CommunityAIR

Victory: Island Airport Traffic Chaos Constrained

Community Air — Thu, 17 May 2012 06:23:12 GMT

CommunityAIR press release May 16, 2012

A flurry of activity over the past two weeks has resulted in Toronto and East York Community Council yesterday adopting significant measures to address dangerous traffic volumes caused by the expanding Island Airport.

“We’ve won a significant victory. It took the combined resources of angry parents and an impressively‑responsive Toronto District School Board, working closely with Councillor Adam Vaughan and City staff, to force the Toronto Port Authority to take community concerns seriously.” said Brian Iler, Chair, CommunityAIR.

“If the TPA had any willingness to listen to the community’s concerns it would have long ago constrained its aggressive airport expansion until sufficient measures were in place to protect the community. These actions should not have been necessary.”

“The City has limited ability to address that aggressive airport expansion and the TPA`s complete failure to properly plan for ground transportation to and from its airport. It has done all that we could reasonably have hoped for.” he added.

A City safety review of this intersection, tabled at that meeting, confirmed what parents have been worrying about:

pedestrian conflicts with vehicles related to vehicle turning movements at the intersection
taxi drivers queuing through the intersection, blocking pedestrian crosswalks, and performing aggressive manoeuvres such as

northbound right turns on red from the northbound left-turn lane,
running the red/amber light,
U turns, and
northbound and westbound left turns with pedestrians in the crosswalk.
parking for student pickup/drop‑off interfered with the northbound approach to the intersection, forcing through and right-turning traffic into the northbound left-turn lane.

Over the three-year period ending December 31, 2011 there were nine collisions at this intersection. But since April 7 there have been three ‑ a cyclist was struck by a car that day and taken to hospital. On April 23 young woman was struck by a car at Bathurst and Queens Quay. She left in an ambulance. A third accident between two cars occurred just last Friday.

The meeting was told a hundred traffic tickets have been issued in the past month, as Toronto police step up enforcement activities at that intersection.

The Council decided to:

Prohibit northbound left turns from Eireann Quay to Queens Quay West at all times,
Prohibit northbound right turns from Eireann Quay to Queens Quay West when the traffic control signal shows red,
Prohibit eastbound right turns from Queens Quay West to Eireann Quay when the traffic control signal shows red
Modify the pavement markings at the intersection of Queens Quay West and Eireann Quay/Bathurst Street by

installing zebra markings on all four crosswalks,
improving the bicycle lane markings on the westbound approach,
installing any additional guide lines required to assist motorists through the centre of the intersection, and
delineating a new school bus loading zone immediately south of the intersection

Prohibit northbound left turns from Stadium Road to Lake Shore Boulevard West, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays.
Prohibit eastbound right turns from Lake Shore Boulevard West to Stadium Road, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays.
Prohibit heavy trucks at all times on Stadium Road, between Lake Shore Boulevard West and the south end of Stadium Road
Install a red light camera at the Bathurst Street/Queen’s Quay/Eireann Quay intersection
Narrow the Eireann Quay roadway at the south side of the intersection
Create seven short stay parking spaces for parent pick-up and drop-off for the two schools and day care centre at that intersection.

Speed bumps on Eireann Quay, approved for installation in August, 2010, but delayed by threat of legal action from the TPA, are now likely to be installed following a further round of consultation.

Parents and community members continue to stop traffic with banners in that intersection twice daily to protect their children.

Bully Bishop Airport

Community Air — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:40:05 GMT

Bully Bishop Airport strikes again, and again and again. The noise that neighbours hear from the island airport is constant, with more than two hundred flights a day. They're loud, but mercifully, takeoffs and landings only last a few minutes, so the noise from airplane takeoffs and landings is brief.

Louder than takeoffs and landings are engine maintenance run-ups on the ground. The airport blasts roaring engine noises at the neighbourhood from 7 am to midnight, every day of every year, including Saturdays and Sundays. There is no day of rest here.

Toronto Island used to be a waterfront playground for the entire city. Now the airport is turning the central waterfront into an industrial zone, contributing to the decline of quality of life for Harbourfront residents, who are getting sick and tired, from too much noise and air pollution. Airport noise killed Ontario Place and now it's destroying the Music Garden.

The island airport was originally a temporary war measure. One could ask whose bright idea it was to keep an airport on former public parkland, and then let the airport expand beyond its borders, pushing people out of its way, and bullying an entire neighbourhood.

It's worse than that though, for the island airport is a financial problem for the whole city, and the entire country is contributing to the purchase of Porter planes. Who knows why?

We could ask a few questions. ie. Why is a private company, financed by federal money, being given a monopoly lease on the most valuable land in the City of Toronto, when the federal Port Authority doesn't even pay its city taxes? Plus, we might also ask why a port authority manager earns more than the mayor. Maybe there's no answer for that.

Amid the intrigues and legal arguments around the island airport, people sit in the Music Garden and look at Toronto Island longingly, wishing the airport would go away, so we can get back to enjoying Toronto Island as the city's favourite public playground.

But the airport never goes away, and business is expanding. Someday this successful little airline's owners might sell shares to the public and make half a billion dollars profit, before selling controlling shares to American Airlines, and leaving the country forever.

The dream of Toronto Island as a public park dies when it becomes a multi-millionaires' private club, controlled by foreign investors. Does anyone care what the public is losing? Welcome to Toronto Waterfront but be warned, some areas may be closed to the public.

Still, the airport land lease is coming up for renewal in 2033, and anything can happen.

www.harbourfrontcommunity.info

Missing Approvals Impede TPA Airport Tunnel Project

Community Air — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:23:21 GMT

Community AIR Press Release May 4, 2012:

A host of missing approvals is impeding the construction of the Toronto Port Authority’s pedestrian tunnel to the Island Airport.

Missing are:

· Exemption from the City’s noise bylaw. The tunnel’s construction plan requires two shifts per day, but that requires an exemption. The power to grant the exemption is discretionary, and lies with local City Councillor Adam Vaughan. He has indicated very clearly that the community that elected him has spoken and does not want the exemption to be granted. He will honour those wishes.

· Site plan approval for the replacement taxi staging and parking area. Community Council has now twice deferred its decision, citing the need for more reports, and the absence of any meaningful consultation with the community on this project.

· Zoning approval for the planned concrete batching plant. The plant, intended to supply concrete for the tunnel was intended for land leased by the TPA from the City adjacent to the tunnel site. It is zoned G, but I2 zoning is required for such a plant, Toronto and East York Community Council was told on April 17. City officials confirmed to that Council that no application has yet been made for such approval.

· An Environmental Assessment for the batching plant. Although an environmental assessment was conducted for the tunnel it contained no mention of the batching plant. Under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Canada Port Authority Environmental Assessment Regulations, the batching plant is a project that requires such an assessment.

“Either the TPA was so inept that it just dropped the ball on these approvals, or it just presumed the City – and the community it impacts – would oblige. Either way, it is clear that PCL, the tunnel’s contractor, is not impressed.” said Brian Iler, chair, CommunityAIR. “Will the taxpayers be on the hook again, if extra costs on this tunnel are incurred because the TPA dropped the ball – or thought it could just push these approvals through?”

The TPA, a federal government agency, is used to getting its way. It has:

· ignored parents’ pleas to fix the Island Airport traffic chaos that seriously jeopardizes the safety of children crossing the only access road to the Airport terminal

· avoided paying, to the end of 2010, $49M worth of property taxes to the City, as confirmed by City officials at the March 20 Community Council meeting

· ignored legal constraints that limit the commercial use of the Island Airport to “limited STOL service” – the Q400 is not STOL, and its commercial operation now eclipses non‑commercial uses

· delivered a misleading document to the US government that it relied upon to grant Porter permission to fly to US airports

· extracted $48M from the City in a dubious lawsuit for land transferred from one public agency (the TPA’s predecessor) to another (the City’s economic development agency)

· secured $35M compensation from the federal government for its cancelling the proposed Island Airport bridge, calculated on an assumption that without a bridge, commercial flights would decline to 120 from 167 per day. There are now 202 commercial. flights

The tunnel’s cost has escalated from an initially‑estimated $20M to, now, $82.5M.

An exchange with Transport Canada

Community Air — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:19:03 GMT

Dear Robbi Jordan:

> Thank you for your reply to my Billy Bishop City Centre Airport
> question re Safety. In case you have any other requests, you should be
> aware that the site address has changed. It is now
> http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/regserv/cars/part6-menu-2441.htm.
> After navigating through this site for almost two hours, I found that
> some information dated back to 1995 era and a Consulting with
> Canadians requested feedback by July 2010. I realize that the
> voluminous file is difficult to update, but somehow, somewhere, I
> should be able to find an answer to questions like "at what level does
> commercial passenger airport traffic proximity prove a potential
> hazard to large urban development?" or "does the pilot have the
> ultimate responsibility for diverting from regular path if sudden extreme weather presents?"
>
> When my office was in the Star building some years ago, I frequently
> walked along the waterfront to the Terminal Building, (not yet
> Harbourfront), had lunch at the Amsterdam cafe and watched flying
> lessons taking place at the Island Airport. It was always a pleasant interlude.
> However, over the past few years, the little airport which was never
> meant to have heavy traffic, has developed into a waterfront
> Frankenstein. I remember the SOAS in the 80's saying that the
> unprofitable airport's future was doubtful because jets would never be
> permitted and intensive development was planned along the waterfront.
> I now believe that with the extreme pressure from the TPA (an "arm's
> length autonomous" agent of the government to facilitate Porter's
> business, even to the point of having protective legislation removed,
> that anything could happen. Porter might want jets and the Transport
> Ministry might expropriate long-existing Toronto Island homes to
> create longer runways. Since the legislation preventing a fixed link
> to the Airport was removed, I no longer have any faith whatsoever in government protection.
>
> Now we have Harbourfront, condos, many businesses, along with
> innumerable high-rise condos just north of Queen's Quay.
> To me, increased air traffic poses safety problems. Even one plane
> off-course and crashing could cause unbelievable loss of life. An
> expanded airport is the wrong business in the wrong location.
>
> I hope that you realize that I am Toronto-born, have always loved the
> waterfront, even when unimproved, and have genuine apprehension about
> the future not only of the communities there, but of the
> irreplaceable, precious green oasis of the Toronto Islands. Thank you
> for having read this. I am convinced that if there were large public
> meetings, Toronto citizens would turn down both tunnel and airport
> expansion, as they always have.
>
> Shirley Bush

> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: Your question to Transport Canada regarding Safety at Billy
> Bishop City Centre Airport, Toronto

Dear Ms. Bush:
>
> Thank you for expressing your concerns regarding the Billy Bishop
> Toronto City Airport. Transport Canada is responsible for
> transportation policies and programs. It ensures that air, marine,
> road and rail transportation are safe, secure, efficient and
> environmentally responsible. Aviation in Canada is regulated by
> Transport Canada under the authority of the Aeronautics Act and the
> Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs). The CARs are available to the
> public at the following
> website:http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/regserv/cars/menu.htm
>
> The CARs pertaining to general operation and flight rules are at:
> http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/Regserv/Affairs/cars/Part6/menu.htm
>
> It is the responsibility of the pilot of an aircraft to ensure that
> each take-off and landing is conducted in a safe manner given existing
> environmental conditions and in accordance with the CARs. We have not
> received concerns from pilots operating at Billy Bishop Toronto City
> Airport.
>
> I hope this has addressed your concern.

Regards,
> Robbi Jordan
> Communications Manager/gestionnaire de communications Civil
> Aviation/l'Aviation civile Ontario Region/Région de l'Ontario
> Transport Canada/Transports Canada

No plan to deal with traffic insanity

Community Air — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:49:03 GMT

The people living near the island airport, growing in numbers as new condos rise, are suffering from the total lack of planning by the federal government`s Dept of Transport on the mainland for access to and egress from this downtown airport. The bottleneck is between Lakeshore and the Western Gap which intersects Queens Quay west right at the point of access to the community`s centre and the Waterfront Schools. It is simply too late to make Bathurst wider between Lakeshore and Queens Quay west at this point, and yet the federal government`s agency, the TPA persist in bulldozing this pet project through the community. Everything they do to develop the commercial use of the airport makes the traffic congestion steadily worse, and its already become unsafe. Within the last month a bicyclist and a pedestrian have been hit by vehicles drooping off or picking up airline passengers.

Airline personnel and passengers, and lurking taxis and limos, occupy the few parking spots on the community`s streets, so that visitors of those who live in the precinct can only visit by taxi or by the TTC. The parking and congestion will be worse when summer arrives.

Anyone looking at the roads leading to the island airport would conclude that an offsite passenger pickup and drop off depot is the only answer to airport operations expansion, but nothing has been done to arrange such strategically located, essential infrastructure. Instead, almost $100 million will be spent to effectively increase the traffic to and from the island airport, without planning to do anything to alleviate the traffic on the ground.

This significant insanity seems as ungrounded a plan as the F35 acquisitions. We in the community understand the TPA are this month to announce further insane measures to develop its airport, which is despoiling the harbour of Canada`s Greatest Great Lakes City for the sake of a temporary convenience factor for downtown office workers and great inconvenience to the millions visiting the Harbourfront precinct for recreational and cultural purposes and those many thousands who live within the precinct.

If a passenger study were conducted, it would find that most passengers using this airport are downtown Torontonians spending travel dollars in other cities serviced by this airport, so almost a billion dollars of federal taxpayer funds is being spent to drive Canadian dollars held by the private sector away from the GTA, rather than to the GTA, and some from Toronto to NYC, Chicago, Boston and so on. What was the sense of that?

A waterfront resident

A small victory: Police now support parents protecting children from airport traffic

Community Air — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:31:13 GMT

CommunityAIR press release, May 2, 2012

For the third week, parents and community supporters have twice daily assisted the crossing guard at the intersection of Bathurst and Queen’s Quay by holding banners to obstruct taxis and other Island Airport traffic that endanger their children as they cross this chaotic intersection to and from school.

After several unsympathetic encounters with police, we’re pleased to advise that the police attitude has changed entirely.

Kathryn Exner, a parent at Waterfront School, reports:

I thought that since I wrote about incidents at the intersection involving police "unpleasantness" last week during our banner initiative, I would write to update on what's been happening for the past three mornings.

Starting this past Monday, we've had the same officer come to our corner for the morning shift. And in contrast to the police who came last week, this fellow has been friendly, respectful, and so far supportive. We've received no reprimands for how we're handling our banners with the traffic and he told me that he's in favour of what we're doing.

Jackie (the Chair of the Waterfront School Parent Council) asked him several questions about his presence. He said he's been asked by his sergeant to be at the intersection every morning, not because of what we're doing but because of the dangerous traffic situations plaguing the intersection.

And since actions speak louder than words, I'm quite pleased to report that he ticketed three drivers in the last two days for infractions--one was a taxi who received a $181.00 fine for making a left-hand turn through the intersection on a red.

So it seems that at least for now, we've finally got the police presence at the intersection that we've been asking for, and not because of the Toronto Port Authority, but though our actions.

Not sure how long this will last but it seems a positive development.

CBC report: "Too Much Traffic"

Community Air — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:09:36 GMT

CBC News reports on the steps residents and Waterfront School parents are taking to counter the traffic chaos generated by the Island Airport. You can watch it online at this link:

Link to this page at CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=2228007039

Residents protest increased traffic at island airport

Community Air — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:46:08 GMT

From CBC News: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/04/27/toronto-airport-protest.html

Some people who live near Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport say they're fed up with all the traffic they have to deal with on a daily basis.

The airport is located on the Toronto islands, just south of downtown Toronto.

The residents say the taxi traffic is out of control and crossing the streets in the neighbourhood is getting more and more dangerous.

On Friday some parents joined the local crossing guard and held up a banner, which in turn held up traffic.

Kathy Exner, one of the protesters who has a child at the local daycare, explained that the congestion is making it dangerous for everyone.

"[Drivers are] running lights, cutting corners, children were almost getting hit," she said.

Daycare worker Jane Deng worries about crossing from the daycare to the park across the street.

"Lately it's been really scary," she said.

As well as the daycare there are two schools in the area.

Jeff Wilson, president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority, which runs the airport, says measure are being taken.

He says the TPA has been working with city hall and local residents to calm the traffic down. There are more police officers in the area and more port authority security guards.

Wilson says there are also plans for an off-street taxi corral.

Who's calling the shots in our community?

Community Air — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:30:40 GMT

I do not recall seeing Ambassador Taxi, Toronto Port Authority, Porter Airlines, nor Stephen Harper's names on the last Municipal Election Ballot - so, why are these entities calling all the shots about this community?

Suzanne Batinovic

"This officer's attitude is unacceptable."

Community Air — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:50:51 GMT

Regarding the officer that reprimanded the parents holding the banner this morning:

The Toronto Police owe those volunteers an apology! Maybe the police should go do something useful with their time, instead of put down people who are trying to improve the neighborhood and save lives, and keep more people from being injured by motorists in their insulated steel bubbles. This officer's attitude is unacceptable. As condo board member at South Beach, this story disgusts me. How many more people need to be hit by a car at that intersection before people take things seriously?

Keep up the great work. You are truly serving the community by getting this message out. We all greatly appreciate it.

Amy

Police Reprimand Parents Protecting Children from Island Airport Traffic

Community Air — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:47:42 GMT

CommunityAIR Press Release of Wednesday, April 25, 2012:

For the second week, parents and community supporters have twice daily assisted the crossing guard at the intersection of Bathurst and Queen’s Quay by holding banners to obstruct taxis and other Island Airport traffic that endanger their children as they cross this chaotic intersection to and from school.

This morning, police objected.

Kathryn Exner, a parent at Waterfront School, reports:.

"I've just returned from banner-duty at the corner.

This banner at the school crossing lane at Bathurst and Queens Quay has proven to be very effective--the parents of children attending the school have been grateful, our regular crossing guard is happy to have us there, and more and more, other pedestrians and cyclists have been commenting and offering their support, as are even some motorists.

This morning, however, we were reprimanded by the police, who had an officer (judging by the three-stripe chevron on his sleeve, he must have been a sergeant) stationed in a car just south of the intersection on Eireann Quay.

On one particular green light, the four of us moved into the intersection from either side as we've been doing. There was a large group crossing on this light, a mix of children and adults. Before all of them could get off the west-side of the intersection, the countdown to the yellow had started and a cab made a left turn off Queens Quay to the airport, cutting right through the middle of the intersection. We all hollered, the cab stopped, and one of us rapped on his window to tell him he shouldn't be making a turn like that--understand, the light was still in the high numbers of the countdown to yellow, i.e., still green with people technically in the intersection.

The sergeant came to us afterwards. He reprimanded our volunteer for touching the cab--that's illegal, he said, and threatened to arrest her if she did so again. He then told us we had no right to obstruct the traffic, and that he had us on camera doing so.

But there were people still in the intersection-- they were behind two of our volunteers, approaching the west-side curb when this taxi turned. Perhaps the police didn't see these people behind the banner, but he very strongly told us we were in the wrong.

He also took the name of the crossing guard--a replacement guard, as Tony was away today--told her she hadn't been properly trained, and that her priority was the east-west part of this intersection; not the north to south. (Our regular crossing guard services both, actually.)

We told the sergeant that two people had been struck at this intersection in the last three weeks, to which he responded, 'Lady, people are hit at intersections every day in this city'."

The banners have red Stop signs and read:

WATERFRONT SCHOOL CROSSWALK: A safety message brought to you by CommunityAIR and the parents of the students at Waterfront School.

The community has insisted that the Toronto Port Authority, which operates the Island Airport, post paid‑duty police for the protection of pedestrians at this over‑loaded intersection (as it did until recently), and scale back its aggressive expansion of the Airport until a solution to the traffic mess is found.

The TPA has refused.

Instead, the police reprimand the parents. Appalling.

Second injury at Island airport intersection in 2 weeks

Community Air — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:04:02 GMT

From the Bulletin:

'This pedestrian crossing is rendered unsafe by the huge volume of traffic speeding to and from the Toronto Island airport terminal'

by Brian Iler

A young woman was struck by a car at Bathurst and Queens Quay about 1:50 p.m. April 23.

She was hit by the silver car stopped in the middle of the crossing lane.

She didn't appear to be seriously hurt. It took some time, but she was eventually able to walk to the corner with assistance from fire personnel. She left in an ambulance.

This is the second injury at this intersection in recent days. A cyclist was struck by a car on April 7 and taken to hospital.

This pedestrian crossing is rendered unsafe by the huge volume of traffic speeding to and from the Toronto Island airport terminal. The 2-lane road, which runs between a park and a building containing a community centre, two schools, and a day care centre, in the midst of a residential neighbourhood, is the only vehicular access to the airport.

Parents whose children attend the schools at the southeast corner of this intersection have been forced to hold banners to stop cars from disregarding the crossing guard on duty.

CommunityAIR has demanded that the Toronto Port Authority reduce the volume of traffic its airport generates until solutions are found to preserve the public’ safety at this intersection.

It has refused.

http://www.thebulletin.ca/cbulletin/content.jsp?ctid=1000006&cnid=1003015

"Louder and longer noise" from changed flight patterns

Community Air — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:31:32 GMT

The last few days there seems to occur a change in the flight
patterns. Originally planes were asked to fly over the water and the
Eastern Gap. Those days seem to be long gone. Then they flew over the
water at the beginning and then over the island. Now they seem to go
straight towards Algonquin Island, come very low over the West end and fly
diagonally over our houses. This means louder and longer noise. Friday
evening was particularly bad when there was almost nonstop planes
over our heads on the way to land. Saturday morning was similar with
planes taking off. From our house I used to see planes above the
trees, now I see them behind the trees.

I wonder if others have noticed this and if we all could send e-mails
to complain.

Anna Healy

TPA is "accountable to no one, bullies everyone"

Community Air — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:16:54 GMT

A brief to the Community Council meeting of Tuesday April 17, 2012 by Bathurst Quay resident Brenda Roman:

The community represented here was not accidental. It was planned by the city and Harbourfront in the 1980s around a new park as the family neighbourhood of the central waterfront. Residential buildings surround the park on two sides. The third side has schools, a day care, and community centre. We are in a horseshoe facing the Western Gap and what was then a small, sleepy airport on the island side of the Western Gap. We were assured that it couldn’t become a big commercial airport since the Tripartite Agreement kept it as “a general aviation airport, with limited commercial STOL service” and no jet traffic. There were a few small commercial flights a day, a flight-training school, and some small, private planes. That’s not what’s there now.

We feel stuck in dealing with the port authority that runs the airport because the TPA is thin-skinned, accountable to no one, and bullies everyone. It just sues the people it doesn’t like, such as some of us, Councillor Vaughan and the city. Not long ago they were in the community centre looking for security footage from the March meeting they held with the community. We think they mean to sue some of us.

We are also familiar with Dillon Consulting, who prepared other EAs for the port authority and now the tunnel EA.

In its EAs, Dillon makes the area of study too small and the scope too limited . It says that people who live on the south side of Queen’s Quay might be affected by tunnel construction. But those of us who live across the street—the vast majority of the Bathurst Quay community—are not affected.
Dillon writes great detail about some issues and then ignores and misleads us about others. Dillon spoke of protecting the Toronto Island Airport Terminal Building, a designated national historic site. It said monitoring would happen “daily to ensure no impacts to the historic building’s structure or footprint....,” and then we watched the port authority jack up this national historic site, put it on a dolly with wheels, and cart it off to a corner of its property, for someone to take away.
Dillon said, “Construction of the tunnel would not result in the removal of any natural vegetation”. Dillon ignored seven mature trees the neighbourhood loves, one of them 75 feet tall, which the port authority then damaged a few weeks ago, when it paved the malting site. Since Dillon didn’t tell us the trees were in danger, we didn’t know to try to protect them.
But most egregiously, at no place in its 90-or-so-page EA does Dillon say that the port authority will locate a concrete batch plant near the schools and daycare centre. The concrete batch plant simply appeared on a recent site plan. That’s misleading and even dangerous.

We don’t trust that we and our children will be safe or that this EA tells us what the port authority is going to do. We hope a new, independent EA can be done.

Finally, in all our frustration with the dangerous and crazy airport traffic in front of our schools, we can’t get a clear answer on how many more construction vehicles will be going back and forth there for the next two years.

In its EA, Dillon speaks of some supplies on the island side of the tunnel being brought in on barges and some construction debris being taken out by barge. So that gave us an idea. The people building this tunnel run the entire port of Toronto, don’t they? So we looked up the port and its facilities on its website. It turns out that the port handles tonnes of cement, stone, asphalt, and aggregate. In addition to moving cargo, the port provides warehousing and staging and has “ample acreage for project staging.....” It has 50 acres at Cherry Street and Unwin. “The entire yard is paved, fenced...[and has] 24-hour security....” Not only that, it has a crane, toplifters, and “a large fleet of forklift trucks....”

That’s the place for the concrete batch plant. It’s an industrial area, there’s space, and it isn’t next to a school and daycare. Why doesn’t the port authority use the Toronto port for all its concrete mixing for the thick tunnel walls? Why doesn’t it bring supplies to the industrial port and then barge them to the tunnel site? Why doesn’t it barge debris to the Toronto port and then dispose of it? That would by-pass the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood and its schools and daycares. And why doesn’t it tunnel from the airport lands, instead of Bathurst Quay? The tunnel is for the airport, not for us, not for our children.

We’re serious. The port authority has taken a terrible toll on the Bathurst Quay community. We live with the airport noise and pollution and taxis every day of our lives. The airport woke us up with airplane engine run-ups at 7:55 on Sunday morning. That kind of thing happens all the time. We want the port authority to use their own industrial space, not the Bathurst Quay community for their projects. It’s only fair.

Keep to the standard city of Toronto construction schedule. No late, early, Sunday, or holiday construction.
Don’t mix concrete near our schools and daycares or bring huge cement trucks past them.
Barge supplies in and out.
Work from the Toronto port and the airport, not a residential neighbourhood.

Set up a neighbourhood construction liaison committee with all-hour contact people and contact numbers.

Waterfront parent's brief on traffic and the TPA

Community Air — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:13:45 GMT

A brief to the Community Council meeting of Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by Kat Exner, Waterfront parent:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today concerning the Toronto Port Authority’s Site Plan Application for the Canada Malting Lands.

I came to Community Council on March 20 to speak against this proposal as a long-time resident of the Bathurst Quay Community, a long-time member of the Waterfront School’s Parent Council, and the mother of two children; one of them is a student at the Waterfront School.

I left that meeting jubilant, thrilled that community council members voted unanimously not to approve the site plan until several safety measures had been put in place. That was Tuesday morning. Just three days later, at 8 o’clock on Friday morning, I was part of a hastily organized protest to address what was happening on the Malting Lands. The TPA’s construction crews starting laying asphalt that morning on the very spot depicted on the site plan as the taxi queuing “corral.” It took a full seven hours of consultation between TPA members and city staff before the Port Authority emerged stating that this was a construction vehicle access road—legal as part of their lease agreement with the city, and not taxi queuing lanes, as we had suspected. To us, this strongly suggested that the Toronto Port Authority held very little regard for the decisions made in this chamber on March 20.

Of all the traffic-calming measures decided upon at March 20’s meeting, measures upon which the approval of this site plan is to be based, not one of them has been put in place. We’ve been informed just this morning that some traffic calming measures that are the responsibility of the city—the red-light camera at the intersection, speed bumps to slow traffic as it passes through our school crossing, and left-turn or right-turn restrictions placed on traffic travelling north from the airport through the intersection will be put in place immediately. This is imperative: the back tires of construction vehicles turning right onto Queens Quay cut across the curb at the very corner where kids are waiting to cross the street. We have repeatedly asked the TPA to pay for police officers on site, which is an entirely reasonable request, given the size and scope of this tunnel project, but they steadfastly refuse to implement such a measure, offering only construction flagmen and their own security team, who are there to protect the interests of the TPA, not the safety of our children.

And as we’re all too aware, taxi activity here continues to be a huge problem for the neighbourhood and an extremely concerning safety issue for the school. In statements issued as recently as yesterday’s “Open Letter to the Residents of Bathurst Quay” the Port Authority says they’re working hard to get the taxis off the streets, insinuating through their wording that we, the citizens of this neighbourhood, are to blame for the problem because we’re not in support of the taxi queuing corral on the Malting Lands. Let’s be honest: the taxis aren’t here because of the Bathurst Quay residents, the taxis aren’t here because of the Waterfront School; the taxis are here because of the airport. The taxi corral proposed by the TPA for the Malting Lands will allow for the passage of as least 500 taxis, there and back, so 1,000 passes, through our school crossing lane every day. This is in addition to all of the airport limousines, busses, delivery vehicles—including double-trailer plane fuel trucks that come daily, private vehicles, and now the heavy construction equipment there as part of this massive tunnel project. With respect to the taxis, the “corral” on the Malting Lands is the only option the TPA has put forth, and it’s unacceptable.

With tunnel construction now underway, the Port Authority has erected extensive hoarding to protect their passengers as they venture through this construction site. Yet,the TPA’s absolute insistence on bringing hundreds of taxis through this intersection has made us, the parents of these school children, to feel like our children are expendable—that they’re worth risking.

And in finishing, I ask if you could take a second please to imagine how that feels?

TPA report card: "Does not play well with others"

Community Air — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:10:47 GMT

A report on the Community Council meeting of Tuesday, April 17, 2012 from CommunityAIR chair Brian Iler:

Briefly: site plan approval for the replacement taxi queuing area deferred again. New turning restrictions at Bathurst & Queen’s Quay approved. Strong suggestion that PCL’s concrete batching plant is not permitted by zoning bylaw. Long list of new conditions for site plan approval. TPA threatening to sue.

Our three deputants were powerful. We’ll post parent Kat Exner’s and Bathurst Quay resident Brenda Roman’s on the CAIR blog, as well as a link to Max Moore’s video, which showed the traffic mess continuing, and the parents’ banners in use to protect children from the traffic.

The TPA was incredibly weak, and was hammered by Adam Vaughan for its repeated failure to effectively consult with the community.

Paula Fletcher, concerned about the TPA’s failure to pay the $49M in back taxes it owes to the city, was stonewalled by TPA CEO Geoff Wilson. Just what the City is doing to collect remains a mystery (We know the TPA will dodge and weave on that unless and until it is ultimately forced to pay up).

The TPA’s attempt to persuade the Council that the new queuing area was the solution to the traffic problem at the Queen’s Quay intersection failed miserably. No one found that credible.

The only solution is to constrain the Airport’s expansion. Please tell your friends who might be tempted to use that airport that, for the sake of the children, they should opt for Pearson.

To our pleasant surprise, the efforts of the schools’ parents paid off, with the Toronto District School Board sending its facilities manager, and its lawyer, to describe the chaos at the school crossing, and the TDSD’s determination to do the traffic, noise and pollution studies necessary to protect the children.

Adam Vaughan said, “Safety of children in this neighbourhood is what is important. We have a responsibility to make that intersection safe.” He was great.

The zoning for the site the TPA plans to install the concrete batching plant on (just south of the school/community centre) is G, which does not permit such a heavy industrial use. No application has been made to the City to vary that zoning.

Pam McConnell again excoriated the TPA, saying that, as a former teacher, if she were writing their report card, it would read,

“You are not good at sharing and do not play well with others....You should model anti-bullying behaviour....Think before you act....This [the intersection] is a danger zone for children and we need, as adults, to fix it for them.”

The threat to sue is real – the TPA has previously

sued the City, under Lastman, getting $48M in a dubious settlement, paid over ten years (that ended just last year),

sued eight of us for libel (of the 40 grounds, one had merit, as it had slipped through our screen ‑ we apologized for that, after spending >$20K to defend ourselves, and the suit was dropped),

sued the City again to stop its installation of a sidewalk on the west side of Eireann Quay,

with just the hint of a lawsuit, won $35M from the federal government as “compensation” for the cancellation of the bridge ‑ $20M of which went directly to Porter (for its start‑up costs) and

recently threatened to sue the City if it installed speed bumps on Eireann Quay, claiming that would affect the safety of the airport by slowing down emergency vehicles. You’ll recall the TPA’s Geoff Wilson blamed the City for refusing the speed bumps at the March 28 community meeting.

Recall too, that the TPA did say that the cancelled bridge was essential for safety. In a press release on October 16, 2003, then TPA CEO Lisa Raitt stated:

“The fixed link (bridge) is a public safety issue. In the event of an emergency, it could take up to two hours to get the appropriate equipment over to the island and that's not acceptable."

By aggressively expanding in the absence of a bridge, surely the TPA places public safety at risk.

But, practically, suing to get their site plan approval does not get the result they need – months will be lost, as the suit wends its way through the courts.

Toronto Star on Waterfront parents' protest

Community Air — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:58:29 GMT

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t build two schools near an airport.

But when the school complex opened in September 1997 at the west end of Harbourfront, David Miller was running for mayor on a platform that opposed building a bridge to the island airport.

The former mayor’s vision of a sleepy airport didn’t pan out. Instead, business has continued to grow for Porter Airlines, and so has the number of cabs dodging pedestrians and idling outside the school.

“A lot of people who use Porter don’t even realize that this is a building that houses two schools, a daycare and a community centre,” said Kathryn Exner, parent of a child who attends the Waterfront School.

“I’d like to see how they react if this was picked up and plunked in their neighbourhoods. They would be screaming and shouting like we are.”

Parents and teachers have been holding protests about the constant airport traffic they say endangers their children.

“Cabs are constantly cutting kids off, there’s really aggressive driving around here and nobody is really monitoring it,” said Jackie Garrison, chair of the Waterfront School, with 181 students in junior kindergarten to grade 8.

Watch the video and read the rest of the article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1163125--airport-pick-ups-create-taxi-chaos-next-to-school?bn=1

Parents’ Banners Protect Children from Island Airport Traffic Mess

Community Air — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:05:05 GMT

MEDIA ADVISORY

What: Waterfront Parents Unfurl Banners in Pedestrian Crossing

Where: South side of Queen’s Quay at Bathurst Street/Eireann Quay Intersection

When: 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 16, 2012

“Taxis speeding to the Island Airport are endangering our children. The Port Authority refuses to act. We have no choice but to act ourselves.” said Kathryn Exner, a parent at Waterfront (elementary) School, located at the intersection of Queen’s Quay and Bathurst Street/Eireann Quay.

Starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, parents of children attending the schools on Bathurst Quay will stretch banners across the road to protect their children as they cross to attend school.

The banners have a red STOP sign and read: "WATERFRONT SCHOOL CROSSWALK: A safety message brought to you by CommunityAIR and the parents of the students at Waterfront School"

While the street has a crossing guard on duty for a few hours per day, there have been many close calls from taxis turning from Queen’s Quay past the guard to deliver their passengers to the Airport.

The banner will protect the students by preventing drivers from ignoring the crossing guard.

“We shouldn’t have to do this. We’ve repeatedly asked the Toronto Port Authority to deal with the huge traffic mess its airport generates. It used to hire paid‑duty police to protect our children, but it now refuses to do so.” said Beverly Dywan, Parent Council chair at City School, also located at that intersection.

“There must be an effective reduction of traffic on this road to make it safe, yet the TPA only has one passenger delivery model in mind, and the speeding taxis and cars make it unsafe for children. Their planning indicates that construction is their priority, with no measures to keep traffic down. It is a mess. "

For information please contact

Kathryn Exner 416 260 5255 HUkeditrix@rogers.comU

or Beverly Dywan HUinfo@designin3d.comU

Cyclist struck by a taxi at Queen’s Quay and Bathurst last Friday evening

Community Air — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:12:56 GMT

An appeal to the TPA's compassion & humanity

Community Air — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:17:06 GMT

I've been having a conversation with the TPA on their Facebook page in response to the letter I wrote below (with the Ontario place suggestion), and wanted to share it ont his blog.

From the TPA: Thanks for your comments. The YTZ pedestrian tunnel went through an extensive environmental assessment that exceeded its legal requirements. The environmental assessment took into account the effects of construction and it found that it would have little adverse impact on the surrounding area in the long term. The final EA report is available here: http://tpa.78beta.com/TorontoPortAuthority/media/TPASiteAssets/news/FinalEnvironmentalScreeningPedestrianTunnel_March252011Reduced.pdf

Geneviève, thanks again for your comments and for attending the meeting. The TPA is working to find out the exact decibal count for the concrete batch plant.
As mentioned in all our public information the tunnel is being paid for by departing passengers only. There is NO taxpayer money being used to build the tunnel.
Please check our website for updated information. You can also contact the TPA via the contact us page on our website.

My response:

Thank you. Unfortunately, this document was prepared by the consulting firm that you directly engaged. A truly trustworthy environmental assessment can only be done by a non-related party. Unfortunately you have not contacted the Ministry of the Environment, for example, to provide one.

I fully understand that you are complying with regulations, which of course you must do if you want your project to proceed. However, laws and regulations themselves can be woefully inadequate depending on what political body has put them into effect, and whose interests they are representing. The 'Nuremberg Laws' are but one of many examples.

I am appealing here not to what is required by law or regulation, but to your own compassion, your own morality, your own humanity.

Especially given that your own 'environmental screening report' itself states that there will be "increases in particulate matter" as well as "emissions from the diesel engines of construction machinery" associated with this project's construction. It is that very pollution that I am gravely concerned about considering the proximity of children and residents and the 2-year duration of the work in question.

I grew up living next to construction sites. And it's no coincidence that I spent my childhood in and out of emergency rooms. My own asthma has improved dramatically since the construction next door to my condo was recently completed. Despite their also having used industry-standard "mitigating measures" to reduce pollution, the thick layers of dust entering our home and coating my lungs and that of my young son made it very hard to breathe.

I have been a passenger of the Billy Bishop Airport, and regardless of who appears to be paying for this project (which given tax breaks and subsidies to some of the related parties is not really as simple as "the passengers"), I strongly believe that the $85 million dollars it will cost to construct this tunnel is a complete waste of desperately needed resources because, for one, the tunnel will not actually save passengers any significant time to get to the airport given that those who are able will still have to walk (with luggage in tow) across the channel, which even with the assistance of escalators and moving sidewalks (when they are working) will take at least as many minutes as the ferry does.

The damage to the health of the neighboring residents and community centre/school/daycare users and employees throughout the 2-year construction period is an unforgivable consequence of the tunnel construction. As the little girl said at the March 2012 meeting, the kids using the playgrounds in the area are already having trouble breathing simply from the current poor air quality (which it bears repeating has contributed to one child's death caused by asthma) let alone two years of added air pollution caused by the construction of a tunnel that does not provide anyone with any significant benefits.

Instead, a pollution-free and extremely low- or no-cost solution to the problem of passengers arriving at the airport in large numbers from the ferry is simply to encourage online or telephone check-in and utilize the existing check-in stations or add new ones LAND-SIDE so that when passengers arrive at the airport all they have to do is wait in the lounge for their departure.

Passengers save $85 million dollars, and the health of your fellow human beings is protected.

The terrible taxi problems could be solved in an instant by simply not allowing taxis as a method of transportation to the airport but instead better informing the public of the already existent but underutilized airport shuttle service as well as increasing the rate of Harbourfront and Bathurst streetcars to even more frequent service.

And you can devote all your planning, design and construction expertise and financial resources to much more worthy and beneficial projects.

Although I did personally enjoy the convenience of walking to the airport from my home, I am so disturbed by the uncaring attitude of the TPA that I am now boycotting the Billy Bishop Airport.

So there is now officially one less passenger to "pay" for your tunnel.

But as you stated in the meeting, despite the desperate and angry please of local stakeholders young and old who are already suffering from this project, you're going to build it anyway.

Therefore, although as state above I am dead set against the building of this tunnel, another solution I propose is that you at least move your concrete batch plant to the ISLAND SIDE so that it will be as far as possible from the people living and working in the area, and yet will still be easily accessible to you via your pipe system.

You should also enclose it as well as the opening of the tunnel shafts in sound-proofed temporary buildings, and run industrial air cleaners in the enclosed spaces. That will be a much better way to mitigate dust (and noise) pollution than any "chemical" solutions that were mentioned in your documents or at the meeting.

In closing, I would like to share a memory with you:

I was lying in the Intensive Care Unit of the Toronto Western Hospital with life-support tubes running all over my body. As is often the case with patients in a coma, although I couldn't move or speak, I could hear. And what I heard was the nurse warning my mother that I would most likely have brain damage from the lack of oxygen I had experienced during the status asthmaticus attack that had brought me to hospital, and which caused the doctors in Resuscitation to have to cut through my clothes to insert a breathing tube directly between my ribs to get air into my collapsed lung as quickly as possible. I still bear the X-shaped physical scar of that emergency surgery, which has long since healed. But what has still not healed decades later is the emotional scar caused by the sheer terror and despair I felt at hearing that news. I was 17 years old.

If you do not take real, concrete actions to better protect the health of the people in the area where you are constructing your tunnel, much worse could be their fates.

Finally, as someone who knows from firsthand experience that when you are close to death, you are not thinking of all the money you have made in your life, you are thinking about what good you have brought into this world, I sincerely hope that when you are at the end of your lives, you will be looking back upon all the projects you are responsible for and feeling proud and at peace for what you have done for your fellow human beings.

Geneviève