[Admiral Beez]

How are they supposed to pick up riders?

That’s called problem transference. Someone wants to be dropped off or picked up, and in their mind there is no where that is both legal and convenient, so they transfer their problem to the rest of us, blocking traffic as a result. The best way to avoid problem transference is to ask yourself, what impact are my choices having on others. If I am late for work (my problem) because of traffic or just poor personal planning, then my colleagues must then pickup the slack, transferring my problem to them. A more pertinent example: say your business needs to shred a lot of documents but you don’t have a large size shredder on site (problem), so you hire a mobile shredding truck that blocks a lane of rush hour traffic outside your office, thus offloading the problem to everyone else.

 

[guavadelic]

Toronto could be looking at other large cities around the world for models as most larger cities struggle with this same problem. London is one. Paris another. UT keeps touching on these problems in various threads, and there are solutions, but the political action needs to match the political rhetoric, and the pol;itial action needs backbone. One good example would be the recent and ongoing six plex discussion (and council vote) and the strong mayor powers that the mayor of toronto refuses to use to enact reforms that would benefit those at lower income levels who live (or wish to live) and work in the city.

Agreed. Even though many large cities share the problem of housing affordability, most of them use their residential land more efficiently than Toronto. Until recently, around 70 per cent of Toronto’s residential land was zoned only for detached single-family homes whereas most global cities with larger populations allow denser housing in majority of their residential land.
Recent zoning reforms should help but still a long way to go.

 

[Towered]

That’s called problem transference. Someone wants to be dropped off or picked up, and in their mind there is no where that is both legal and convenient, so they transfer their problem to the rest of us, blocking traffic as a result. The best way to avoid problem transference is to ask yourself, what impact are my choices having on others. If I am late for work (my problem) because of traffic or just poor personal planning, then my colleagues must then pickup the slack, transferring my problem to them. A more pertinent example: say your business needs to shred a lot of documents but you don’t have a large size shredder on site (problem), so you hire a mobile shredding truck that blocks a lane of rush hour traffic outside your office, thus offloading the problem to everyone else.

If a rider is dumb or entitled enough to request a pick up at say, Yonge and Bloor, where there is no place for a driver to stop without blocking a lane of traffic or a bike lane, that's on the rider.

So what's the solution to these scenarios?

 

[Admiral Beez]

If a rider is dumb or entitled enough to request a pick up at say, Yonge and Bloor, where there is no place for a driver to stop without blocking a lane of traffic or a bike lane, that's on the rider.

So what's the solution to these scenarios?

I often drive westbound from Mount Pleasant along St. Clair to Spadina, and often find cars or trucks illegally stopped on St. Clair just past Young. I’ve called and emailed traffic services and 311 asking that they enforce this location. But so far, no joy. As for the solution? If it’s a commercial vehicle, it should be immediately clamped, and then towed by the city, with the vehicle and any contents being seized and auctioned by the government. Provincial law would need to be amended. Private vehicles can get a few chances.

 

[txlseries4]

I often drive westbound from Mount Pleasant along St. Clair to Spadina, and often find cars or trucks illegally stopped on St. Clair just past Young. I’ve called and emailed traffic services and 311 asking that they enforce this location. But so far, no joy. As for the solution? If it’s a commercial vehicle, it should be immediately clamped, and then towed by the city, with the vehicle and any contents being seized and auctioned by the government. Provincial law would need to be amended. Private vehicles can get a few chances.

Contact TPS Parking Enforcement instead, they're the ones who ticket and tow. You can submit a report online: https://www.tps.ca/services/online-reporting/parking-complaint/
or call to report parking: 416-808-6600

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Contact TPS Parking Enforcement instead, they're the ones who ticket and tow. You can submit a report online: https://www.tps.ca/services/online-reporting/parking-complaint/
or call to report parking: 416-808-6600

Which means that they will come the next work day to enforce it, or the following week.

 

[just east of the creek]

Agreed. Even though many large cities share the problem of housing affordability, most of them use their residential land more efficiently than Toronto. Until recently, around 70 per cent of Toronto’s residential land was zoned only for detached single-family homes whereas most global cities with larger populations allow denser housing in majority of their residential land.
Recent zoning reforms should help but still a long way to go.

I am sure automatic rezoning of all back split and side split properties would make a measurable change in that stat. Bring on the bulldozers!

 

[txlseries4]

Which means that they will come the next work day to enforce it, or the following week.

Not true. I frequently report illegal parking when I'm out walking and on my way back home see tickets on windshields. Sometimes they don't get to it for several hours, or the driver has moved their car, but TPS often does take immediate action.

 

[PurplePinky]

I am sure automatic rezoning of all back split and side split properties would make a measurable change in that stat. Bring on the bulldozers!

There are not many back splits and side splits in Mayor Olivia Chows’ Toronto.

Hold back those bulldozers!

 

[txlseries4]

This might be just as good in the Toronto Parks thread, but I'm seeing calls on the Mayor to make this a priority for the year ahead and parks revitalization could be a big win going into next year's election for her.

Toronto Parks Need a Reboot - Spacing Toronto

Recent Auditor General reports exposed deep-rooted inefficiencies and systemic issues in Toronto’s Parks & Recreation (P&R) Division. Despite these challenges, P&R is staffed by many dedicated public servants who understand the problems facing Toronto’s parks and work tirelessly to address them...

spacing.ca

There's plenty more in the article but here's an excerpt:

"Toronto has over 1,500 parks, many built decades ago, often without a designer on record, and they no longer meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve. For example, many parks are predominantly comprised of single-purpose sports fields that are rarely used. Can these public assets do more?

While the “Recreation” arm of the division remains robust, parks today extend far beyond leisure and sport; they are a form of critical urban infrastructure with overlapping benefits. Parks mitigate climate risks (heat, pollution, stormwater), support biodiversity, improve health (physical and mental), and boost economic vitality; yet they’re treated as expendable.
[...]
As the City searches for a new P&R Director, we have a chance for bold, systemic reform. Here are eight key actions Toronto could adopt:"

Titles of those key actions:
1. Consider Parks as Urban Infrastructure
2. Create Nuanced Park Typologies
3. Strengthen the Design–Maintenance Nexus
4. Place-keeping Acknowledges the Land
5. Parks Are Cultural Assets
6. Create a Vibrant Park Economy
7. Innovative Funding Sources
8. Trust the Experts

The author wraps up the article with this fun mockup

I meant to share this recently but forgot - I saw a meme online and the video it used was of park staff at Champ-de-Mars, next to the Eiffel Tower, moving garbage bins that are used in the park. They're not much better than our unsightly ones, but what struck me was that they're moved by a golf cart -- not a F250 or huge garbage truck in a park. Grass getting ripped up is on the radar of several Councillors and some have moved motions relating to the issue... but change cannot come soon enough imo

 

[Northern Light]

This might be just as good in the Toronto Parks thread, but I'm seeing calls on the Mayor to make this a priority for the year ahead and parks revitalization could be a big win going into next year's election for her.

Toronto Parks Need a Reboot - Spacing Toronto

Recent Auditor General reports exposed deep-rooted inefficiencies and systemic issues in Toronto’s Parks & Recreation (P&R) Division. Despite these challenges, P&R is staffed by many dedicated public servants who understand the problems facing Toronto’s parks and work tirelessly to address them...

spacing.ca

There's plenty more in the article but here's an excerpt:

"Toronto has over 1,500 parks, many built decades ago, often without a designer on record, and they no longer meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve. For example, many parks are predominantly comprised of single-purpose sports fields that are rarely used. Can these public assets do more?

While the “Recreation” arm of the division remains robust, parks today extend far beyond leisure and sport; they are a form of critical urban infrastructure with overlapping benefits. Parks mitigate climate risks (heat, pollution, stormwater), support biodiversity, improve health (physical and mental), and boost economic vitality; yet they’re treated as expendable.
[...]
As the City searches for a new P&R Director, we have a chance for bold, systemic reform. Here are eight key actions Toronto could adopt:"

Titles of those key actions:
1. Consider Parks as Urban Infrastructure
2. Create Nuanced Park Typologies
3. Strengthen the Design–Maintenance Nexus
4. Place-keeping Acknowledges the Land
5. Parks Are Cultural Assets
6. Create a Vibrant Park Economy
7. Innovative Funding Sources
8. Trust the Experts

The author wraps up the article with this fun mockup
View attachment 671949

I meant to share this recently but forgot - I saw a meme online and the video it used was of park staff at Champ-de-Mars, next to the Eiffel Tower, moving garbage bins that are used in the park. They're not much better than our unsightly ones, but what struck me was that they're moved by a golf cart -- not a F250 or huge garbage truck in a park. Grass getting ripped up is on the radar of several Councillors and some have moved motions relating to the issue... but change cannot come soon enough imo
View attachment 671948

There's certainly no question about the need to re-boot parks.

But I have to say, the author's suggestions are almost entirely off-puttingly dumb.

Lots of bureaucratic nonsense (shift the department to a different deputy City Manager, spend a year or more thinking about reclassifying parks types, add a lens or tag line to thought processes)

Utter trash.

There is certainly a need for a changing of the proverbial guard, but this is simply get the top person right and give them wide latitude and budget to rid the department of dead weight.

There is a need for less process, and less engagement. These are used as fig leaves to avoid accountability for decisions or to avoid making decisions entirely. They also contribute to over-programming; we must do something for everyone, in every single park. Jamming that into 5 acres is impossible, but jamming it into 1/2 an acre is farcical.

I have written much on the subject of a more ideal organizational structure for Parks, and all the past reorgs that have generally made matters worse. But aside from hiring the correct leader..........I wouldn't get tied up w/that.

****

The assertion about under-used sports fields is generally incorrect, there are certainly some isolated examples. But for the most part, every sport, mens and womens is short of space. Teams either can't find space or not anywhere near their home area.

True for hockey, true for soccer, true for baseball too, and cricket. We're also short on tennis courts and there's other un-met demand.

If you focus on repurposing what we have, we won't build more.

****

We need better every day upkeep, more washrooms and attractive waste receptacles.

We need better design of new/overhauled parks.

We need a minimum size for most parks of 0.4ha (1 acre) and a strong preference to creating larger spaces. You need 1ha to hold a soccer pitch and nothing else, you need more than 2ha to hold a baseball diamond.

Toronto should consider areas short of parks in an absolute sense, but also facility shortages based on wait lists.

It should then prioritize delivering 10 new or expanded table land (non ravine) parks over 10 years with every expansion delivering a minimum one net new major facility. The overall goal should be to add 15 major facilities minimum.

The City should also seek to complete ravine and waterfront park systems.

In combination, the goal should be to deliver no less than 80ha or 200 acres of net new park over 10 years. Double that would be preferred, but is likely unrealistic in cost.

 

[Towered]

I've been whining about this for quite a while. There are a number of parks, particularly in Etobicoke, that have huge areas of empty grass that have absolutely no discernible purpose and thus are never used. We need to use some of that dead, useless space to build infrastructure that gives people a reason to actually go there and do something.

 

[DSCToronto]

The reason we have the 'wheelie bins' in Parks is because the City decided that ALL garbage would be collected by Solid Waste Management and they mainly have large trucks and do not want their staff to be injured lifting heavy bins so the bins need to be able to be lifted mechanically. When PFR emptied their own bins I think they lined them with plastic bags so they could avoid lifting the actual bins but this is not a standard SWM procedure. While this all makes sense if you only look through a SWM lens it is stupid if you look at it through a PFR lens (well, they ought to want to protect their parks!) or an aesthetic one. If SWM are to continue to be charged with collecting Parks bins then they need to buy the right equipment and look at their procedures!

 

[Northern Light]

I've been whining about this for quite a while. There are a number of parks, particularly in Etobicoke, that have huge areas of empty grass that have absolutely no discernible purpose and thus are never used. We need to use some of that dead, useless space to build infrastructure that gives people a reason to actually go there and do something.

Let me know which parks you're thinking of.........

I don't necessarily have a sense of what residents in those areas would want or wait lists, but I can tell you what would fit; then you can talk to the neighbours and lobby for a preferred use.

****

You did get me looking at I see some candidates for a more thorough takedown.over in the Problematic Park Design thread......

This:

Is what we're passing off as a playground? - Princess Margaret Park

Aerial Pic:

Buttonwood Park looks really under utilized too.

There must be a non-Kipling entrance but I'm struggling to see it. I'd be fine w/this as a natural space with a trail through it, maybe a few picnic tables............but people have to be able to access it.

 

[Towered]

Let me know which parks you're thinking of.........

I don't necessarily have a sense of what residents in those areas would want or wait lists, but I can tell you what would fit; then you can talking to the neighbours and lobby for a preferred use.

****

You did get me looking at I see some candidates for a more thorough takedown.over in the Problematic Park Design thread......

This:

View attachment 671953

Is what we're passing off as a playground? - Princess Margaret Park

Aerial Pic:

View attachment 671954

Buttonwood Park looks really under utilized too.

There must be a non-Kipling entrance but I'm struggling to see it. I'd be fine w/this as a natural space with a trail through it, maybe a few picnic tables............but people have to be able to access it.

I'm very familiar with this park - there's a small access point near the top right corner of the picture between the houses from Sir William's Lane. The grassy area is actually a decent sized hill that's popular for sledding in winter. The wooded area is cool to wander through (there are of course makeshift huts constructed with branches for local teens to hang out), but yes, that area near Kipling with a single swing set from the 70's is an absolute joke. There isn't much space to play with there, but surely something much better could be built. It actually makes me angry every time I see it that our past politicians thought that was good enough. It's like something that'd be acceptable in a place like Russia.