Six of the
mayoral candidates debated their thoughts on how the city has been building itself at a panel discussion last week at the
Art Gallery of Ontario.
Moderated by architecture writer
John Bentley Mays, with questions from former city planner
Gary Switzer, president and CEO of MOD Developments, the panel discussed issues as specific as planning committee approvals procedure and as general as the aesthetic merit of Toronto's architecture.
Five of them agreed that most, if not everything, should be changed about the way development works in Toronto.
Sarah Thomson, admitting she thought the city was "great," said that its architecture "doesn't tell a great story."
George Smitherman said current plans for a hockey arena in the Port Lands would ensure that "the Port Lands of tomorrow is as bleak as the Port Lands of today."
Current deputy mayor
Joe Pantalone emerged as the sole defender of the way the city works now. "There are 100 cranes up now," he said in front of the standing-room-only crowd at the AGO's Baillie Court. "Somehow, the system is churning things out, there's no doubt about that. There's no other city in North America that has anything near 100 construction cranes."
Writer: Bert Archer