City Building

For many Canadians, political advocacy starts at home, almost literally. Issues that impact on our neighbourhoods, parks and schools are the ones we are most likely to engage in. I recently wrote the essay below for my local community paper, the Bloor West Villager, on the future of Toronto's western waterfront.

Our western waterfront – a beautiful area that can be improved

Residents of Swansea and its surrounding neighbourhoods are fortunate to live so close to one of Toronto’s most spectacular natural locations – our western waterfront. Access to one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes, its connecting beaches and bordering parks is a recreational and social treasure.

Walk through the area on any summer weekend and you quickly appreciate how both the city’s natural and physical beauty (particularly when observing the skyline from the magnificent Humber Bridge) is being enjoyed by families representing every segment of multicultural Toronto.

But unfortunately, we are too easily distracted from these pleasant moments by small but maddening problems that inflict our waterfront neighbourhood.

Let’s start with accessing the waterfront. There are only three access points from north of the waterfront (there could have been four, but the City chose to maintain the elevated ramps at the South Kingsway/The Queensway interchange, eliminating the potential for a new direct path to the waterfront). The access points we do have all take us under the Gardiner Expressway and CN rail line. There is not much we can do about that in the near term, but we could make the journey for anyone not in a car far more pleasant. We could, for example, widen the narrow sidewalks and make the tunnel-like corridors we are forced to walk through more pleasant by adding lights and creating murals that depict the waterfront area we are traveling to.

Once we emerge from the tunnels to the north side of the Lakeshore, we must adhere to a traffic signal system that so clearly favours automobiles that an Olympic sprinter could not easily get across to the waterfront side with just one signal cycle. To make matters more interesting, pedestrians and cyclists crossing the Lakeshore must huddle together on narrow curb space and dodge vehicles traveling well over the posted speed limit or making rolling, red light, right hand turns. Clearly improvements to the signal system, curb side waiting area and much stricter traffic enforcement is necessary. Increasing greater direct public transit access to the area should also be considered.

Upon arrival at the park or boardwalk, visitors are often forced to engage in a most unpleasant game of dodge the geese feces. This aesthetic blight is also a health hazard for children and pets alike, contributes to the pollution of our lake and severely restricts everyone’s ability to fully enjoy the waterfront. Incredibly, it gets worse every year. Yet humane solutions exist to discourage so many geese from calling this part of Toronto’s waterfront home – the city of Barrie for example, employs an enthusiastic dog to chase away geese – and must be pursued.

Finally, specific facilities to enhance everyone’s enjoyment of this neighbourhood treasure are sadly lacking. Washrooms must be better maintained. Clearer guidelines on pedestrian and cyclist pathways to inform new visitors are needed. More plaques and information stations to educate visitors to the waterfront on its natural and social history would be welcome. And additional spots to relax with a cold beverage and nice meal other than the current greasy spoon open only in summer may attract even more people to the waterfront.

The City is currently in the process of creating a Master Plan for the Western Waterfront and to be fair, there have been public consultations on the topic. But immediate, affordable improvements are both possible and necessary. All it takes is greater public support and political leadership. This is our waterfront – let’s make it as great as it can be!