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Toronto Star: Councillor calls for all the facts ahead of delayed transit reports
September 18th, 2015
Jennifer Pagliaro
The Toronto Star
A city councillor is requesting “accurate, reliable information” from staff on the Scarborough subway and other transit projects when they return to council for debate.
But just when those projects will be back on the table is now in question, with the necessary planning work behind the scenes delaying reports for what could be several months.
After controversy over whether council’s narrow decision to build a Scarborough subway was justified in the first place, Councillor Josh Matlow asks — in a letter to chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat — that this time, the public will be given all the facts.
Matlow, who argued against a subway in favour of a seven-stop light-rail line already fully funded by the province, pointed to a fluctuating ridership number in a report used to justify the subway plan championed by then-mayor Rob Ford.
Newstalk 1010: City staff to report on offering free Wi-Fi in city parks, TCHC
Toronto's Economic Development committee has voted unanimously to have city staff re-visit the idea of offering free Wi-Fi at city parks, civic squares and for interested Business Improvement Areas. Staff will also examine free Wi-Fi for the more 164,000 tenants of Toronto Community Housing.
Toronto currently offers free Wi-Fi at city libraries and is in the process of rolling it out at all TTC stations in 2017.
Councillor Josh Matlow is convinced that a more widespread free Wi-Fi program is possible by forging public-private partnerships.
Toronto Star: Speed limits on Toronto streets reduced starting today
September 14th, 2015
Robin Levinson King
Toronto Star
Slow down — starting today, speed limits on 387 kilometres of local city roads will be reduced to 30 km/hr.
The speed limit will be reduced from 40 km/hr to 30 km/hr on local roads within the Toronto and East York community council districts.
The change of pace was championed by Ward 22 councillor Josh Matlow and passed community council in June. A city report suggested it could help make streets safer, but also that changing the signs could cost $1.1 million.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Matlow said. Matlow said research makes it clear that reducing speed limits save lives, because if a pedestrian is hit by a car at a lower speed they are much more likely to survive.
CTV News: Speed limits to be reduced to 30 km/h on some Toronto streets
September 14, 2015
Kendra Mangione
CTV News
Speed limits will be reduced from 40 km/h to 30 on residential roads in East York and downtown Toronto, starting with Ward 22 this week.
Coun. Josh Matlow, the representative for Ward 22 St. Paul's, told reporters Monday that 40 km/h signs will be replaced by 30 km/h signs starting in his ward.
Ward 22 is bordered by Eglinton and Broadway Avenues in the north, Spadina Road to the west, Macpherson Avenue and Southvale Drive to the south and Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue to the east.
The new signs will then be rolled out across the rest of the affected areas over the next year. The changes will affect 387 kilometres of Toronto roads in 12 wards, and will cost the city approximately $1 million. Limits in York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough will not be affected.
The speed reduction was unanimously approved by the Toronto and East York Community Council in June, but was proposed more than a year ago by Matlow.
South Bayview Bulldog: Meeting hears of streetscape masterplan for Mt. Pleasant
September 2nd, 2015
The South Bayview Bulldog
A public meeting Wednesday night heard that the Mt. Pleasant Village BIA is intent on creating a “streetscape masterplan” for the business district from Davisville to Eglinton Aves. Three members of a private planning firm, PUBLIC WORK, spoke of their ideas so far and solicited the thoughts of merchants and residents at the auditorium in the Briton House building at 720 Mt. Pleasant. The planners, Adam Nicklin, Marc Ryan and Lauren Abrahams, took turns describing the natural attributes of the street and how they might be brought closer together and amplified to make the street even more attractive. As you will note below in the remarks of Ms. Abrahams, the width (or narrowness) of sidewalks and traffic lanes were recurring subjects. Mt. Pleasant is a four lane route (two north, two south) with additional flow permitted by rush hour no-parking rules. This is thanks to the 1948 planning vision to speed cars from downtown to the midtown neighborhoods of Lawrence Park and beyond.
The Toronto Star: Tory, Wynne dig in on Scarborough subway despite money and ridership concerns
July 22, 2015
The Toronto Star
Jennifer Pagliaro
Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) are digging in on plans to build the Scarborough subway, despite growing concern about a lack of evidence to justify the $3.56-billion plan.
The leaders’ unwavering support as they stood side by side at a Queen’s Park news conference Wednesday morning, has drawn criticism that the subway plan — which will cost at least $2 billion more than the light-rail alternative — is a political gambit not based on sound planning policy.
“My support for this was predicated on the notion that I think people want to see us move ahead and actually do something,” Tory said after meeting with Wynne to discuss various city issues.
When asked whether the public can be confident when earlier justification for the subway was based on analysis deemed “problematic” by the city’s top planner, Tory said all three governments have already made their decision — one he called “carefully considered.”
