Toronto Ward Boundaries

Krago wrote:

Back in June, Toronto City Council authorized the City Manager to hire a consultant to re-draw the city's ward boundaries.  Here is my job application.

I think that you should apply to the City for their consulting fee and then turn in this work, with the remainder of Option 2 filled in. (If you really want to piss them off, offer to have the public consultations done this fall, so that the new ward boundaries are in place before the next municipal elections...)

Of your two alternatives, I prefer the two North York versions in Option 2 to those in Option 1. While Option 1 has the simple boundary of Jane Street between what I would label the "North York Humber" and "York University" wards, Option 2 keeps all of Jane Finch in the York University ward, while the addition to the North York Humber ward is still coherent and relatively easy to explain to people living in the area. in eastern North York, the "T-Shaped" ward uniting Bayview Village, Hillcrest Village and Newtonbrook, though identical to a current city ward, has always looked odd; the more rectangular alternatives for the two wards in this area in Option 2 just looks better. I stand to be corrected if someone can tell me in some relatively coherent fashion why it is a sin against humanity to unite Bayview Village in a ward that includes Mel Lastman Square...

I don't know north and central Scarborough well enough to know if it is OK to have two wards straddle the 401, but I think Option 1 is better there just because this alternative has three wards north of the 401 and three south of the 401 in this pat of Scarboro.

I am most torn by the downtown choices. Option 2 has a "Harbourfront ward" while Option 1 splits the Harbourfront. And the three wards north of the Harbourfront ward all look reasonable. But the "squareness" of these four corresponding wards in Option 1 has an irrational appeal to me. I think each of them is a good option for the central core. I guess I just prefer squares and rectangles, but am open to being convinced other shapes are preferable in some circumstances...