People have different ideas about proximity and accessibility.
This is true. Some empathy, in both directions is appropriate, to understand the default attitude of those for whom mobility is comparatively easy/low-burden, and likewise, for those who find it a challenge.
There’s the No frills pharmacy in a soon to be disappeared location. But both shoppers are 1km away.
1km isn't all that far, it's 15 minutes walking distance as defined by typical adult walking speed.
Obviously a greater burden if, for whatever reason your gait is slower.
And it’s funny cuz a friend was visiting the distillery last week and overheard someone touring their parents around, telling them “it’s great living here but there’s nothing around us”.
That's a bit of a stretch. If you said, there are relatively few full-line supermarkets close by, or few big box retailers, fair game.
But there's lots of retail in distillery. Lots of restaurants/bars/coffee shops, galleries and even health/medical.
I’ve seen tourists stand at the end of the distillery, on parliament map in hand staring down the street at the Gardiner and decide south wasn’t an option.
Tourists, unfamiliar w/the area, not understanding the map is not a good representation for residents.
Perhaps our maps could be better, and certainly the Gardiner is a an unsightly barrier as arguably the rail corridor is, but both are quite passable in the literal sense.
I can see a parent on the Esplanade sending their 10yo to visit the library in their current location, likely even the COC building. No parent on the Esplande is letting their kid walk up to Queen & Parliament. That’s not a St Lawrence Market library, that’s a Moss Park library.
My mother grew up in the Beaches, when it was not at all swank. She moved to Toronto w/her family at the age of 6 from small town Quebec.........she didn't speak a word of English.
She went to school on Sherbourne, near Wellesley, she travelled by streetcar, by herself, at the age of 6, all the way, transferring at Sherbourne.
****
Ah but that was another era, right?
Except.....I got my house keys at 9, and walked home after school, about 2km........while in grade 4..............and then fed the cats, walked back to the subway, where I boarded, alone, and went downtown to meet my mother for dinner....meeting her in her office (she was a secretary) .......
The next year, at 10, I went to a school 1/2 way across the City, by myself, transiting more than an hour each way.
The idea that 1km is some terrible burden, particularly for those who are able bodied is too much.
I'm happy to humour the idea that this location is imperfect, not ideal, not what you would have chosen, etc.
Fair.....we all have different needs, wants and preferences.
But to suggest that the distance is somehow absurd in general........no.
****
From the corner of Cherry and Mill to the existing library 1.03km
Amusingly, guess the distance from Cherry and Mill to Queen and Parliament.
If you said 1.03km you'd be right.
PS, I didn't know it was identical until I measured.
