OneCity plan made waves, faltered, shrank and died, all in two weeks

OneCity, Karen Stintz’s surprise (and surprisingly ambitious) transit plan for the masses, died a humiliating death on council floor yesterday. By the start of yesterday’s council meeting, the plan was stumbling, having already been relieved of its property tax–based funding model and whittled down to two proposed lines. And one of those proposals, replacing the Scarborough RT with a subway instead of an already-approved LRT, didn’t even have enough support to make it to debate. Sure, there are a few vestiges of the blockbuster plan still floating around: council voted to designate the eastern waterfront LRT a priority, city staff will explore Stintz’s property tax–based funding model for a report in October, and public consultations on a city-wide transit strategy are set for the fall. However, OneCity as a whole has been proclaimed dead by the city’s newspapers (the word “derailed” seems to be a crowd favourite, though we give kudos to the Toronto Sun for also working in “DoneCity”). [National Post]