Update

After finally retrieving my username & password from Blogger, this blog is up and running again.

A year after my last post, the pace of development continues unabated. We now have a couple of new plazas at Appleby Line & Dundas - one with a Winners store, and the other with a Starbucks. Has anyone tried walking to these places? I did so last year, at the risk of death from truck exhaust and careless commuters driving over 100km/h down the Appleby Freeway. A Swiss Chalet is going up in the empty lot beside Rona, and the condos at the corner of Appleby and Upper Middle are almost finished.

Kudos to the landscapers for this condo complex. The buildings and their grounds look good, and adds value to the community. The parking lot is hidden in the central area, and the sides presented to the street are attractive and have great scale. It's obvious that the developers here live in the area, or were at least concerned about those who have to look at it.

Apart from this, despite the best intentions of the planners and politicians who created the blueprint for the community, everything else that gets built once again favours the driver. It will be impossible to transition this area to a pedestrian and transit oriented community if we continue to develop everything in a way that caters first to the driver, and to the pedestrian or transit user as a secondary afterthought.

I can choose about 7 different places to get a car wash, but why do they have to make it so difficult to go out for a walk and get a Guniness? When I picture the ideal suburban lifestyle, I see something like on Coronation Street, where everyone works practically across the street from their home, and the pub is the center of activity. Of course, a Corrie style flat in Toronto would easily go for a couple of million.

One way you can instantly tell a GTA resident - talk to them about commuting. It's the instant conversation starter. An hour commute from Burlington to Toronto every day is actually about average for most folks who work downtown. Since low density living spaces in the core are completely unaffordable, the choice is between density and distance, and witht he cheap oil economy, distance always seems easier. Despite the recent easing of gas prices, I don't expect it to stay easy for long. Rob MacIssac - as new head of the GTTA (Greater Toronto Transit Authority), you've got a tough job ahead of you. All these people who rely on the automobile will have to be moved to their jobs somehow. The roads have already burst beyond capacity, and there's no point building new ones, because there's no land available near the major destination points in the city.

Another thought - I reallize that Minit-Lube's and the like are necessary, but what's with the massive parking lot & gaudy signage beside the new Jiffy Lube/World's Largest Car Wash place on Appleby? I guess as a community we have the aesthetics that we deserve - those of NASCAR. You could probably fit a race track right there in the parking lot. Talk about waste of precious land.