Empowerment 2.0

With transit fare hikes being a hot topic in the city this fourth quarter, Torontonians are finding new ways to express their ideas and discontents. The benefits of social media seem to be measured by the amount of action TTC Chair Adam Giambrone's Facebook page receives daily - where thousands of Toronto residents have access to him directly voice their concern on the City's biggest service.

This online forum allows for real-time conversations and provides anonymity to citizens to voice their concerns. It is even able to attract those who are not politically inclined to participate and to do so in the comfort of their homes, expanding on the idea of the public forum by creating a digital one. Traditional forms of capacity building and the empowerment are done in a new way, addressing concerns with the goals of facilitating change in their communities.

Use of social networking around the world (courtesy of Weboptium)

I had a chance to speak with Mr. Giambrone - when he wasn't busy wearing TTC Chair or Ward 18 Councillor hats - about this new form of communication for the City and if it is a useful forum for him to inform decisions. As he is active in posting and responding, and with the public participation being there, he simply declared, "It works for me."

Not all Councilors utilize this resource, but think of the change it would bring to the political process for the city, and any metropolitan area for that matter. It would be a responsible move to react to these changes but even Giambrone questions, "I don't know how many councillors will respond."

It would be beneficial for a politician to have an online presence to interact with their constituents, and equally beneficial for them to participate in the discussions. Although this movement isn't mainstream yet, it proves to be a great forum to voice your opinions and add to the discussions happening within your city.

I challenge you to find your local politicians on Facebook and Twitter. If you can't, then bug them to get connected! With life moving at a 21st century pace, it should be part of their job description.

Toronto wins 2015 Pan Am Games

What are the Pan Am Games you ask? Well, it's known as somewhat of a prequalifier for the Olympics held every four years, the year before the big Games. Participants from the Americas and Caribbean compete in multi-sport events. With a history of losing two Olympic Games and two Commonwealth Games, this victory seems bittersweet.

(Courtesy of the CBC)

The Games will bring a $1 billion athletes' village in the West Donlands which includes a component of affordable housing after the games and develop sports infrastructure to the region in the form of a new aquatics centre with two 50-metre pools and a separate diving tank plus a high-performance sports training facility at the U of T's Scarborough campus. This will contribute to the health of our residents and to Toronto's identity as a city with world class facilities.

The Games will surely be good for tourism and potential public transit advances but will it cost us money or make us money?

Whatever happens post-2015, Toronto's vision of the future is grand.

Ontario's Top 20 Worst Roads

Driving down Steeles Avenue east from my girlfriend's place reminded me to post this link from CAA's website released last week. The list of the Province's worst roads include eight in found in Toronto alone, topped by my route home today.

Toronto is planning a $10 million resurfacing of Steeles Avenue pending the approval of Federal infrastructure stimulus funding. A hefty $139 million of Toronto's annual budget goes towards road repairs, but they have been suffering from a $300 million roadwork backlog.

This is what it costs to make Toronto's roads drivable (courtesy of The Star):

• $25 Average cost to repair one pothole
  
• 275,000 Potholes fixed by the city in 2008
  
• $6 million Cost of pothole repairs annually in Toronto
  
• $7,000-$10,000 Annual cost of preventative patching, routing and sealing 1 km of new four-lane road
  
• $110,000 Cost of applying new overlay to the same stretch (year 15, or earlier if the preventative work has been neglected)
  
• $650,000 Cost of full reconstruction of road (year 20 if neglected; year 40 otherwise)

The cold, unforgiving Canadian winter is coming and these conditions will surely get worse. This doesn't look good, Toronto.

Sheldon Levy on The Agenda

"... As we build the university, we have a responsibility to our neighbourhood."

Ryerson University President, Sheldon Levy shares his energetic plans and discusses the University's relationship to the City and its surrounding community.

The Toll Debate continues...

"...this is Toronto, don't forget, and ideas like road tolls can mean only one thing – a 'war on the car.'"

As the congestion problem persists in the GTA, attention towards tolling Toronto roads has been addressed again. This solution has been seen as a success in other cities but will it work for Toronto streets?

The Star's Christopher Hume discusses...

PublicART: Watertable

Saw this in the Globe and Mail yesterday but didn't get around to posting it.

Photo: Ryan Enn Hughes for The Globe and Mail

Watertable is a new media sculpture that uses the architecture of the Gardiner Expressway to echo the natural condition of the site when it marked the water’s edge in the early days of the city’s history.

Winners of the 2005 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak developed Watertable as part of an International open competition held in 2007.

Watertable is a lighting and audio installation that will create the look and sound of moving water: undulating LED lights accompanied by the sound of lake waves will respond to current wind conditions at the site. This will be the first new media artwork in the City of Toronto’s permanent Public Art Collection.

Watertable was unvieled on October 21st, 2009 and not only creates a landmark underneath the cold ruins of the Gardiner, but also connects the city with the waterfront. It isn't in a very human-scale (see above photo) but for a space like this, if it wasn't larger than life, then the space would lose its atmospheric essence for even those in cars passing by.

For a site which has had the reputation to be relatively grey and dominated by the automobile, this is a step in the right direction for all the underutilized public space found beneath the Gardiner. Let's hope this trend continues.