Should Toronto permit substantially more housing as-of-right in every ward, including areas currently dominated by detached and semi-detached homes?
- Karina LemkeNo
We have enough housing approved to last us beyond 2051.
Written by Karina Lemke in answer to our questionnaire, and published as given. Not our description of them.
Karina Lemke is a lifelong Torontonian, entrepreneur, and community advocate running for Ward 11 to bring back-to-basics leadership to Toronto City Hall. She believes that focusing on spending that produces results, community safety, stronger small business protections, neighbourhoods that work for everyone, harm prevention, and standing firmly against hate will restore trust in local government.
Our questionnaire
Karina Lemke’s own answers to the questions we put to every candidate, published as given — including, where they wrote one, their reasoning in their own words.
We have enough housing approved to last us beyond 2051.
Currently shelters are not meeting the needs of people who are unhoused. This issue is acute for women fleeing domestic violence, who cannot find safety in the current system.
Following the data, weekday car travel is coming in from the GTHA. Instead of creating chaos on roads with red lanes, a NY style toll system (and better transit) would be a better solution.
Toronto is too dependent on developer money to solve all problems. This needs to be a better collaboration with government and developers so that decisions are the best, not the most desperate solutions.
Shockingly, many plans and budgets across City Hall do not have assigned goals.
This answer does not minimize the major flaw in crisis and mental health support, same for the failure of public space management.
The TTC needs to be held accountable for its failures, and should not make it the responsibility of everyone else. It's their fault vehicles are unreliable, not the lack of a rapid bus/ streetcar (in most areas).
These are not real answers. We are an ageing pop, the TTC is not 100% accessible, Wheel-Trans isn't easy to access. The focus on parking for customers minimizes the fact that farmers need to deliver eggs to restaurants and stores, and need loading and parking to do so; that mobility challenges exist
I recognize this is a build friendly survey, but not all developers are equally ethical, nor are they all good partners. Yes there are too many layers and restrictions (in some places), but a better working relationship that has a vision at the center need to be established for the good of Toronto.
Tricky. Yes growth should occur near transit. Not the scale being permitted, and not based on a future idea of transit. Yes there should be low-rise/ multiplexes in neighbourhoods, not necessarily apartments. Creating rapid transit at the cost of culture will ruin this city.
These are all undesirable answers and only benefit developers. I selected the best of the worst.
There are so many empty buildings that could have kept rental businesses active for longer.
This should not be a process that excludes democratic checks.
Something is not working. Basic services are regressing.
Best of worst again. We cannot depend only on development, but we also cannot reduce the contribution developers should be responsible for to increase infrastructure with growth.
I hope people are not answering that public land should be sold en masse to private dev. And I hope there isn't a plan to use the same (but repaired) infrastructure for more people.
Firm but fair. We need someone who can actually work with Ford, and be a public representative for Canada (see CNN).
There are 45 towers approved at Spadina and Bloor with only a streetcar update.
This encompasses all answers really - If my goal is to have weekly street cleaning, that should be measured on maintenance, financial investment, performance.
Roads need to be planned as a grid. Currently, City Hall politicizes every part of every street. This isn't sustainable. In some areas, people who are not able-bodied are excluded from public life and public space. This is a human rights issue.
I believe in the right to protest, but not at the risk of someone's life. The protest can happen 10 ft to the right.
Many audits are needed.
If we agree there are too many layers of approval - there are too many people in those layers.
They of course are interconnected, but the battle to succeed as a small business keeps getting harder. SMEs account for ~50% of Canada's GDP.
We have to win somewhere. But seriously, employers do not want to bring business to a drug den. Many factors are at play here.
Tough again. But predictability allows management of the next two points.
We need to get the basics right. It's embarrassing.
The City is about to destroy Chinatown, Little Italy, Portugal, Queen West. The plan to add transit priority on these streets will see the closure of 100s of cultural businesses. See: Little Jamaica. We cannot develop on top of what makes Toronto, Toronto.
None of these are my first choice. No autonomous taxi service has met regulatory standards, just peer reviews. Major red flag to jump to any of these.
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