-expressway","tag-the-style-council","tag-toronto","tag-ttc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}