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Was the Spadina Expressway a crisis averted or a missed opportunity?
City Space
English - February 06, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MB - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsNews Society & Culture accessibility cities city planning climate change future cities green space housing policy the globe and mail transit Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Coming soon: Season 4 of City Space
Next Episode: Does heritage preservation stand in the way of housing?
The Spadina Expressway was one of five urban highways that were nearly built in Toronto in the 70s. The plan would have bulldozed neighbourhoods so that suburban commuters had a direct route to drive downtown. But campaigners like Bobbi Speck and Jane Jacobs stopped it, saving iconic neighbourhoods like The Annex. Today, Toronto is one of the worst cities in the world for traffic. Should the expressway have been built anyway? We tell the story of the grassroots movement to stop Spadina with the people who were there firsthand. Does the movement perhaps offer tips on how to solve Toronto’s notoriously bad traffic?