I live on the Toronto Islands part time and I was wondering what people thought about them. I will try to answer anyone's questions as well.
I also just wanna mention that I'm just trying to have a conversation not start arguments, so if I seem rude that's just cause I'm shit at words.
Prepare the trebuchets!
Let me keep my little slice and I'm on board. Down with the rich fools on their yachts
Hot take: the City should build a gondola to the islands.
Building a gondala like London's IFS Cable Car would provide a permanent connection to the islands for pedestrians and cyclists that could function in all weather conditions. Gondalas work in ski resorts during snowstorms; they would also work in Toronto winters.
A cable car would preserve the sense of taking a special "voyage" to the islands that's currently provided by the ageing ferries. It would also be a tourist attraction, providing beautiful views over the Toronto skyline.
A cable car could run entirely on green energy, with no need for diesel engines.
A cable car could also be strung high enough to allow ships to pass underneath, removing the need for an expensive moveable bridge.
A cable car could carry upwards of 2,500 passengers per hour, beyond the capacity of the current ferries or their proposed electric replacements.
A cable car could be partially privately financed and open up opportunities for private sponsorship, removing the need for taxpayer subsidies, just like in London.
Would it be expensive and a potential political boondoggle? Sure. But it would be dope as fuck and a great solution to all the issues at play.
Are you the same person that was commenting on a thread about building a bridge or upgrading the ferries or something like that, cause I've seen this exact reply word for word somewhere else.
Anyway, I think it could be a good idea if the city did it right and kept it maintained. Wind could be an issue, sometimes it blows hard enough to shut down ferry service, it also funnels through the gap which makes it worse (although being high up would reduce the funneling effect)
The main problem would be figuring out where to run it too, the lease on the residential area doesn't expire till 2092 so you'd have to stop before the houses and upgrade Lakeshore avenue to get people to the main road, or run it over the houses and stop it on the main road (which would be more expensive but arguably cooler and could draw tourism on its own).
I think it could work and be helpful but the ferries would probably have to continue to run as a way to get downtown easier and in bad weather, also the car ferry would still be required no matter what.
Close the airport then?
It makes money and the city loves money, as much as we want it closed they won't do it till someone proposes a more profitable thing to take it's place
I don’t want it closed. I was pointing out why we can’t have a gondola.
Ya the gondola will never happen, I just think it's a cool idea.
Why? London City Airport is likewise close to the London Cable Car.
Condominiums and a four lane highway. /s
Only four lanes? Think of all the congestion. We need at least six in each direction plus a dedicated bus lane.
Gardiner by-pass overflow, from the portlands to Bathurst.
Oh right as if we don't have enough already. Let the islands be. Jeez
I think you might have missed the /s
Although a concerning number of people seem to actually want island condos
No then what we pay some extra tax for that ? No. Ford cracker and Trudeau will have a field day with this. Let's deal with the Indians first and then destroy every landmark Toronto has for condos then we will move onto the island . Oh and add another 25 years for the Eglinton lrt..and another decade on the Gardiner construction. Wake up.
Mate I'm on your side, I don't want condos. I was just saying a bunch of people seem like they do
Yes and people are stupid . We voted for liberals remember...
I do wish there were a few more food options but that’s about it
Real. I'm hoping they build some kinda convenience store when the rebuild the cafe.
The Toronto Island master plan was released by the city relatively recently and they seem to be planning on building a lot more food venues, so that's good.
they should be turned completely into parkland for the city.
Do you mean by getting rid of the houses? And if so why and how.
The people living on the island take up a small amount of land, they care for the land around them and keep that part of the park nice, they run and fund businesses, they take care of the island during the winter, they advocate for upkeep of the island and the infrastructure supporting it and are a major reason it's as nice as it is, and they've been there for almost long enough to be a heritage site. What would be the point of getting rid of them?
It should be a park
It is a park, it's a huge park, a few people live on one end of the park. The fact that people live there is why ferries run year-round, it's also why there's flood protection shit.
What is y'all's problem with 800 people living on the same bit of land they've been living on for the past 150 years, on land that's been leased to the ward family or under agreements due to the ward family since 1830. Let them live there, it doesn't affect any of the tourists
As a Toronto resident, I don’t think anyone should be living there, specially at subsidized prices. The islands all of them should be for the benefit of Toronto residents and the “tourists”.
They are for the benefit of Toronto residents, people living there are residents, would you be fine with them making your neighborhood into a city park because "everyone should enjoy it".
The island is a huge park, they have a small neighborhood primarily on an island that only has a bridge because they live there so it's not like people are missing out.
The cottage style neighborhood is also marketed as a tourist attraction and is pretty successful as such.
I would maybe reconsider if people living in the islands paid market rates for the privilege of living there and at least the city was making some money out of it.
They pay the same taxes as everyone else, the price is fixed as part of the lease, they're just normal people who got a good deal I don't get why people think it's such a problem
Based on market prices? Why should we give them a good deal to the detriment of the 3 million people living in the city? I don’t see the point, they should stop awarding leases as residents pass away and transform the island into a park.
The lease is until 2092 at which point the neighborhood will be over 100 years old and will probably be protected by the heritage act.
The people on Toronto island take care of the land, that's part of the terms of the lease.
The homes have been on the island since 1870, they're part of the island experience. You say transform the island into a park like it isn't a 820 acre park already
the city parks services can care for the land better and more. too bad. live somewhere else.
Man they aren't doing anything to anyone, stop hating for no reason. Just let people live
Edit - I apologise for being aggressive here, I got a bit annoyed with someone else and was rude.
nobody is hating. you asked a question which was answered. dont ask the question if you dont want answers.
There's no reason to evict the people living there, realistically why should they be evicted, it's an 820 acre park, a few people live on the end, in the same houses people have lived in since 1870 on land that's been leased continuously to the ward family or do to a trust they established since 1830.
It's a large part of island heritage and a tourist attraction on its own, why would it be demolished.
you asked a question. it was answered. nobody owes you a fucking debate
"I answered your question, I don't need reasons"
I asked a new question because I'm trying to understand your reasoning, if you don't have a reason then whatever but I'm trying to understand a different view on things.
My first response was kinda aggressive and I'm sorry about that, someone else was saying similar stuff and basically just repeating the same point and not considering anything I said, I didn't check your username when I first replied and I thought you were the same person, I apologise. I don't want to start arguments just have a conversation
If anyone will wreck the Toronto islands it will be Toronto and Torontorians.
Accurate, we're trying to protect what we can, but tourists are not helping
I think some better food choices and ferries. That's it.
I agree with the food. The city says they wanna do that, and since that makes them more money it'll probably happen.
I've seen a lot of stuff about the ferries, I'm kinda wondering what's so bad about them. They run hourly, they run when it's safe to operate large vessels. I don't know what else they need other then maybe running more in peak hours.
I thought there was only one working ferry- how many are there? I haven't been in a while, actually since Covid.
I have friends that work on them, there's 4 passenger only ferries and one car ferry from what I remember, I can't a actually see them from where I live cause there's a breakwall in the way but that's what I remember. There's also the trillium which is like 100 years old but holds a ton of people, it's a paddlewheel ferry and they only run it on special occasions or if it gets really busy.
The news talks a lot about ferry issues but they're pretty reliable, at most one of them will go down for maintenance at a time during the summer and that's rare, the Ongiara is the only one that runs during the winter so they do maintenance on the others then.
So 4 ferrries per day on weekends? Plus the water taxis? I would maybe raise to 5 or 6 on weekends if necessary. Clearly, it's gotten busier there, but cars? No way. Toronto drivers on Toronto islands? My god.
No sorry I meant there's 4 passenger boats, they run hourly to each of the three docks (I think maybe every half hour to centre during the summer)
The car ferry is mostly for garbage trucks or maintenance vehicles. The only private cars on the island are Jimmy's truck (he does engine repairs), and the church van (it's owned by a sweet old lady who drives extremely slow and picks people up on Sunday to go to the little church at centre.
Oh I see. Well, that seems fine. So a few more food choices because it really does suck - I mean pizza pizza? How tacky and how quintessentially Canadian tacky, too. I'm only surprised that there isn't a Tim Hortons yet.
There's a few good restaurants, the Riviera is expensive but the foods pretty good, whatever the restaurant at TIM is called has good food, the cafe was kinda overpriced but was okay and had ice-cream before someone burnt it down (they might rebuild it soonish). And if you act like you belong then you can walk into QCYC and go to the restaurant there, they've got great food and okay prices (if anyone questions you just say your visiting).
I think they should build a new Marina just for floating homes. Let's say maximum 20 to start. Also the floating homes cannot exceed a set size. So someone can't buy up 3 or 4 berths and build a monster floating home. If it's successful they could add on to the Marina in 20 unit blocks.
I think they should then build a bridge to the island. The bridge should be large enough for cars and pedestrians. However the only vehicles allowed through would be for deliveries and service people so you would also need a small parking lot where people reserve slots similar to a condo elevator.
(Otherwise floating home owners would need to have their house towed somewhere for repairs or when they need to get someone to fix something)
No resident or visitor parking, I don't want to see a traffic jam on the island.
I'm gonna start by saying I'm kinda bad with words so if anything I say sounds rude it's not on purpose I'm just dumb. I don't wanna cause a fight just start a conversation.
There's already yacht clubs and marinas on the island, Toronto Island Marina allows house boats, so does sunfish cut, the yacht clubs allow sailboats which are fine to live on. Do you think there would be enough demand for floating homes to make that cost effective.
Why would a bridge be necessary, are the ferries not enough? Also I've heard the bridge succession quite often, how do you think it would work. Would it be a lift bridge? Or would it be tall enough to let ships through. If it's a lift bridge how would the city deal with high traffic through the Eastern gap, would they just keep it open during peak hours?
Would the bridge go all the way to the main road or would houses have to be bulldozed to build a road from it? Would the parking lot be big or just a supplement to the existing lots/work yard.
I was thinking it would be cool if there was a dedicated neighbourhood with floating homes. I wouldn't want to live in a floating home and be woken up by my neighbour's speed boat in the berth next to mine.
I was watching this video and thought it would be a cool small condo alternative.
https://youtu.be/1mxmxMMVH5k?si=8CnMJ8xt8FJO0hjm
The only place I could see a bridge would be the Eastern Channel and yeah I guess it would have to be a drawbridge. Alternatively what about a tunnel under the eastern Channel (I assume this would be way more expensive than a bridge)
If there isn't a bridge how do you get things fixed. Or how do you furnish them. These are just floating homes they don't have motors.
How would you get your fridge and stove delivered...would you bring a fridge on the ferry? What if someone needs their stove serviced you are going to tell the service guy that he can't bring his vehicle and has to bring whatever he can carry with him on the ferry?
(Which makes me wonder...how does that work for the few homeowners there are now? Do they book a water taxi?)
The Ongiara can carry cars and trucks, that's how they deal with garbage and stuff like that, and currently if you want a repair with a houseboat generally people will tow it to Toronto island marina and they'll haul it out there if it needs to be pulled out (for stuff like below waterline repairs). Otherwise they just bring it in on the ferry, there's a moving company for the island. We also have people over here that'll work on stuff for free or cheap, a guy named Jimmy does outboard engines, a few people do diesels, and I think there's a guy that does appliances. Otherwise they just operate like any other house.
From my understanding the main issue with a bridge is the traffic, a lift bridge works fine for the few Lakers that run into Toronto weekly, but the tallships run often enough to be annoying, and sailboats run through the gap almost constantly during the summer. So it'd have to be around 60 feet tall to stay shut for them. It's just a lot of difficult stuff.
A tunnel could work it's just very expensive.
The city also proposed a maintenance ferry to be part of the new fleet. I think that would probably operate similar to the Ongiara in terms of vehicles, so that would work after they get rid of the Ongiara.
I also wanna add after watching the video that they didn't record it on Toronto island, that houseboat is in sunfish cut and I live like 5 minutes away from it. Idk where they recorded that but it's not where the boat is usually.
Also house boats are kinda really expensive and annoying, sailboats or powerboats are cheaper and you can move around.
Edit- I was wrong, it's not the houseboat in sunfish just a similar looking one, I think that one is in Scarborough.
Yes that video was shot in Scarborough. Price seemed pretty affordable for what she paid upfront. But the ongoing maintenance will cost more than a condo would. But at least no one will be able to take her view away.
Doesn't a house boat technically have an engine and some steering? I just call them floating homes because this is just like an apartment that floats. It has no way to move unless it's towed.
I was thinking, we're basically out of room on the land, unless we keep turning the city into a concrete jungle with highrises everywhere.
The island would be a cool place for a new low rise neighbourhood, and by doing floating homes we would not be removing parkland to do it. Also by limiting the size of the homes it wouldn't look out of place.
The tunnel would be expensive but it would be less disruptive to water traffic and the city would be collecting property tax from all of these additional home owners to maintain it.
It will never happen, but that's my suggestion.
You might wanna look into the current boating community on the island if your interested, I live on a sailboat and it's pretty spacious and much cheaper then that houseboat.
I don't think a low rise neighborhood will happen, there used to be a proper neighborhood with stores and everything on the island but a lot of it got demolished, one family kinda saved what's left.
And I agree the tunnel would be great, but they'd have to find a way to keep the homeless out as well as druggies, the lack of police presence and abundance of empty land make the island a perfect place for encampments and junkies. I think the price of the ferries and lack of creativity is all that's keeping them away rn.
Are there racoons or squirrels on the island?
Ya, lots of squirrels only a few raccoons. We've also got beavers and bunnies, a few foxes. And people tell stories about coyotes and wild dogs, I haven't seen them but people say they're friendly and just scrounge.
Well if the animals have figured out how to get to, and live on the island then it shouldn't be that hard for a homeless guy with a grade 10 education and some redneck engineering to figure it out...just a matter of time and desire. 😀
Right now I think it's mostly the isolation and price keeping them away, the city doesn't do shit in the rest of the parks so there's no reason to come here quite yet. If the city tried to clean up the downtown then we'd probably see them try the island out.
A swift, decisive invasion and occupation is the only answer.