TheBulletin.ca Journal of Downtown Toronto
The purpose of this memo is to outline the reasons why I believe the Quay to the City promenade concept will be a mistake for the City of Toronto. As well I have concerns about some of the other elements of the Quay to the City design that will adversely affect residents and visitors.
My understanding is that the Quay to the City promenade concept will entail shutting down the 2 whole south lanes on Queen’s Quay permanently (running from Spadina to York) and turning them into a bicycle/walking path. My understanding is that the winning West 8 Design also entails putting a 3 acre lily pad area with docks to the south of Harbourfront – this will be shaped as a maple leaf.
I am worried that if the Quay to the City goes ahead as planned our land values at Harbourfront will fall drastically and that many of the businesses will be forced to close down.
As background, I am a native Torontonian, having lived here all my life. Most of life was spent in mid town Toronto but for the last 8 years I have lived at Harbourfront and love it.
As a resident and owner at 99 Harbour Square I was shocked to hear at the Annual General Meeting of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation that the experiment in August was a “success”.
The statistics quoted at the meeting were that only 40 % of the residents thought the experiment a success. Tourists might have liked the idea (70% of tourists apparently liked the concept) but tourists are not stakeholders and most tourists like to be positive about cities they are visiting.
Survey
There is also an issue of how the survey was conducted. My building property manager was apparently given the survey but it was not passed out to the residents. A postal mail drop would have been the responsible way to get input for a design change of this magnitude. All residents, both owners and renters should have had a real opportunity to give their feedback.
Friends who live in neighbouring buildings of 33 Harbour Square and 65 Harbour Square also did not know of the survey. It strikes me that a corporation such as the TWRC would be able to arrange a postal drop to the buildings with minimal expense.
Most of the people I know were NOT in favour of the concept despite the fact that most of them are cyclists and sailors and do take transit when they can. And only one of the people I spoke to was given the opportunity to fill out a survey. But in any case, of those who did, we did here from the TWRC that only 40% were in favour. This fact was interestingly mentioned and glossed over quickly at the Annual General Meeting of the TWRC.
Traffic
It was indicated that a Traffic Study was done. I did see a traffic study being performed around the date of Friday August 4th at 5 pm on the furthest Easterly area of Queen’s Quay. We saw the sign “Traffic Study” on the car. Why wasn’t it done in the central waterfront where the lanes will be closed? Many cars do not make it to the intersection of Queens Quay and Parliament.
Also, this study was done before the experiment. Did anyone do a study during to see how horrendous the traffic became?
The web cams on the study showing the traffic on the TWRC web site were only facing one way which was east. They did not face west where all of the congestion was or go up to the Lakeshore where the congestion was
Over 20,000 people live on Queen’s Quay. Despite all the press talking about the terrible waterfront, people do enjoy living here and many enjoy visiting as well. Many of them do take public transit and some ride bicycles but most own cars as well. Just check out the parking lots in the high rise condos on Queen’s Quay – they are all full. Just from observation, I notice a lot more bicycles on St George Street near U of T then I notice on Queen’s Quay – both in the summer and especially in the winter.
Also, traffic was not only horrible on Queen’s Quay during that period but it was horrible on Lake Shore Blvd as well. It took me over one hour to travel from 460 Queen’s Quay to 99 Harbour Square on the final Friday of the experiment and I did drive on Lake Shore. Because of the LRT lines in the centre of Queen’s Quay, it is a difficult street at the best of times. I remain unconvinced that even the best city planner will be able to work out the details so the traffic issues are resolved.
An interesting comment made by the winning Landscape Architect for Quay to the City was that he does not believe there should be cars allowed within 3 kilometres of the waterfront! He is from Holland where their practices are significantly different. With more than 20,000 people living on the Waterfront and many businesses, the area would suffer huge decay if cars were not allowed. Also, please note that many of the residents are owners of their own homes because the area east of Bathurst has NO apartments – they are all condominiums. In 99 Harbour Square, for example, they range in price from around $200,000 for a bachelor apartment to almost $1,000,000 for a renovated 1,900 square foot unit with a balcony or terrace and view. In 33 and 65 Harbour Square, there are units in excess of $ 1.5 Million.
My overall feeling is that by shutting down the two lanes the city will be cutting down access to professionals who otherwise may have wanted to live on the waterfront. This will ultimately drive down property values.
Dangerous
Obviously it was recognized that closing the lanes for bikes and walking was dangerous as well. It appeared that over 100 police officers were employed during the experiment. They were needed badly – how will this need be alleviated when the implementation is done? If they are not employed it will be very dangerous. Also, cyclists in Toronto are not used to stopping at stop signs, especially on a bike route and this was demonstrated during the experiment.
Businesses
I have discussed the Quay to the City concept with a few of the businesses including the owners of York Quay Fine Foods. They indicated they were asked to attend a meeting with other businesses by the TWRC and that ALL OF THE BUSINESSES attending were against implementation of the two lane closures based on the experiment.
First of all, many of the residents stop their cars on the street for 3 minutes to pop into the stores. With only one lane in each direction this will be impossible. And deliveries – how will they be handled?
In addition, businesses are having a hard enough time down at Harbourfront as it is. I noticed another store going out of business – Time -2 Run at the Radisson Hotel. Although it is a store for runners, even they want a place to park and there is little cheap parking down at that end of Queen’s Quay.
Bicycle/Walking Path
I agree there is a definite need for a bicycle path between Yonge Street and Spadina. I am an avid cyclist as well and often cycle down to the Etobicoke waterfront in the summer. However, there must be another way, such as a regular bicycle lane, to make it safer for cyclists and less congested for cars. On the north side of Queen’s Quay is a very wide sidewalk. Perhaps part of this could be turned into a bicycle path?
With respect to the planned closing of the 2 south lanes on Queen’s Quay, I am not convinced many pedestrians will use this path. Why would you walk on this path when you could be on a boardwalk along the water’s edge? When I walk anywhere in Harbourfront I almost always walk to the various boardwalks so I can see the water. The work completed in June 2005 has improved the boardwalk but why wasn’t a bike path part of the overall plan at that point?
When tourists come down to the Harbourfront, they are not going to be drawn to walk on the “Quay to the City Path”. They came to harbourfront to look at the water and that is where they want to go. During the experiment Muskoka Chairs were put out in front of the Queen’s Quay terminal building and other areas of the boardwalk. They were always filled so this was probably the best idea of all. However, I do question where the chairs went? Hopefully they are stored where they can easily be brought out again.
This land will be wasted in the winter
This closing of the two lanes will be a complete waste in the winter. The number of cyclists in the winter at Harbourfront is very minimal and walkers will not use it in the winter.
Therefore this will be a huge waste of real estate which may get used by some cyclists in the summer. I honestly do not think it will attract any more people down to Queen’s Quay. In fact, I think it will discourage them from coming down due to the horribly congested traffic.
3 ACRE PARK IN THE SHAPE OF A MAPLE LEAF
Sounds wonderful with all of the lily pads on the water with boat slips in them but: my understanding is that boat slips are not hard to get in the city and these ones may not get snapped up like the TWRC envisions. In addition, people who boat usually like to have their car close at hand for provisioning unless they are going to, for example Toronto Island. The yacht clubs there are full. However, there are many, many, empty slips at Toronto Island Marina. I have many friends who sail large sail boats and the comments made were:
– How are they going to get to shore from the lily pad?
– Water Taxi? This will be way too inconvenient and expensive.
– Is there security?
– What about all of the water traffic such as the party boats, police boats etc. and boats heading over to the western gap? It is hard enough to have to avoid the airport.
– What about the sail boat races? Queen’s Quay Yachting will be adversely affected by a 3 acre maple leaf.
– Is there going to be a clubhouse for the boaters? Why would they not put their boat in an inexpensive alternative where they can meet other people such as Alexandria Yacht Club or the Island Marina? Or will this end up being a docking place for existing boat owners who currently keep their boats elsewhere?
– Toronto Harbour can also get very, very rough with huge whitecaps. There will be very little protection of boats if they are either in a slip off of the boardwalk or in a slip in a maple leaf. Boats could suffer damage and anyone who is used to boating in the Harbour will be very well aware of this.
Boat Slips Will Be Blocking The View
In addition, I see in the plan that boat slips are all along the beautiful unobstructed view of the water and island that the tourists and residents currently enjoy. The plan appears to propose to put them all along the water edge so our view will be blocked when we take `a walk along the Harbourfront Park between Number One York Quay and the Ferry Docks. Why block the view? If you haven’t been down to the little parks in front of the Harbour Square buildings, it should be a plan to go and enjoy the fantastic unobstructed views.
Conflict of Interest
I have heard that no one on the board is a resident owner at Harbourfront because it is a conflict of interest.
However, most boards of major Corporations have STAKEHOLDERS so having a long term resident and owner living in the area would be an excellent idea. The reason is they know what is going on in the day to day activities and can sometimes better foresee the large effects of small decisions.
Thank you for listening to my concerns.
Heather Macnaughton 99 Harbour Sq.
