"Don't worry," the pro-Island-Airport-expansion contingent said, "it's only for turboprops. And they're quieter now."
Which is true -- they're quieter on the inside. They've improved the cabin sound insluation. They're just as noisy on the outside.
And then, it was revealed the good ol' Air Canada, the airline that brought you AeroPlan (better known as ErrorPlan), the crappiest frequent-flier club to which I have had the displeasure of beonging to, made an official request to have the Island Airport opened up to -- you guessed it -- jets.
Now don't get me wrong: contrary to what some people might believe, I'm not some ridiculous anti-air-travel hippie; I probably do more on-your-own-nickel flights than the average person, and as a downtown resident, I'd actually be pretty keen getting home from the airport in 10 minutes. I grew up at the corner of Islington and Eglinton, where the Toronto International Airport is 10 minutes away, so I know about airport convenience.
However, I believe in that revitalizing the waterfront and airport expansion is an either-or (to geeks, an "exclusive-or") situation: you can do one, or the other, but not both. I think that the waterfront's best hope is to make it mixed-use -- some residential, some business (hey, even light industry!), and support housing for a spectrum of incomes. The waterfront is already cut off from the rest of the city by the Gardiner Expressway. If you don't believe that highways act like giant fences, read Jane Jacobs, or better yet, come down here and join me for a walk. An expanded island airport isn't going to help the situation.
My opinion? Focus on fixing Toronto's sad airport. I burn with shame every time I fly through Vancouver's wonderful airport, and then arrive home at ours, which does an airport unbecoming of the financial, intellectual and accordion capital of Canada. Get a better public transit link to the airport while we're at it -- during my last trip to Boston, I was shocked at how easy it was to take the subway from my hotel in Cambridge to the airport.
Some of us Accordion City bloggers have already dropped our trousers for the rogering, but I'm not ready to take it up the pipe just yet.
Recommended Reading
Toronto City Centre AirportToronto Island Airport photos at PhotoVault
Mayoral Candidate David Miller's speech opposing the Toronto Island Airport expansion. [ PDF version ] [ HTML version ]
World19's take on the Island Airport expansion. World19 is an online newsletter for a neighbourhood called Bloor West Village.
Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It's considered the book common sense book on urban planning. Jane is one of the few citizens of Accordion City who could be said to love it even more than I do.
Steven Berlin Johnson's Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Like Jacobs, he also made some very astute observations about city by actually going out and exploring his home city of New York.
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