Musings —05.07.2020 10:10 AM
—Sidewalk Blab
Developing Quayside wasn’t the bad idea. The bad idea was handing over all the profit and control to people who lived on the Upper West Side and flew in periodically to talk down to those of us in the colonies.
Great opportunity, here, for truly Canadian laborers, developers and thinkers. They need to seize it.
Put it all under Catherine McKenna. She’s the Infrastructure Minister.
Then SNC Lavalin could build it. The National Capital Commission could provide project management. The people who supervised and built the Phoenix pay system could provide the IT systems.
Electricity could come from a wind farm situated out in the lake, and solar panels on the buildings.
Maybe the Quayside should be developed the other way. Maybe a place for peace, quiet and reflection and a refuge from the raging storm of technology? Or maybe a Drive In:)
This is really good news. Google was trying to pull a fast one here. It was a land grab & data grab dressed up in the language of benevolence and progressiveness. Good riddance.
Always read the “Terms of Service” before clicking “Accept.” Turns out the Toronto progressives/urban planners/Jane Jacobs’ worshipers did and found them rather wanting.
This was for the best.
There are a lot of good people at Sidewalk and Waterfront Toronto, but the city was losing too much and assuming too much risk in partnering with a monolithic, multinational tech company with a terrible history of privacy and censorship.
We know how to build great communities and parks without Silicon Valley. Look at the Regent Park redevelopment, the David Crombie St. Lawrence neighbourhood, the Waterfront Music Garden or the new parkland around Ontario Place as examples.