Scarborough subway an investment in the future: reader

To the editor,

The mayor is right. Toronto needs subways. Scarborough needs subways.

Residents of Scarborough understand Mayor Rob Ford's simple but clear vision of rapid transit. The subway is fast. It cuts down on our travelling time and improves our productivity. It attracts developments. It creates jobs.

You don't often see Scarborough residents wearing buttons to show their support for the subway. We rarely organize ourselves into protests, nor do we come out in troops to make our demands heard at city hall.

We are not lobbyists. Many of us are good old citizens busy making a living, raising a family, making ends meet. Or we are out looking for jobs. We do not have the time to make our way to city hall.

But we spoke out loud and clear in the last civic election. We want Scarborough on the subway map. We want the extension of the Sheppard subway to Scarborough. Why is it that we keep missing the fast train?

We were told we don't have the numbers to justify one, or the city can't afford one. And yet, we have some of the poorest communities in town. Investing in a subway is investing in our communities, in our children.

Unless you make us attractive, no companies will want to build in our neighbourhood. Young families will not choose to live in Scarborough because they can't find jobs here and it takes forever to go from A to B by public transit.

Our city council has been building to meet current demands, and rightly so. But where is the future? Do we continue to pour our resources into areas of the city that already attract developments, or do we spread the wealth, and improve the living conditions elsewhere to make them just as attractive?

Imagine restaurants that no longer have to struggle or close in Scarborough because there weren't enough customers. Instead of "boxes of public storage facilities" built along Sheppard Avenue and Hwy. 401, we can perhaps start to see real corporate buildings and investments in our backyard.

Imagine thousands of students from all over the city can finally take the fast train to the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, or the Centennial College. And what if the Toronto Zoo is only one subway ride away?

Build it. They will come.

For many of us, Scarborough has been home for decades and we love our community. But we couldn't say our children feel the same. We're far away from where the action is, from where the jobs are.

Yet, there is no reason why we can't build ourselves into a liveable and self-sustaining community. Building a subway is a first, bold step to take us there.

A battle is brewing at city hall over the mayor's vision of rapid transit. The last thing we want to see is a power struggle. Let's not lose track of the needs of ordinary citizens like us who are hopeful of a fast train coming our way.

Building subways was high on Mayor Ford's election platform. We voted to support him. Councillors owe it to the people of Toronto to at least have an open mind and see what the mayor has to put forward. How can we make it happen and by what means? That is the debate that makes sense at city hall. To do otherwise, or to simply dismiss subways, is a smack in the face of democracy.

Our forefathers took that enormous step to build the Yonge Subway in the early 1950s. And from generation to generation, we have benefited tremendously from it. Councillors now have a rare opportunity now to extend our subways across Toronto.

Just do it.

Novina Wong