For Immediate Release

The Green Ribbon a solution to the Gardiner problem and a great step forward for Toronto, says Ari Goldkind.

TORONTO – SEPTEMBER 29, 2014 – Mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind has embraced a powerful vision for the Gardiner Expressway: he wants to cover it with parkland. The plan, called The Green Ribbon, will transform the downtown stretch of elevated expressway into a four-season urban park, with trees, grass, walkways and cycle paths on a roof over the existing road.

“This is both a solution to a long-standing problem, and an opportunity for Toronto to leap to the forefront of the world’s green and socially proactive cities,” he said. “It’s a bold step away from the trudging indecision that has plagued this roadway for decades.”

Designed by Les Klein Principal of the prominent Toronto firm, Quadrangle Architects, the Green Ribbon plan allows the expressway to remain as a transit corridor, while beautifying and rehumanizing the space between the city’s business core and the waterfront.

Quadrangle is known for creative ideas that are grounded in business sense. Goldkind points out that the cost of building the Green Ribbon, at $800 million, is a far better and healthier solution than tearing the Gardiner down and building a new multi-lane surface road to replace it, which has been estimated to cost as much as $1.8 billion. In a city of endless brake lights that is hopelessly gridlocked, Goldkind believes that taking down a major piece of traffic infrastructure is the wrong solution when a much bolder and yet practical plan can show the world how we can reuse our urban infrastructure in a responsible, creative, and proactive way.

“This is a great idea,” Goldkind exclaims. “It is bold and beautiful, and will make Toronto better forever, by breathing life back into the concrete streets, and demonstrating that Toronto is a people-friendly place. Toronto needs my type of leadership to drive it confidently forward, not simply maintain the status quo,” he says.

He points out that the benefits of the Green Ribbon are not restricted to the already impressive idea of being a large downtown park; it also will allow for reduced maintenance costs and improved public safety for the highway itself, thanks to the reduction of winter snow plowing and salting required. This in and of itself will save hundreds of millions of maintenance dollars over time.

Goldkind says he invites the other candidates to support this initiative. “It makes sense financially, it makes sense architecturally, it makes sense culturally, and above all, it’s the type of thing Toronto should be doing. We are more than just a city. We are a great city, and a large achievement like the Green Ribbon is something of which every Torontonian could be proud.”

For more information, or media availability/interviews, please contact:

To interview Les Klein, Principal Quadrangle Architects contact:

hannah@krisscommunications.com

tel. (416) 532-5454

To interview Ari Goldkind:

media@ariformayor.com

www.ariformayor.com