The Jarvis bike lanes got one more night of reprieve. The debate over removing the lanes—and the rest of the contents of the Bikeway Report—got pushed up the agenda on Tuesday, but they weren’t voted on.
The decision to move them up was at the request of the chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. It put him at odds with Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam who represents Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale, where the bike lanes are located. She wanted the vote to be held tomorrow so her constituents, including Jarvis supporters, could be in the council chambers.
“I was under the impression that I would be able to ask for a time-specific item,” Wong-Tam said. “In this case, they were so committed to ensuring that Councillor Minnan-Wong had to be in the room when this took place that 300 or 400 residents of Toronto aren’t as important as that councillor. I don’t think that’s necessarily fair.”
Minnan-Wong moved to have the item second on the agenda—after Mayor Rob Ford’s graffiti management plan. The Toronto Cyclist Union put out a call to action almost immediately, urging Jarvis bike lane supporters to get to council by 2pm.
When the council returned from lunch, they were still debating the grafitti policy. While the debate generated a hilarious hashtag, the assembling group of cyclists in the gallery grew more restless.
Andrea Garcia, an organizer for the cyclist union, distributed “Save Jarvis” buttons in the gallery. While some supporters trickled in and out, there were at least 150 cyclists who braved the rule against clapping in the public gallery and stayed late into the debate—participating with a mix of jazz hands and the occasional contraband cheer.
When the debate began in earnest, Wong-Tam stood to give an impassioned plea for the Jarvis bike lane as a component of a growing neighbourhood and not just a thoroughfare.
“If we throw another highway back into Jarvis you are going to disconnect these neighbourhoods once again,” she said. “I’m trying to bring prosperity to the downtown east side so that it can connect back to the prosperous downtown that we have. For us to disregard community voices, disregard the people in this room, I think would be absolutely shameful.”
Wong-Tam put forward three amendments that will be voted on today. One proposes saving the bike lane and implementing traffic light improvements immediately. If that amendment fails, she proposed a delay for Jarvis removal until the Sherbourne separated lane is built and, finally, an amendment for public consultation.
Some serious figures came into the discussion that are particularly important in light of the Core Services Review, which suggested cutting spending on bike infrastructure. Installing the Jarvis bike lanes cost $75,000. Meanwhile, removing them and restoring the fifth car lane would cost $200,000 according to staff.
With the removal of the Pharmacy and Birchmount lanes in Scarborough, the estimated cost of decreasing the amount of bike lanes is near $400,000.
Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker moved to save the Scarborough bike lanes that may be cancelled, Pharmacy and Birchmount. Then he got personal—both about his own experience and with Mayor Ford. He said he uses the Birchmount bike lane, one of two up for removal in Scarborough, to bike to work.
“This is a government that says it has no money to put fluoride in our water,” De Baeremaeker said, referring to the Core Services Review. “Yet this government is recommending today that we spend $400,000 to put our lives at risk just when we do nothing more than ride our bikes to work.
“Mr Mayor, it is a betrayal of me and it is a betrayal of every taxpayer in this city.”
Speaker Frances Nunziata reprimanded De Baeremaeker for his comments directed at Mayor Ford, and the councillor apologized. Off mic, he dared the mayor to join him on one of his bike rides to work, he said, “That’s what a man would do.”
De Baeremaeker was almost kicked out of the chamber again, but he apologized.
The debate on the Jarvis bike lane resumes Wednesday morning at 9:30.
