The once and future Port Lands

Years from now, once the dust has settled, it will be clear that the Battle of the Port Lands was but a single skirmish in a larger war over the future of Toronto.

The fight has been raging since last summer, when the rookie councillor from Etobicoke, Doug Ford, mused publicly about the “boondoggle” that is waterfront revitalization and then proposed his own Coney Island vision of the 400-hectare site.

The public hated what it saw, and Ford had to retreat quickly to the suburban slumber from which he emerged, dragging his knuckles after the 2010 election. To help him save face, city council asked Waterfront Toronto for a Port Lands “acceleration” review.

That document is out now, and the public hates it, too. Torontonians made that clear once again at a public meeting held Tuesday evening. Their question was simple: What’s the rush?

Significant amounts of parkland and green space are the obvious casualties of the “accelerated” plan. To most, this seems too high a price to pay to speed up a process that can’t be hurried.

Yes, there might be a few “quick starts” here and there, but inevitably one comes up against the facts of life on the Port Lands: that it occupies the Don River’s flood plain, that the soil is contaminated, that infrastructure will cost more than $2.5 billion and the private sector won’t be footing the bill.

Then there are the niceties of city-building, as practised by Waterfront Toronto, of public consultation and design excellence.

Ford, of course, prefers to work behind closed doors with his good buddies at the Toronto Port Lands Company, the last vestige of the now disbanded Toronto Economic Development Corp. Its job is essentially to administer TEDCO’S remaining leases and look after its unfinished business.

But Ford has used the TPLC as his Trojan horse, a means to wrest control of the Port Lands away from Waterfront Toronto and sell it off at great profit. In Ford’s hands, the Port Lands would become Toronto’s answer to the proverbial swampland in Florida, worthless real estate to be unloaded on the gullible and greedy.

That’s what the fighting is about: Whether to put the city’s future up for sale now or wait patiently until time and conditions are right. Excellence or expediency? That is the issue.

Given the recent outcry, it seems Torontonians prefer the former. And so far, Waterfront Toronto has delivered. Its high-profile projects — Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common, Don River Park, the Wavedecks, Underpass Park — are all of the highest quality. And each in its way has contributed mightily to the revitalization process.

These amenities have been a decade in the making; progress happens slowly. But keep in mind that several billions of dollars worth of building is also underway. Without these projects, that would not have happened.

In Ford’s eyes, the city is no more than a collection of assets, and the time has come to sell them off. At a time of public impoverishment, many agree, the sooner the better.

On the other hand, these assets, properly managed, will grow in value. Land now vacant and polluted will eventually have sustainable housing for 100,000 and state-ofthe-art workplaces for 40,000.

For the time being, though, the Port Lands are an abstract vision that hovers on the fringes of the collective consciousness. Like the future, just as that vision comes into focus it recedes from view. Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca