QUOTED: Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi on Toronto’s decision to build a Scarborough subway instead of light rail
“I, for the life of me, cannot understand the decision on the Scarborough subway and maybe I’m missing something. I don’t understand why you’d not spend less to serve more people…Clearly I’m missing something, I’m not that bright.”
—Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, speaking during a Toronto Region Board of Trade luncheon. In October, city council approved the idea of replacing the Scarborough RT with a two- or three-stop subway extension, despite earlier plans to install a longer (but less expensive) above-ground light-rail line. The subway has the enthusiastic backing of local politicians like Rob Ford and Karen Stintz, but it remains controversial among people who see it as an overpriced sop to Scarborough voters. Former councillor David Soknacki has made bringing back the light-rail plan a central tenet of his mayoral campaign.
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“I, for the life of me, cannot understand the decision on the Scarborough subway and maybe I’m missing something. I don’t understand why you’d not spend less to serve more people...Clearly I'm missing something, I'm not that bright.”
—Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, speaking during a Toronto Region Board of Trade luncheon. In October, city council approved the idea of replacing the Scarborough RT with a two- or three-stop subway extension, despite earlier plans to install a longer (but less expensive) above-ground light-rail line. The subway has the enthusiastic backing of local politicians like Rob Ford and Karen Stintz, but it remains controversial among people who see it as an overpriced sop to Scarborough voters. Former councillor David Soknacki has made bringing back the light-rail plan a central tenet of his mayoral campaign.){kind=link}
He wants horses….
The Mayor of Calgary should line up and pay for the stupid idiots in Toronto and send them to Calgary to see how a city transform itself and how the Ctrain moves through the city and the burbs.. amazing. Years ago this train was only going downtown and a short route, now look at it. Congrats Calgary.
I really enjoy Nenshi’s way of saying what he needs to without being offensive
Nenshi is right…he clearly IS missing something. He’s missing the fact that having not lived in Toronto, and not having a clue what the people of this city want, he can’t be making judgments on the decisions of our city council. While the LRT might have been cheaper, it is not what the MAJORITY of the people of this city wanted. As it stands, Toronto is far behind other major cities when it comes to transit, especially subways and it’s time for us to catch up. Anyone that remembers how bad things were when they decided to put in street cars on St. Clair can’t deny that it was a big mistake. During construction businesses suffered and failed and traffic congestion was, and still is horrible.The same is now happening on Eglington avenue and will only continue to get worse. The ONLY solution to save businesses and lessen traffic congestion is to go underground with subways. London and New York learned this lesson many decades ago, so why are we still discussing LRT’s? And why is the mayor of Calgary’s opinion of any importance to the people of Toronto. How about printing some REAL news and quit with the smarmy gossip?
He’s more than welcome to make judgments, and have opinions, on things that aren’t necessarily about his own city.
He’s clearly proud of his city’s transit system in it’s current state, and it also seems pretty clear that public transit is something he’s passionate about, politically and/or otherwise. I don’t see how him voicing an opinion on something constitutes “smarmy gossip”.
“The subway has the enthusiastic backing of local politicians like Rob Ford and Karen Stintz, but it remains controversial among people who see it as an overpriced sop to Scarborough voters.”
Clearly less of a majority vote than you’re making it sound like.
You probably live in the Beaches, and you like Bob Rae, right? Enough said.