Mayoral hopeful Gil Penalosa promises to tear down Gardiner East, build 8,000 homes on same land

Calling city council's $1-billion decision to reconstruct the Gardiner Expressway East the biggest "financial fiasco" of the last eight years in Toronto, mayoral candidate Gil Penalosa said Wednesday that if elected, he would change course and build a boulevard on the valuable land.

"I think it's time to say it was a huge mistake. We need to tear down the Gardiner," said the urbanist at a morning news conference in the shadow of the elevated highway.

In 2015, the first year of incumbent mayoral candidate John Tory's time of office, council narrowly voted for a plan that would see the eastern stretch of the aging Gardiner Expressway — from Cherry Street to the Don Valley Parkway — torn down and rebuilt about 100 metres north of its former route.

That so-called "hybrid" plan was championed by Tory as the middle ground between completely demolishing the stretch in favour of a boulevard or keeping it as is.

At the time, both the city's chief planner and medical officer of health supported the boulevard option, which was also substantially cheaper than the hybrid option. 

With construction of the realigned stretch of elevated highway not set to begin until 2026, Penalosa said there was still time to revisit the decision. 

According to Penalosa, his vision would free up roughly 5.4 acres of waterfront-adjacent land for a wide boulevard with sidewalks and protected bike lanes. The land could also accommodate up to 8,000 new homes for about 15,000 people, he said. The capital cost of the project would be around $500 million, Penalosa said, with property tax revenues from those new homes eventually coming in to the city's coffers.

Penalosa said he would use the savings from abandoning the hybrid option to help fund other parts of his campaign platform, which you can read more about here. 

"It just makes sense in every way. It is better for the city," he said, noting that Toronto is facing an $857-million budget shortfall coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rebuilding the Gardiner East, along with maintenance of the existing highway west of Jarvis Street, combine to be by far the largest transportation-related costs in the city's 2021-2030 capital spending plan.

Penalosa said that his plan would still maintain a connection between the Gardiner and the DVP, with only a few minutes added to the average commute. 

The issue came up at both mayoral debates that Tory participated in. He stressed that the decision was made seven years ago, and said that revisiting the future of the eastern part of the expressway would only delay plans further. 

In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson for Tory's campaign said that "keeping projects moving is how we keep people moving.

"More than 32 million vehicle trips per year are taken on the eastern section of the Gardiner Expressway. At a time when Toronto is growing with mega-transit projects and housing developments under construction, the mayor's priority is to keep people moving in Toronto, whether it be driving, taking public transit or cycling," said Jenessa Crognali.

"While others attempt to reopen almost decade-old debates in an effort to change or delay important transit, transportation and infrastructure projects, the mayor is focused on moving Toronto forward and getting big things done."

in addition to Tory and Penalosa, there are 29 other people running to be Toronto's next mayor:

• Blake Acton
• Avraham Arrobas
• Darren Atkinson
• Chloe Brown
• Drew Buckingham
• Elvira Caputolan
• Kevin Clarke
• Sarah Climenhaga
• Phillip D'Cruze
• Cory Deville
• Alexey Efimovskikh
• Isabella Gamk
• Arjun Gupta
• Peter Handjis
• Robert Hatton
• Monowar Hossain
• Soaad Hossain
• Khadijah Jamal
• Kris Langenfeld
• John Letonja
• Tony Luk
• Ferin Malek
• Stephen Punwasi
• D!ONNE Renée
• Kyle Schwartz
• Knia Singh
• Sandeep Srivastava
• Reginald Tull
• Jack Yan