One
third think Gardiner unsafe to use
One half want it torn down
TORONTO, April
11th, 2015 - In
a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 865 Toronto
voters, one third think the Gardiner Expressway is not safe to use (34%) and,
while this is a significant number, it is well down from one half, noted the
last time the elevated highway was observed to be crumbling (December, 2012 -
50% unsafe to use). Now, one half believe it is safe to use (50%), while one
seventh don’t have an opinion (15%).
One half want Gardiner torn down, completely or partially
One
half of Toronto voters want the Gardiner torn down (52% in total), either
completely and replaced with a tunnel (27%), completely and replaced with a
surface road (13%) or torn down partially (12%). Just one quarter think the
city should continue to repair it (25%), and one quarter want to do something
else (7%) or don’t know what should be done (15%).
Even spit on whether repairs to Gardiner are money well-spent
Four-in-ten
Toronto voters say spending $400 million repairing the Gardiner is an
appropriate expenditure (41%), while just fewer think it is not (37%). One
fifth have no opinion on the issue (21%).
Most think city can’t afford to repair City Housing alone
As
many as three quarters of Toronto voters don’t think the city can afford to
repair its backlog of TCHC buildings alone, without financial help from the
province or the federal government (72%), while just one tenth believe the city
can accomplish this (11%). Close to one fifth don’t venture an opinion (17%).
TCHC, DRL and keeping TTC in good repair seen to be most urgent
When
asked to choose the major city expenditure they saw as the highest priority,
the plurality of voters, one fifth choose repairing TCHC buildings (21%) and
this is closely followed by building the Downtown Relief Line (19%) and keeping
the TTC in a good state of repair (18%). Items seen to be less of a priority
include the Scarborough subway (14%), repairing the Gardiner Expressway (10%),
developing the waterfront (6%) or doing something else (8%). Few don’t have an
opinion on this issue (5%).
"The Gardiner Expressway is
the municipal issue which will never go away, just continue to be kicked down
the road. It’s always easier to initiate emergency repairs on an ad hoc basis
rather than make a long term plan for one of the least attractive features of
our city. Despite their dissatisfaction with the state of the Gardiner, however,
Torontonians recognize the urgency of repairing the housing in which hundreds
of thousands live," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne
Bozinoff.
Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum
Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416)
960-9603.
