Why has Toronto become the city where fun goes to die?

TheStar.com
May 19, 2022

When it doubt, defer. This appears to be the official Toronto approach to anything halfway fun. Last week, city councillors convened to do what they do best: talk about how much they love big, bold ideas, just not in this particular context and not at this particular time and not until further consultation is conducted and -- let’s face it -- probably not until we are all long dead.

For example, at last week’s city council meetings, Toronto’s elected officials voted to delay the approval of so-called “pedal pubs,” an attraction popular in some European and North American cities. A cross between a bar table and a multi-passenger bicycle, the idea is that a sober driver (employed by the pedal pub purveyor in question) steers the contraption at the front while the other passengers pedal, drinks in hand.

At least that’s how it works in other, less prudish cities. In Ontario, provincial law would prevent passengers from imbibing while peddling. But this being Toronto, even a dry version of a large bicycle was deemed too wild for city council.

As a result, last week city council voted to delay approving pedal pubs until at least mid-June, after the city’s transportation experts can produce a report on the subject.

Granted June is right around the corner, but if history is our guide, pedal pubs will not be approved next month. Instead, I predict, city council will commission another report on the subject, this one perhaps on the public health impacts of multi-passenger bicycles, to be followed up by a series of community consultations about the public health impact of noise pollution produced by multi-passenger bicycles, to be followed up by a report on said consultations and … you get the idea. It is the city council way to research novel ideas into oblivion.

If you don’t believe me let’s turn now to drinking in public parks, another pastime that is perfectly legal in cities around the world but which remains illegal in our own.

Defenders of the status quo will argue this illegality works out fine because the bylaw against drinking in parks is barely enforced in Toronto (last year the city issued only two tickets for the offence). But even if people are rarely ticketed, why, as Coun. Josh Matlow (Ward 12 Toronto--St. Paul’s) argued recently, should they be made to feel like scofflaws for sharing a few beers in their local park -- something members of council presumably do in their own backyards whenever the weather allows it?

Furthermore, even if park-drinkers aren’t ticketed why should they be pestered at all, even with a warning to put away their bottles? As Mayor John Tory himself concedes, this is a rule no one follows -- a fact that irks him as a lawyer and a leader.

And yet city council refuses to scrap it.

Last spring, Matlow tried to introduce a pilot project that would allow alcoholic drinks of 15 per cent or less to be consumed at Toronto’s public parks and beaches that have public washrooms: welcome news to apartment-dwelling Torontonians who lack outdoor space.

But Matlow’s motion to introduce the pilot was rejected by members of the economic and community development committee who referred it to city staff for -- what else? -- further study.

That was about a year ago. Today, the deferral marches on.

Last week, Matlow was visibly frustrated when yet again, his pilot failed to win the support of council. What did? A compromise proposed by Tory to direct staff to “report back” in 2023 about how the city might go about legalizing drinking in parks. In other words: further study on a study.

In the mayor’s defence, Matlow didn’t have the support on council required for his motion to pass, and Tory likely believed that it was better to stall the issue than to let it expire then and there (the mayor has been clear that he takes no issue with Torontonians drinking responsibly in city parks).

But it’s maddening that in an overwhelmingly progressive city like Toronto, broader support doesn’t exist on council for this type of policy today, whatever the mayor’s opinion.

It’s a pilot project for God’s sake. People are already drinking in parks. Just make it legal and be done with it. (And if you live in a mansion overlooking Lake Ontario, perhaps it’s time to accept that noise is a reasonable tradeoff to living on a public beach.)

Toronto is often labelled a city of “no.” In reality it’s a city of dithering until good ideas die.

ActiveTO is a prime example of this. The hugely popular pandemic program that closed down parts of major roads to cyclists has been allowed to fade out of existence, maybe because (unlike CafeTO) it doesn’t generate income.

But every city councillor who claims to care about safe streets and climate change shouldn’t rest until it is revived.

Say what you want about suburban councillors, but at least they don’t try to hide their puritan streaks by paying lip service to progressive ideals. “I do not support opening the door to begin drinking in parks,” Coun. Stephen Holyday (Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre) said at city council last week.

The man is an out and proud square, a trait that is oddly refreshing on a city council whose left-wingers have a tendency to bemoan various injustices only to drag their feet when they’re given an opportunity to right them.

Last week an opportunity presented itself and they failed. But have patience. A report is forthcoming.