Requiem for a bridge

The Globe and Mail:

The proposed Fort York Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge would have provided the key to overcoming these barriers facilitating essential east-west and north south links with enormous potential benefits, not least of which speak to the economic health of the city.

A City Council that claims to be sensitive to spending taxpayers’ monies wisely might have considered the potential return on investment in forging this vital link:

– This bridge would have added great value and paid dividends many times over as it attracted and accelerated reinvestment in this large area producing jobs, business opportunities and increased tax revenues.

– Public green spaces add value. The bridge would have connected the neighbourhoods along the railway corridors to the 41 acres of existing open space at in the Fort York National Historic Site and served at least 20,000 new residents.

– It would have substantially increased visitation to a unique set of sites bringing in significant tourist dollars.

– It would have given people in existing and new neighbourhoods an opportunity to use other means that their private automobiles to get around contributing to convenience and health, and most importantly relieving pressure on the already overcrowded roads, making it easier to accommodate new growth.

– And having Waterfront Toronto build the bridge from its budget would have allowed the costs to be shared among three levels of government in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812.

Continue reading here.