Amid the pedestrians and suitcases outside Union Station, Dana Duncanson sees a great future for downtown Toronto.
“Yeah, Toronto is really going through this, great evolution,” Duncanson says.
As managing director of the Downtown West Business Improvement Area (BIA), Duncinson represents businesses located both north and south of Union Station.
He says the area wants better coordination from city hall around issues like construction.
“Timing things so that we can get these big projects taken care of, in a manner that doesn’t impact the city too much,” Duncanson said.
Congestion and construction management were both campaign issues in October’s municipal election, as was promoting marquee events.
Jon Kiru represents an umbrella organization for all Toronto BIAs. Speaking with CityNews, he says businesses across the city want predictability in funding for events and in the management of construction.
“There was that predictability that I spoke about earlier, during construction, the on-again, off-again, the lack of planning, the lack of understanding,” he said.
Coordinating construction a priority: mayor’s office
Braman Thillainathan, a spokesperson for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says there is more to do in her second term, but coordinating construction has been a priority for the mayor since she first took office.
“Mayor Chow established the Strategic Capital Coordination Office and appointed Toronto’s first chief congestion officer.” Thillainathan wrote in a statement.
Duncinson says it’s about the basics.
“And what that really boils down to is we want a city that moves, that is safe, that is clean,” he added.
One thing the Downtown West BIA says is working is traffic agents at busy intersections.
Currently, there are 100 active traffic agents, with plans to increase that number to 127 by early next year.
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