Imagine a Toronto where people travel by river and bus and RV to spend part of their vacations. A Toronto with a bustling downtown, an active water-front in the summer and which is known as a destination for all sorts of sportsmen and history buffs and romantics year round. This Toronto is a place where our children not only want to stay to raise their own families, but which also is attractive to "new blood."
What would it take to make this Toronto a reality? Better schools? Increased job opportunities? More choices in leisure activities? Well, I believe all of this is possible with a simple adjustment in some outdated attitudes.
Toronto has been playing it safe for years, and where has it gotten us? We are losing job opportunities, losing population, and losing time to turn things around. If we don't change things quickly, we will have to consolidate school systems soon, and possibly lose our status as a bonefide city. According to the most recent census, Toronto barely qualifies as a city as it is. By 2010, at the current rate of attrition, we will be downgraded to a village after the next head-count.
So how do we fix this? Obviously no single step is going to turn things around. It will be a complicated process, and it will require the involvement and cooperation of government, businesses, civic groups and the population in general. But it does have to start somewhere, and I think the best place is with a grass-roots movement to create a larger and more user-friendly downtown commons area.
Twice now an effort has been initiated to build a park unifying the gazebo commons with the WWI Soldiers and Sailors monument. The proposed park would close-off a little-used segment of Market Street, and would make the commons area more accessible to foot traffic. Both times this idea was suggested in the past, it was given no serious consideration by the powers-that-be in the city building, and it died unceremoniously. I think it is time to try a different approach.
I believe that a petition should be circulated demanding that the park idea be placed on the ballot for the public to decide. Then a media blitz demonstrating public support and corporate sponsorship should be launched to create interest in the project. This is how they built the Milsop, and there is no reason we can't do it here in Toronto as well.
Once the park is built, cross-promotion of the historic landmarks of our town, our strategic location for fishermen, water sports and hunters, our beautiful downtown and our wonderful eating establishments could quickly increase tourist traffic, and begin the revitalization of Toronto for ourselves and our posterity.
In my next installment, I'll explain how the objections to the park can be overcome with simple logic and quiet reasoning.
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8 comments:
What about all the money Toronto wastes on its police chief and fire chief. The last time their contracts were up, News 9 said they were demanding (and got) something like 80 and 90 thousand a year.
WHY? We dont really have a crime problem, and its not like Mosti does anything. And how many fires do we have in a year? And go to a fire sometimes, all the paid staff sit back at the truck and coordinate. Its the volunteers that are risking their lives inside the building. This may not always be the case... but it is (at least for the most part) at the fires I've been too over the years.
Could these positions not be filled by people, while still qualified, are willing to work for less. If both positions were paid 60,000 a year (a nice chunk of change for a small town position)then the city could save 50,000 a year. Thats alot of cash that could be put to much better use.
I'd be very interested in knowing how their salaries compare to that of Steubenville, Weirton, Wintersville, East Liverpool. How about in comparison to Pittsburgh and larger cities.
And, I do believe that you must live within city limits to be a policeman. Its no secret that many of them do not live in town.
Why were these things allowed to happen? Why have then been allowed since.
my comment to jd. if you are going to write something make sure you get it right before you look like a dum ass. some of these officer and the firemen have a contract to live out of the city. it is not like they live in steub or east liverpool. all ways do your home work.
To the second anonymous commenter, I didnt write the remarks in the first reply. They were also posted (like your remark) by an anonymous commenter. Do you see the irony in stating that you should always have your facts straight?
I SEE A LAIR TRYING TO GET OUT OF THIS. IF YOU DIDN'T POST THIS THE FIRST TIME THEN WHO DID. I KNOW, YOU DO NOT KNOW, RIGHT. THAT'S WHAT THEY ALL SAY. AND BE SURE I HAVE BEEN DOING MY HOME WORK. THAT'S WHY IAM READING YOUR SO CALL COMMENTS.
Okay, I'll play along and pretend that your comments are not completely unfounded and idiotic even though they clearly are.
How can I prove that an ANONYMOUS poster is unknown to me? Well, for starters, YOU are an anonymous poster, and while you know who I am, I have no idea who you are as you cowardly hide behind your "right" to anonymity to make baseless accusations against me impugning my character by calling me a "lair." By the way, Batman's cave was a lair, I think you meant to call me a liar.
Now, the next question is, can I prove that I didn't post the comments? Well, lets look at what we do know. For starters, we know that I administer the site. This means that I can place posts directly in the body of the site on the homepage itself. And we know there is a site meter on the site which tells me how many people view multiple pages. It turns out to be very few do, so not many people ever see these comments. Why then would I choose to place a comment anonymously on my own website in a little viewed subsection of the site? If I wanted to say the things in the anonymous post, I could do so easily right there on the front page for all to see. Moreover, the posts come with a time stamp. The first anonymous post was placed at 9:47 PM on April 11. I can swear, and several witnesses can verify that I was working my regular job at that time from 3 pm to 11 that night. I had no access to a computer to make the post.
But getting back to that site meter I mentioned. By cross referencing the posts with the information in the site meter, we can ALL see that the poster of the first comment most likely used Ameritech.net as their ISP. I use AT&T.
We can also see that the accuser uses a fixed IP 63.238.153.# and that he/she spent 41 and a half minutes on the site examining 18 pages on a site that has no where near that number of unique pages before posting his/her poorly written libelous mis-spelled screed, thank you very much. I rest my case.
By the way, I should note that the time stamps on my site are set to central time because that was the default setting provided by blogger. Sorry I didn't change it, but I hadn't expected to have to debunk some lurker's crazed conspiracy theories. If any of you feel the need to verify my facts, remember to account for the time differential.
Yeah, it's pretty sad that someone attacks police and firemen anonymously on a candidate's blog. It's even more pathetic that someone thinks you had anything to do with it, when you obviously take so much time to think your positions out, and your posts are so well-written.
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