Waterfront Update

The NFTA says that it's officially selected the massive Lakefront Devlopment Group's proposal as its preferred project, and has authorized the NFTA to negotiate a Memorandum of Intent.

As I've posted before, I think that the NFTA is making a mistake by going with this massive project that is heavily laden with public money, and which might do more harm than good to downtown itself.

What's even more glaring is that nowhere in the NFTA's press release (or on its website, for that matter), is there any indication that plans are afoot to extend Metro Rail to whatever new project goes up on the Outer Waterfront.

Let me be blunt - any project for the Outer Harbor that is completely reliant on car and bus traffic, and does not include a Metro Rail extension, is doomed to failure. It just is.

If I lived in that new community and commuted to downtown, I don't want to have to DRIVE and jockey for parking downtown (or, much less, pay for a monthly spot).

And since the NFTA is taking the lead on this, you'd think that our local mass transit authority would recognize the desireability and importance of extending our Metro Rail to the Outer Harbor. Instead, we get nary a peep.

I hope I'm wrong, and I hope that the NFTA and the developers know exactly what they're doing. But I'm afraid they're trying to build a horrible mix of Amherst and the Toronto Waterfront downtown. In other words - they want all the massive, towering construction of the Toronto Waterfront with all the suburban sprawl and generic feel of Amherst. (Amherst - the town without a downtown).

What I'm afraid of is that the Outer Harbor will become like the Inner Harbor/Erie Basin Marina: an insulated and insular cluster of high-priced condos with no neighborhood whatsoever.

They call it Waterfront Village. When's the last time you saw a village without so much as a coffee shop or convenience store?