Alleys as catalysts for smart growth? ...... progressive Toronto thinks so.

[marmar]

from the Toronto Star:



Toronto's 2,400 laneways offer great potential for development
They may be a solution for a city seeking a denser, more efficient future

By Christopher Hume


In Toronto, where they remain largely unnamed, alleys and lanes have never been fully integrated into the city. They hover forever just beyond the collective consciousness, not quite a part of things. We see them as dark, dirty and maybe even a little scary.

In fact, Toronto has a huge number of lanes where people live and work. And except for the fact that city planning policies are designed to keep residents away, the back roads of Toronto could be home to thousands.

There's no better demonstration of the vast potential of Toronto's laneways than Gilead Place, a tiny one-block thoroughfare that runs south from King St. east of Parliament St. In recent years, it has been transformed by the appearance of a row of townhouses on one side and a Jamie Kennedy cafe on the other. Only a few years ago, such a turn of events would have been inconceivable. Today, it seems natural.

Municipal officials would have us believe that lanes are unsafe because they're too narrow to accommodate fire and garbage trucks.

So let's use smaller vehicles. That's what they do in cities as diverse as Rome, Tokyo and Istanbul. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/707696--toronto-s-2-400-laneways-offer-great-potential-for-development