City now enlightened with Gardiner scheme

Obstacles and opportunities — sometimes the difference exists only in the eye of the beholder. The Gardiner Expressway, long viewed as a great urban scar inflicted on Toronto by a car-obsessed generation 60 years ago, suddenly finds itself the object of growing civic desire.

A wildly ambitious, innovative, even revolutionary scheme unveiled earlier this week proposes turning the land beneath the western stretch of the Gardiner into a 1.75-kilometre multi-purpose linear extension of the public realm, an active transportation corridor as well as a place where people walk, skate, bike, shop, watch a play, listen to a concert.

It goes without saying that this is Toronto at its most enlightened; the fact costs will be covered by an unprecedented $25-million donation from Wilmot and Judy Matthews makes it even more so.

On the other hand, one can’t help but wonder whether the truly enlightened city wouldn’t have torn down the Gardiner? Opening up the space beneath, however appealing, leaves intact an infrastructural relic that casts a swath of downtown into permanent shadow and separates Toronto from its waterfront.

For many Torontonians, though, the Gardiner Expressway is simply a necessary evil, tolerated by a community unable to overcome its dependence on the car.

Still, the proponents were understandably excited. “This is a game-changer,” declared planner and design team leader Ken Greenberg, who calls it “the unexpected gift of the Gardiner.”

He and the collaborators, landscape architectural firm Public Work, envision the stretch beneath the expressway from Strachan to Spadina as a series of hubs connected by bike and pedestrian paths. This portion of the Gardiner is five storeys tall; that means a bit more breathing room than at the lower east end of the expressway, which many, including Greenberg, hope will soon be torn down.

Just as remarkable, perhaps, is the city’s enthusiastic response to the scheme; rather than offer the familiar excuses for inaction, municipal officials reinvented the process. Instead of giving us the usual reasons why the idea was doomed to failure, the city came at it from the opposite perspective, figuring out what it needed to do to get the project done in a timely and efficient manner.

The Matthews’ only conditions were that Under Gardiner, as it’s called, be completed by 2017 and that the city agree to maintain it. Failure to do so meant the deal was off.

Moving at such speed isn’t easy for a city whose natural pace is glacial, preglobal-warming glacial.

But Mayor John Tory leaned on staff and, supported by local councillors, “moved mountains.”

Those involved call it a learning experience. “This will be a model for how we carry out city projects,” says deputy city manager John Livey.

Another good sign is the involvement of Waterfront Toronto. The agency, which oversees the revitalization of the harbour lands, will execute the plan. As CEO John Campbell rightly noted, “It affirms not just what we’ve done, but how we’ve done it.”

Then, of course, there’s the intriguing matter of how the Matthews’ great gift has changed and expanded the nature of philanthropy.

In 1995, the couple gave $1 million to the University of Toronto to remake St. George St., but that didn’t match the scope of this donation.

The notion of giving private money for the public realm outside the confines of universities, hospitals and cultural institutions is relatively new in Toronto. We have yet to see whether it will gain currency, but chances are good; after all, 70,000 people inhabit the area along this length of the Gardiner.

Many occupy tiny apartments and must look to the city to provide the things they lack at home: space, company and room to live.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca