[URBAN NOTE] "New Scarborough transit plan ‘buys peace in the land’"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Lucas Oleniuk notes the latest modification of subway planning in Scarborough. This is what happens when mass transit becomes less a way of getting around a city and more a vainglorious badge of civic pride irrespective of, say, actual and likely traffic numbers.

A new proposal for transit in Scarborough is being hailed as defensible planning while brokering a “peace treaty” at city council and with the province.

A one-stop subway extension from the Bloor-Danforth line along McCowan Rd. to Scarborough’s city centre and the addition of a 17-stop LRT that will connect five underserved priority neighbourhoods all within the same $3.56-billion price tag will be officially announced Thursday ahead of executive committee next week.

After the Scarborough subway extension became one of the most polarizing issues at council in recent memory — with former mayor Rob Ford and Scarborough-area politicians arguing residents “deserve” a subway over a seven-stop, $1.48-billion LRT that was fully-funded by the province — council members from both sides agree the new plan is a vast improvement.

“My job here, I believe, is to get the best possible transit answer I can for Scarborough and I think we’ve really made huge strides forward in that regard by getting now both a subway to the centre of Scarborough and the LRT, and to build enough consensus to make sure it happens,” Mayor John Tory told the Star Wednesday.

“It’s going to develop a much broader base of support, it’s going to be much better from a transit perspective, it has the support of the chief planner ... and I think it’s going to be way better for Scarborough.”

The plan acknowledges Scarborough residents needs rapid transit in place of the aging SRT — not only to get downtown, but to get around Scarborough. The new configuration was developed after chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat approached the mayor’s office in October as criticism toward the controversial three-stop subway intensified.