A road not needed
Erica Nol; David Gillman

Many communities in North America and Europe are vying for the title of "Greenest City" by increasing the number of bike paths, reducing inefficiencies in building design, promoting alternative energy sources (e.g., Toronto and Chicago), estimating the area of roof-tops that might be converted to green, carbon-consuming spaces (e.g., Minneapolis) or removing cars from the downtown core completely (e.g., Paris), all in the name of contributing to the reduction in global greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, Peterborough city council has given the go-ahead to increase our carbon footprint through the destruction of an important green space and the construction of an unnecessary and expensive road. The approval of the next phase of the north-south access road between Clonsilla and Parkhill roads is characterized as "the most important decision that this council will make," by Coun. Henry Clarke: the legacy of this decision is dubious at best.

Current planning legislation in the Province of Ontario, including the award winning Places to Grow Act, encourages cities to intensify, protect green spaces, promote healthier means of transportation and dissuade automobile traffic.
This plan flies in the face of these recommendations. In the name of increasing access to the hospital, even though a 2005 report commissioned by the PRHC indicated enough capacity on existing roads, the city will begin the 30-day review period of the Environmental Study for this project.

Coun. Jack Doris, who has long championed the anti-Parkway debate, told Coun. Shirley Eggleton that "This is not the Parkway." We were confused, as the proposed road follows The Parkway right-of-way. An earlier document "The Peterborough Comprehensive Transportation Plan" (April, 2002) calls this stretch of road the "Partial Parkway." In a clever act of apparent subterfuge, this roadway is now the "north-south access road" in the latest consultants report, approved by the current council. A road by any other name will provide the same carbon emissions.

We, as a city and a society, need to reduce rather than increase our consumption of fossil fuels and new roads have been demonstrated to encourage more, rather than fewer people to drive. There are other excellent reasons to scrap this bad idea.

Weekly, hundreds of citizens, young and old use the trail between Weller Street and Parkhill Road and the green space near Clonsilla Avenue as a transportation corridor and find peace, tranquility and a connection with nature not otherwise available.

A day care exists at St. Peter's Secondary School with a playground currently within metres of the edge of the planned road.

The residents of Hopkins Avenue and Westbrook Drive have already experienced severe flooding in 2002 and 2004. An increase in impermeable surfaces will result in run-off into the Jackson Creek watershed and with increasingly variable weather there is always the risk of more flooding, even with the current improvements to the storm water system.

Phase 3 of this project recommends a closing of Weller Street. Some residents of the Old West End have been vocal, particularly in the early days of this debate, in promoting this option. It seems the ultimate in selfishness to suggest that other of their fellow citizens should now be exposed to this traffic despite the fact that Weller Street in particular has been an important arterial road in this city for many decades.

The problem, and we appreciate that it is one, is that the city has too many cars. Planning to reduce both automobile volume (by encouraging other means of transportation) and the impact of individual automobiles (by encouraging, perhaps through financial incentives, the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles) will get to the root of the problem for everyone and for our planet.

Dave Gillman is a concerned youth opposed to the squandering of Peterborough's green space. Erica Nol is professor of biology at Trent University who shares Dave's concern.
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Hello all. I think this is a very important action, and would like to offer my assistance. My daughter attends Kawartha Childcare Services which is attached to St. Peter's Secondary School. The daycare educators use this path and green space to walk the children twice daily in good weather, and educate them about birds & trees, collect natural objects, etc. I walk my daughter to daycare along this path, because it is cleaner and less noisy than going up Monaghan Road and along Parkhill.

But to me this is not just about my daughter and her daycare. I believe we have a problem in our democracy when the City is prepared to spend $6 million building this new access road, disrupting green space and encouraging more reliance on cars, while at the same time it intends to close off Weller Street access to the hospital. Yes, that's right.
We're going to close an existing road to through traffic and spend lots of money building a new one.

The homeowners along Weller Street were very well-organized in the last municipal election, forming a lobby group to get Weller Street made into a local traffic only route. The lobby group, called the "Old West End Neighbourhood Group" (which IMO is a complete misnomer), had a private meeting with the company who was preparing the recommendations - Earth Tech - something which I don't believe was afforded to other groups with an interest in this issue. The thrust of their argument was that increased traffic along Weller St. would be bad for the children attending Queen Mary school. I attended all the public information meetings, and at no point did this lobby group express equal concern for the health and well-being of those children attending the daycare or the students of St. Peter's Secondary School. In fact, they supported building the North-South access road along the Parkway tract, as it would relieve pressure on streets immediately adjacent to Queen Mary public school. My point being that we need to get vocal and active for the environment and promote the greater good of all Peterborough residents, countering the disproportionate influence of smaller groups in discrete neighbourhoods.

I'm not much of a chalk artist, but I would be able to assist with a demonstration at City Hall, and letter writing or making a presentation to councillors. Please let me know.

Kind regards,
Sonya
 

>>> Jennifer Reid <metaphase2@yahoo.com> 03/05/2007 1:39 pm >>>
Hi Folks;

There is a small group of us (including some pretty amazing youths) who are trying to stop City Council from spending over $6 million on paving over a lovely green walking and cycling trail. This trail runs by St Peter's High School and Day-Care, and it will surely increase car usage and pollution, as well as destroy the plant-life that cleans the environment.

If you look at the map, this is what used to be called "the Partial Parkway". Council is saying that the road "is not the Parkway".... the wool is being pulled over our eyes! We voted against the Parkway in the referendum, so Council seems to be just calling it something else.

At a time when people are really worried about global warming / climate change, and are trying to cut back
on driving, the road seems so totally wrong.

Another scary aspect of this road is that it will likely make it easier for people to avoid the downtown, and head out to the malls on the outskirts of the city. The Province has mandated (through the "Places to Grow" Act) that Peterborough increase jobs and residences in the downtown. In contrast, this road is a huge investment in the hospital site. Sadly, the Peterborough Clinic is moving there, taking jobs and customers away from the downtown. How much more will this road drain our downtown's vitality?

Think about the little arts and social service organizations that are having to beg for the few survival dollars from the city. How can we afford $6 million for a road?!

But it seems that people are suffering from "Parkway Burn-out", and there has been little protest from within the city.

Please help us with this! We want to:
a) have a side-walk chalk Art Protest along the walkway. (So we need artists to help us facilitate the process of people drawing and writing).
b) a photo exhibit of the people and plants who thrive on the space
c) a downtown protest
d) a petition
e) HUG THE TREES (hopefully this will not be
necessary)

Can anyone out there help us??!!

Please email Dave Gillman at: gillman232@hotmail.com Or Erica Nol at: enol@trentu.ca Or Jenn Reid at: metaphase2@yahoo.com