海角社区官网

The ideal time to study significant improvements to how people get to the crown jewel of Toronto’s park system was probably 20 years ago or more 鈥� as the city started crowding the harbour area with highrise homes, and the cattle pens of the ferry dock terminal started overcrowding, and the replacement of the ancient ferries themselves became inevitable. That would have been the time to look into this, if you had a lick of foresight.聽

But no one has ever accused 海角社区官网city council of having a lick of foresight.

Consider that through the debate at city council Wednesday, even as we await the arrival two years from now of new ferries we needed a decade ago, everyone was making a big fuss about a massive improvement we can expect this summer: shade. Mayor Olivia Chow mentioned shade. Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik mentioned shade. The city staff member who seemed to be heading up ferry terminal improvements mentioned shade.

For decades, on summer afternoons, thousands of people have been crammed into the ferry terminal to burn in the direct sun. Someone finally realized you could provide them a measure of relief by erecting structures that cast shadows.

This is what passes here for exciting innovation.聽

Don’t get me wrong, shade is good. It’s just that it shouldn’t have taken years of suffering and complaining to realize it.聽

But then you should have seen the reaction of some city council veterans to the proposal that a task force look closely at options for a fixed link 鈥� a bridge or a tunnel or a gondola, perhaps 鈥� so we would have some idea what would be involved in building one if we eventually want to.聽

Coun. Paula Fletcher, who has served on council since 2003, appeared absolutely livid, shouting at bureaucrats about the potential size of the footing that would be needed for a 250-metre bridge. She was incensed that no one could answer questions about technical obstacles she supposed to be insurmountable, though the very occasion of her asking the questions was a motion to have a task force that would study exactly those details.聽

Then there was Coun. Mike Colle, who began his career as a municipal politician in 1982, and who seemed certain he smelled trouble with a capital “T” and that stands for Task Force. He strained the bounds of coherence with a rant about how even contemplating such questions amounted to some techno-dystopian plan to transform the islands into a futuristic “Coney Island.” He recalled Babe Ruth hitting a home run on Hanlan’s Point, and wondered if gangster Paulie Walnuts would get involved, or maybe Elon Musk, to turn the park into something out of “The聽Jetsons.” “Leave the damn thing alone,” he said. “Give up your gondola dreams.”

These long-serving politicians could have, at some point in their decades of public service, been a part of evolving the ferry service in a way that meant no one saw a problem to which a fixed link was a possible solution. But they and their colleagues did not do that. And here we are.聽

You can see how so many ideas take so long to implement in Toronto. At the first mention of looking into things that work elsewhere, veteran councillors shout “that’s impossible!” How dare you suggest even studying it? Bike lanes would take away needed parking, transit priority routes would snarl traffic, triplexes would destroy neighbourhood character, car sharing programs would ruin residential permit systems 鈥� Always there’s this belligerent unwillingness to imagine that anything could be done differently from how it has always been done.聽

It was left to some newer councillors to ask that we keep an open mind. “I understand Councillor Fletcher’s concern that we go into this eyes wide open,” said Coun. Rachel Chernos Lin, who’s been in office only since November, “but I also think we have to be imaginative and open to creativity about the city.”聽

To be clear: the proposal here isn’t to drop everything and build a bridge. It is to work on and study a series of moves in the short, medium and long term. The rallying cry here isn’t necessarily for a fixed link, it’s just to consider a fixed link if necessary.

It may prove unfeasible, or unnecessary, or undesirable. But we’ll know because we will have looked into it rather than angrily waving the very idea away. The motion passed. The task force will be struck.聽

Maybe it should have been done it a lot earlier. But in a city where providing shade is trumpeted as a noteworthy innovation, it’s progress.聽