How would you compare Mimico 20/20 and the Lakeview Legacy Project?

Update: A Feb. 15, 2014 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “Aggressive development: Inside the building and selling of a Toronto condo tower.” [End of update]

The following comments are in reply to David Switzer’s helpful comments in response to a previous blog.

There is much value in talking about how Mimico and Lakeview differ and how they are alike.

The same can be said if we compare Lakeview and Long Branch — with a focus on development pressures alongside Lake Promenade in Long Branch, by way of example.

The same can be said if we compare Lakeview with any community in the world — anywhere on the planet, anywhere in the global community.

John Danahy’s excellent talk, on January 18, 2012 at the Mimico Centennial Library, opened with a computer visualization of a series of high-rise buildings — condominium towers, if I understand correctly — marching their way westward alongside Lakeshore Road in Mississauga. That was, as I understand, the original proposal for Lakeview.

Lakeshore Road (in Mississauga) is what Lake Shore Blvd. West (in Toronto) turns into when you cross the bridge over Etobicoke Creek, as we travel from the vicinity of the Long Branch GO Station toward Dixie Road in Mississauga.

The talk at the Mimico Library was based on computer visualizations that John Danahy and colleagues have developed at the University of Toronto, and based on off-the-shelf programs such as Google SketchUp and Google Earth that any resident can learn to use.

Such visualization programs enable people to contribute in a direct, meaningful, and positive way to a given urban planning process under way in Lakeview or anywhere else in the world where some level of civil society has managed to emerge.

As I understand from what I’ve learned to date, the Lakeview ratepayers association, the bureaucratic community of Mississauga, the political community of Mississauga, and the developer community of Mississauga, all appear to be following the same strategic plan — or the same overlapping series of respective strategic plans — for the next steps regarding Lakeview.

The outcome, as I understand, will not be a series of towers (as had originally been envisaged) marching their way down Lakeshore Road as we look toward the horizon from the Long Branch GO Station toward Dixie Road.

The outcome will (if things do indeed turn out as envisioned) turn into a scenario or state of affairs — or a discourse or a storyline — where there are no clearly defined winners and losers.

The Lakeview Legacy Project stands a good chance of turning into a situation where — to the very considerable extent that is possible anywhere in the global community — every stakeholders has a reason to be happy or reasonably happy and content with the outcome.

With regard to the Mimico 20/20 planning process, a question arises.

Is there a group of citizens in Mimico that is capable of representing citizens in the way that the Lakeview ratepayers association led by Jim Tovey represents the Mississauga citizens involved with Lakeview? I don’t know the answer.

With regard to Long Branch, where I live, I’m aware of a well-organized ratepayers group, led by a strong executive that includes Malcolm Archer. The latter group has taken on a leadership role in representing citizens as key stakeholders, in response to development pressures along Lake Promenade in Long Branch.

Please let me know if you’d like details, and if you’d like to get in touch with Malcolm Archer or other members of the group.