I can’t get all that upset about the condos slotted for the Pier 27 site at the foot of Yonge St. (link, link, link), though perhaps that’s a sign that I’ve lowered my expectations to the point where anything in that area other than windswept parking lots, mothballed party boats, random examples of ‘70s Brutalism and Captain John’s* seems like a triumph of urbanism. On a winter night, with a pitiless wind blowing across the ice from Hamilton, it brings to mind the Alden Nowlan poem that ends by referring to ‘the truth that we know but never utter/that this is a country where a man can die/from being left outside.’

What’s not clear is what’s happened to the very good idea, in the West 8 proposal, to move the ferry docks to the foot of Yonge St., funneling the passengers through an open-air market. Somebody mentioned Granville Island as a model, but I can’t find the reference now.

I assume the area marked ‘Mixed Use Redevelopment Site’ on the larger map is the privately owned parcel.

* True story – a colleague went there for lunch, just for fun, and reported back that it really is at least as bad as it’s reputed to be.