WARMINGTON: War on cars means gridlock for Blue Jays, TFC, visiting Lionel Messi fans

· Toronto Sun

It’s not only the war on cars but a war on the people in those cars who spend money in a city that treats them like an afterthought.

Last week there were men riding horses with mock swords on the shutdown roadways of Toronto for the popular and well attended Khalsa Day Parade while this week it will be maintenance equipment and a road running race causing gridlock mayhem.

Visit somethingsdifferent.biz for more information.

There always seems to be something.

And the City of Toronto always seems to prioritize everything but the very cars the roads were built for and for what the taxes collected are used for.

“The Don Valley Parkway will be fully closed from Highway 401 to the Jarvis Street ramp on the Gardiner Expressway from 11 p.m. on Friday, May 8, until 5 a.m. on Monday, May 11,” the city said.

This will make it easier for the hard-working road crews to do their work. The rest of you are on your own.

If you are going to watch the Blue Jays or the big Toronto FC football game that has legendary Lionel Messi and the Inter Miami FC visiting the expanded for the FIFA World Cup BMO Field, which will mean this will be the biggest crowd for the Reds ever, good luck getting there.

“The Mayor could stop this,” said Greg Brady of AM640 , who has run for politics and who several cities are trying to encourage to run for politics on a common-sense platform. “Full credit to (former mayor) John Tory. He always paid attention to these weekends.”

“Events this weekend: 40K X 3 – Blue Jays 45K – TFC v Inter Miami 8K – Tempo tonight 20K – Sporting Life 10K 193,000 people need to get to where they’re going. NONE of these events are happening next weekend. No Jays, no TFC, no Tempo,” Brady said in an X post.

Steve Ryan, of CP24 , and John Moore and Jerry Agar, of Newstalk 1010 , also talk a lot about gridlock in the city, crushing gas prices with former MP Dan McTeague and how a coordinated plan to organize when to maintain the main roads and highways and to make sure they are not conflicting with a weekend of big events.

Ryan is being recruited to run for mayor or for council in Rosedale as well and there have been suggestions Moore and Agar would be good for politics, too.

The reason people look to popular media figures for possible office? They have the pulse of regular people and what works for them because they broadcast to those very people.

And those people embrace community events but want to be able to get to them without endless construction or maintenance and non-stop parades and events that don’t take into account the whole city but often just the interests of the few.

Maybe this could become an election issue?

When it comes to crime, Ryan would be a good fit because, like Jon Burnside, he would be a natural fit as a former Toronto Police officer to sit on Toronto City Council.

It seems much of the current lot have lost touch with reality.

Councillor Brad Bradford, who is running against Mayor Olivia Chow, has pointed out these problems in the past and promised if he wins on Oct. 26 that he will find another way of scheduling maintenance and special events.

“The DVP shutting down from Hwy. 401 to the Gardiner from Friday night until Monday morning is going to throw a wrench in the weekends of thousands of Toronto families on Mother’s Day weekend,” Bradfor said. “Critical maintenance is one thing, but scheduling a full closure of one of this city’s busiest highways over an entire weekend shows just how out of touch this administration is with the people who actually drive cars.”

“Torontonians have places to be, and a mayor who was paying attention would know that. Mayor Chow should stop making people pay for her failure to plan,” he added.

For the past two weekends there have been parades or races on the streets and even on police horses, which are for great events but also block the roadways for people who may be going to something else and who matter just as much.

Why can’t the city ask organizers to hold their events at Downsview Park or Toronto Island or on the CNE Grounds or in any of the many city parks?

And why can’t the roads people work overnight – from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. – every day and make most of their improvements and repairs when people are asleep?

Shutting down the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway, as they did two weeks ago, on days when there are major events, and even when there are TTC or Go Train track repairs, is plain uncaring.

The roads and highways are supposed to be for cars. Or, at least, they used to be.

[email protected]

Read full story at source