By Julian Heller
Great cities have great parks. New York. London. Paris. Toronto?
In my opinion the recent debate about tearing down a short stretch of the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto missed the point entirely.
While traffic on the portion in question from Jarvis Street to the DVP has very low numbers of vehicles, and the time for travel will only be slightly affected, hardly anyone talked about the great possibilities which could be realized, for the benefit of generations to come.
Commuters from northwest Toronto would almost never actually use that stretch of roadway so what should citizens be asking for?
Like Downsview Park, an historic opportunity to create a linear park from the Don River to the Humber River where the ugly elevated Gardiner now stands, would give all of Toronto a world-class park connecting the city to Lake Ontario.
Montreal built a tunnel for a highway right under downtown many years ago. That city has also built subways year after year. It, of course, has the park on top of Mount Royal. Never mind the Leafs-Habs “rivalry” – this is about city-building.
There are several long standing design ideas for Toronto’s solution which have been floating around since the 1990’s, but no one has had the courage to make it happen.
Here’s how in 4 steps:
1.Build a tunnel under the Lake, or drop a pre-cast tunnel on the lake bed to accommodate vehicle traffic from Park Lawn to the DVP.
2.Once the tunnel is ready to take the traffic flow, demolish the Gardiner.
3. Open excavate a subway line to extend the downtown relief line westward along the path of the Gardiner.
4. Put a park on top. This would be at ground level.
The cost? Priceless. A gem for the ages, many construction jobs, and a much needed subway.
As they say in the hockey world, “Get’er Done!”
What would you like to see happen with
the Gardiner
Expressway?
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info@downsviewadvocate.ca