The west local gap and rights of access to the waterfront

The west local gap at Parkdale

This author has had the opportunity to walk west and then back again from St Josephs hospital in the past months quite a bit. What really struck during the walks was the what the blog is naming the west local gap – the west ends  portion of a problem that extends across the city.  The gap of continuity of place and neighborhood the Gardiner expressway and the QEW  as well as the Lakeshore Rd create between the west commnities and the waterfront.

The view above taken from the hospitals front is right across from one of the west waterfronts most beautiful areas. To arrive at this area one must walk almost three blocks east past the TTC yards to Queen St – cross to reach a pedestrian bridge, or walk about 4 blocks to the west and cross at 2 sets of lights traveling south.

Should these roads be moved underground?  Yes it would cost but the benefits would out weigh  the cost.

6 Comments

Ahhh the walk will do ya some good… This is like saying that every street should have an overpass over the 401. Random issue…

We might as well bury this infrastructure through our central areas. Let central Europe be the inspiration: even small towns like St. Gallen, Switzerland have buried highways through central areas. Here, even the biggest and most prominent city can't get anything buried.

Why look as far as Europe? Downtown Montreal is a perfect example, though I think the price tag attached to a project of this magnitude would make most politicians leery of supporting it.

I agree, Montreal in many ways is ahead of us in urban planning. Central Europe is just much more inspirational because they're ahead of all of Canada in virtually every regard of urban planning and design.

Ultimately, it comes down to leadership. Curiously, Montreal didn't have a subway line until 1966, but they've built more since then than we have, with more attractive and unique stations.

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