The other view of the Airport
The island airport has been there since 1939. Anyone who purchased or rented property after 1939 and is now annoyed by airport noise has no right to complain. This leaves probably less than a dozen island residents who are in the noise footprint and have inherited their homes from ancestors who owned them prior to 1939. These people alone may have some claim against the port authority.
47% of the land now occupied by the airport was fill dredged from the harbour bottom and never existed before the airport was there. Another 8% was private homes/cottages and never accessible to the public. While the destruction of the stadium robbed the city of a significant piece of architecture, the deed is done and it can not be brought back. The even more significant Maple Leaf stadium at Bathurst and Lakeshore which replaced it was also razed and condos now stand on its location. The amusement park was simply relocated to Centre Island where it continues to exist to this day.
Toronto's waterfront was designed and reclaimed from the harbour as industrial land - the condos are the blight on this landscape. One of the finest harbours on the lakes is being wasted with residential development while the yuppies who live there import their manufactured products from China and drive the Canadian economy into the sewer. The ultimate scum of the earth would be someone who lives at harbourfront and regularly drives a car - I do have some mercy for those who choose to live here for its proximity to downtown and walk or use public transit to get where they are going. If all parking were eliminated from harbourfront, I might be willing to tolerate the condos, in spite of the prime commercial real estate they sit on.
The City Centre Airport is simply the last of the original entities which has not yet been driven out of the waterfront. I would not support major expansion of runways - I'm not suggesting that large jets should be allowed to land there - that's what Pearson is for. Just aircraft comparable in size to those which the airport was designed for 70 years ago. Q400's (made in Toronto) certainly fall into this category.
signed "Make Toronto Work"
47% of the land now occupied by the airport was fill dredged from the harbour bottom and never existed before the airport was there. Another 8% was private homes/cottages and never accessible to the public. While the destruction of the stadium robbed the city of a significant piece of architecture, the deed is done and it can not be brought back. The even more significant Maple Leaf stadium at Bathurst and Lakeshore which replaced it was also razed and condos now stand on its location. The amusement park was simply relocated to Centre Island where it continues to exist to this day.
Toronto's waterfront was designed and reclaimed from the harbour as industrial land - the condos are the blight on this landscape. One of the finest harbours on the lakes is being wasted with residential development while the yuppies who live there import their manufactured products from China and drive the Canadian economy into the sewer. The ultimate scum of the earth would be someone who lives at harbourfront and regularly drives a car - I do have some mercy for those who choose to live here for its proximity to downtown and walk or use public transit to get where they are going. If all parking were eliminated from harbourfront, I might be willing to tolerate the condos, in spite of the prime commercial real estate they sit on.
The City Centre Airport is simply the last of the original entities which has not yet been driven out of the waterfront. I would not support major expansion of runways - I'm not suggesting that large jets should be allowed to land there - that's what Pearson is for. Just aircraft comparable in size to those which the airport was designed for 70 years ago. Q400's (made in Toronto) certainly fall into this category.
signed "Make Toronto Work"
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