Today I came across the following tweet by Brad Tabke. (Brad is the mayor of Shakopee, Minnesota.)
@clmarohn’s version of hell from the top of the Memphis pyramid. pic.twitter.com/XLd5hlNY1I
— Brad Tabke, Mayor (@MayorTabke) May 7, 2015
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On the left of the image is downtown Memphis. On the right is the Mississippi River. And in the middle is, well, a bunch of elevated highways.
It’s a powerful image regardless of where you happen to be from. But if you’re from Toronto, you might know why I’m posting it today.
Today is my 32nd birthday. It felt like a beautiful summer day here in Toronto and so I mostly took the day off from anything too serious.
At 1:00pm though, I did participate in a Jane’s Walk taking place right around the corner from me. As part of that, I spoke briefly about why I think Toronto should remove the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway and replace it with a surface boulevard.
Given what the other speakers had to say and given some of what I heard at the event, this is definitely not a universal position. In fact, one person commended me on taking a “courageous stance.”
A number of people seemed to support Quadrangle Architect’s Green Ribbon proposal and/or the notion that, whatever is done, the Gardiner Expressway must remain in operation.
At the same time, quite a few of the people I spoke to seemed unsure of any position and instead came to the walk simply to learn more about the options. Hopefully by the end of it they were closer to one.
If I have one piece of constructive feedback on the walk it’s that it wasn’t interactive enough. It’s fine to standup and talk for 5 minutes, but it would have been great to also have a discussion and debate. At the very least, I would have liked to see where most people stand. Hopefully you will all share that in the comment section of this post.
I continue to believe that removing the Gardiner East is the right city building decision. But I also respect anyone who is willing to take a firm stance. Toronto City Council has already punted this decision before. It’s now time to make a decision and own it.
This morning I was interviewed for a Montreal-produced TV show called Ports D’Attache. The English version of the show is called “Waterfront Cities of the World” and it airs on Discovery.
Here’s a list of all the cities they’ve visited in the first 4 seasons and here are all the shows from the first 2 seasons in English (which you can watch online for free).
Rather than a travel show, it’s a look at the “spirit and soul” of each waterfront city through the lens of “local personalities.” There’s definitely a lot of fodder for city geeks and so I thought you all might find the series interesting.
Toronto was the last stop of season 5. The other cities from this season include Philadelphia, Budapest, Rome, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur, to name only a few of them.
I’m glad that they decided to come to Toronto and I’m delighted that they invited me to be on the show. The team was great and, if you haven’t already noticed, I love supporting this city.
The show will first be released in French (with my comments dubbed over), but an English version will follow. Once that version is released, I’ll circulate a link.