Lamenting loss of innovative Quayside project

Re Toronto allowed Sidewalk Labs soil to be poisoned, Cohn, May 9

The exit of Sidewalk Labs is a missed opportunity to be sure.

Toronto likes its pilot projects and this was a pilot project writ larger than most. Among its many ambitions was the climate-friendly use of mass wood structures and with an overall form that was not another wall of towers. That was something to look forward to.

And yet, far too many locals came out with metaphorical pitchforks and torches and ran them out of town.

They talked as if Sidewalk labs was about to take over the city, subjecting the population to a digital servitude while siphoning off our identities to that global hegemon, with a name out of “Brave New World” — Alphabet.

I’m disappointed in my fellow Torontonians that simple curiosity could not trump their fears. In fact, Sidewalk Labs was to develop only a tiny fraction of Toronto, and on its periphery.

I was eager to see what new ways of thinking, given relatively free reign, could do, by introducing a host of new technologies and fresh ideas about city building, all in a manageable, contained space.

If somehow the result is impossibly unacceptable, then pull the plug. Meanwhile, if you were in fear of your data being put to nefarious purposes by Alphabet, then just don’t go there. Simple as that.

Canada is in danger of being seen as a graveyard for great ambitions. Ken Straiton, Toronto

Re Sidewalk Labs quits Quayside project, May 8

There are likely two basic reasons why Google-Sidewalk Labs walked.

The first is that, as a vast private company with a vast hard-to-fully-penetrate set of proposals, they encountered, and, eventually, weren’t up to, an unexpected and very tough accountability test with Waterfront Toronto and with Toronto’s governance structure more generally.

That may be valid but is likely the lesser reason. The second and greater reason may have simply been the realestate market prospects for Quayside at this point.

The uncertainties of the coronavirus may not have been as crushing to Sidewalk Labs as the fact that huge density is already being built in the east waterfront vicinity.

Even in normal times, if the competition is fierce, with other new development well ahead of it, a given development has to await its turn.

The latest predicted wait time, especially when affordable housing is a key component, may have simply been too long for Google on the Toronto Waterfront.

Let’s hope Toronto can pick up the pieces and now do another, hopefully largely wood-built, version of the St. Lawrence community. Dale Taylor, Richmond Hill

What sort of distorted sense of righteousness leads Julie Beddoes of #BlockSidewalk to rejoice at the loss of good jobs and development due to Sidewalk Labs pulling out of Toronto?

Jobs are jobs, whether they come from big tech or little tech. I would take my chances with big tech as a developer over the shoddy development we have in much of Toronto.

The really sad thing is that the withdrawal of Sidewalk Labs is the canary in the mine pointing to demise of the Toronto economy.

Why express joy as companies such as Google withdraw from Toronto s future? Jobs seem less important than sticking it to Google. Tony De Carlo, Toronto